Deep inside a mountain on a remote island in the Svalbard archipelago, halfway between mainland Norway and the North Pole, there is a vault that stores and preserves millions of crop seeds from all over the world. Built to stand the test of time — and the challenge of natural or man-made disasters, The Vault is the ultimate insurance policy for the world’s food supply, offering options for future generations to overcome the challenges of climate change and population growth.
Until Recently, the giant panda was heading towards extinction. But thanks to reproduction efforts in zoos along with reforestation and conservation campaigns, the pandas numbers are finally rebounding after years of decline. Their conservation status has been upgraded from endangered to just vulnerable. The pandas still need help but its great to hear they are doing a bit better!
Thousands of trees and shrubs will be planted across northern Spain to provide a food source for brown bears during the winter who are being forced out of hibernation early because of climate change. A series of scientific studies have found that warmer winters have also affected the food sources which bears depend on. Blueberries, which is one of the bear’s favourite foods, have suffered due to warmer climates, so the researchers have sought to replace it with other fruit. These trees and shrubs will produce tasty alternative fruits such as chestnuts, cherries, apples and alder buckthorn.
For millennia, humans have been chopping down trees and harvesting plants. Lab-grown plant material might change that. MIT scientists have developed a way to grow wood from plant cells that could help to slow deforestation. The work is still in its very early stages but its a strong starting point to a new way of producing biomaterials. It’s a process that eventually could help accelerate our shift away from plastics and other materials that end up in a landfill towards materials that can biodegrade.