Desert cities are more than a mirage
The world cannot seem to resist the urge to build cities from scratch, writes Monte Reel. While many such plans are overly ambitious, expensive and unrealistic, they can still succeed by bringing new life...
successful GREEN
Calculating the future of cod in the Barents Sea
Together with a Norwegian team of scientists, coastal researchers at Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht have developed a statistical procedure that will help predict future cod stocks in the Barents Sea. This new method could sustainably improve...
New technique makes bamboo a safe hydrogen storage for electromobility
Light and small hydrogen storage units made of bamboo could promote the mobile use of fuel cells. Two researchers have developed a special process that enables them to chemically convert bamboo into gas storage....
The Maltese Experiment
Around 475,000 people live on the 316 square kilometres that comprise Malta, an island nation smack in the middle of the Mediterranean. They are now embarking on an experiment in sustainable living that could...
“Rocket” improves detection of microplastics
Environmental researchers at the Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research Warnemünde (IOW) have developed a novel mobile device for recording microplastics in surface waters. They call it the “Rocket”, a design with which depending...
Cellulose makes this car a sustainable sensation
In recent years, the car industry has increasingly worked on making vehicles more sustainable in terms of fuel type and consumption. A team from Finland has also focused on making the whole car more...
Use of biofuels to grow sharply in next five years
Biofuels will heat more homes and fuel more vehicles, leading the growth in renewable energy worldwide through 2023, according to the International Energy Agency, or IEA. John Dyer reports. The IEA’s Renewables 2018 market...
Situated Sustainability: guidelines for conflict-affected settings
In the latest Bonn International Center for Conversion (BICC) Policy Brief, authors Esther Meininghaus and Katja Mielke introduce the concept of Situated Sustainability. It comprises local practices, understandings and imaginations of resource use across...
Smart phones and the cycle of unsustainability
Scientists, engineers and others are working hard to reduce pollution that poisons the planet and contributes to climate change. But psychologists might be better suited to tackling how and why consumers spend their money...
Solutions exist to dire climate change news
The same week that the UN issued a dire warning on climate change, the Nobel Prize in economics was awarded to two Americans conducting ground-breaking research on sustainable economies, offering hope that solutions do...
From water, a promise of power
Recent discoveries are finding new and better ways to derive power from hydrogen oxide, part of a worldwide push to harness the latent power in water and put an end to carbon-based fuels. By...
Fewer biofuels, more green space: climate action researcher calls for urgent shift
Growing and harvesting bioenergy crops – corn for ethanol or trees to fuel power plants, for example – is a poor use of land, which is a precious resource in the fight against climate...
Infrastructure can and must go green
World leaders can and must rethink how they build power plants, highways, water treatment facilities and other infrastructure if they want to make a meaningful dent in the Paris Agreement climate change goals, according...
Taller plant species are taking over in a warming Arctic
Until now, the Arctic tundra has been the domain of low-growing grasses and dwarf shrubs. But new, taller plant species have been slowly taking over this chilly neighbourhood, report an international group of nearly...
Sustainable energy must not fuel conflicts, says new study
A new report from the International Institute for Sustainable Development shows how our thirst for green technologies could be fuelling conflicts around the world. Cobalt, which is a key mineral in smartphones, is even...
UN aims to protect ‘Klondike’ of DNA and other marine resources
Fishing, deep-sea mining and patenting the genes of marine life could soon be subject to new international regulations. John Dyer reports. Diplomats kicked off negotiations at the United Nations Intergovernmental Conference on Sustainable Use...
Sustainable ventures bloom in long-exploited Latin America
Sustainable cosmetics, waste management and eco-tourism have sprung up across Latin America, reversing a history of human, economic and environmental exploitation. John Dyer reports. Cosmetics are not usually considered a sustainable business: petrochemicals are...
How the forest copes with the summer heat
Between April and August this year, Switzerland and central Europe experienced the driest summer season since 1864. Especially the forest seems to suffer from this dry spell: As early as August, trees began to...
New silicone coating inhibits bio-fouling on ship hulls
A research team from the Zoological Institute of Kiel University (CAU) has succeeded in developing a new silicone coating with a specific microstructure which reduces the contact area of barnacles to ships hulls by...
Applications open for 2-month SAP.iO Foundry in San Francisco
The SAP.iO Foundry offers a no-equity ask program that provides access to SAP APIs, SAP technologies, and opportunities to meet SAP’s customers. The upcoming SAP.iO San Francisco fall cohort will be focused on Human...
Market removal leads to decrease in Arctic pollutants
Levels of some persistent organic pollutants (POPs) regulated by the Stockholm Convention are decreasing in the Arctic, according to new research findings from a team who have been actively monitoring the region for almost...
