Focus on Arts and Ecology

A new global study of lakes shows water levels falling and finds a global warming fingerprint.By Bob Berwyn, May 18, 2023Aerial view of an abandoned boat on a desert at the site of former Lake Poopó, near Punaca Tinta Maria, Bolivia, taken on October 15, 2022. Credit: Martín Silva/AFP via Getty ImagesWater storage in many of the world’s biggest lakes has declined sharply in the last 30 years, according to a new study, with a cumulative

By Saloni Sachdeva Michael,  May 15, 2023With the mercury rising in India's capital, New Delhi, electricity demand is touching new heights. The state government expects peak demand to touch 8,000 megawatts (MW) by June or July 2023, beating last year's record high of 7,695MW by about 4%. The burning of fossil fuels, which fire power plants that supply nearly two-thirds of this need, adds to Delhi’s deteriorating air quality

May 19, 2023 The three taikonauts aboard China's Tiangong space station will have company soon. The China Manned Space Agency says the Shenzhou-16 spaceship will bring a fresh three-person crew to replace them this month. The Shenzhou-16 ship is already at the launch site. This will be the fifth crewed mission to the space station. The Shenzhou-16 taikonauts will stay aboard for six months before the Shenzhou-17 crew replaces them

May 19, 2023 China’s special representative for Eurasian affairs, Li Hui, made a two-day visit to Ukraine this week in an attempt to build trust and create conditions for peace talks. Li met with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as well as Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba. In a statement issued by the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Li said, “There is no panacea to resolve the crisis.” Li also emphasized the importance of the 12-point

May 19, 2023 Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday sent a congratulatory message to King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud of Saudi Arabia, the rotating president of the Council of the Arab League, on the 32nd Arab League summit in Jeddah. At the summit, Syria's President Bashar al-Assad was welcomed back after being cut off from most of the Arab community for over 12 years. Though the warming ties may signal a new approach to dealing

May 19, 2023 China and the five nations of Central Asia have charted a new blueprint for relations at a milestone summit in Xi'an. It was no coincidence that the northwestern Chinese city was chosen to host the two-day meeting. More than 2,100 years ago, a Han Dynasty envoy set off from Chang'an, now Xi'an, to open the door to exchanges between China and the people to its west. Chinese President Xi Jinping was joined by Kazakh President

 This big China environmental story, 12–18 MayVarious regions of China are experiencing abnormal weather this month, including extreme heat, rainfall and drought.   In some parts of the country, these conditions have followed one another in quick succession, in what are known as “compound events”.   On 6 May, the temperature exceeded 41C in the Changjiang and Lingao counties of Hainan, China’s southernmost island, according

With bird flu spreading globally, some argue fur farming should be abolished to impede transmission to humans. By Catherine Early, May 16, 2023European mink being raised for fur on a farm in Lithuania. The virus that caused Covid-19 spread from humans to farmed mink, where it mutated, and then back to humans. (Image: Algimantas Barzdzius / Alamy)Bird flu, or H5N1, has scientists and conservationists rattled. The current variant, which has

By Keith Anthony S. Fabro, May 15, 2023 After their town was devastated by floods in 2004, residents of Kiday in the Philippines shifted to organic methods when rebuilding their farms.Today, the Kiday Community Farmers’ Association practices agroecology and agroforestry, maintaining communal plots as well as private gardens.The association receives nonprofit support, but government funding continues to prioritize conventional