... Scientists from the WCS (Wildlife Conservation Society), NASA, and other organizations have partnered to focus global attention on the contribution of satellites to biodiversity conservation in a recently released study entitled “Ten Ways Remote Sensing Can Contribute to Conservation,” featured in the latest edition of the scientific journal Conservation Biology. Addressing global questions requires global... ...
... Green deal is inappropriate for Britain’s 5m historic homes, so what’s the best way to stop them leaking energy? John Vidal gets expert advice for his Grade II listed home John Vidal’s home in north Wales is a 350-year-old half-timbered industrial workers’ cottage. Photograph: theguardian.com ...
... $10bn pledged for Green Climate Fund to help countries cope with global warming falls short of original commitment, say UN observers Bangladesh is among the countries where climate change is already a reality and millions of people affected by rising sea level and floods. Photograph: Nayan Kumar/Demotix/Corbis ...
... A plane lands at Gatwick airport. Analysis says its expansion plans would cause less noise and be easier to construct than Heathrow’s. Photograph: Gareth Fuller/PA New runways at Gatwick and Heathrow will cost more than the airports claim, meaning higher airport charges and likely higher fares for passengers, according to an analysis published by the... ...
... Rich countries are subsidising oil, gas and coal companies by about $88bn (£55.4bn) a year to explore for new reserves, despite evidence that most fossil fuels must be left in the ground if the world is to avoid dangerous climate change. The most detailed breakdown yet of global fossil fuel subsidies has found that the... ...
... The Southern Ocean plays an important role in the exchange of carbon dioxide between the atmosphere and the ocean. One aspect of this is the growth of phytoplankton, which acts as a natural sponge for carbon dioxide, drawing the troublesome greenhouse gas from the atmosphere into the sea. When these plankton die they can sink... ...
... Phase competition underlies many remarkable and technologically important phenomena in transition metal oxides. Vanadium dioxide (VO2) exhibits a first-order metal–insulator transition (MIT) near room temperature, where conductivity is suppressed and the lattice changes from tetragonal to monoclinic on cooling. Ongoing attempts to explain this coupled structural and electronic transition begin with two alternative starting points:... ...
... The head of the world’s leading conservation organisation has criticised the Australian government’s attempt to strip world heritage protection from Tasmania’s forests, as new data laid bare the vast number of ecosystems in Australia at risk of collapse. Julia Marton-Lefèvre, director general of the IUCN, the body that advises the United Nations on conservation matters,... ...
... Governments are lagging behind on international commitments to safeguard the planet’s ecosystems, with politicians failing to grasp that economic growth depends upon environmental protection, the head of the world’s leading conservation organisation has warned. Julia Marton-Lefèvre, director general of the IUCN, the body that advises the United Nations on environmental matters, told Guardian Australia that... ...
... Sexual deceit, pressed flowers and Victorian bee collectors are combined in new scientific research which demonstrates for the first time that climate change threatens flower pollination, which underpins much of the world’s food production. The work used museum records stretching back to 1848 to show that the early spider orchid and the miner bee on... ...