United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), Bonn Up to 40 % of the planet’s land is degraded, directly affects half of humanity, threatens roughly half of global GDP (US$44 trillion); If business as usual continued through 2050, report projects additional degradation of an area almost the size of South America; Nations’ current pledge to restore 1 […]
KU LEUVEN / EUROMETAUX Independent KU Leuven university study, commissioned by EU industry, echoes IEA warning of severe global competition for several metals needed in Europe’s energy transition away from fossil fuels Meeting the European Union’s Green Deal goal of climate neutrality by 2050 will require 35 times more lithium and 7 to 26 times […]
United Nation University Institute for Water, Environment & Health 1st assessment of water security in Africa is based on 10 indicators Despite global Sustainable Development Goals and commitments made in 2015, just 29 African nations have made some progress over the past three to five years, 25 have made none, according to the UN’s first-ever […]
UN Environment Programme Even the Arctic, previously all but immune, faces rising wildfire risk; Wildfires and climate change are “mutually exacerbating”; Governments are called to radically shift their investments to focus on prevention and preparedness Climate change and land-use change are projected to make wildfires more frequent and intense, with a global increase of extreme […]
The Rockefeller University Programme for the Human Environment, International Quiet Ocean Experiment By assembling and expanding first-ever global audio collection of aquatic life, scientists aim to unveil unidentified swimming objects, monitor diversity, distribution, abundance, and more Of the roughly 250,000 known marine species, scientists think all ~126 marine mammals emit sounds – the ‘thwop’, ‘muah’, […]
UNIDO and UN University, Bonn 1st Latin American e-waste report covers 13 countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela Electronic waste in 13 Latin American countries rose by 49% between 2010 and 2019, roughly the world average, but just 3% was collected and safely managed, a […]
GEO BON / bioDISCOVERY Proposed target of protecting 30% of land and seas by 2030 is important but will leave humankind far short of its ultimate goals for nature; Meeting each Global Biodiversity Framework target will be critical Halting, then reversing the dangerous, ongoing loss of Earth’s plant and animal diversity requires far more than […]
Terry Collins & Assoc., Toronto Of the 18 science news releases produced in 2021, 16 were environment-themed: food waste, e-waste, oceans, biodiversity, dams, and floods. And one announced 14 living male relatives of Leonardo da Vinci, advancing a project investigating his DNA. 2 minute slideshow: Click here These releases generated over 9,200 news articles, published […]
UN University / UNITAR, Bonn Electronic waste generated in the Commonwealth of Independent States + Georgia rose by 50% between 2010 and 2019, roughly the world average, but overall just 3.2% was collected and safely managed, well below the 17.4% average worldwide, according to the UN’s first report dedicated to the e-waste issue in the […]
Clean Ocean Int’l Expert Group, New York Reducing marine debris by 50-90% and a globe circling, high-tech system of monitors are two essential aims among several championed today by nine distinguished international experts appointed to help the UN reach the goal of a clean ocean by 2030. The Clean Ocean International Expert Group of the […]
UN University / WEEE Forum, Brussels The e-waste result of an online streaming explosion: an emerging concern / information gap On International E-Waste Day 2021, leading experts and producer responsibility organisations are calling on households, businesses and governments to get behind efforts to get more dead or unused plug-in or battery-operated products to facilities where […]
United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health, Hamilton, Canada See also: “Popular Science Magazine: UN’s World Flood Mapping Tool is One of 2021’s 100 Greatest Innovations,” click here Developed by UN University with Google and other partners, free online World Flood Mapping Tool will help plan urban and agricultural development, effective flood defences, […]
United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health, Hamilton, Canada Media worldwide have often helped communicate UNU-INWEH’s scientific and policy-relevant discoveries and insights to the general public and important decision-making audiences worldwide. With thanks to the hundreds of reporters and thousands of news editors involved, UNU-INWEH top news making highlights in its first 25 […]
The Rockefeller University, Programme for Human Environment Researchers at The Rockefeller University have shed new light on “Moore’s Law” — perhaps the world’s most famous technological prediction — that chip density, or the number of components on an integrated circuit, would double every two years. The study published by PLOS ONE reveals a more nuanced historical wave […]
UN Convention on Biological Diversity, Montreal Draft 1 of the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework includes 21 action targets proposed for 2030; Will be considered at UN Convention on Biological Diversity’s COP15 The UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) Secretariat today released the first official draft of a new Global Biodiversity Framework to guide actions worldwide […]
Leonardo da Vinci DNA Project, The Rockefeller University, New York Paper offers foundation to advance search for Leonardo’s DNA The surprising results of a decade-long investigation by Alessandro Vezzosi and Agnese Sabato provide a strong basis for advancing a project researching Leonardo da Vinci’s DNA. Their extensive study, published by the journal “Human Evolution” (Pontecorboli […]
IPBES, Bonn (Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform On Biodiversity And Ecosystem Services) Unprecedented changes in climate and biodiversity, driven by human activities, have combined and increasingly threaten nature, human lives, livelihoods and well-being around the world. Biodiversity loss and climate change are both driven by human economic activities and mutually reinforce each other. Neither will be successfully […]
UNESCO, Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, Paris An unprecedented analysis of almost 10,000 Harmful Algal Bloom (HAB) events worldwide over the past 33 years was launched today by UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission. The first-ever global statistical analysis examined ~9,500 HABs events over 33 years and found that the harm caused by HABs rises in step with growth […]
World Resources Forum, Switzerland, CEWASTE Project / UN University Led by the World Resources Forum, consortium designates recycling, reuse of key elements in four electronic, electrical product categories as ‘critical’ End-of-life circuit boards, certain magnets in disc drives and electric vehicles, EV and other special battery types, and fluorescent lamps are among several electrical and […]
The Rockefeller University Unknown direction and pace of change in microbial — including viral — biodiversity may have deep consequences for all life on Earth With alarms sounding about the declining diversity of plants and animals, a related concern with equally profound implications is posed: is the variety of microbial life, including viruses, changing too […]
The Rockefeller University, NY Amid COVID pause in marine activities, growing network aims to monitor soundscapes, assess changes in behavior of marine life; More than 200 widely-distributed non-military hydrophones already listening Travel and economic slowdowns due to the COVID-19 pandemic combined to put the brakes on shipping, seafloor exploration, and many other human activities in […]
World Economic Forum, Geneva Geneva, Thursday 18 March 2021 – Today, top electronics companies, together with a group of pioneering global organizations, set a vision and roadmap committing to a circular economy for electronics by 2030. These companies include some of the world’s largest consumer brands and represent nearly $6 trillion total market cap. The […]