Insuring an electric car in the UAE has become much more costly, after last year’s record floods, but industry experts believe the future remains bright for the vehicle segment as sales increase. Insurancemarket.ae, one of the country’s leading providers, said insuring an electric vehicle on average costs 72 per cent more on average than a petrol or diesel-powered […]
Researchers have demonstrated a new eco-friendly plastic that decomposes in deep ocean conditions. In a deep-sea experiment, the microbially synthesized poly(d-lactate-co-3-hydroxybutyrate) (LAHB) biodegraded, while conventional plastics such as a representative bio-based polylactide (PLA) persisted. Submerged 855 meters (~2,800 feet) underwater, LAHB films lost over 80% of their mass after 13 months as microbial biofilms actively […]
Last month was the third-hottest July on record, prompting warnings from climate experts over the stark dangers of searing summer heatwaves across the globe. Scorching temperatures reached 1.25°C above pre-industrial levels, lower only than the two hottest July’s in Earth in the previous two years. The latest report from EU’s climate watchdog Copernicus has shown that the planet’s […]
New findings from studying over two decades of satellite observations reveal that the Earth’s continents have experienced unprecedented freshwater loss since 2002, driven by climate change, unsustainable groundwater use and extreme droughts. The study, led by Arizona State University and published on July 25 in Science Advances, highlights the emergence of four continental-scale “mega-drying” regions, all located in […]
Syria’s drought crisis is deepening in 2025, marked not only by low rain but by a systemic unravelling of the country’s water cycle, experts have found. A new report released by the Mercy Corps Syria Crisis Analysis Team said that in many regions of the country, “water shortages are becoming longer, more severe and increasingly […]
Extreme heat, deadly floods and widespread wildfires hit Europe in July, despite the end of a record-breaking global temperature streak. This July was the third warmest on record globally, according to the latest data from the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S). It was 0.27°C cooler than the warmest July in 2023 and 0.23°C cooler […]
Climate interventions are accelerating in our oceans – but without responsible governance, they could do more harm than good, according to new research. Coral bleaching, rising sea levels, and biodiversity loss are no longer distant threats – they are unfolding now, with profound consequences for marine ecosystems and the communities that depend on them. In […]
In dry, degraded soil, it’s easy to assume life has gone quiet. But underground, a different story unfolds—one of continuous exchange between plant roots and microbial communities that shape each other in subtle but powerful ways. A new paper, co-authored by researchers from American University of Sharjah (AUS) and published in Science, one of the […]
Talks to agree the first global treaty on combating plastic pollution are set to begin on Tuesday, and limiting plastic production is a key point of contention. Dozens of countries, campaign groups and researchers say that legally binding cuts to plastic production, which is running at about 460 million tonnes a year, are the only way to deal […]
The amount of discarded plastic found in dead seabirds in the UAE has been described as “very alarming” by a senior Greenpeace campaigner. Farah Al Hattab, lead plastics campaigner at Greenpeace Mena, said harm to creatures such as seabirds indicated “a much deeper environmental crisis”. The new research, released by Sharjah researchers, reported that about one in eight seabirds […]
