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Beekeeping relieves land degradation in Kyrgyzstan
Biodiversity
Urbanites help sustain Japan’s historic rice paddy terraces
Rural–urban cooperation and branding initiatives aim to reinvigorate a traditionally important rice-growing region.
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Climate
Climate change: Human disaster looms, claims new research
A new Oxford-led study forecasts a 4C rise in global temperature with catastrophic consequences.
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Climate
Climate research nearly unanimous on humans’ role, survey finds
Of 4,000+ academic papers published over 20 years, 97.1 percent agree that humans are impacting climate.
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Oil
Are smart grids an energy game changer?
Computerized “smart grids” could be a boon to the global deployment of decentralized renewable energy. But are they there yet?
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Climate
Climate change’s ‘evil twin’: Ocean acidification
A new comprehensive study outlines how the Arctic Ocean is rapidly acidifying, due to CO2 emissions.
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Protecting carbon to destroy forests? Land enclosures and REDD+
A new report argues that REDD+ gives forest destroyers a way to legitimize their actions and reinforces historical inequalities.
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Open Tech can empower local production
Worker-owned Open Tech Forever aims to enable locally-owned open source companies to out-compete big businesses that import unsustainable products.
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Monetising human waste and 101 (slightly) crazy other ideas
Grants of $100,000 to 102 outside-the-box ideas to improve global health could spell world-changing breakthroughs.
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Biodiversity
Farming with fire: Revaluing a Japanese agricultural tradition
Researchers are finding merit in a traditional practice that uses fire to prepare and enrich soil.
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Biodiversity
Bee-harming pesticides banned in Europe
In an effort to protect bee populations, Europe will implement a continent-wide ban on some commonly used insecticides.
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Social inclusion in Mexico’s PET plastic recycling
Mexico's PET recycling industry is working with waste pickers and showing how this can generate not just profit but social and environmental benefits.
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Closing the loop for those losing sleep about garbage
Tired of worries over trash, one enviro studies student has a vision that includes re-embracing frugality, anaerobic digestion and high-tech gasification.
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Fukushima faces long road to repair
As the IAEA concludes an initial review of cleanup efforts at the Fukushima nuclear plant, it is clear that its decommissioning will be a decades-long task.
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Female education: A solution for a crowded planet
Empirical evidence from around the developing world shows that educating women is key in curbing population growth.
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Climate
Desertification crisis affecting 168 countries worldwide, study shows
Severe land degradation is now affecting 168 countries across the world, says a new UN report.
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How to start a repair café
Is your this-or-that broken and you'd rather not buy a new one? Joining up with neighbours is a great way to discover local repair resources.
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Oil
Oil crunch and Eurozone crisis
The European Greens raise concerns about the possible impacts of peak oil.
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The ecozoic city
A growing global movement is seeing city dwellers tackling practical projects that reconnect them with the ecosystems and natural sources upon which life depends.
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Climate
Climate change will threaten wine production, study shows
Rising global temperatures will make it much harder to grow grapes in traditional wine regions.
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Assessing and improving China’s e-waste problem
A UNU-ISP study investigates the actors, policies and progress surrounding management of waste electrical and electronic equipment in China.
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Biodiversity
Hunting for a solution
For a growing number of people living in tropical forest regions, wild animal meat, also called bushmeat, is increasingly becoming a dietary staple.
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Climate
US unveils major new proposal to cut vehicle emissions
The US EPA has put forward a long-awaited plan to require cleaner gasoline and more effective vehicle technologies.
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Climate
Are cows climate killers?
Livestock farming is a major industry in many parts of the world, but scientists are still divided on how much it contributes to global warming.
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Biodiversity
The city as urban reef
In this contest-winning essay, a young scholar spotlights the dichotomy between city and reef. Need there be such a sharp division, when sea and shore actually share flows of resources?
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China’s exploitation of Latin American natural resources raises concern
Latin America's economy and environment are at odds due to China's swelling resource demands.
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The Gross Domestic Problem
Lorenzo Fioramonti talks to us about his book, which analyzes the politics behind (and aims to popularize critique of) Gross Domestic Product.
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Nations urged to combine environmental and development goals
Will the post-2015 SDGs expand beyond poverty alleviation to promote environmental governance, ecology and climate?
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Sustainable development goals and our fascination with mega-targets
Two UNUers dissect the occasionally contradictory rhetoric to see what is shaping the forthcoming SDGs.
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Food
Agricultural heritage across the millennia
Linking local history and traditions to modern agriculture can revitalize land management with community pride and sustainable practices.
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Wanted: Your post-2015 development priorities
A new UN survey asks individuals to choose six sustainable development issues that most impact their lives.
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Biodiversity
Beekeeping relieves land degradation in Kyrgyzstan
With PALM project support, community-led honey production is helping to reduce the environmental impacts of animal grazing.
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Recording resilience: Filmmaker shares Japan recovery experience
An Our World 2.0 filmmaker reflects on the recovery of tsunami-hit towns.
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Food
Guardians of life and of Earth
Around the world, but especially in the planet’s poorest regions, women represent a life force that renews itself daily, sometimes against all odds.
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Biodiversity
A morning in the life-giving Bangweulu swamps
Descended from hunter-gatherer-fisher tribes, the people of Zambia's Bangweulu swamps still live interlinked with their environment.
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Values and the sharing economy
Given the urgency of the crises we face, social and environmental concerns must remain key in the public discourse about the sharing economy.
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Enough is Enough: A path to true prosperity
The authors of a new book lay out why and how to change our economic goal “from the madness of more to the wisdom of enough”.
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Food
How agroforestry schemes can improve food security in developing countries
There is a growing push to integrate trees and shrubs with crops.
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Endocrine emergency: New UN study reveals our chemical folly
The alarming impacts of endocrine disrupting chemicals on human health and environment warrant extensive research efforts.
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Climate
1.5ºC rise in temperature enough to start permafrost melt, scientists warn
Melting permafrost and the resulting threats to environment and arctic infrastructure could be closer than we think.
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Climate
Green housing: In Buffalo, it’s not just for rich people anymore
Can we build sustainable housing that's affordable, too? The city of Buffalo did, while also creating community jobs.
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