The razing of forests and hunting of wildlife is increasingly bringing animals and the microbes they harbour into contact with people and livestock. About 70% of new infectious diseases have come from animals, including Covid-19, Sars, bird flu, Ebola and HIV. However, preventing this root cause of spillover is scarcely mentioned by leaders and authorities,… Read More World leaders ‘ignoring’ role of destruction of nature in causing pandemics // World’s soils ‘under great pressure’, says UN pollution report

The tiny island of Tean was once home to a single resident, a modest chapel, diminutive grazed fields and a dwarf pansy smaller than the tip of a pencil. All these things vanished from the 0.16 sq km Scilly island in the years after it was abandoned by humans seeking larger things. But now the dwarf pansy… Read More Dwarf pansy blooms on tiny Scilly island after 16-year absence

The world’s glaciers are melting at an accelerating rate, according to a comprehensive new study. A French-led team assessed the behaviour of nearly all documented ice streams on the planet. The researchers found them to have lost almost 270 billion tonnes of ice a year over the opening two decades of the 21st Century. The… Read More Jonathan Amos: World's glaciers melting at a faster pace

More than a third of the vast floating platforms of ice surrounding Antarctica could be at risk of collapsing and releasing “unimaginable amounts” of water into the sea if global temperatures reach 4C above pre-industrial levels, UK scientists say. Researchers from the University of Reading said that limiting the temperature rise to 2C could halve the area at… Read More Third of Antarctic ice shelves ‘will collapse amid 4C global heating’