As revealed by a recent study published in Nature Climate Change, underlining how the countries of the northern hemisphere will have to expect longer summer heat waves and more intense rainfall if climate targets are not achieved. If global warming reaches 2°C, summer weather conditions would change significantly compared to previous models.
The Atewa forest, which extends over much of West Africa, is one of the continent’s most important green lungs, but it could now be at risk due to a memorandum signed by the African country with China, which would give the green light to mining exploration in particular for bauxite deposits. The agreement also provides for Ghana to sell 5 percent of its aluminum resources to China.
Research published in Nature Communications has shown that people who eat food rich in flavonoids have a lower risk of cancer and cardiovascular disease than those who eat less. The researchers used data from 56,048 Danes, monitoring their diet and health prospectively over 23 years. 17 percent of them showed a lower than average risk of developing both diseases.
Mi Terror, a start-up based in Los Angeles, is developing a way to reduce food waste by buying surplus milk from some Chinese farms and turning it into fibers that can be used in the clothing industry. The whole process takes two months and one glass of milk corresponds to five T-shirts.
A study published in the journal Phytopathology reveals that using the antibiotic oxytetracycline on citrus trees has had no detectable impact on the bacterial disease that is affecting Florida's orange and grapefruit crops. The disease has already caused a 70 percent drop in citrus production in the country since the pathogen first arrived from Asia in 2005.
IFPRI (International Food Policy Research Institute) has conducted a multi-year study to assess the impact of climate change on the agricultural sector by 2050. The results show that Guatemala and Costa Rica will suffer the greatest losses of corn crops of almost 17 percent, followed by Honduras with 12 percent. The losses in Colombia and Peru, as well as in El Salvador and Nicaragua, will be more modest, around 8 per cent each.