Why should urban developers conserve biodiversity?

by Megan C Mitchell –  Conservation appears in many forms and happens in a range of places. When people think of conservation, they think about it in terms of saving the rainforest, protecting the elephants or panda breeding programs but it does not have to be that it can be on a much smaller scale.…

Ladybird behaviour has proven AC/DC wrong – turns out rock and roll IS noise pollution

by Katrina Woodfield – The song by rock band AC/DC may argue that “Rock and roll ain’t noise pollution”, but after testing this hypothesis, scientists from Mississippi State University beg to differ1,2. AC/DC’s album Back in Black inspired Barton et al. (2018) to study the effect of rock music on predator-prey interactions between ladybirds (Harmonia…

Transforming our food production system

by Jaya Patel –  Our current agricultural system is unsustainable. Food production releases at least 25% of greenhouse gases1, contributing to climate change – an issue which threatens global food security. Not only do our diets harm the environment, but also human health. An article published in “Trends in Plant Science” explores how to approach…

Sweet potato varieties to save humankind

by William Preston –  Climate change is a reality, and global food production systems could be at a great risk [1]. Agricultural land all over the world is likely to experience major changes in temperature and water availability [2,3,4]. What is more worrying is that mass produced crops such as maize and wheat have a…

What is Food Security and Why is it Under Threat?

By Daisy Quincey-Brooke – “200 million or more people have starved to death or died of hunger-related disease in the past two decades, and as many as a billion people are chronically undernourished today” (Ehrlich et al, 1993:2) [1]. 27 years later and around 2 billion people still don’t have regular access to safe and…

Palm Oil is Destroying the Rainforests

by George Walton –  In this post, we’re going to explore one of the most destructive and large-scale global environmental issues – palm oil.  The removal of native trees makes way for oil palm plantations – in return, having a devastating effect on the local biodiversity. We will take a look at one of the…

Air Pollution: The invisible barrier in developing countries

by Zoe Hough –  I would describe air pollution as unjust towards developing countries. Many developing urban cities for example, Tehran, Mumbai, Lahore experience higher levels of air pollutants than some developed cities due to their lack of knowledge and technology to make everyday fundamentals like transport more sustainable, shown by how recent trends indicate…

Diet, health and environment

by Kathryn Vest –  To what extent do the food choices you make impact your health and the environment? Agriculture and food production across the world account for 25% of all greenhouse gases1. The huge amounts of greenhouse gases released in agriculture and other areas of human society have caused temperatures to soar to unprecedented…

Plastic: the greatest threat to our marine environments

by Lukas Szpojnarowicz – Our oceans face many growing threats, particularly caused by the presence of plastic debris and polluting microplastics. A journal article written by Vegter et al. (2014) addresses the environmental challenge of mitigating pollution, by compiling the global research efforts of 27 marine scientists, and 196 initial research questions (rqs) – which were…