Mangrove forests along the world’s tropical and subtropical coasts store enormous quantities of ‘blue’ carbon – especially in river delta zones, where soil builds up quickly.
One big problem with plastics is that they’re largely made of petroleum. Sourcing bio-polymers from plants and bacteria has some big benefits – and the technology is starting to take off.
Peter C. Doherty, The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity
Nobel Prizewinning health researcher Peter Doherty reflects on the challenge of delivering a healthy climate for the world. From hydrogen power to wooden skyscrapers, the options are endless, but all require leadership.
Wetlands are some of the world’s most undervalued weapons against climate change. They store huge quantities of carbon – but without better protection, many could soon be drained or paved over.
Scientists have long thought most nitrogen in Earth’s ecosystems comes from the air, but new research shows it also is released as rocks weather. This could boost plant growth and help sequester carbon – but not fast enough to avert climate change, as some pundits have claimed.
Europe loses as many trees to storms each year as Poland produces in timber. Until now, the models for predicting which trees are at risk have not been good enough.
In an extract from his new book, Tim Flannery explains how giant kelp farms could suck carbon dioxide from the air and store it in the ocean’s depths, while encouraging species like fish and oysters.
A new survey has identified millions of hectares of forest in dryland areas, a finding that boosts the total global forest cover by 9% and has significant consequences for carbon budgets.
A new report calls U.S. forests an undervalued asset for slowing climate change. It warns that they are being degraded by logging for wood, paper and fuel, particularly in the Southeast.
It’s no exaggeration to say the tropics drive our planet’s carbon cycle – the constant transfer of carbon back and forth, on a global scale, between living things and the environment. Understanding the…
Sara Bice, The University of Melbourne; Mike Sandiford, The University of Melbourne, and Will Howard, The University of Melbourne
In a recent article on The Conversation, Queensland coal seam gas (CSG) researchers argued that the industry is progressing faster than the science, leading to concerns over fugitive emissions and impacts…
The concept of a “tipping point” – a threshold beyond which a system shifts to a new state – is becoming a familiar one in discussions of the climate. Examples of tipping points are everywhere: a glass…
The Saharan dust that clogged air and dirtied cars recently may seem like a nuisance, but in fact contains some essential nutrients – if, that is, you’re phytoplankton. The dust and sand blown from Africa…
Large, older trees have been found to grow faster and absorb carbon dioxide more rapidly than younger, smaller trees, despite the previous view that trees’ growth slowed as they developed. Research published…
For several years, and particularly since the advent of the Coalition’s Direct Action policy for reducing emissions, the potential of agricultural soils in Australia to soak up carbon has been widely debated…