By Tom Ovenden | – From the packaging our food comes in to the clothes we wear, plastic is everywhere. We know that seabirds eat it and get tangled in it, but we are only just beginning to explore the impacts this has on their health and survival. This is really important, particularly in the […]
Is the Coronavirus deflating the Far Right?
By Georgios Samaras | – In recent years, far-right political parties in Europe have capitalised on crises to build their support bases. Many have made it to positions of power as a result of these efforts. The financial crisis of 2008, the refugee crisis that began in 2014 and the ongoing debate around climate change […]
Turkey: how President Erdoğan is using coronavirus to clamp down further on dissent
By Balki Begumhan Bayhan | – Turkey’s increasingly authoritarian government led by the Justice and Development Party (AKP) has always made use of crises to consolidate its power. The coronavirus has been no exception. The regime has cracked down on opposition and attempted to undermine its effectiveness, while endeavouring to legitimise the rule of the […]
Energy isn’t just electricity – the common mistake obscuring the mammoth task of decarbonisation
By George Loumakis | – One of the first things I teach students is the difference between energy and electricity. Electricity is a particular form of energy, but often the two words are used interchangeably. Britain recently celebrated its longest streak without burning coal to generate electricity. For the first quarter of 2020, global electricity […]
Floating wind farms: how to make them the future of green electricity
By Susan Gourvenec | – Since 2010, wind energy has seen sustained growth worldwide, with the amount of energy generated by offshore wind increasing by nearly 30% each year. Countries around the world need to ramp up renewable energy supply quickly to meet growing demand and rapidly reduce emissions. Despite this urgency, offshore wind currently […]
John Lewis and C.T. Vivian belonged to a long tradition of religious leaders in the civil rights struggle
By Lawrence Burnley | – With the deaths of Rep. John Lewis and the Rev. Cordy Tindell “C.T.” Vivian, the U.S. has lost two civil rights greats who drew upon their faith as they pushed for equality for Black Americans. Vivian, an early adviser to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., died July 17 at […]
Palestinians won’t determine their own Fate, it Depends on Netanyahu’s Maneuvering
By Philip Leech-Ngo | – It’s mid-July, two weeks after what many in the international media believed was Israel’s start date for the annexation of large parts of the West Bank. Many commentators, including me, tried to predict the next move by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, enabled by the mercurial U.S. President Donald Trump, […]
Emissions of methane – a greenhouse gas far more potent than carbon dioxide – are rising dangerously
By Pep Canadell, Ben Poulter, Marielle Saunois, Paul Krummel, and Rob Jackson | – Fossil fuels and agriculture are driving a dangerous acceleration in methane emissions, at a rate consistent with a 3-4℃ rise in global temperatures this century. Our two papers published today provide a troubling report card on the global methane budget, and […]
Afghanistan’s COVID-19 crisis has been fuelled by armed conflict
By Christiane Wilke and Mohd Khalid Naseemi | – The COVID-19 pandemic is revealing the inequities in access to health care around the globe. In Afghanistan, the spread of the virus has been ignited by decades of armed conflict and reconstruction efforts that have prioritized cutting public expenditures over strengthening the Afghan health-care system. Powerful […]