Graeme Gourlay

Desertification: the world is losing healthy land at an astonishing rate

9 December 2023

4 minutes

Data shows at least 100 million hectares of healthy land is lost each year to desertification, drought and land degradation. Can anything halt it? By Tom Howarth The UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) has launched its new ‘Data Dashboard’, a combination of reported figures on land degradation from 126 countries around the world. Haven’t heard of … [Read more...] about Desertification: the world is losing healthy land at an astonishing rate

Geo Explainer: The many Chinas

18 October 2023

7 minutes

A primer to the physical and cultural diversity of the second-most populous country in the world As China makes daily headlines, it is often portrayed as a monolith, represented by a handful of Chinese Communist Party elites in Beijing. But in reality, China is extraordinarily diverse, both physically and culturally. Welcome to the many Chinas. Regions Students … [Read more...] about Geo Explainer: The many Chinas

Review: How to Speak Whale by Tom Mustill

13 September 2022

2 minutes

In this eye-opening book, Tom Mustill challenges our human-centred world view and our perception of animal communication with some fascinating research Recent machine learning advances mean we can accurately translate on the fly between languages as diverse as Mongolian and Swahili. The digital mapping of individual languages reveals meaning by the relationships of one … [Read more...] about Review: How to Speak Whale by Tom Mustill