How have plants adapted over centuries or millennia to survive and recover from human interference? David Moreno-Mateos and his team are analysing tree species in Brazil’s Amazon Rainforest to find out, and to help inform and improve future restoration practice.
News

Why ‘de-extinct’ dire wolves are a Trojan horse to hide humanity’s destruction of nature
In a thought-provoking feature for The Conversation, Dr Rich Grenyer, Associate Professor in Biodiversity and Biogeography, examines the ethical and ecological concerns surrounding de-extinction, arguing that the allure of reviving species like dire wolves risks diverting attention from the ongoing human-driven destruction of the natural world.
Electric bikes could help people return to work
The BBC covers a new report from CREDS UK, led by Nick Eyre, exploring how electric bikes can help people get to work safely, and in an environmentally and economically sustainable way, during coronavirus.

Deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon surges as criminals exploit the COVID-19 pandemic and destroy record amounts of endangered rainforest
Deforestation of the Amazon has soared in recent months as South America battles the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Last month, an area almost four times the size of Paris was destroyed as 156 square miles of rainforest wilderness was razed, reports the Daily Mail, with comment from Erika Berenguer, researcher in the ECI Ecosystems group.

Halve the farmland, save nature, feed the world
Scientists have demonstrated that humans could restore roughly half the planet as a natural home for all wildlife, while at the same time feeding a growing population and limiting climate change. The new Nature Sustainability paper is from Michael Obersteiner, incoming director at the ECI.

More than a blame game
Assessing how climate change affects extreme weather can improve climate science itself. This article in The conversation from Fredi Otto, acting director of the ECI, explains rapid attribution science and how it helps us to see, understand and better predict the impacts of global warming.

Oxford's 'JoyMeter' app captures impact of lockdown on energy consumption
A team of researchers at the ECI have released a survey app dedicated to gathering data on UK households' energy usage during the COVID-19 crisis. The project is led by Philip Grunwald, the Deputy Director of Energy research at the ECI.

Destination: green airline bailouts
The impacts of COVID-19 on aviation are only just beginning to be felt. In this article for The Conversation, Professor Cameron Hepburn and Brian Callaghan look at how governments could use bailouts to encourage innovation and get something for all of us, and the climate, in return.

Environmental activism goes digital in lockdown... but could it change the movement for good?
April 22 marked the 50th anniversary of the first Earth Day, and a few days later a global school strike was being organised by Fridays for Future. But after months of careful planning, both events were halted by the COVID-19 pandemic - so they went online instead. In this article for The Conversation, William Finnegan looks at the future of environmental activism.

Meteorologists say 2020 on course to be hottest year since records began
Although the global lockdown due to coronavirus has lowered emissions, scientists including Doctor Karsten Haustein say that longer-term changes are needed, but that the pandemic could be a catalyst for more sustainable means of living.

Three charts that show where the coronavirus death rate is heading
Three graphs of mortality data tell the story of the direction the UK and the world are heading in after the peak of the coronavirus outbreak. Prof Danny Dorling tries to paint a clearer picture of the direction in which we are heading in an article for The Conversation.

Amsterdam to embrace 'doughnut' model to mend post-coronavirus economy
The 'doughnut' economic model developed by Kate Raworth, researcher and advisory board member at the Environmental Change Institute, has been adopted by Amsterdam as the guiding policy to rebuild and mend the economy post-coronavirus.
