UN Environment Programme, Nairobi Meeting ramped-up climate and biodiversity targets, cutting deadly pollution and achieving SDGs needs an all-society push for sustainability Shifting world views and putting nature at the heart of decision-making is key to achieving transformative change COVID-19 recovery plans are an unmissable opportunity to invest in nature and reach net zero emissions […]
United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health, Hamilton, Canada Increasingly expensive to maintain, experts foresee a trend to decommissioning dams By 2050, most people on Earth will live downstream of tens of thousands of large dams built in the 20th century, many of them already operating at or beyond their design life, according […]
Terry Collins & Associates, Toronto, Canada Dec. 31, 2020 In 2020, more than a dozen science news releases and scores of opinion articles were authored or co-authored and distributed for clients in Toronto, Montreal, and Hamilton, Canada; Stockholm, Bonn, New York, Paris, and Kuala Lumpur. Some warned of emerging problems, others celebrated breakthroughs; all included […]
United Nations Environment Programme, Paris / Nairobi Including construction, building sector now accounts for 38% of CO2 emissions; Direct building CO2 emissions need to halve by 2030 to get on track for net zero carbon building stock by 2050; Governments must prioritize low-carbon buildings post-pandemic Emissions from the operation of buildings hit their highest-ever level […]
The Rockefeller University, NY / Monmouth University, NJ New tool will help census oceans, monitor fish, track shifting marine life; “eDNA makes the ocean a sea of biological information” DNA bits in seawater samples drawn during New Jersey government fish trawls reveals relative abundance of fish with a 70% match between the two sampling methods; […]
UN Environment Programme, Energy & Climate Branch In a move that will help tackle one of the biggest and most solvable contributors to the climate crisis, major players in the oil and gas industry agreed today to report methane emissions with a new, much higher level of transparency. “To win the race to net zero […]
IPBES, Bonn (Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services) Highlights: Intergovernmental council on pandemic prevention; risk drivers include deforestation, wildlife trade; tax high pandemic-risk activities; 540,000 – 850,000 unknown viruses in nature could infect people; economic impacts 100x prevention costs Future pandemics will emerge more often, spread more rapidly, do more damage to the […]
UN Convention on Biodiversity, Montreal Global Biodiversity Outlook 5 report outlines 8 major transitions needed to slow, then halt nature’s accelerating decline Final report card on Aichi Biodiversity Targets, set in 2010: 6 of world’s 20 goals “partially achieved” by 2020 deadline. Towards a landmark new global post-2020 biodiversity framework: GBO-5 synthesizes scientific basis for urgent […]
UN Environment Programme / IEA, Paris As need for cooling rises in step with world temperatures, energy-efficient, climate-friendly appliances are critical to reaching Paris Agreement goals; 3.6 billion appliances in use now, 14 billion will be required by 2050 to meet all needs Coordinated international action on energy-efficient, climate-friendly cooling could avoid as much as […]
UN University, Bonn / International Telecommunications Union, Geneva A record 53.6 million tons (Mt) of e-waste was produced globally in 2019, the weight of 350 cruise ships the size of the Queen Mary 2; $57 billion in gold and other components discarded — mostly dumped or burned A record 53.6 million metric tonnes (Mt) of […]
Leonardo da Vinci DNA Project, New York DNA science may help restore, preserve historic works, unmask counterfeits; The trait elite baseball hitters share with Leonardo da Vinci: A ‘quick eye’ with higher ‘frames per second’ — a function of training, genetics, or both? A new study of the microbial settlers on old paintings, sculptures, and […]
UNEP / Frankfurt School / BNEF As COVID-19 hits the fossil fuel industry, a new report shows that renewable energy is more cost-effective than ever, providing an opportunity to prioritize clean energy in economic recovery packages and bring the world closer to meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement. Global Trends in Renewable Energy Investment […]
The Rockefeller University Programme for the Human Environment, New York DNA scientists sampling the New Jersey shore bottle the changing ranges of marine life predicted a decade ago; Fishing DNA from seawater: a harmless, economical way to study marine animals’ movements, diversity, distribution … and perhaps abundance DNA scientists investigating new marine life migration patterns in the Atlantic Ocean surfaced […]
Grand Challenges Canada, Toronto Grand Challenges Canada innovators offer resources, ideas, affordable solutions for low-resource countries in need of pandemic essentials: medical oxygen, ventilators, masks, more Novel, affordable ways to acquire medical oxygen, ventilators, masks and other critically-needed COVID-19 supplies and services are among 20 Grand Challenges Canada innovations mobilizing to assist developing countries through […]
Future Earth: “Research. Innovation. Sustainability” Scientists, innovators turn to digital sector for transformative ‘systems change’ on climate; ‘Digital Disruptions for Sustainability (D^2S): A Research, Innovation, and Action Agenda’ Youth on the streets are calling for “systems change, not climate change.” And, according to a new report by Future Earth, the digital transformations unfolding today could […]
Future Earth, Stockholm, Sweden Survey reveals common concern of global scientists: interlinkages between crises; Part of Our Future on Earth, 2020, a 50-page synthesis of latest peer-reviewed, state-of-the-planet research and its interconnected complexities The greatest threat to humanity hides in the potential cascading of impacts of five highly-related, highly-likely risks — a collision that can […]
UN University – Institute for Water, Environment and Health, Hamilton Canada Enough energy to power all households in the USA and Mexico; enough nutrients to meet ~13% of world fertilizer needs; enough water to fill Lake Victoria in seven years, Lake Ontario in four; UN University foresees 24% wastewater rise by 2030; 51% by 2050 […]
Deep Carbon Observatory, Carnegie Institution, Washington DC Materials trapped inside diamonds offer clues to life’s origin; suggest oceans’ worth of water hidden in Deep Earth Deep Carbon Observatory highlights 10 top discoveries to celebrate a 10-year global investigation of Earth’s largest, least-known ecosystem; 1,200 scientists from 55 nations, 1,400 peer-reviewed papers Washington DC – Thousands […]
POLYCE, Bonn, Germany Consumers asked to favor electronic products containing recycled plastics; firms to build recycled plastic into design, ease plastic recovery for reuse A European Commission-funded project supported by the United Nations is calling for consumers to demand electronic and electrical products made with recycled plastic, and for manufacturers to redesign products to both […]
Deep Carbon Observatory, Carnegie Institution, Washington DC Scientists update estimates of Earth’s immense interior carbon reservoirs, and how much carbon Deep Earth naturally swallows and exhales 10-year Deep Earth study advances knowledge, delineates limits; Do volcanoes send up chemical warnings days before they erupt? Carbon catastrophes: Earth has seen a few of them before; they […]
Future Earth, Stockholm, Sweden First holistic attempt to identify scientific risks, guardrails — akin to a 2C rise for climate — to create targets for land, water, oceans, biodiversity Three of the world’s foremost scientists will co-chair a commission of leading international experts to identify risks and develop a coherent suite of scientific targets to protect […]