Only 3 years left – new study warns the world is running out of time to avoid the worst impacts of climate change: Bad climate news is everywhere. Africa is being hit particularly hard by climate change and extreme weather, impacting lives and livelihoods. We are living in a world that is warming at the …
Young men on South Africa’s urban margins: new book follows their lives over 10 years: South Africa’s young people, aged 15 to 34, who make up more than 50% of the country’s working age population, bear a disproportionate burden of unemployment. They have done so for more than a decade. Of this group, those aged …
Southern Africa’s rangelands do many jobs, from feeding cattle to storing carbon: a review of 60 years of research: South Africa’s rangelands have always had great value for the country. These areas offer more than just grazing for livestock. They provide services like purifying water, storing carbon and conserving biodiversity. The grassland biome (28%), along …
The battle for Khartoum: tracking Sudan’s war over two years: Sudan has been engulfed in brutal conflict since 15 April 2023, when tensions between the country’s two most powerful military factions erupted into civil war. The conflict stems from a long-standing power struggle over military control and integration. Fighting between the Sudanese Armed Forces and …
Dinosaur tracks, made 140 million years ago, have been found for the first time in South Africa’s Western Cape: Guy Plint examines one of the dinosaur tracks, which is above his head. Annemarie Plint, CC BY-NC-ND Dinosaurs have captured people’s imagination ever since their bones and teeth were first scientifically described in 1822 by geologist …
Africa’s elephants have been in dramatic decline for 50 years. What can be done to save them – new study: Surveying elephants is hard, risky work. Dedicated biologists have been doing this challenging task across Africa for decades. Systematic surveying started in the late 1960s but has been sporadic, as access to remote areas takes …
Has finance for green industry had an impact in Africa? What’s happened in 41 countries over 20 years: The African continent finds itself in a predicament. Advanced economies in the rest of the world developed through industrialisation: their economies transformed from mainly agricultural to industrial. This involved burning fossil fuels like coal, generating greenhouse gas …
Early years funding boost: why the UK government is prioritising getting children school ready: Robert Kneschke/Shutterstock The UK government is putting money into early years education in England. A funding boost of £75 million is intended to increase the number of staff and places for children in nurseries. The pupil premium for early years is …
Fifty years after the discovery of Lucy, it’s time to ‘decolonise paleoanthropology’ says leading Ethiopian fossil expert – podcast: On November 24 1974, renowned American paleoanthropologist Donald Johanson spotted “a piece of elbow with humanlike anatomy” poking out of a rocky hillside in northern Ethiopia. It was the first fossil of a partial skeleton belonging …
Ancient human DNA from a South African rock shelter sheds light on 10,000 years of history: Oakhurst rock shelter is an archaeological site near the town of George on the southern coast of South Africa. It is set into a sandstone cliff above a stream in a valley forested by towering old yellowwood trees. Archaeologists …
The Years: an audacious adaptation of Annie Ernaux’s masterpiece of memoir and sociology: Eline Arbo’s production of The Years at London’s Almeida Theatre is a rare triumph. First adapted into Dutch and premiered in Amsterdam in 2022, the play breathes theatrical life into the Nobel-winning writer Annie Ernaux’s masterpiece of the same name, delineating a …
Inside the political struggle at the IPCC that will determine the next six years of climate science: rafapress / shutterstock The UN’s climate science advisory group, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), is currently meeting in Bulgaria to decide on a timeline for its next “cycle” of reports over the rest of this decade. …
South Africa’s media have done good work with 30 years of freedom but need more diversity: In 1992, two years before the end of apartheid, Nelson Mandela bemoaned the state of South Africa’s print media. He said the media’s domination by middle class males from the minority white population posed the biggest threat to freedom …
What happened to Nelson Mandela’s South Africa? A new podcast series marks 30 years of post-apartheid democracy: When Nelson Mandela stood in front of the Union Buildings in Pretoria in May 1994 as South Africa’s first democratically elected president, my country was brimming with optimism for its post-apartheid future. I was there and relieved at …
Earth’s early evolution: fresh insights from rocks formed 3.5 billion years ago: The Barberton Makhonjwa Mountains look peaceful today – but 3.5 billion years ago the earth there was roiled by volcanoes. Instinctively RDH/Shutterstock Our Earth is around 4.5 billion years old. Way back in its earliest years, vast oceans dominated. There were frequent volcanic …
Israel-Egypt peace treaty has stood the test of time over 45 years: expert explains its significance: The peace agreement between Egypt and Israel, signed in 1979 to end hostilities and normalise relations between them, turns 45 on 26 March. The Conversation Africa asked Ofir Winter, a senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies, …
How long did Neanderthals and modern humans co-exist in Europe? Evidence is growing it may have been at least 10,000 years: A human bone fragment from the new excavations at Ranis in Germany. Tim Schüler TLDA. , CC BY-ND The idea that two different human species, Homo sapiens (us) and Neanderthals, co-existed in western Eurasia …
Thirty years of rural health research: South Africa’s Agincourt studies offer unique insights: In 1992 a group of academics from the University of the Witwatersrand introduced a health and socio-demographic surveillance system in remote, rural South Africa to track and understand health and wellbeing in these environments. This initiative built on pioneering work by a …