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Environmental threats could push billions into extreme poverty, warns UN

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Claire Provost
A Filipino boy washes his face in murky waters in Manila. Inaction on the environment will accelerate global poverty, warns the UN. Photograph: Francis R Malasig/EPA
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The number of people living in extreme poverty could increase by up to 3 billion by 2050 unless urgent action is taken to tackle environmental challenges, a major UN report warned on Thursday.

The 2013 Human Development Report hails better than expected progress on health, wealth and education in dozens of developing countries but says inaction on climate change, deforestation, and air and water pollution could end gains in the world's poorest countries and communities.

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Environmental threats could push billions into extreme poverty, warns UN

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Energy poverty deprives 1 billion of adequate healthcare, says report

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Claire Provost
Young Guineans, without access to electricity, study under carpark lights at G'bessi airport in Conakry, Guinea. Photograph: Rebecca Blackwell/AP
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Energy poverty has left more than 1 billion people in developing countries without access to adequate healthcare, with staff forced to treat emergency patients in the dark, and health centres lacking the power they need to store vaccines or sterilise medical supplies, according to a report.

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Energy poverty deprives 1 billion of adequate healthcare, says report

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UCSD Researchers: Where International Climate Policy Has Failed, Grassroots Efforts Can Succeed

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Robert Monroe
Smog in Beijing. Photo: Steven Zhang
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The world can significantly slow the pace of climate change with practical efforts to control so-called “short-lived climate pollutants” and by bringing successful Western technologies to the developing world, according to three UC San Diego scientists in the journal Foreign Affairs.

For the last two decades global diplomatic talks on climate change have struggled to make progress. Part of the problem, the scientists say, is that diplomacy has focused almost exclusively on carbon dioxide—a pollutant that is expensive and difficult to control.

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UCSD Researchers: Where International Climate Policy Has Failed, Grassroots Efforts Can Succeed

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How High Could the Tide Go?

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Justin Gillis
PREHISTORIC SHORELINES Researchers explored ancient rock formations on South Africa’s coast. They are looking for critical clues from records of past climate change to help predict sea level rise in a warming world.
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BREDASDORP, South Africa — A scruffy crew of scientists barreled down a dirt road, their two-car caravan kicking up dust. After searching all day for ancient beaches miles inland from the modern shoreline, they were about to give up.

Suddenly, the lead car screeched to a halt. Paul J. Hearty, a geologist from North Carolina, leapt out and seized a white object on the side of the road: a fossilized seashell. He beamed. In minutes, the team had collected dozens more.

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How High Could the Tide Go?

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China burns half of coal consumption worldwide, figures show

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Adam Vaughan
China consumes nearly as much coal as the rest of the world combined Photograph: US Energy Information Administration U.S. Energy Information Administration
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China now burns nearly as much coal as the rest of the world combined.

The country's appetite for the carbon-intensive fuel rose by 9% in 2011, to 3.8bn tonnes, meaning it now accounts for 47% of worldwide coal consumption.

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China burns half of coal consumption worldwide, figures show

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Counting the Vanishing Bees

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Dylan Walsh
A bumblebee gathering pollen from a sunflower. Reuters
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A new method for monitoring the decline in bee populations may prove a useful tool in much-needed conservation efforts. It requires only a few hundred pan traps: bright shallow bowls partly filled with soapy water or propylene glycol.

When United Nations experts noticed that crop production was flagging in seven countries around the world, from Brazil to Nepal, they contacted Gretchen LeBuhn, an associate professor at San Francisco State University who studies bees.

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Counting the Vanishing Bees

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Global food crisis will worsen as heatwaves damage crops, research finds

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Damian Carrington
Sprinklers water crops in Bakersfield, California, during a heatwave. Photograph: David McNew/Getty Images David McNew/Getty
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The world's food crisis, where 1 billion people are already going hungry and a further 2 billion people will be affected by 2050, is set to worsen as increasing heatwaves reverse the rising crop yields seen over the last 50 years, according to new research.

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Global food crisis will worsen as heatwaves damage crops, research finds

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