Worldcrunch
Robust winter babies? Allergic autumn infants? Researchers are finding increasing evidence that the month and season of birth can have an influence on our health. For Die Zeit, health editor Andrea Böhnke explores how light, weather, mother’s diet and other factors linked to the time of the year we are born shape us throughout our lives.
As the host of the next UN climate summit, Azerbaijan is positioning itself as a peacemaker, calling for the end of conflicts that “worsen climate change.” But this stands in stark contrast to the country’s commitment to increase gas and oil production and its record of military aggression against Armenia.
While wine consumption is declining and operating costs increasing, winegrowers also face increasingly frequent and extreme climatic hazards. Is this the last straw? As the sector is preparing for a new uprooting plan, some winemakers are looking into ways to adapt to the new market needs and climatic conditions.
Along with much of central Europe, Poland has experienced large scale flooding that has impacted the country’s infrastructure, budget, and sense of safety. Will this tragedy change the way Poles view climate change?
While it has long been used to control rain, cloud seeding is now attracting growing interest in some countries, particularly China. But scientists don’t agree on either its effectiveness or its own possible harm to the environmental.
A house surrounded by an immaculate green lawn conquered the post-war United States and has become a Western ideal. But climate change is prompting homeowners — as well as institutions such as botanical gardens — to create yards that are adapted to the local climate and biodiversity.
From The Amazon to The Alps, French photographer and street artist Philippe Echaroux has made a name for himself with his extraordinary light projections that aim to raise awareness about social and environmental issues.
Increasingly extreme temperatures are forcing summertime cultural events and festivals, from concerts to Spain’s traditional castell human towers, to adapt to a new climate reality.
The global fight against climate change is essential, but the solutions are not universal. Measures must account for the local realities of the Global South, where economic development is equally important and where the imposition of strict environmental standards by the North has devastating social and economic consequences.
Climate change has become an inevitable issue in the Middle East and North Africa — which may soon experience 200 days of extreme heat annually — and with those changes come questions of environmental justice.
Oil development in Uganda and Tanzania, driven by the French multinational TotalEnergies, is met with opposition from local communities and social and environmental activists. The projects are surrounded by allegations of threats and human rights abuses.
Updated July 26, 2024 at 11:20 a.m. The Solar Impulse 2 completed its historic circumnavigation of the Earth on this day in 2016, after a journey that spanned approximately 26,000 miles (42,000 kilometers) and took over a year to complete. It demonstrated the feasibility of long-duration, solar-powered flights, encouraging further research and innovation in renewable […]
Mayor Anne Hidalgo made waves last week for swimming in the Seine following a historic effort to clean up the Parisian river. But her biggest environmental footprint is in trying to reshape Paris for a more pedestrian future.
Floods have had a regular presence in Segundo Torrão, near Lisbon. But they are now threatening the lives of residents, as well as the survival of the local community.
The production of wheat, a staple food in Syria, fell dramatically this year due to the effects of climate change. The poor harvest has left wheat farmers, already suffering from decades of conflict, struggling to rebuild their lives.
Mexico is already suffering the effects of the climate emergency. And president-elect Claudia Sheinbaum — a climate scientist and former environmentalist — will have to choose between taking her predecessor’s fossil route and a harder but more sustainable path.
More than 1,300 people have died on the annual pilgrimage to Mecca. It’s not just a personal tragedy for Muslim worshippers, it’s a warning from mother nature.
Even as technology could offer solutions to surviving as our planet gets warmer, humans themselves are innately adaptable creatures — and extreme heat could change our genes.
China’s Premier Li Qiang has offered to send Australia two new pandas during his visit to Adelaide Zoo, as “friendly messengers of China-Australia relations.” It’s the latest example of China’s enduring and unique “panda diplomacy.”
In his latest book, Spanish meteorologist and author José Miguel Viñas traces the history of painting, observing the skies of artists from different times and latitudes. Walking through a Madrid museum, he explains different types of clouds and historical climatological events.
