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Between 20% and 40% of the world’s land area is now degraded

Climate, pollution, biodiversity: UN report sounds global alarm

Transforming economies, energy systems and food production could prevent millions of deaths and halt biodiversity loss, the UN’s latest report finds

The “hard-fought” negotiations to develop a landmark United Nations treaty to end plastic pollution closed on Friday without agreement and have been extended again

UN plastics treaty talks collapse

Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment Minister Dion George said South Africa will continue working to end plastic pollution in the country and develop fair, practical regulations

In recent years, research Wright and colleagues led has highlighted how prolonged heat exposure places outdoor workers, children, older people and low-income communities at increased risk of dehydration, heat stress, respiratory illness and other adverse health outcomes. The risks are expected to intensify as temperatures continue to rise. (Envato Elements)

Climate crisis puts older adults at high risk from extreme heat, Unep warns

‘Zombie’ microbes may reawaken as Earth’s ice melts, a study has found

The Unep study, which the Global Environment Facility funded, was conducted in 42 countries in regions where data on persistent organic pollutants is limited.(Photo by Doaa Adel/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

UN report shows decline in some chemical pollutants as new threats emerge

Persistent organic pollutants stay in the environment over decades and longer and are linked to cancer, liver damage and decreased fertility

There are early signs that fewer lesser kestrels (above) and Amur falcons are visiting South Africa this year. (Photo by: Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

Insect decline threatens migratory bird

There are early signs that fewer lesser kestrels and Amur falcons are visiting South Africa this year

Mangroves — shrub and tree species that live along shores, rivers and estuaries — are a cost-effective solution to tackling the climate crisis. (Photo by Cem Ozdel/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Restoring mangroves a nature-based fix for plight planet faces

Nature-based solutions can play help solve the triple crisis of climate change, nature and biodiversity loss and pollution and waste

Last year, the CSIR received the UN’s highest environmental honour when it was named one of five  Champions of the Earth for 2023 for its efforts to develop and apply solutions to plastic pollution. Photo by Delwyn Verasamy

Award-winning local innovation fights plastic pollution

At state-of-the-art labs in Pretoria, a team of scientists is developing compostable products to replace single-use ones that are not recycled This content is restricted to…

Firefighters battle a blaze on Signal Hill in Cape Town. Wildfires are likely to become frequent. Photo: Rodger Bosch/Getty Images

UN report: Funding gap for adaptation much wider than anticipated

Wealthy nations default on payments for climate adaptation

Photo: Laura Lezza/Getty Images

Plastic pollution could be slashed by 80% in next 17 years

This can be done by 2040 if there are changes in the market, a United Nations report has found

The first round of plastic treaty negotiations saw positive outcomes but oil producing countries, at the behest of big oil and petrochemical companies, could dominate the treaty discussions. (Waldo Swiegers/Bloomberg/Getty Images)

Talks over global plastic treaty were a mixed bag

The first round of plastic treaty negotiations saw positive outcomes but oil producing countries, at the behest of big oil and petrochemical companies, could dominate the treaty…

Mock headstones are pictured at Glasgow Necropolis to symbolise the failure of the COP26 process, at Glasgow Cathedral. (Photo by PAUL ELLIS/AFP via Getty Images)

World on track for an accelerating climate disaster, United Nations warns

No ‘credible pathway’ in place to limit warming to 1.5°C

Pollutants and debris presents health risks to both people and marine life. (Getty)

SA engineers pave way for automated detection of ocean pollution

South Africa discharges up to 250 000 tonnes of rubbish into the oceans every year

Scuba divers dive in the Red Sea waters by a coral reef near Egypt’s resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh at the southern tip of the Sinai peninsula on September 29, 2021. – The Red Sea is home to some 209 different types of coral reefs, according to Egypt’s environment ministry. Healthy corals provide a habitat for more than quarter of marine life, besides shielding the world from natural disasters as storms and floods. But these reefs with their dazzling hues are threatened by rising sea temperatures due to climate change and global warming. (Photo by Khaled DESOUKI / AFP)

World has lost 14% of its coral reefs to bleaching from global warming

There are also early warning signs of climate change on South Africa’s coral reefs as elevated sea temperatures drive large scale bleaching

Benefits: The Wagendrift Dam on the Bushmans River, a tributary of the Thukela River. Rehabilitating the Thukela River catchment in KwaZulu-Natal would reduce soil erosion, improve the grasslands and water supply, all of which improves people’s lives. (Heinrich van den Berg/Gallo Africa)

It pays to save the Thukela River catchment

For each rand spent on rehabilitating the river system, the return is at least R1.70 if not more

Throwaway culture: Plastic, microplastic and other waste is littering the world’s oceans, harming life. (Xurxo Lobato/Getty Images)

New plan to tackle marine pollution

The environment department’s Source-to-Sea initiative will create 1 600 work opportunities

Eating into land: Only 12% of the earth’s rangelands are protected and industrial-scale farmers as well as pastoralists such as these from Nigeria are causing these areas to shrink. Photo: Luis Tato/AFP

First-of-its-kind rangeland atlas pushes for protection

Rangelands are ‘nature’s gift to humanity’, but have been overlooked, neglected

Attributing to nature — or Gaia, the Earth system — the capacity to “send us a message” suggests that there is intelligence involved.

What Gaia theory can tell us about the outbreak of novel coronavirus

Automatic-control mechanisms are part of the intelligent self-regulation that occurs in nature. Thus, the outbreak of Covid-19 could very well be Gaia’s automatic reaction to…

The harsh reality is that emissions have risen on average 1.5% annually over the last decade (Wahdi Setiawan/Reuters)

Slash emissions now or miss 1.5°C goal, UN warns

The UNEP said that global emissions need to fall by 7.6%, each year, every year until 2030 to limit global temperature rises to 1.5°C

Industrialised nations often ship their waste to poorer countries under the premise of recyclability, fuelling industries that harm local populations

New study reveals global plans to curb single-use plastic pollution

More than 60 countries have instituted bans on plastic use

Warning on warming

New predictions of global warming outstrip earlier worst-case scenarios, reports David Adam.