Green finance? Why global banks are pledging billions to fight climate change

Nov 11, 2017 01:13 am UTC| Insights & Views Nature

Banking giant HSBC has pledged US$100 billion (76 billion) to fight climate change, to be spent on sustainable finance and investment over the next eight years. It also commits to increasing its own use of renewable energy...

Why people stay in disaster-prone cities

Oct 08, 2017 02:48 am UTC| Insights & Views Nature

The 2017 hurricane season has brought unprecedented destruction to the Caribbean and southern United States. As millions of people around the world have watched these events unfold from afar, no doubt some have found...

The immense challenge of desertification in sub-Saharan Africa

Oct 05, 2017 03:43 am UTC| Insights & Views Nature

Today, dry areas represent more than 41% of land on the globe and they are home to more than two billion people. They are the stage for the ongoing process of land degradation that is aggravated by climate fluctuations ...

Fine-particulate pollution: can we trust microsensor readings?

Sep 27, 2017 16:12 pm UTC| Insights & Views Nature

Last May, Paris City Hall launched Pollutrack, a fleet of micro-sensors placed on the roofs of vehicles traveling throughout the capital to measure the level of fine particles present in the air in real time. A year early,...

How hurricanes such as Irma and Maria can devastate the Caribbean marine environment

Sep 25, 2017 11:54 am UTC| Nature

Hurricane Irma one of the strongest on record to hit the Caribbean recently scoured the islands leaving catastrophic damage in its wake. And just as we began to piece together the devastating and potentially longterm...

Q&A: how cities can recover from natural disasters

Sep 22, 2017 03:29 am UTC| Insights & Views Nature

In the space of a month, hundreds of lives have been lost due to natural disasters. Mexico was hit by two high-magnitude earthquakes within two weeks, while swathes of the US and the Caribbean have been severely damaged or...

In the Caribbean, colonialism and inequality mean hurricanes hit harder

Sep 21, 2017 14:42 pm UTC| Insights & Views Nature

Hurricane Maria, the 15th tropical depression this season, is now battering the Caribbean, just two weeks after Hurricane Irma wreaked havoc in the region. The devastation in Dominica is mind-boggling, wrote the...