When the Earth Commission released its third paper on earth system boundaries in 2023, one element stood out as distinct — the introduction of “justice” into the definition of planetary…
When members of two species have a relationship that is beneficial to both, the interaction is called mutualism. The term was first used by zoologist and paleontologist Pierre Joseph van…
Paleoclimate scientists travel to remote destinations in the planet to collect proxies. These proxies could be tree rings, ice sheets, corals, fossils or sediments from lakes. And they are used…
Extinction is the termination of all members of a species and it occurs because of environmental forces, overexploitation or evolutionary changes. What can fossils tell us about extinction? They provide…
Ambitious and quantitative targets, with a focus on tackling the drivers of biodiversity decline, should be reflected in a successful Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), says Sandra Diaz, Argentine ecologist and…
Exploring the geological history of Earth is fascinating work. That is what paleoclimatologists do. In order to understand climate change or to recognise it, we need to first understand what…
Every year, the monsoon’s onset is accompanied by sharp changes in wind speed, which makes monsoon forecasts easier for experts. During the monsoon’s withdrawal, however, wind speed and other meteorological…
Every year, around the first week of June, a vast expanse of roiling grey clouds advances from the Arabian sea and makes landfall in Kerala to the tune of rumbling…
Marine biologist Charles Anderson saw swarms of globe skimmer dragonflies landing at the Maldives during autumn, before they took off towards East Africa. Back in 2009, these observations led Anderson…
When a strong, 6.4 magnitude earthquake shook Assam on April 28 this year, there was panic and mayhem. The earth cracked near the epicentre in the Sonitpur district, and so…
In landslide-prone Giddapahar, a small hamlet nestled in the Darjeeling Himalayas known for its fragrant black tea, Bikash Thapa has become his community’s very own rain man. Aided by his…
Take a disaster-prone area, add some lax administration and generous helpings of construction projects and voila! What do you get? Uttarakhand, the north Indian hill state which is a perfect…
Land use change is one of those terms that we read about frequently and gloss over it. We read about lakes being converted to high rises, forests being turned farmland…
