China has undertaken ambitious reforestation initiatives that have increased its forest cover dramatically in the last decade. But scientists are now raising questions about just how effective these grand projects will turn out to be. In China, major environmental degradation caused by deforestation was apparent even 2,000 years ago, when the great waterway once simply […] … learn more→

Following the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl 25 years ago, the Soviet government chose long-term evacuation over extensive decontamination; as a result, the plants and animals near Chernobyl inhabit an environment that is both largely devoid of humans and severely contaminated by radioactive fallout. The meltdown last March of three nuclear reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi […] … learn more→

The organizers of this project would greatly appreciate your thoughts … learn more→

Not only are more students than ever before travelling abroad to realise their higher education ambitions, they are also increasingly gravitating away from traditional educational hotspots in order to do so – and this trend looks set to continue, with competition for international students growing worldwide. Over the course of a decade, the number of […] … learn more→

Communities of species previously unknown to science have been discovered on the seafloor near Antarctica, clustered in the hot, dark environment surrounding hydrothermal vents. The discoveries, made by teams led by the University of Oxford, University of Southampton, the National Oceanography Centre, and British Antarctic Survey, include new species of yeti crab, starfish, barnacles, and […] … learn more→

Last year was an annus horribilis for the West. The economies of Ireland, Portugal, Greece and Italy collapsed under the weight of public debt; the Eurozone contemplated break up; anarchists occupied Wall Street; and Britain was gripped by urban riots. It was against this backdrop that History Today co-sponsored a conference held in November on […] … learn more→

I was surprised to find that the road north was paved, surrounded as it was by a barren, gently undulating landscape of scrub and sand. A railway line ran parallel but was a poor travel option. Infrequent trains moved only slowly, on tracks rumoured to be laid without proper foundations. I was travelling with a […] … learn more→

If its not local (or at least regional)….. its not sustainable! … learn more→

A team of researchers jointly led by Yale University and Columbia University has released a report that introduces a framework for assessing China’s environmental management and performance. This analysis offers the first independent review of Chinese provincial-level environmental performance by international researchers. The report, “Towards a China Environmental Performance Index,” introduces a model framework for […] … learn more→

Harvard astronomers, working as part of NASA’s Kepler mission, have detected the first Earth-sized planets orbiting a distant star, a milestone in the hunt for alien worlds that brings scientists a step closer to their ultimate goal of finding a twin to Earth. Described in the Dec. 20 issue of the journal Nature, the two […] … learn more→