Sand Is in Such High Demand, People Are Stealing Tons of It
As strange as it may sound, sand is one of the world’s hottest commodities. The global construction boom has created an insatiable appetite for sand, the chief ingredient for making concrete. The problem is that sand isn’t as abundant as it used to be. And when high demand and high value meets scarcity, you open the doors to smuggling.
Red Sea Mangroves Fight Back in the Face of Global Decline
The Red Sea is one of the world’s saltiest and warmest seas. It is an extremely harsh environment surrounded by desert and subject to very high temperatures. However, there has been no decline in mangrove stands in the Red Sea, where the extreme conditions seem to mean that the mangroves of the Red Sea have been subjected to much lower levels of human activity than elsewhere.
White House Wants to Slash Budgets of Top Climate Science Agencies
The current administration’s budget proposal includes a drastic 17-percent cut to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), one of the government’s top weather and climate-science agencies.
United Kingdom CO2 Emissions Fall to Lowest Level in Nearly a Century
A record drop in coal use — coupled with the rapid growth of renewable energy, an expansion of energy efficiency programs, and an increase in burning natural gas for electricity — have driven carbon dioxide emissions in the UK to their lowest levels since the 1920s.