Drink coffee, feed the world?
As I sat bleary-eyed in the staff restaurant at CABI drinking a morning cup of coffee today, was I simply having a shot of caffeine to keep me going after an early start. Or, as it was Fairtrade coffee I was drinking, was I making a real contribution to improved livelihoods of small farmers in…
Frog fungus
At the risk of developing a ‘save the animals’ theme, and despite saying last week that moving species around may not be a good idea, I’m now advocating the adoption of frogs by zoos, aquaria and botanic gardens. This is, however, to promote an ex situ conservation programme to slow amphibian extinction in the crisis…
Rebuilding a Brazilian rainforest
The Brazilian Atlantic rainforest once spanned in excess of a million square kilometres. However, nowadays it barely covers 7% of that. The deforestation that has occurred has left farmers and wildlife with failing springs, receding groundwater and destroyed habitats. An ambitious project in Brazil’s most crowded state, São Paulo, aims to bring the rainforest and…
Is circumcision the answer to HIV?
Two randomised controlled trials from Kenya and Uganda reported in the Lancet this week have shown that circumcising men can halve the HIV infection rate. This is great news for controlling HIV, confirming what has been suspected for years. The operation is cheap and simple to carry out and just has to be done once.…
Thai rubber industry plans to bounce back from El Niño
El Niño, the ocean-atmosphere phenomenon that does so much to shape the course of the world’s weather, is now giving officials in Thailand particular cause for concern. The Meteorological Department in Bangkok has announced that the cool, dry season has lasted an unusually long time, beyond its normal November to January range. The worry is…
Dolly: ten years after
The cloning of “Dolly” from adult sheep tissue was widely hailed as a breakthrough 10 years ago this week, when it was published in Nature. David Wells of AgResearch, New Zealand, says “it is still remarkable that NT [nuclear transfer] using differentiated donor cells can produce physiologically normal cloned animals.” However, as he points out…
Last stand of the orangutan
A ‘state of emergency’ has been declared over the survival of Indonesia’s orangutans. According to an rapid response assessment by UNEP, the situation of both the Bornean orangutan (Pongo abelii) and Sumatran orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus) is far more critical than previously suggested. Their habitat is under constant attack from illegal logging, forest fires and mining……
Do you have room for a rhino?
The recent report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) found that it is very likely that human action is causing climate change; this in turn negatively impacts biodiversity. Species are being forced out of their natural ranges, shifting in response to temperature rise, but not quickly enough for all to survive. The move…
Conservation agriculture: the zero way
Brazilian farmers are at the forefront in the application of Zero Tillage, a cropping method that is greener, boosts productivity, and helps the climate. “Called direct drilling, no-tillage or zero tillage (ZT), the technique is in part praised for fixing carbon in the soil, thereby reducing the amount of carbon dioxide — a greenhouse gas…
More good news for coffee drinkers!
Winter is traditionally a season of excess followed by deprivation. Not only do many of us inflict misery and suffering on ourselves in the form of New Years’ resolutions at a time when we really want to be tucked up under the duvet with a boxful of chocolates, but, just as we start to look…