“If I wanted to be buried so that I was eventually fossilised, for possible discovery in the far future, where would be the best location on Earth to do this?” (Jonathan Wallace, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK) If your aim is to be fossilised after you die, I would suggest that you ask your relatives to sink …
Continue reading ‘A weird question to the New Scientist, plus two answers’ »
The Trump administration has announced it is partnering with drugmaker AstraZeneca for at least 300 million doses of a corona virus vaccine developed by the University of Oxford, and is committing up to $1.2 billion to the effort. As an alumnus of Oxford I am naturally proud that my alma mater is at the forefront of …
Recently, the World Economic Forum launched 1t.org, a plan to plant a trillion trees. Even Donald Trump, who has withdrawn the US from the Paris agreement, has backed the initiative. But can trees store enough carbon to buy us time to act on climate change? A recent paper said 0.9 billion hectares could lock up …
Jeff Bezos is donating $10bn of his personal wealth to help “save Earth”. The Amazon chief executive said he would fund “any effort that offers a real possibility to help preserve and protect the natural world”. (The Week 21 Feb 2020) On this blog I have, for what it’s worth, criticized the richest man in …
The outlook for wildlife would be grim even if the planet were not warming. According to a major report last year, 1 million species could soon be wiped out – a sixth mass extinction. The main cause at present is the loss of habitat, but over this century the changing climate is expected to push …
