We now smash, grab and pull some 100 billion tonnes of raw material out of the fabric of the planet in just a single year. That’s equivalent to destroying two-thirds of the mass of Mount Everest every 12 months. Roughly half of the raw materials we extract go into the...
In the 15th and early 16th Centuries, a small island in Lake Titicaca was one of South America’s most important religious sites. Revered as the birthplace of the Sun, the Moon and the Inca dynasty, Isla del Sol (“Island of the Sun”) drew pilgrims from across the Andes. A few...
Getting started with doing what you deep down want to do in life can be hard. No matter if what you want is to start exercising, create your own business on the side, write a book, see other parts of the world, improve your relationship with yourself or something entirely else. But often we...
Coal mines were the beating heart of Britain’s industrial revolution. Their sooty, energy-dense output gave life to new-fangled factories and shipyards, fuelling the nation’s march towards modernity. They helped shape a carbon-intensive economy, one that took little notice of the natural world around it. The mines paved the way for...
On most mornings, Jeremy D. Brown eats an avocado. But first, he gives it a little squeeze. A ripe avocado will yield to that pressure, but not too much. Brown also weighs the fruit in his hand. He feels the waxy skin’s bumps and ridges. “I can’t imagine not having...
The man, an ordinary teacher, fought against the colonial & fascists and sacrificed his life for the emancipation of his country, is the ‘Lion of the Dessert Omar Mukhtar’. He led the resistance of Libyans against Italian colonialism for 23 years. For which he was executed by the Italian occupiers...
An exquisitely carved maze of 3,500 steps, arranged in perfect symmetry, descends with geometrical precision to reach a well. Criss-crossed steps encircle the water on three sides, while the fourth side is adorned by a pavilion with embellished galleries and balconies. Built by Rajput ruler Raja Chanda during the 8th-9th...
Laura Beloff’s plant seemed to be clicking. She had rigged its roots up to a contact microphone in order to detect faint, high-pitched clicks in the soil. With the help of software she had written for her computer, the frequency of the clicks had been lowered, making them audible to...
The 1973 oil crisis was a significant event in the history of the world economy that sparked Arab Nationalism. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) imposed sanctions on the West. As a result, its allies, including the United States, experienced the most severe oil crisis of all time....
Stuck at home, we have already said ‘Hi!’ to our new partner ‘boredom’. We have nothing to do but sitting idle, wondering ‘what to do?’ Yeah, we have a few chores to do, but they are as boring as our school was before. So, here are some ways to pass...
The threat was invisible to the eye: tonnes of methane billowing skyward, blown out by natural gas pipelines snaking across Siberia. In the past, those plumes of potent greenhouse gas released by Russian petroleum operations last year might have gone unnoticed. But armed with powerful new imaging technology, a methane-hunting...
In the world’s effort to cut greenhouse gas emissions, the source of our food is coming into the spotlight. There’s good reason for that: Agriculture accounts for 16 to 27% of human-caused climate-warming emissions. But much of these emissions are not from carbon dioxide, that familiar climate change villain. They’re...
As a child, Fionn Ferreira spent hours exploring the coastline near his hometown of Ballydehob in south-west Ireland. But the more time he spent on the sheltered, shingle-strewn coves nearby, he grew increasingly shocked by the large amounts of plastic litter he found strewn across the beach and in the...
When you fail, make a mistake or things simply don’t go as well as you had hoped then how do you feel? Do you feel sorry for yourself? Well, that’s natural in some situations and too an extent. But do you get stuck in that mental state too often and...
There should be no doubt about it: Covid-19 vaccines are saving lives. Consider some recent statistics from the UK. In a study tracking more than 200,000 people, nearly every single participant had developed antibodies against the virus within two weeks of their second dose. And despite initial worries that the...
The race began, rather unusually, at 1:00 on a Sunday morning. It was 21 September 1879, and 13 (mostly) moustachioed athletes in tight leggings and tiny shorts had gathered under the towering arches of the original Madison Square Garden in New York – along with 10,000 raucous spectators. It was...
When we think of Italy’s volcanoes, we may assume that Etna, which overshadows Sicily, and Vesuvius, which famously destroyed Pompei, present the biggest danger to the peninsula’s population and tourists. Yet there is another monster that could wreak havoc to the southern peninsula and its islands. Its name is Marsili,...
Today I’d like to focus on a negative habit that creates insecurity within, erodes self-esteem and can make you feel quite unhappy with your own life. It’s something that has sprung up as we have moved a part of our lives on to the internet and social media. And that...
It happened suddenly and without warning. Where there should have been the emerging first shoots of potato seedlings behind the orchard in Nikola Borojevic’s spacious garden, there was now huge hole. Measuring 30m (98ft) wide and 15m (49ft) deep, it quickly filled with water. And it wasn’t the only one....
Quiet, clean and green are not words you would typically use to describe a construction site. But the site at Olav Vs gate, one of the busiest streets in the heart of Norway’s capital city, Oslo, was special. In a first of its kind in the world, all the machinery...
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