YOUR WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE

YOUR WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE

Amazon regions emit more carbon than they absorb.
Deforestation and climate change are altering the Amazon rainforest’s ability to soak up carbon, according to a new study.
Significant parts of the world’s largest tropical forest have started to emit more CO2 than they absorb.
The south-east is worst-affected, say scientists, with higher rates of tree loss and an increasing number of fires. Temperatures there have risen by three times the global average during the hottest months.

Scientists weigh up evidence over COVID origins.
While it is now hideously ubiquitous, Covid-19 is still quite a young disease. And the search for its start was officially put in motion in 2020 by a World Health Organization investigative team. Questions over its conclusions have escalated into a heavily politicised feud. Some research scientists, who have tried to unpick the pandemic’s origins, have been accused of conspiracy and cover-up – based on no evidence. Now researchers are seeking to understand how a virus that originated in bats transferred into humans – aim to “put the record straight” by publishing their summary of the scientific evidence about the pandemic’s beginning.

‘No more excuses’ at COP26 climate summit – poor nations.
More than 100 developing countries have put out their key negotiating demands ahead of the COP26 climate meeting in Glasgow. These include funding for poorer nations to fight and adapt to climate change and compensation for the impacts they will be subjected to. Those backing the plan represent more than half of the world’s countries. Without progress on these points, they say that COP26 will be worthless and will end in failure.

Technology boosts efforts to curb tree loss in Amazon.
Technology can help indigenous communities to significantly curb deforestation, according to a new study.
Indigenous people living in the Peruvian Amazon were equipped by conservation groups with satellite data and smartphones.
They were able to reduce tree losses by half in the first year of the project.
Reductions were greater in communities facing threats from illegal gold mining, logging and drugs

Pollution-eating car shown off at Goodwood Festival.
A car that has been designed to strip the air of pollution as it drives along has been shown off at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. Created by British designer Thomas Heatherwick, it is hoped the Airo will go into production in China in 2023, with plans to make a million of them.
The radical design is intended to address not only the pollution issue, but also help solve the “space crisis”.
Critics are not convinced it can ever be more than a concept car.

The young climate scientists who want their voice heard.
Thousands of young people across the UK are joining a mission to understand and help solve the environmental crisis facing their generation. In a mission led by the UK’s Royal Society, school children as young as five are taking on their own climate and environmental research projects. They plan to take their findings – and their messages – to the politicians who will be representing them at the critical climate talks later this year.