Environment

The soil beneath our feet is a huge carbon bank storing up to approximately three times more carbon than the entire atmosphere. That makes it a significant player in the future of our climate. If even a small fraction of the carbon escapes into the air as carbon dioxide, it could accelerate planetary heating. But what determines whether the carbon stays in the ground or escapes? According to new research published in the journal Nature Climate Change, water is the deciding factor. The wetter the soil, the more carbon stays in the ground.

Most Swedish forests are so-called boreal forests. This type of coniferous woodland ecosystem encompasses most of the northern regions of the planet. These relatively cold regions have historically had low populations. Here, large-scale use of forests began relatively late.

Earlier this month, our Deputy Director Lauren Baker joined a remarkable convening of agroecological researchers, practitioners, and funders organized by Global Alliance member, the McKnight Foundation. Together, they explored how grounded agroecological research can shape policy, unlock better financing, and shift the narratives driving our food systems.

A community garden on Tucson's northside has been helping feed local families for more than 15 years — and organizers say it can keep growing and fighting food insecurity for years to come. The Keeling Community Garden, home to 16 families growing food for themselves and their neighbors, is expanding with a new pollinator garden and additional plots. Nonprofits across the city help keep the garden thriving.

We greet the first day of the new season with the spring equinox, but what is it, exactly? And why does the first day of spring change? We explain.

For decades, farmers had been attacking and destroying Guarani villages, installing huge cattle ranches and corn, sugarcane and soya plantations on stolen Indigenous land and gunning down Guarani people if they resisted and tried to re-occupy their ancestral home. And for decades, the gunmen did this in the shadows, largely unchecked by the authorities and ignored by the world’s media.