Search | New Scientist

Farmland could feed 20 billion people but it might wreck the planet

10 April 2023

Reaching the maximum feeding capacity from current agricultural land would require a global shift to plant-based diets and vast amounts of industrial fertiliser, a study has found

Summer aperitif with group of friends Joy and festivities in family Eavening with friend dinner on the terrace enjoying together. View from above of a table with many foods Happy hands taking viands; Shutterstock ID 1431755720; purchase_order: -; job: -; client: -; other: -

Eating green means considering biodiversity as well as climate change

15 June 2022

I thought my Mediterranean-style diet was helping the planet, but while it has reduced my carbon footprint, it is harming Earth's biodiversity, finds Graham Lawton

The spread of rice farms threatens key wetlands in South-East Asia

5 November 2020

Rice farming near Cambodia’s largest lake has spread and reduced flooded forests and grasslands by about a third over the past 15 years, taking over the habitat of threatened species

To feed 11 billion people, we must share crop seeds as a common good

23 January 2019

Patent-free seeds can diversify our food supply and fight climate change, say Johannes Kotschi and Bernd Horneburg

Britain’s hedgehog population has fallen 66 per cent in 20 years

12 June 2018

Britain only has 58 wild mammal species to start with, and many have declined sharply in number since 1995 – with hedgehogs suffering a particularly severe fall

Half of life on Earth has vanished since we arrived on the scene

21 May 2018

The biomass of living organisms on the planet has halved since human civilisation began, and humans now outweigh all wild mammals tenfold

A third of ‘protected’ nature zones are quietly being ruined

17 May 2018

The world’s nations have set up 200,000 protected areas in which nature is supposed to flourish, but in many cases the protection is pretty much theoretical