Environment

Tondoro Health Centre experiences flooding following heavy thunderstorm

The Tondoro Health Centre in the Kavango West Region reportedly experienced flooding following a heavy thunderstorm on Wednesday. The Ministry of Health and Social Services' Executive Director (ED), Ben Nangombe, in a media statement issued on Thursday said no major damage to medical equipment or clinical supplies was recorded. 'In our assessment, the rainwater that flooded the health centre originated from a water pool that had formed along the […]

19 January, 2024

Africa

Senegal’s pink lake is on the verge of disappearing – how to protect it

By El hadji Sow, Université Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar Lake Retba, better known as Lac Rose (the Pink Lake), is located around 35km from the city of Dakar, Senegal. It sits in a depression with a shoreline 6.5 metres below sea level. The lake is isolated from the sea by about 1km of sand dunes. Its fresh water comes from the seasonal water table in the dunes, which […]

18 January, 2024

Africa

Mozambique’s cyclone flooding was devastating to animals – we studied how body size affected survival

By Jason P. Marshal, University of the Witwatersrand and Francesca Parrini, University of the Witwatersrand Anyone who watches the news will have seen the devastation that tropical cyclones can cause when they reach land, with very strong winds, high rainfall and flooding. A cyclone like this, Idai, moved over Gorongosa National Park in central Mozambique in March 2019. At that time, it was the deadliest storm in Africa. Rainfall […]

18 January, 2024

Environment

Agricultural nitrogen pollution is global threat, but circular solutions await

By Claire Asher via MongaBay As the world grapples with escalating climate change, policymakers remain laser-focused on CO2, with humanity striving to decarbonize energy systems, capture carbon, issue carbon credits, and plant millions of trees to absorb emissions. But carbon dioxide is just one of several powerful greenhouse gases destabilizing the global climate, and just one of the human-produced pollutants severely impacting the natural world and threatening to push Earth out […]

18 January, 2024

Environment

Elton John achieves EGOT status with Emmy win

Music icon Elton John has become the 19th person to become an EGOT, winning all four major entertainment awards: an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony. He secured EGOT status when his Disney Plus special, Elton John Live: Farewell from Dodger Stadium, took home the award for outstanding variety special at the 75th Emmy Awards. The Smithsonian Magazine reports that he now has two Oscars, five Grammys, one […]

17 January, 2024

Environment

An ancient system that could bring water to dry areas

By Gaathier Mahed, Nelson Mandela University Some of Africa’s dry areas face serious water shortages due to minimal rainfall. An ancient system of drawing water from aquifers, the “qanat system”, could help. Gaathier Mahed, an environmental scientist and expert on the management of groundwater, has studied the feasibility of these systems. He tells us more. How does the qanat system work? There are bodies of water underground known as […]

17 January, 2024

Environment

Healthy food is hard to come by in Cape Town’s poorer areas: how community gardens can fix that

Community gardens can be a boon for residents. Nattrass/Getty Images Tinashe P. Kanosvamhira, University of the Western Cape In 1950, as part of the Group Areas Act, South Africa’s apartheid government banished people of colour to outlying areas, away from central business districts. The Cape Flats are one such area, sprawling to the east of central Cape Town. Today the legacy of apartheid spatial planning endures. The area is home […]

16 January, 2024

Environment

Unusual ancient elephant tracks had our team of fossil experts stumped – how we solved the mystery

Elephants communicate underground by generating seismic waves. Anadolu Agency Charles Helm, Nelson Mandela University Over the past 15 years, through our scientific study of tracks and traces, we have identified more than 350 fossil vertebrate tracksites from South Africa’s Cape south coast. Most are found in cemented sand dunes, called aeolianites, and all are from the Pleistocene Epoch, ranging in age from about 35,000 to 400,000 years. During that time […]

16 January, 2024

Environment

Unmasking the environmental impact of tires

By bhishyant Kidangoor and Sandy Watt via MongaBay Ever since tires were invented, they have rolled into our lives and changed the way we live. From cushioning wheels, one of humanity’s greatest inventions, to moving us around safely, tires have essentially reshaped how we function. The tremendous applications, however, come at an expense. Right from when raw materials are sourced to produce tires up until the time they end up in […]

15 January, 2024