Eight wonders of the world
This roundup of The Conversation’s environment coverage was first published in our award-winning weekly climate action newsletter, Imagine.
Every scalable solution has to start somewhere small. With a spark of an idea, an anomaly during an experiment or, perhaps, an empty seashell on an Irish beach.
Juan Diego Rodriguez-Blanco at Trinity College Dublin has found a clever use for discarded oyster shells – a byproduct of the shellfish industry. Remarkably, these shells can capture rare earth elements from water and lock them into new minerals. Rare earth elements are an essential ingredient for the green transition – they are used to make high-performance magnets used in wind turbines and electric cars, for example. So capturing these “vitamins of modern industry” by crystallising them into the calcium carbonate of the shell (rather than just sticking or adsorbing to it) is a reliable way to recover these valuable resources for future use.
Of course, this tech is in its infancy but it just goes to show, there are so many hidden surprises within nature that might, on the surface, look like worthless waste.
The Conversation is made up of a dozen English-speaking editions plus various non-English ones, including French, Spanish and Indonesian. One of the most joyful parts of my job is coordinating regular meetings for the environment editors at each edition to share ideas, develop collaborations and support each other.
Together, we cover the planet’s biggest story – the climate crisis. This beat can sometimes feel relentless. But uncovering scientific discoveries, breakthroughs and insights from academics all over the world gives me hope. Here, my global colleagues share some of their favourite – and most promising – stories from recent weeks.
Knowing what actually works
Some climate policies really do make a difference. Now, we know which ones says Lucía Caballero, Environment and Energy Editor at The Conversation Spain.
Governments deploy dozens of different policies simultaneously, such as carbon taxes, renewable energy subsidies and emissions standards, but which ones are the most effective? Evaluating and comparing the results of climate strategies actually presents a major challenge for researchers and policymakers.
After analysing 1,737 climate policies across 40 countries over 32 years, scientists at the universities of Barcelona, Ludwig Maximilian of Munich, Lausanne and Oslo, have identified 28 measures that consistently reduce emissions. Their discovery will enable governments to focus on really effective strategies and avoid wasting resources, making climate action more successful.
Read more: Which climate policies actually make a difference? Our new analysis has the answer
Securing water supplies
In the western US, seven states rely on water from the mighty Colorado River, but a long-running drought and rising water demand have left reservoirs near record lows and cities’ water supplies at risk. Cities have been scrambling to lower their water use and finding creative solutions to encourage residents to make cuts, from low-flow shower heads to tearing out lawns and replacing them with xeriscaping (an approach to gardening and landscaping that reduces the need for irrigation). Las Vegas, a fast-growing city in the desert, has cut its per-capita water use by nearly 60% in the past two decades with steps like those. But as temperatures rise and the snowpack that feeds the river diminishes, we’ve wondered, can conservation alone be enough?
Environmental scientists Renee Obringer of Penn State and Dave White of Arizona State University recently ran computer models to understand what three cities – Las Vegas, Phoenix and Denver – will face in the future and how each city’s climate solutions for a dwindling water supply will hold up.
Stacy Morford, Senior Environment, Climate and Energy Editor at The Conversation US, says these results are eye-opening. This research suggests the region needs to start thinking beyond just conservation to much bigger solutions, the kind that Obringer and White describe that take years to build.
Anna Weekes, Environment and Energy Editor at The Conversation Africa, particularly loved a story highlighting another innovative way to tackle drying up water supplies. This time in South Africa’s dry Karoo desert.
Groundwater pumped from boreholes is the only water supply for many small towns. But as the climate warms and rain falls later in the year, aquifers aren’t replenishing enough to meet the demand for water. Surina Esterhuyse, Fanus Fourie and Danita Hohne are hydrologists and groundwater scientists who’ve designed and built low-cost aquifer recharge systems, drilling infiltration boreholes through hardened clay in dry river beds so that when it finally rains, the war goes straight into the aquifer instead of flowing away across the surface.
In the rural Karoo towns of Carnarvon, Vanwyksvlei, Williston, Sutherland and Calvinia, these recharge systems have been a huge success. They’re affordable and easy to implement at a small scale and offer a practical, scalable way to strengthen drought resilience and secure water supplies for vulnerable communities.
Buds, butterflies and bees
Gabrielle Maréchaux, Environment and Energy Journalist at The Conversation France loves a story about a free smartphone app called PlantNet. This “shazam” for plants, which is available on both iOS and Android, covers 85,000 species out of an estimated 400,000.
It’s popular among hikers and botanical enthusiasts. But what’s less well known is that it was developed by scientists and also helps with research by tracking abundance and locations of particular flowers, fruit, twigs and bark. It’s also a vital tool for monitoring the spread of invasive or “alien” non-native species that can disrupt ecosystems.
Meanwhile, butterflies, with their captivating patterns and colours, don’t always receive the attention they deserve, according to Ibrahim Daair, Environment and Energy Editor at The Conversation Canada. They are a fundamental part of global ecosystems, but insects have been declining at alarming rates in many places. Now, a group of researchers is working on developing a global butterfly index to track how environmental changes are affecting butterflies worldwide. They assembled a dataset of 45,000 population trends for over 1,000 butterfly species to help guide conservation and better understand the scale of the biodiversity crisis.
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In 2015, a mining dam in Mariana, in Minas Gerais state, collapsed and released about 55 million cubic meters of toxic waste – crushed rock, water and chemicals left after extracting iron – sending a massive, polluted mudflow downstream. At the time, it was the largest human-made environmental disaster in Brazil. After observing the devastated landscape, Sandra Moura, a professor at the Federal University of Ouro Preto, discovered a plant capable of accelerating the recovery process in the areas affected by the disaster.
But simply recovering the landscapes was not enough, and the professor decided to create a project to assist the affected communities by using beekeeping as a reforestation and income-generating strategy.
This story is featured in one of the episodes of the podcast Voices from the South produced by The Conversation Brazil, about solutions to the environmental problems facing Brazil and Australia.
While visiting the project’s apiary, Luciana Julião, Journalist and Audiovisual Producer at The Conversation Brazil, met incredible people, all with very diverse specialisms, who are working together in the search for possible ways to save the planet.
The coolest library on Earth
And finally, Sarah Sermondadaz, Head of Environment and Energy at The Conversation France, loved learning about first ice core library in Antarctica, designed to preserve humanity’s “climate memory”. With an average temperature of -50°C, Antarctica’s first-ever 100% natural sanctuary protects endangered ice cores from global warming. On January 14 2026, the coolest library on Earth was inaugurated at the Concordia station, Antarctica. Samples from glaciers rescued worldwide are now beginning to be stored there for safekeeping.