Can the surge of the far right in Europe pave the way for Donald Trump’s victory in the United States in November? Or will a majority of Americans reject a convicted former president running for office? Though political patterns are hard to detect, young voters play an important role in what comes next, writes political scientist Dominique Moïsi in French business daily Les Echos.
Can Mexico’s next president, Claudia Sheinbaum, forge a “progressive” foreign policy or must she submit, as Mexican governments generally have, to the dictates of vital trade with the United States and Canada that may yet turn choppy if Trump returns to power?
The deadly floods in southern Brazil are unprecedented but not unexpected. Ahead of the October local elections, Brazilians must remember that politicians have ignored scientists’ predictions and weakened legislation that could have helped deal with climate change.
Russia’s investment in the Arctic continues with reports of a new joint project with India. This comes with the development of a Siberian station called Snezhinka (Snowflake), at the center of both scientific and economic development of the Northern territories in the times of global warming.
All informal workers face climate change and it impacts their livelihood — reduced income as well as reduced hours of work. Workers talk about fatigue and dehydration, excessive sweating, and general mental stress and anxiety.
When a violent earthquake rocked the High Atlas in 2023, traditional earthen buildings resisted the seismic shocks better than other more modern ones. Yet despite its resilience and sustainability, this valuable cultural heritage is the victim of misperceptions and risks abandonment.
Armed conflicts, droughts, floods, poverty… Many factors are pushing some young people from Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger to take uncertain and dangerous migration routes. In the region of Africa just south of the Sahara, unregulated migration is increasing.
Camels’ resilience to climate change and increasingly sought-after milk make them more and more attractive for intensive farming in the Middle East. But this shift could prove detrimental to both the environment and the region’s traditional camel herding.
David Thomas, Professor of Geography at the University of Oxford, has been studying dunes for the past 40 years. And no, they’re not “just sand” — far from it.
How can we make the city both more dense and more liveable? By opening up its rooftops! At a time of land scarcity and global warming, this vast reservoir of largely unused land is the focus of much interest.
Following police violence against young people protesting in Pisa, the Italian government remains entrenched in its silence by merely promising investigations. But perhaps the issue is that the government perceives teenagers as a threat?
Located between Marrakech and Casablanca, the Mohammed VI Polytechnic University is trying to replicate the recipes that have made the United States’ Silicon Valley successful, fusing research and business — with special attention given to green energies and food sovereignty.
For more than 20 years, the Greek NGO Archipelagos has been monitoring the unique ecosystems and desertified areas of the Aegean Sea, the arm of the Mediterranean between Greece and Turkey. A ride along on the association’s main ship, the Aegean Explorer, reveals the effects of climate change, plastic pollution and industrial fishing.
Emilio Santiago, senior scientist at the CSIC and author of the book Contra El Mito Del Colapso Ecológico (Against The Myth Of The Ecological Collapse), believes that downplaying the importance of the climate crisis is as suicidal as letting yourself be carried away by paralyzing fear. Ecological collapse, he warns, is counterproductive to the transformation of our economic model.
Updated March 7, 2024 at 12:05 p.m. American poet and activist Amanda Gorman was born on this day in Los Angeles in 1998. Who is Amanda Gorman? Amanda Gorman gained widespread recognition after delivering her poem “The Hill We Climb” at the presidential inauguration of Joe Biden on January 20, 2021. This poem reflects on […]
An elephant in the street in India, otters on the beach in Cape Town, wild boars in Rome, big cats in Colombia cities, polar bears in Russian towns: a series of factors, including climate change and urbanization, is creating unlikely encounters between humans and the rest of the animal kingdom.
While men take center stage in the fresh round of Indian farmers’ protests, the difficulties experienced by female agriculture workers are still largely overlooked.
French researchers have recovered a pair of viruses that were long frozen below the Siberian tundra. In this case, the microorganisms are harmless, but others may not be.
In the Canadian Arctic, two ambitious research initiatives try to strengthen climate data through community engagement.
For decades, countries like Germany have resisted implementing school uniforms. But dress codes in schools are not just for the elite. They can help reduce social stigma for students living in poverty, as well as helping fight the climate crisis.