Agriculture needs to evolve to meet a growing population and calorie intake. It is predicted that production will need to increase by 60% by 2050. The challenge is heightened by the need to also decrease resource use. For example excessive irrigation lowers the water table, effectively making water a non-renewable…
Agriculture is a cornerstone of human society. With continued increases in efficiency and output, it has been able to sustain an ever-growing population. Previously, efficiency boosts came from selective breeding, pesticides and notably fertiliser. Now the main space for improvements is digital technology.
Pesticides
Hidden hunger can be defined as a micronutrient deficiency, particularly in iodine, iron, zinc and vitamin A (Harding et al., 2017). Approximately ⅓ of the population suffers from a form of malnutrition (Amoroso, 2018), hidden hunger commonly overlaps with other dietary diseases, such as obesity. …
Motorised transport in cities has a number of problems associated with it, from congestion to increased danger to residents and most notably air pollution. Transport being the greatest contributor to urban air pollution (Rajé et al., 2018). While the health effects of traffic is clear, there is also an economic…
Modern cities face a number of problems, from dangerous levels of air pollution to increasing demands for affordable housing. These problems will only become more pressing as 68% of the global population will be urban by 2050. …
2019 has been a great year for the UK’s energy sector, as more energy is being produced from carbon zero sources (47.9%) than fossil fuels (46.7%). This is the first time that it has been the case since the industrial revolution. The remaining 5.4% …
Agriculture is essential to our existence and the sector is coming under increasing pressure to reduce its environmental impact. However, with the population increasing it will be under greater stress than ever before. We will need to feed 9 billion by 2050, with 70% of that in urban areas (Al-Chalabi…
Fast fashion, an environmental crisis or the democratisation of fashion? With Boohoo offering a mini dress for £2.85 and Missguided a bikini for just £1 have we finally hit rock bottom?
For years stores such as Primark, Zara and H&M have offered new designs each month, going from 4 seasons…
David Sobel, an American educational writer, is famous for his quote “ no tragedies before grade 4 (9 years old)”. This is a thought that can be aptly applied to climate change education. It is of course vital that climate change becomes a part of the curriculum the world over…
The agricultural sector accounts for approximately 12% of global emissions, but in lower income countries it can account for over 50% of national emissions. Thankfully, the agricultural sector’s emissions have decreased by 20% between 1990 and 2015. The majority of these reductions have come from technological adaptations to increase the…
