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Natural Sciences

Good health and well-being Natural Sciences News

Older people in Denmark were mostly worried about other people getting infected with COVID-19

During the pandemic and the ensuing restrictions, the general picture in Denmark has been that older people have been much more worried about other people getting sick than they have been worried about themselves. Many were also worried about not...
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Good health and well-being Natural Sciences News No poverty Social Sciences

COVID-19’s extra torture on Kenya’s elderly

In the thick trees on the outskirts of Kisumu City in Kenya, a hut is as isolated as the 76-year-old woman who owns and lives in it alone. Without a child of her own, Mary Atieno had called people "son"...
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Good health and well-being Natural Sciences News No poverty

“Up here, it is as if the pandemic did not exist”

Seeing the capital from up here, in the hills high above the rooftops, our perspective changes. The distance is small, but mentally, this is another world. We’re in the neighbourhood of El Pilar – in the outskirts of Quito, high...
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Life below water Natural Sciences Resources

COVID19 impacts and opportunities for biodiversity research in India

With the COVID19 pandemic gripping the whole world, it has changed the way we learn, work, and socialize. As we get used to living in this new normal, as we call it, there had been a noticeable shift in the focus of research from some of the most pressing biodiversity issues to solely COVID19.
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Life on land Natural Sciences News Zero hunger

Learning from one of the marginalised sectors in society – the Higaonon tribe of Bukidnon, Philippines

While we fight for the last grain to survive, the Higaonon tribe – a group of indigenous peoples in the remote mountain villages of Bukidnon, Philippines – have lived for centuries utilising the plant resources in their ancestral land. These resources play an essential role in the resilience of the Higaonon tribal community.
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Climate action Natural Sciences News Peace, justice and strong institutions

From coca to cacao agroforestry – a sustainable livelihood strategy in the Peruvian Amazon

‘’Plato or Plumo’’. There is no other way I could start this article than by mentioning the famous intimidating words of Pablo Escobar, the drug lord who reigned not just Colombia but entire Latin America in the 1970s. It literally translates as ‘Silver (bribes) or Lead (bullets)’ in Spanish. The phrase itself says how ruthless the drug cartels were in those times. More than two decades after his death, cocaine still lurks as a livelihood strategy for many households in the region.
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Climate action Natural Sciences Opinions

Climate change: Permafrost carbon remobilization

Earth’s climate is dynamic. Past environmental conditions can be studied to give insights about current and future changes. As the planet warms quickly, scientists rush to investigate climate archives spanning thousands of years in order to unlock this information. Within the science community, there is an overwhelming consensus about human causing the current climate crisis among the science community, but it is a big challenge to raise awareness among the public.
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Natural Sciences News Responsible consumption and production Zero hunger

Can a pest species earn you more than the principal crop?

In October 2020, Krishnanunni Mavinkal Ravindran defended his Master thesis at Dept. of Food and Resource Economics (IFRO), University of Copenhagen. In this article, he tells about the fieldwork experience in Ghana. Krishnanunni studied the contribution of an edible pest species - shea caterpillars - to rural livelihoods in Ghana and the accessibility constraints associated with its harvest.
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Industry, innovation and infrastructure Natural Sciences News Sustainable cities and communities

No such thing as waste: resource recovery and shifting perceptions

‘Out of sight, out of mind’ is a well-known expression, but one with pernicious effects in the context of waste. We’ve always done things a certain way. Things are made, used, and thrown away. But where do all these thrown-away things go? What do they become? What could they become? Our linear way of thinking and behaving is being increasingly criticised as landfills overflow, water supplies dry up, and air becomes unbreathable.
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Clean water and sanitation Natural Sciences Resources Social Sciences

Multidisciplinary collaboration to secure the future of water in Cape Town

In 2018, the City of Cape Town declared a city-wide water crisis, which would be punctuated by ‘Day Zero’ – the day the city would run out of water. The drought had been looming for years, and the City of Cape Town had made some management changes, but all rested on the assumption that rain would fall at the same rate as in the past.
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