Coronavirus lockdowns have led to a massive reduction in global emissions, but there’s one area where energy usage is up – way up – during the pandemic: internet traffic.
Data-intensive video streaming, gaming and livestreaming for business, university and school classes, is chewing up energy.
Estimates can be notoriously difficult and depend...
Unprecedented border closures and the domestic lockdown have paralysed New Zealand’s $40.9 billion a year tourism industry. In the process, the vulnerability of the sector to external shocks and the tenuous nature of tourism employment have been exposed.
While New Zealand’s handling...
Penguins, like all seabirds, are known to be highly vocal on land where they come to breed. They use these vocalisations to help them recognise their mate and kin.
Outside of the breeding season, seabirds spend most of their life...
Outbreaks of insect pests and insect invasions are on the rise on the African continent.
Currently, several African countries – including Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia – are dealing with the one of the most devastating outbreaks of desert locusts. This comes after recent fall armyworm invasions which...
You’d be forgiven for thinking that businesses are racing ahead in the green transition. After all, big corporations like Sainsbury’s and Microsoft have made public announcements about going carbon neutral, or even carbon negative in the near future.
But these commitments are more...
Mental health in our cities is an increasingly urgent issue. Rates of disorders such as anxiety and depression are high. Urban design and planning can promote mental health by refocusing on spaces we use in our everyday lives in light of what...
Greta Thunberg made history again this month when she was named Time Magazine’s Person of the Year. The 16-year-old has become the face of youth climate action, going from a lone child sitting outside the Swedish parliament building in mid-2018 to...
People who directly depend on the natural world for their livelihoods, like farmers and fishers, will be among the greatest victims of the climate crisis. In vulnerable hotspots, such as the arid lands of Kenya and Ethiopia, farming communities...
The fossil fuel industry, political lobbyists, media moguls and individuals have spent the past 30 years sowing doubt about the reality of climate change - where none exists. The latest estimate is that the world’s five largest publicly-owned oil...
What’s happening?
Suddenly, at the level of central banks, Australia is regarded as an investment risk.
On Wednesday Martin Flodén, the deputy governor of Sweden’s central bank, announced that because Australia and Canada were “not known for good climate work”.
As a...
