In a Netherlands garden blooms a rare plant with a tall, phallic shape. It’s known as the “penis plant,” and this is only the third time the species has flowered in Europe since 1997, according to the University of Leiden’s botanical garden, Leiden Hortus Botanicus. The six-year-old penis plant — the scientific name for which…… MORE
Human activity and climate change-fueled disasters have turned 10 of the planet’s internationally recognized forests, also known as World Heritage sites, from carbon absorbers into carbon emitters, researchers have found. The report from UNESCO found these sites can absorb approximately 190 million tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere each year — roughly half the…… MORE
More than 12 million deaths all over the world are associated with environmental risk factors every year, said Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) Assistant Director Jarbas Barbosa. At PAHO’s weekly press briefing on Wednesday, Barbosa highlighted how environment and health are intertwined, ahead of the UN climate summit, COP26. The UN Environment Programme reported this…… MORE
Tusks are a striking feature of many animals — elephants, hippos, warthogs, walruses — and are often sought-after by humans. But no birds, fish or reptiles today sport this extreme and ever-growing bit of anatomy. Only mammals do, even though they weren’t the first tusked creatures. It is an ancient trait that predates dinosaurs, a…… MORE
A US judge has set a deadline of mid-July next year for Prince Andrew to answer questions under oath in the civil sex assault case against him. According to a US court document dated October 25, Judge Lewis A. Kaplan set July 14 as the deadline for the submission of all evidence including a potential…… MORE
Nearly 200 countries have pledged to cut greenhouse gas emissions to prevent the worst consequences of the climate crisis, but there is still a huge gap between what’s been promised and what scientists say is needed, according to a report by the UN Environment Programme. With just five days left until leaders meet at the…… MORE
Scientists may have detected signs of a planet transiting a star outside of the Milky Way, in what could be the first planet ever to be discovered outside our galaxy. The possible exoplanet was discovered in the Whirlpool Galaxy — the spiral galaxy Messier 51 (M51) — by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, NASA said in…… MORE
An eerie silence lingers over Hospital Universitaire de la Paix in the Delmas neighborhood of Port-au-Prince. Footsteps echo through empty hallways. The normal beeps and whirs of hospital equipment are absent. The organized chaos of a city emergency room is replaced by empty chairs strung with caution tape. The stillness is pierced only by the…… MORE
If animals could be nominated for Grammys, these lemurs could win. That’s because they’ve got rhythm. The Indri indri, a species of lemur in Madagascar, is one of a few animal species with rhythm, according to a study published Monday in Current Biology. The indri is the largest living lemur species and the only one…… MORE
The concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere has once again reached record highs, according to a UN report published Monday, putting the planet on course for warming that far exceeds critical limits to stave off catastrophic climate change. The concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) in 2020 was 149% higher than levels before industrialization, hitting…… MORE
