COVID-19’s extra torture on Kenya’s elderly
by In the thick trees on the outskirts of Kisumu City in Kenya, a hut is as isolated as the 76-year-old woman who owns and lives …
Category: Natural Sciences
“Up here, it is as if the pandemic did not exist”
Seeing the capital from up here, in the hills high above the rooftops, our perspective changes. The distance is small, but mentally, this is another …
COVID19 impacts and opportunities for biodiversity research in India
With the COVID19 pandemic gripping the whole world, it has changed the way we learn, work, and socialize. As we get used to living in …
Learning from one of the marginalised sectors in society – the Higaonon tribe of Bukidnon, Philippines
While we fight for the last grain to survive, the Higaonon tribe – a group of indigenous peoples in the remote mountain villages of Bukidnon, …
From coca to cacao agroforestry – a sustainable livelihood strategy in the Peruvian Amazon
‘’Plato or Plumo’’. There is no other way I could start this article than by mentioning the famous intimidating words of Pablo Escobar, the drug …
Climate change: Permafrost carbon remobilization
by In recent years, fires in the Amazon Forest and in Australia caused worldwide dismay, showing how interconnected the globe is when we talk about climate …
Can a pest species earn you more than the principal crop?
This article is about my master’s fieldwork experience in Ghana, where I looked into the contribution of an edible pest species to rural livelihoods in …
Industry, innovation and infrastructure / Natural Sciences / News / Sustainable cities and communities
No such thing as waste: resource recovery and shifting perceptions
‘Out of sight, out of mind’ is a well-known expression, but one with pernicious effects in the context of waste. We’ve always done things a certain way. Things are made, used, and thrown away. But where do all these thrown-away things go? What do they become? What could they become? Our linear way of thinking and behaving is being increasingly criticised as landfills overflow, water supplies dry up, and air becomes unbreathable.
Industry, innovation and infrastructure / Natural Sciences / News / Sustainable cities and communities
No such thing as waste: resource recovery and shifting perceptions
‘Out of sight, out of mind’ is a well-known expression, but one with pernicious effects in the context of waste. We’ve always done things a …
Multidisciplinary collaboration to secure the future of water in Cape Town
In 2018, the City of Cape Town declared a city-wide water crisis, which would be punctuated by ‘Day Zero’ – the day the city would run out of water. The drought had been looming for years, and the City of Cape Town had made some management changes, but all rested on the assumption that rain would fall at the same rate as in the past.