News about climate and sustainability

2024.09.25

Do you feel eco-guilt or eco-shame? Emotions reveal how much we care about the environment

Green choices related to everyday climate, environment and sustainability decisions are influenced by shame and guilt according to a new study from the University of Copenhagen. And the way one feels hinges upon one’s…

Fossil

2024.08.30

Fungus gnat entombed in a 40-million-year-old piece of amber is a rare gem

A Danish amber collector’s find upon a wild North Sea shore in the 1960’s has proved to be of great and surprising significance. After having thoroughly examining the roughly 40-million-year-old piece of amber,…

nature

2024.07.02

Spotted apex predator being pressured by spotted pack hunters – and it's our fault

Leopards, who are already in decline, can’t keep up with hyenas when people are around. As we humans move into the their territories more and more, we are helping to disturb and unbalance ecosystems. This has been shown…

Plastic

2024.06.18

Researchers invent one hundred percent biodegradable "barley plastic"

A biofriendly new material made from barley starch blended with fibre from sugarbeet waste sees the light of day at the University of Copenhagen – a strong material that turns into compost should it end up in nature. In…

Artificial Intelligence

2024.06.12

AI method reveals millions of dead trees hidden among the living before California’s historic 2020 wildfires

University of Copenhagen scientists may have found a new explanation for the California wildfires of 2020. Applying AI to detailed aerial photos, they created a unique dataset detailing mortality down to single trees fo…

sustainability

2024.06.03

Avocados are 'bad' and vegans are ridiculous: How we justify eating too much meat

Those of us who find it difficult to eat less meat for the sake of climate tend to apologize or justify ourselves in social contexts. And… shaming vegans isn’t off limits. This, according to a new University of…

fødevarer

2024.06.03

Greenhouses cover more and more of Earth’s surface

Greenhouse cultivation is booming globally, especially in the Global South – and across one country in particular. This is revealed in a new study by researchers at the University of Copenhagen that deploys detailed…

Ice sheet

2024.05.30

Local bright spot among melting glaciers: 2000 km of Antarctic ice-covered coastline has been stable for 85 years

A whaler's forgotten aerial photos from 1937 have given researchers at the University of Copenhagen the most detailed picture of the ice evolution in East Antarctica to date. The results show that the ice has remained…

sustainability

2024.04.26

Fixin’ to be flexitarian: Scrap fish and invasive species can liven up vegetables

Greening the way we eat needn’t mean going vegetarian. A healthy, more realistic solution is to adopt a flexitarian diet where seafoods add umami to “boring” vegetables. University of Copenhagen gastrophysicist Ole G.…

CLIMATE

2024.04.18

Increased CO2 emissions from world’s tundra surprise researchers

As they warm, Arctic tundra environments will probably release 30% more CO2 than they do today – an increase that is nearly four times more than previously estimated. This is the conclusion of a large international stud…

species

2024.04.12

Iconic savanna mammals face genetic problems due to fences and roads

Wildebeest migrations have become a rarer sight in Africa as humans continue to interrupt their historic migratory routes with roads, fences, cities, livestock and farmland. This has led to genetic decay in those herds…

poverty

2024.04.11

Economist: Tens of billions of dollars in forest products are being overlooked

Are we missing the forest for the trees? More than timber grows in forests – including products worth many tens of billions of dollars. Because these goods go unrecorded in official trade statistics, their economic valu…

Diversified farming

2024.04.05

Major study reports that people and environment both benefit from diversified farming, while bottom lines also thrive

Mixing livestock and crops, integrating flower strips and trees, water and soil conservation and much more: Massive new global study led by the University of Copenhagen and University of Hohenheim, has examined the…

artificial intelligence

2024.04.03

Computer scientists show the way: AI models need not be SO power hungry

The development of AI models is an overlooked climate culprit. Computer scientists at the University of Copenhagen have created a recipe book for designing AI models that use much less energy without compromising…

Green data

2024.03.26

Health data storage has a climate cost. In the future data may be stored in DNA

A lot of energy is required to analyse and store large amounts of data. We may therefore have to take a different approach to data storage in the future. So says a professor Søren Brunak at the University of Copenhagen.

Green medicine

2024.03.26

Waste products could innovate pharmaceutical material design

Research highlights the potential for utilizing molecules extracted from side stream products in food and oil industry in the context of pharmaceutical innovation, showcasing the power of interdisciplinary research in…

Cost-benefit analyses

2024.03.08

Economists: Ecosystems have higher monetary value than previously calculated

Current economic practice systematically underestimates the value of nature, according to an international group of economists. Writing in the journal Science, they propose a new calculation formula.

Methane

2024.02.29

Young researcher makes surprising methane discovery in Yukon glaciers: "Much more widespread than we thought"

Global melting is prying the lid off methane stocks, the extent of which we do not know. A young researcher from University of Copenhagen has discovered high concentrations of the powerful greenhouse gas in meltwater…

Foods of the future

2024.02.27

Scientists use blue-green algae as a surrogate mother for "meat-like" proteins

Researchers from the University of Copenhagen have not only succeeded in using blue-green algae as a surrogate mother for a new protein – they have even coaxed the microalgae to produce "meat fibre-like" protein strands…

Sustainability

2024.02.26

Robots, monitoring and healthy ecosystems could halve pesticide use without hurting productivity

Smarter crop farming that combats weeds, insect pests and plant diseases by integrating modern technologies like AI-based monitoring, robotics, and next-generation biotechnology with healthy and resilient agricultural…