Crop science may lead to a revolution in potato farming, creating new varieties resistant to disease and drought.
Tag: sustainable
The climate crisis could provide an opportunity to invent a new way of discovering the world that is more local and sustainable.
Concrete and glass are often thought of as the only building materials of modern architecture. But Francis Diébédo Kéré, the first African winner of a prestigious Pritzker architecture prize, works with clay, whose sustainability is not the only benefit.
The Danish government has banned further growth in sea-based fish farming, claiming the country had reached the limit without endangering the environment. A marine biologist says it is a misguided policy for both economic and ecological reasons.
Facing biodiversity loss, hunting can be seen as not only cruel but also damaging to natural ecosystems. Yet hunters argue that their activity is a natural way to “replace” animal predators and a tradition that should be preserved. Can there be a happy hunting medium?
Electric vehicles are a novelty with promise in Latin America and are already expanding in several of its city bus fleets.
For more than a year now, humans around the world have been masking up to limit the spread of COVID. Now, masks may be deployed among another species to combat a very different global ill: cow burps. The agricultural multinational Cargill is inaugurating a new kind of face mask designed to absorb cows’ gaseous emissions. […]
Five Questions for the Head of Business Innovation at Veolia on the launch of its new ‘Open Playground’ program.
Drawing inspiration from his childhood in Colombia, architect Mauricio Cárdenas is convinced that the age-old material also has a bright future.
The trend of what the French dubbed décroissance (degrowth) overlooks how progress and technology are bound to improve our lives.
Already known for its agricultural output, the South American country would do well to grow its reputation as a leader in sustainable food production.
With the help of a talented young engineer, demobilized FARC fighters are using an Archimedes screw hydro turbine to power a remote enclave.
Forget nylon!. Local clothing lines like Animaná are rediscovering all-natural fibers such as lama and linen, and even producing fabrics the old-fashioned way.
-Open Letter- PARIS — In the weeks since France’s popular environment minister, Nicolas Hulot resigned, after expressing disappointment with President Emmanuel Macron“s environmental record, newspapers have been filled with articles and opinion pieces sounding the alarm. Those in power are told to take vigorous and urgent ecological action to reduce consumption of polluting energies and […]
-OpEd- MADRID — Since September 2015, when the UN General Assembly launched its 2030 Agenda — a plan to reach 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) within 15 years — the concepts have been gaining momentum worldwide. The ultimate purpose of the SDGs is to eradicate poverty, and slowly but surely, people are realizing their importance […]
-Analysis- BUENOS AIRES — Everything suggests that in the future, the world may want practically anything Argentina can produce. The question is whether the response to this demand should be simply augmenting current productivity, or seeking wholly new approaches. Recently, we noted that China, the chief trading partner with which Argentina has just clinched a […]
This bio-friendly cattle rancher doesn’t win many friends among either vegetarians or traditional ranchers. But those who eat his ‘no-stress’ beef can taste the difference.
A pig farm outside Buenos Aires is a carefully planned, self-sustaining and multidimensional business that shows how Argentina stays ahead in the competitive world of food production.
Many have hailed the innovations of Songdo, a planned community near the South Korean capital of Seoul. But the city, which once served as a set for the “Gangnam Style” music video, also has its critics.
A young designer from Paris is applying his knowledge about natural light to the narrow streets of the Argentine capital.
In the Indian state of Odisha, the Khond, a large Indigenous community, are losing their forest and their food sources. There are environmental and nutritional consequences.
-Analysis- PARIS — Wednesday will mark “Earth Overshoot Day,” the moment when humanity uses more of the Earth’s ecological resources than the planet can regenerate in a year. This awkwardly named annual event, first conceived by the UK think tank New Economics Foundation in 2006, is a way to track the accumulating effects of climate […]
ALBI — During a walk through the heart of the cathedral city of Albi, fruits and vegetables seem to be planted everywhere. And for good reason. A year ago, the city was given the objective of attaining food self-sufficiency by 2020. In concrete terms, the goal is to allow the 52,000 residents to feed themselves […]
For anyone truly concerned with climate change, trends like rooftop gardens and sustainable badges for office buildings are a distraction, at best.
