Environment

Pirry Leung, who had previously worked at a food-waste recycling facility, founded FurryGreen – an upcycling startup in 2020, hoping to turn leftover but unspoiled ingredients into pet food. More than 3,600 tons of food waste is discarded every day in Hong Kong, according to the Environmental Protection Department.

Can pointing giant loudspeakers to the sky help regions recover from a drought? The answer may be yes.  A new study out of Tsinghua University in Beijing found that sending powerful, low-frequency sound waves into the sky may have triggered an increase in rainfall on the Tibetan Plateau. The researchers said they recorded increases in rainfall of up to 17% by pointing a giant loudspeaker at the sky.  The sound waves also appear to be safe for the environment, but scientists said the experiment would need to be replicated many times to confirm if the technology works.  The team led by Professor Wang Guangqian from the university’s State Key Laboratory of Hydro-science and Engineering, said i

These ice bubbles in the Sayram Lake in northwestern China's Xinjiang region have become a tourist attraction as many flocked to see the rare phenomenon.

More than 1,000 people in China have signed a petition calling for the cancellation of a plan to build a dam on Poyang Lake, the country’s largest freshwater lake.  The people said the dam would take a significant toll on endangered migratory birds and threaten the rare Yangtze finless porpoise.  In an open letter to authorities in the Jiangxi province last week, Let Birds Fly, a Hangzhou-based environmental group, said it would be “extremely irresponsible” of the government to approve Poyang Lake project. “It goes against China’s efforts of to conserve the environment … It would do irreversible [damage] to our ecosystem,” the signatories said in the letter. The letter came after the govern

The Chinese operator of KFC and Pizza Hut wants to start using paper straws and biodegradable packaging to cut plastic usage by almost one third over the next five years. Yum China Holdings, one of China’s largest restaurant operators, intends to phase out non-degradable plastic bags and cutlery at all its KFC restaurants in mainland China by the end of 2025 and eliminate non-degradable bags from its Pizza Hut stores by the end of 2022. The overall aim is to achieve a 30% reduction in non-degradable plastic packaging by weight via a series of initiatives. “As a result of these initiatives, Yum China expects a reduction of approximately 8,000 tons in non-degradable plastics annually starting

A rescue team in southwestern China’s Chongqing uses a flame-throwing drone to burn wasp nests in trees.

An ice disc was found spinning on the surface of the Taoer River in Ulanhot city of north China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region, a result of extremely cold conditions. It’s a rare natural phenomenon that normally appears in Canada or the North Pole.

Zhou Qingfeng has become a sensation on Chinese social media for posting time-lapse videos of fungi and mushrooms. The 30-year-old microplant enthusiast spends days camping in remote areas to get closer to the tiny organisms that fascinate her. Zhou has even rented a house deep in the woods to get closer to nature and spend more time observing and capturing images of the organisms to post online.  

The world is returning full circle to the electric car, as concerns about gaseous emissions and their impact on climate change compel global governments to find alternatives to gas-guzzlers. Iowa was the global hub for electric vehicles more than a century ago, with more than 30,000 horseless carriages produced in Des Moines at the industry’s peak in 1912. William Morrison, a Scottish immigrant and chemist, had invented a self-powered electric carriage – known as the auto-mobile – using lead-acid battery cells that could carry 12 passengers at a top speed of 20 miles per hour for 50 miles (80km) before recharging. In the century since, vehicles running on oil-guzzling internal combustion eng

Pangolins continue to face the threat of extinction despite tightened protections on the wildlife trade put in place by China and many Southeast Asian countries. During the United Nations Summit on Biodiversity on September 30, 2020, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson drew attention to the plight of the scaly mammal in a call for more action to save the species.