In last Sunday’s mass, I heard a Christian priest declare during Mass that “this planet is useless, transitory” and that we should therefore focus on the heavens and the “next life.” Believer or not, the implications of this statement in everyday practical terms are troubling. They resonate, almost surreptitiously, with the rhetoric of Elon Musk…
State of play The monumental task of the clean energy transition has touched every corner of the globe, and soon may go even deeper than ever before: the bottom of the ocean. In the race to secure critical minerals needed for a variety of technologies, notably electric vehicle (EV) batteries, some companies have launched exploration…
Lithium is flowing from the Global South to the Global North, powering a massive electrification effort in high-income countries, particularly due to its criticality in electric vehicle (EV) batteries. However, this silvery metal is not a silver bullet. Lithium mining comes with high environmental and social costs to the land and local population, disproportionately harms…
The Glasgow Climate Pact, taken together with other decisions adopted at the close of COP 26, constitute an impressive step forward in multilateral climate policy. The true measure of success of “Glasgow”, however, will lie not in the words uttered or committed to paper but in the lasting impact of the full array of Glasgow’s…
The international community has been gearing up for the COP26 in Glasgow for months. It has been all that we have been able to talk about and rightly so. With the climate emergency continuing to present a mortal challenge to humanity, the international gathering taking place in Scotland will likely be one of the last…
Climate change is a threat to global peace, security, and prosperity. It poses a threat to human and natural systems due to their vulnerability and exposure. Vulnerability, in this context, is the propensity or predisposition to be adversely affected. People who are socially, economically, culturally, politically, institutionally, or otherwise marginalized are especially vulnerable and pose…
The Olympics, the world’s most celebrated international sporting tournament, needs no introduction. Inspired by the Ancient Olympic Games, held in Olympia, Greece more than two thousand years ago, the Modern Olympics began in Athens during the late 1800s and have successfully continued ever since, uniting over 200 countries and territories when it was held in…
Reimagine. Recreate. Restore. Those are the watchwords of World Environment Day, an annual day of celebration and contemplation taking place globally on June 5th every year. In 2021, Pakistan is playing host to the official events of the day, which this year also mark the beginning of the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. According…
Earlier this year, scientists at the Netherlands-based Wageningen University conducted research that had many buzzing with excitement. After only several hours of meticulous training, a sample of honeybees had learned how to detect Covid-19 infections, within a matter of seconds, due to their keen sense of smell. While this method of detecting Covid-19 will certainly…
