Can trees stop climate change?

Drought, forest fires and increasingly frequent storms. Climate change is destroying our forests. All over the world, people are looking for ways to keep them from dying out. Yet nature itself knows best what forests need to thrive. Reforestation works not only in the countryside, but also in the city. In urban areas, planting trees can help combat climate change, restore ecosystems and keep cities cooler — as forest scientist Stefan Scharfe well knows. He’s already planted 14 ‘tiny forests’ in Germany and Poland. The concept of planting dense, fast-growing woodland in urban wastelands was originally developed by Japanese botanist Akira Miyawaki.

Recycling e-waste - Good for business and the environment

 

One way to tackle e-waste is to repair devices rather than throw them out. More companies are doing just that, from recycling solar modules to renting out second-hand smartphones. Their goal is to reduce e-waste and protect the environment. Experts predict that by 2030, more than one million tons of solar modules will end up as waste in Germany alone. With his company 2ndlifesolar in Hamburg, engineer Martin Wilke wants to ensure that as many of these discarded modules as possible are recycled, for example as a small-scale solar panel system on a balcony. The company also recycles the raw materials in the discarded modules, such as silver and silicon.

UN salvage mission aims to avert massive oil spill from abandoned tanker

The United Nations is preparing to drain over a million barrels of oil from a rusting tanker off the Yemeni coast. The abandoned FSO Safer has been anchored near the port of Hodeida for years, threatening an ecological disaster.

China is planting Fields of Stones stuck to Metal Bars - No, Really

 

Why the climate activists are now under criminal investigation | DW News

 

Police on Wednesday said they had searched 15 properties linked to members of the Last Generation climate group who are suspected of helping finance a criminal enterprise. The raids were connected to a string of charges filed against activists from the group since the middle of last year, authorities said. Police said the internet homepage for Last Generation in Germany had also been shut down on the instructions of the prosecutor's office.

The shady business of pesticides - Europe's poisonous export

This documentary investigates the shady business of pesticides. Many pesticides that are banned in Europe are exported to nations where their use is permitted, despite their toxicity. First and foremost, they are exported to Brazil.

Horrifying - China’s Secret Coal Addiction is Destroying the World

China keeps telling the world that it's the leader in green technology... and the world keeps believing it. The reality is that it just expanded even more usage of coal, and keeps doing it every single day.

Superfoods and the environment - Avocados and blueberries from South America

 .

Superfood fruits - good for us, but bad for the environment? Growing avocados and blueberries requires a lot of water; and because they’re usually transported to Germany from other continents, that also leaves a large carbon footprint.

Farming of the future - From "green genetic engineering" to vertical farms

 

Currently, enough food is produced worldwide to feed everyone alive. But what if, by the end of this century, more than 10 billion people inhabit the earth? Agriculture as we know it today is highly efficient. It feeds more people than at any time in history. But there is a catch: Food may fill our supermarkets, but it is pushing our planet to its limits.

Greta Thunberg detained at coal protest in Germany

Greta Thunberg was among climate activists detained during a protest against the demolition of a German village to make way for a coalmine.

Thunberg was detained after sitting near the edge of the opencast Garzweiler 2 mine, about 5 miles from the village of Lützerath.

“We are going to use force to bring you to the identity check, so please cooperate,” a police officer said to the group.

Can the G20 solve the world’s problems?

World leaders are on the Indonesian island of Bali for the annual G20 summit.

Leaders from around the world are hoping to get a consensus on a wide-ranging issues affecting billions of people.

And the post-pandemic global economy is top of their agenda.

China’s Electricity Problem

 

Climate carnage: whose job is it to save the planet?

In a crucial year for the climate, award-winning Guardian environment editor Fiona Harvey reflects on 30 years of Cops and meets the politicians, activists and scientists asking who is responsible for saving the planet.  

In November last year, the world’s gaze focused on Glasgow at Cop26 as 'a historic, collective achievement' was forged between 200 countries – the Glasgow climate pact. Since then, unprecedented global events have threatened this commitment to limiting climate destruction, and the hopes of 'keeping 1.5 alive' have been dashed. We follow Fiona as she prepares for Cop27 in Egypt, asking presidents, global leaders, activists and scientists if global diplomacy is enough to save humanity from the brink of annihilation

 

How dangerous are microplastics?

Microplastics have only recently become an issue outside the scientific world. A pioneering researcher in this field, Christian Laforsch is primarily interested in the long-term hazards they pose - something that could assume critical importance for us in the future. Microplastics can be found everywhere: in snow up in the mountains, in our rivers - and in the air that we breathe. They comprise particles so minute that they can only be seen under a microscope. Professor Christian Laforsch and his team from the University of Bayreuth have devised their own customized instruments to track down microplastics in water, the air and farmland soil. They also want to find out how dangerous they are for humans and our environment.

Environmentalists in danger

 

The fight against the destruction of nature is a dangerous one. Around the globe, people are risking their lives to protect the environment and climate. When environmentalists’ activities disrupt organized crime and other illegal profiteers, they are sued, threatened and even murdered.

Drax: The Green Energy Scandal exposed

 

A company that has received billions of pounds in green energy subsidies from UK taxpayers is cutting down environmentally important forests, a BBC Panorama investigation has found.

Forests in Canada have been cut down by Drax, a British company that makes wood pellets. It then burns the pellets to make electricity.

Drax says it only uses sawdust and waste wood that the timber industry doesn't want.

China is painting Mountains Green to fool Environmentalists - No, Really

 

The Battle to Save Australia’s Ancient Forests

 

What motivates a doctor or an artist to chain themselves to trees and risk jail time?

Hundreds of ordinary citizens are volunteering in a battle to protect an ancient rainforest in the Australian state of Tasmania. They are determined to stop the construction of a tailings dam by a Chinese mining company, saying it threatens endangered wildlife and 500-year-old trees.

Despite tough new penalties for protesters, they are prepared to break the law for their beliefs.

India: Saving one of the largest storks in the world

The hargila, one of the largest storks in the world, is threatened with extinction. A group of female Indian activists want to prevent that - with weaving, music and dance. They’ve founded the ‘Hargila Army’ to further their cause.

Mangrove forests: How 40 million Australian trees died of thirst

 

In 2015, about 10% of Australia's vast mangrove forests in the Gulf of Carpentaria mysteriously died.

Scientists have now figured out the cause - and warn the forests may struggle to recover in a changing climate.