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Here's why you should be hopeful about climate action in 2021

13 January 2021

We have been in many last chance saloons with climate change, but there are now reasons to believe we might finally go out and take action, writes Graham Lawton

Podcast goes behind the scenes in the battle to mitigate wildfires

13 January 2021

The podcast Life with Fire explores the wildfires a warming world will create – and why we need to involve everyone if we are going to learn how best to live with them

Origins of human music linked to our ancestors’ daredevil behaviour

8 January 2021

The roots of human music may go back to our primate ancestors developing elaborate calls to advertise that they were willing and able to perform death-defying leaps from tree to tree

UK may allow gene editing of crops and livestock following Brexit

8 January 2021

The UK government is exploring the use of gene editing to modify food crops because the technique can improve the nutrition of crops through tiny DNA changes

Groundwater that supports world food chain may become too salty to use

8 January 2021

The groundwater basins that provide water for much of the world's food production are in danger of becoming too salty due to human activity disrupting the flow of incoming freshwater

Climate change: 2020 was the joint hottest year on record

8 January 2021

Last year was the joint hottest globally and by far the warmest year ever recorded in Europe, making the years from 2015 onwards the warmest six on record

Uber and Lyft operating in US cities linked to rises in car ownership

6 January 2021

When ride-sharing companies including Uber and Lyft begin operating in a city, there is a slight increase in car ownership on average, a study of US urban areas suggests

Air pollution from chemical plants made Hurricane Harvey worse

6 January 2021

Much of the devastating flooding caused by 2017’s Hurricane Harvey in Houston, Texas may have been triggered by aerosol pollution released from nearby petrochemical plants