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NEW YORK, Aug 10 2021 (IPS) - The International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued its starkest report yet, expressing a clear consensus on the rapid changes to global temperatures. While this has been called a “code red” moment and a “wake-up call” for action, the report builds on what the scientific community has been saying for decades: climate change is irrefutably being…

UN weather experts said on Thursday that they’re “actively looking” into a possible record temperature for Continental Europe of 48.8 Celsius (119.8 Fahrenheit) near the town of Syracuse in Sicily, amid devastating wildfires in Mediterranean countries and Russia. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said that it could not yet confirm or deny the Sicilian temperature spike,…

Even though different soils have some properties that cannot be changed, such as texture, soil quality can be improved by implementing good management strategies, such as effective crops rotations that incorporate specific soil-improving crops. The results of the SoilCare experiments for soil-improving crops can be viewed by clicking on the fact sheets below, existing practical information on…

Scientists have discovered a potentially lethal link between fungi that cause diseases and small pieces of plastic debris of less than five millimetres in soil. The fungi identified cause medical problems such as swelling in the lungs and allergy symptoms including coughing and wheezing, according to the study published in Scientific Reports last month (15 July). (Microplastics…

Africa is suffering from increasing heat and droughts, even though the continent itself plays a very small role in causing climate change. Environmentalists are working on a massive project that will see the planting of a green belt leading from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea. On a hot morning in July, and a man with a graying beard is crawling through the grass of the Sahel in northern…

There is a full-sized bronze statue in the Engebei Ecological Demonstration Zone in the Kubuqi Desert of China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, showing a thin man with a shovel in his hands, looking affectionately into the distance at the lush poplar forest. The man is Toyama Seiei, an agriculturist from Japan reputed as "Father of the Desert", who had turned the Engebei Desert green through…