Water detective Dr Leon Barron studies London’s wastewater, analysing it in all its chemical, narcotic, polluted glory, before and after treatment. Amazingly, he still drinks the stuff from the tapIf you live in London, Dr Leon Barron knows what you’re up to. He knows what prescribed drugs you’re on – painkillers, antidepressants, antipsychotics or...

Organisers of this year’s environmental conference hope cooperation on green issues could help ease global tensions This year’s Cop29 UN climate summit will be the first “Cop of peace”, focusing on the prevention of future climate-fuelled conflicts and using international cooperation on green issues to help heal existing tensions, according to plans...

Athletics Kenya is worried about how the climate might shape the future of its country, let alone its sport. And it is not aloneThe drive from the tiny Eldoret airport to the town of Iten in the south-west corner of Kenya takes about an hour. It’s a winding unlit road with few road signs: you need to know where you’re going to get there. The town’s...

Governments issue health warnings as schools shut and crops fail, with fears that worse is to come as heatwave tightens gripExtreme heat has gripped much of south and south-east Asia over recent weeks, killing dozens of people, forcing millions of students to miss school and destroying crops.Both the Philippines and Bangladesh shut schools due to the...

Effects of heat are expected to worsen after bill prohibiting municipalities from enacting shade and water protection is passedFor Javier Torres and other workers whose jobs are conducted outdoors in south Florida, the heat is unavoidable. A new law recently signed by Ron DeSantis, Florida’s Republican governor, that prohibits any municipalities in...

They can communicate with each other about threats, summon help from predatory killers – and some can even count – but does this mean plants are conscious?Last month, at a gathering at New York University, a group of prominent biologists and philosophers widened the perimeter of a very exclusive club. They declared that there is “a realistic possibility”...