Using hydraulics to churn energy from its most obvious natural resource, Ushant is on its way toward an environmental overhaul, and other countries are taking note.
Bicycles with electric motors are becoming more popular and controversial at the same time. Environmentalists wonder if cyclists are losing their carbon neutrality in pursuit of an extra boost.
PECS — When they first took the plunge two years ago, farmers around Pécs may have only seen it as a way to improve profit margins. Certainly nothing wrong with that. But as time went by, their foray into alternative energy production turned out to be much for this group of 50 pioneers, who live […]
To both improve cities and conquer markets, companies are turning to urban simulators with the interactive power and graphics of video games.
CAIRO — Interested in planting summer vegetables such as pepper, zucchini or molokhia? Now is just about the right time of year to plant, says Hany El Khodary, head of urban farming company Green Zone Egypt. Even city dwellers with no outdoor space apart from a small balcony can grow small gardens or recycle some […]
MAMBURAO — In partnership with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), those who fish the waters here in the town of Mamburao are using traditional handlines rather than large trawler nets in the deep waters off Mindoro Strait, in a bid to position the area as a Philippine hub of sustainable tuna fishing. With traditional handlines, or kawil, they catch only the mature and high-quality tuna. “We go out there into the Mindoro Strait, about 300 fishermen in several boats,” says the Tuna Fisheries Association’s Roberto Cueto. “When we’re not catching much, we stay there for days.” But Cueto, who started […]
MINKEBE — Seen from the helicopter, the canopy of Minkébé National Park, in northern Gabon, looks like a green carpet that stretches to the horizon. The immobile uniformity is only broken up here and there by the veins of muddy rivers or a flock of birds flying. There’s no road or village here near the […]
The Mexican capital is revamping its international airport, with a new terminal designed by star architect Norman Foster that will double capacity, save energy and dazzle the eyes.
TEL AVIV — Vincent van Gogh’s famous oil painting “Starry Night Over the Rhone” displays a wonderful enchantment technique. Occupying two-thirds of the canvas, the night sky is dotted with moon and stars, creating an illusion of movement, as if they were trying to burst out of the canvas. It’s not just a masterpiece. It […]
Producers from Rwanda, Burundi and Ethiopia have visited the Colombian estates of producers to discover the social, environmental and aesthetic benefits of growing shade coffee.
Organic fever has been taking over the world over the past few years, appealing to some but shunned by others. Sustainability is a word often linked with organic, as well as all things environmentally-friendly, that surely must benefit all of us. Here’s a short profile of five places embracing both concepts with the aim of […]
A green city collaboration between Singapore and China has all the features of an environmentally sustainable future. But one thing it’s missing: people.
BERLIN – Winegrower Barbara Banke of the Kendall-Jackson Wine Estates in California doesn’t just love the sun because it ripens grapes. The sunnier it is, the lower the winery’s electricity and gas bills are. And those savings are possible because of the large mirrors mounted on the football-field-sized tin roof of the winery’s production facility […]
DIE WELT (Germany) Worldcrunch HAMBURG – German researchers are developing a long-lasting battery that could solve one of the biggest problems of the energy transition, reports Die Welt. The German government is aiming for electrical power in Germany to be 80% from renewable energy sources like wind and solar by the year 2050. However, this […]
DOHA – Jean-Pierre Moreau is growing flowers in the desert. Just 30 kilometers west of the Qatari capital of Doha, roses, gladiolus, chrysanthemum are blooming. At the request of Hamid Khalifa al-Thani, the Emir of Qatar, the Frenchman produces four million flowers a year, with the help of 60 employees mostly from Nepal and India. […]