November 03, 2022
Africa: COP27 Must Work Out How to Cut Carbon and Still Develop African Economies
Averting a climate disaster without compromising economic growth and development is a key issue for African countries. Energy production and use is the single biggest contributor… Read more »
November 02, 2022
Africa: 3 Things a Climate Scientist Wants World Leaders to Know Ahead of COP27
World leaders and climate experts are gathering for pivotal United Nations climate change talks in Egypt. Known as COP27, the conference will aim to put Earth on a path to net-zero… Read more »
November 01, 2022
Africa: The Horn of Africa Has Had Years of Drought, Yet Groundwater Supplies Are Increasing - Why?
The Horn of Africa - which includes Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya and some surrounding countries - has been hit by increasingly frequent and devastating droughts. Despite this, it seems… Read more »
November 02, 2022
Africa: Loss and Damage - Who Is Responsible When Climate Change Harms the World's Poorest Countries, and What Does Compensation Look Like?
You may be hearing the phrase "loss and damage" in the coming weeks as government leaders meet in Egypt for the 2022 U.N. Climate Change Conference. Read more »
November 01, 2022
South Africa: Large Tortoises Lived in South Africa Long Ago - How We Recorded Their Fast-Disappearing Traces
In 1835 Charles Darwin, the father of the theory of evolution, was exploring an island in the Galápagos archipelago when he encountered "two large tortoises, each of which… Read more »
October 31, 2022
Congo-Brazzaville: Wild Chimpanzees and Gorillas Can Form Long Friendly Associations That Last Decades - New Research
To survive, animals compete for resources, be it food, mating partners or territory. But a ground breaking recent study shows chimpanzees and gorillas form friendships, some… Read more »
Africa: Who Sees What You Flush? Wastewater Surveillance for Public Health Is On the Rise, but a New Survey Reveals People Are Still Unaware
Flush and forget? Not if you have a toilet that flushes to one of over 3,000 sites around the world where researchers are using wastewater to track SARS-CoV-2, the virus that… Read more »
Africa: How Debt-for-Climate Swaps Can Help Solve Low-Income Countries' Fiscal and Environmental Challenges At the Same Time
Barbados Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley spoke passionately to the United Nations General Assembly in September about the mounting debt many developing countries are shouldering… Read more »
October 28, 2022
Nigeria: How Floods Affect Food Security
Food insecurity is a serious, growing problem in Nigeria. It was reported that 7 out of 10 Nigerians did not have enough to eat in 2021. Read more »
October 27, 2022
Africa: Coffin? Casket? Cremation? How to Make Your Death More Environmentally Friendly #AfricaClimateCrisis
We can all agree humans need to reduce their impact on the environment. And while most of us think of this in terms of daily activities - such as eating less meat, or being… Read more »
October 26, 2022
Africa: South Africa's Wildlife Ranches Can Offer Solutions to Africa's Growing Conservation Challenges
Designated protected areas for wildlife - such as national parks - are the world's principal conservation strategy. But this model to conserve wildlife in Africa is increasingly… Read more »
Somalia: Four Lessons From Past Experience of Dealing With Famine
Since 1990 the world's famines have been classified as small - with the glaring exceptions of Somalia in 1991-92 and 2010-12. Now the UN's World Food Programme says that nearly… Read more »
South Africa: Crime, Covid and Climate Change - South African Tourism Faces Many Threats, but It's Resilient
South Africa's tourism industry has been rocked by the murder of a German visitor during an attempted robbery. The development resulted in negative media publicity, with a… Read more »
October 19, 2022
Africa: How Do Fishes Scratch Their Itches? It Turns Out Sharks Are Involved
Imagine you're a big yellowfin tuna, miles from shore out in the blue, swimming around carefree, until you start to feel a little itch near your eye. Maybe it's just a scratch… Read more »
October 23, 2022
Nigeria: Nigeria Floods - Govt's Mismanagement of Dams Is a Major Cause
There has been severe flooding in Nigeria - the worst in a decade. Earlier this month, Nigeria's National Emergency Management Agency warned of catastrophic flooding for states… Read more »
October 20, 2022
Nigeria: Nigeria's Floods Are the Worst in a Decade. Here's How People Try to Cope With the Devastation
Flooding is not unusual in Nigeria's massive, population-dense cities. But this year's floods are reportedly the country's worst in a decade. They've killed more than 600 people,… Read more »
October 19, 2022
Africa: 3-D Techniques Shed Light On What Makes a Bird's Lungs So Efficient
Birds are profoundly important animals. As predators, pollinators, seed dispersers, scavengers and ecosystem bioengineers, the world's 11,000 species of birds play critical roles… Read more »
Nigeria: Floods in Nigeria - Building Dams and Planting Trees Among Steps That Should Be Taken to Curb the Damage
Nigerians are no strangers to flooding. In some parts of the country, flooding is an annual event. But the intensity varies from one year to the next. In some years, the effects… Read more »
October 18, 2022
South Africa: Biggest Cities Are Out of Water, but the Dams Are Full - What's Gone Wrong
South Africa's major cities in the Gauteng Province - the country's economic heartland - are experiencing major water shortages. In Johannesburg and Tshwane taps have run dry, with… Read more »
October 12, 2022
Africa: Animal Friendships Are Surprisingly Like Our Own
When you think of friendship, what comes to mind? Is it a phone conversation that lasts late into the night? Watching a movie and sharing a pizza? Enjoying some laughs over a beer?… Read more »
October 17, 2022
Africa: Towards Zero Hunger - Five Steps To Achieve Food Security for the Continent
Global food systems have been battered by overlapping crises in recent years. Key among these are the COVID-19 pandemic, the Russo-Ukraine war and extreme weather events resulting… Read more »
October 16, 2022
Africa: Elephant Conservation May Be Undermined By Twitter Users Who Overlook Main Threats
The African forest elephant (Loxodonta cyclotis), the African savanna elephant (Loxodonta africana) and the Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) are all highly threatened species. The… Read more »
October 06, 2022
Africa: The Fairest Way to Tax Carbon Is to Make Air Travel More Expensive
Despite the fact that poorer people generally have lower emissions, taxes on the carbon dioxide (CO₂) our activities emit tend to affect people on low incomes more than richer… Read more »
October 13, 2022
Nigeria: Nigeria Floods - Expert Insights Into Why They're So Devastating and What to Do About Them
Nigeria is experiencing its worst flooding in over a decade. Over 1.4 million people have been displaced, 500 have been reported dead and thousands have been injured. Read more »
October 09, 2022
Africa: From Coelacanths to Crinoids - These 9 'Living Fossils' Haven't Changed in Millions of Years
We see evolution all around us, constantly, in every living thing. Yet in the deep oceans we find a number of "living fossils" reminiscent of creatures from prehistoric times. Read more »