New research suggests that baobabs are dying in unprecedented number. This is the story of the ancient trees (the oldest amongst them shared the planet with Julius Caesar) and their multi-purpose usage by the people and animals who live by them (sparring partner, burial ground, gallows, super-food and more).
An extraordinary piece profiling the scientists in Siberia that are seeking to restore the Ice Age by bioengineering woolly mammoths and other creatures. Their ambition is on an epic scale – to reforge a lost world in order to preserve our present one.
A piece documenting the opening up of Arctic sea routes, taking place as an unintended consequence of scientific exploration investigating the impact of climate change.
A piece looking at the destruction wrought by climate change on the Pacific Islands of Kiribati (on average 2-3 metres above sea level), already vulnerable due to unscrupulous phosphate mining stretching back a century. http://bit.ly/stuff-sea
The story of life as a member of an underground church in 1980s Iran, waiting for the end of days and the promised Rapture.
Published this month, The Uninhabitable Earth is apparently the most read article in New York Magazine’s history. The piece proposes that the impact of climate change will be felt far sooner and far more severely that people realise. The piece is of interest in its own right, but has also provoked a strong response in the scientific community, including many climate change scientists who believe it overstates the case in an unhelpful manner.
Climate Feedback is a platform created by scientists to highlight inaccuracy in media coverage of climate change (often that put forward by climate change skeptics) – they invited 17 scientists to comment on the article in their analysis piece. New York Magazine has felt sufficiently stung by the response to republish their piece complete with annotations and sources (this is the version we share here).
Whilst tactics to save rare species on the verge of extinction are well established, we may be missing another even bigger issue – the massive reduction of numbers in common species – from the skylark, to the tortoise, to the vulture.
A piece looking at the potential impact of carbon capture technology on climate change including analysis of large scale trends across different energy sources, industries, and parts of the globe.