A international group of scientists have proposed that humankind’s impact on the planet has been profound enough, with enough manmade materials deposited in the geological record, to re-define our current era as one shaped by humanity. The proposed name for this new epoch is "the Anthropocene".
read more

A combination of industrial pollution and climate-change-driven oxygen loss is turning the great Canadian lakes into jelly, according to new research by Cambridge University scientists published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

A "battle of the plankton" between two competing species, Holopedium and the planktonic Daphnia, has been taking place in the delicate ecosystem of the lakes; however, calcium depletion in the lakes is making survival difficult for Daphnia, which require the mineral to form a vital component of their exoskeleton defending them from predators, and consequently populations of Holopedium have doubled since the 1980s. Without the presence of Daphnia, algae is multiplying and providing an unlimited food source for its competitor.read more

A poll led by the Pew Global Attitudes Project has canvassed more than 48,000 people from all different cultures, religions and nationalities to discover what they believe to be the greatest current threats facing humanity in the 21st century.

People from 44 different countries were given a list of potential threats and asked to name which of these constituted their greatest fears for the human race, answering the question:

"Which one of these poses the greatest threat to the world?"
read more

The United Kingdom has been shrouded in a blanket of smog for the past few days, caused by record levels of pollution.

The U.K. government stated that the situation is temporary and has arisen due to a ‘combination of local emissions, light winds, pollution from the continent and dust blown over from the Sahara’, but this allegedly blinkered viewpoint has been widely criticized.

European Commission spokesperson, Joe Hennon, described the prime minister’s comments as "more than disappointing" and of showing a "clear misunderstanding" of the air pollution crisis.
read more