About 50 million people are likely to be pushed into acute hunger before the end of next year by the rapidly developing El Niño weather system, according to forecasting. This is in addition to the hundreds of millions of people…

Enough new coal mining projects were proposed last year to increase global supplies by 2.5 billion tonnes a year, an increase of 11% from the year before, even as demand for coal plateaus. Global Energy Monitor found that India ignited…

The recent deaths of 15 elephants near a park in southern Kenya were likely caused by the animals ingesting pesticides used on tomato farms, the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) says. The agency’s director general, Erustus Kanga, says analysis of samples…

A homegrown catnip lotion has proven ‘just as effective as diethyltoluamide (Deet)’ as a mosquito repellant in trials carried out in Uganda. Catnip is a common herb from the mint family. The chemical in the plant that causes feline euphoria…

Life has colonised every corner of the planet by evolving ingenious survival strategies but these are increasingly being overwhelmed by destructive human activities, this year’s red list of endangered species has revealed. Many snails, limpets and clams have adapted to…

When staff answer the call of nature at the European Space Agency’s headquarters in Paris, their urine is not simply flushed away – it is turned into something more useful.While urine-diverting toilets are often associated with smelly festival toilets, there…