Foul-smelling ginkgo seeds wreak havoc after city plants female tree in error

When the borough of Saint-Léonard planted a ginkgo tree on Dino Delisi’s lawn, he liked the distinctive, fan-shaped leaves and its bright yellow colour in the fall. But his early admiration for the tree is long gone. About five years ago, he noticed what looked like gumball-sized fruit growing on the branches and each season, … Read more

Countries agree to deal at COP28 climate summit

COP28 president Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber speaks during the Transforming Food Systems in the Face of Climate Change event on the sidelines of the COP28 climate summit at Dubai Expo on December 1, 2023. Ludovic Marin | Afp | Getty Images Government ministers representing nearly 200 countries on Wednesday agreed to a deal that calls … Read more

Anger and frustration as COP28 draft text omits fossil fuel phaseout

COP28 President Sultan al-Jaber speaks to the media at the U.N. climate conference on Dec. 10, 2023 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Sean Gallup | Getty Images News | Getty Images DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The draft text for a COP28 climate deal that does not include the phasing out of fossil fuels has … Read more

Bill Gates warns the world is likely to overshoot 2 degrees of warming

Bill Gates arrives for a press conference to launch the Global Polio Eradication Initiative at the European Commission’s Berlaymont headquarters in Brussels on October 11, 2023. Simon Wohlfahrt | Afp | Getty Images Dubai, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES — Billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates on Friday said the world is likely to overshoot a critical temperature threshold … Read more

Ships could capture energy from waves by imitating whales

In an effort to reduce the environmental impact of commercial ships, a group of U.K. researchers has scoured through the research into a unique technology that imitates the action of a whale’s tail to help propel ships and reduce fuel consumption. The findings of the review-study from Cranfield University, published in the journal Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews … Read more

Researchers used Hurricane Larry to prove ocean microplastics can be swept inland as air pollution

As Hurricane Larry lashed Newfoundland in 2021, university students from Halifax headed to a rural area in its track to find out whether the ocean might whip microplastics up into the atmosphere then transport them by air to otherwise pristine communities. The results, you could say, blew their socks off. “It was such, like, an astonishing result that we … Read more