The Southern Ocean, key to Earth's environmental system, is threatened by climate change. A new paper in Science by Dr Catarina Frazão Santos, Dr Lisa Wedding, and colleagues, details how climate-smart marine spatial planning can support Antarctic seascapes, with implications for the global ocean and human wellbeing.
News
Going freelance
A study from Zurich and the Smith School on agile workforce has found that 38 percent of respondents in Malaysia who are currently in full-time employment are looking to enter the gig economy in the next 12 months. Globally, an average of 20 percent of the workforce plan to go freelance.
Do Carbon Offsets Really Work? It Depends on the Details
Purchasing carbon offsets "is clearly better than doing nothing," Cameron Hepburn tells Wired. But key considerations include the need for companies to already be reducing emissions and assurance that offsets aren't replacing other actions.
A brief history of electric cars
The idea that electric vehicles, or 'EVs', are new is thoroughly misguided. In a video for The Times, Tim Schwanen explains the history of the EV, from its birth in the early 1800s through to the climate emergency today, being touted "an important part of the future of urban mobility". However, he explains, to make our transport systems truly sustainable "we will need to move away from owned vehicles towards walking, cycling and public transport".
Rewilding the Arctic could stop permafrost thaw and reduce climate change risks
A new paper from the School of Geography and the Environment, and the Environmental Change Institute, suggests that wide-scale introduction of large herbivores to the Arctic tundra could be an economically viable way of restoring the 'mammoth steppe' grassland ecosystem and mitigating global warming.
Finding the Heads: Oxford's mystery statues
Central Oxford is guarded by statues of 17 unknown figures. What is the history behind the mysterious Oxford heads, scattered across the city? Professor Heather Viles and Dr Katrin Wilhelm explore who they are and how they came to be here, in this short video.
The UN climate talks ended in deadlock. Is this really the best the world can manage?
Opinion piece in the Guardian on the disappointing outcome of COP25 from journalist Aruna Chandrasekhar, currently on the MSc in Environmental Change Management. "But dysfunctional as they are, COPs are perhaps the only international legal forum that are partly open to observers to witness geopolitics and global call-out culture first-hand. And it's those witnesses - all of us - who must apply the pressure," writes Aruna.