January 11, 2023
Africa: Elephant Poaching Rates Vary Across Africa - 19 Years of Data From 64 Sites Suggest Why
It's a grim and all too common sight for rangers at some of Africa's nature reserves: the bullet-riddled carcass of an elephant, its tusks removed by poachers. African elephant… Read more »
Africa: Penguin Feathers Help Inspire New De-Icing Techniques
Walking down a road during a white winter comes with its own set of challenges: the frigid cold, stepping around slippery ice on roads and the need to switch sidewalks to avoid… Read more »
January 10, 2023
South Africa: First Study to Estimate 'Blue Carbon' Storage in South Africa Is Useful for Climate Strategy #AfricaClimateHope
Marine ecosystems have a valuable role to play in mitigating the effects of climate change. That's because such ecosystems - and, particularly, vegetated tidal ecosystems like… Read more »
January 11, 2023
Africa: Mountain Environments Are Key to Biodiversity - but the Threats to Them Are Being Ignored #AfricaClimateCrisis
Mountains are home to more than 85% of the world's amphibian, bird and mammal species. Lowland slopes are rich in animal and plant species. And rugged, high-elevation environments,… Read more »
Tanzania: Why Solar-Powered Cold Storage Could Be a Sustainable Solution to Tomato Harvest Waste #AfricaClimateHope
Feeding Africa's growing population is a big development challenge for governments, policy makers and agriculture experts. Adding to the challenge is the high level of food loss… Read more »
January 09, 2023
Africa: Invasive Rats Are Changing Fish Behaviour On Coral Reefs - New Study
Coral reefs are degrading rapidly to the extent that their marine inhabitants must either adapt or die. For many animals, including reef fish, behaviour is one of the first… Read more »
January 06, 2023
Africa: Deforestation - Proposed EU Import Ban May Fail to Protect Tropical Rainforests and Farmers - Here's How It Should Work
Most European consumers' shopping baskets tend to include items linked to deforestation in tropical regions, involving agricultural commodities such as beef, soybeans, palm oil,… Read more »
Africa: Extinction Rebellion Says 'We Quit' - Why Radical Eco-Activism Has a Short Shelf Life #AfricaClimateCrisis
The protest group Extinction Rebellion (XR) has released a statement with the clickbait headline "We Quit". Dashing the hopes of climate denialists everywhere, the group is not… Read more »
January 09, 2023
Ghana: Why Ghana Relies Heavily On Used Cars
The sale of electric cars is growing. Globally, some 2 million electric vehicles were sold in the first quarter of 2022 - 75% more than in the first three months of 2021. Most,… Read more »
January 06, 2023
Africa: Amazing System Plants Use to Shape Their Roots, Why It Could Help Protect Crops From Climate Change #AfricaClimateHope
Plants have colonised the vast majority of the Earth's surface. So what is the key to their success? Read more »
January 08, 2023
Zambia: Climate Change Action Could Set Off a Copper Mining Boom - How Zambia Can Make the Most of It
At last year's US Africa leaders summit in Washington the US signed an historic memorandum of understanding with Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo to develop an electric… Read more »
January 05, 2023
Africa: Quiet, Please - Human Noise Is Interfering With the Sex Lives of Grasshoppers
Grasshoppers have a bad reputation. They're not popular with gardeners And locusts, a type of swarming grasshopper, can do huge damage to vegetation and crops when they're in a… Read more »
Africa: Climate Change Is Leaving African Elephants Desperate for Water
African elephant numbers have dropped from about 26 million in the 1800s to 415,000 today. While this is largely due to European colonisation, poaching and habitat loss, these… Read more »
January 04, 2023
Africa: COP27 in Review - Climate Talks Delivered Big Gains for Africa, but Also Several Challenges
Africa has contributed negligibly to the changing climate, with less than 4% of global emissions. Yet it stands out disproportionately as the most vulnerable region in the world. Read more »
December 30, 2022
Nigeria: Nigeria Has a Coastal Litter Problem - It's Time to Clean Up
Bottles. Plastic bags. Surgical facemasks. These are just some of the 29,029 items we found along the 180km Araromi coastline Nigeria in nine months while studying marine litter.… Read more »
December 21, 2022
Africa: Biodiversity Treaty - UN Deal Fails to Address the Root Causes of Nature's Destruction
A major biodiversity conference, recently concluded in Montreal, Canada, was billed as the event that will decide the "fate of the entire living world". All well then that the… Read more »
December 16, 2022
Africa: Children Born Today Will See Literally Thousands of Animals Disappear in Their Lifetime, As Global Food Webs Collapse
Climate change is one of the main drivers of species loss globally. We know more plants and animals will die as heatwaves, bushfires, droughts and other natural disasters worsen. Read more »
December 22, 2022
South Africa: Sabretooth Cats Hunted On South Africa's Coast 5 Million Years Ago - This Old One Was in Pain
Over five million years ago, before our ancestors dominated the landscape, southern Africa's west coast was home to a diverse array of prehistoric beasts. Among them were hyenas,… Read more »
December 21, 2022
Africa: Covid Hit Companies Hard. Why Some Kept Their Sustainability Commitments, and Others Didn't
Covid-19 has had profound implications for the "role of business in society". One of them is the pandemic's effect on companies' sustainability strategies. These are efforts to… Read more »
December 19, 2022
Africa: Climate Change Can Be Beaten - Why Some Scientists Are Hopeful #AfricaClimateHope
Can our planet recover from climate change? Commissioning Editor, Kofoworola Belo-Osagie, asked scientists to share the reasons they believe there is hope. Read more »
December 14, 2022
Tanzania: Why Humans Walk On Two Legs - Some Old Theories Put to the Test
There's no trait that distinguishes humans from all other mammals more clearly than the way we walk. Human habitual bipedalism - obligatory walking on two legs - has long been a… Read more »
December 13, 2022
Africa: Ports Race Is Hyped As 'Development' but Also Creates Pathways for Plunder
Ports have long been integral to Africa's connectivity with the rest of the world. Yet over the last 15 years, a new stage in maritime infrastructure planning and development has… Read more »
December 11, 2022
South Africa: Durban Coastline - Sewage-Polluted Beaches a Threat to Holiday Makers, Environment
Large numbers of businesses in eThekwini on South Africa's eastern seaboard - which includes the port city of Durban - rely heavily on tourism. It's a popular holiday destination,… Read more »
December 10, 2022
Africa: Climate Crisis in Africa Exposes Real Cause of Hunger
In the waning hours of the year's biggest climate change conference - COP27 - we learned of a deal to create a loss and damage fund. This is essentially a source of finance to… Read more »
December 08, 2022
South Africa: Climate Change Is Not What South Africans See As Their Main Problem - a Survey Breaks It Down
Climate change is a major threat to food production, and is displacing people and increasing the risks to health globally. Addressing climate change requires vast resources,… Read more »