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Picture a family setting off on a trip. They buy plane tickets (choosing to pay a small carbon offset); catch a taxi to the airport; buy overpriced water and coffees; catch a shuttle bus at the other end and spend a pleasant week eating out and buying souvenirs.
Now multiply this family millions of times over, and think about measuring all this activity in terms of carbon emissions. In an extraordinary world-first study, researchers have tracked over a billion supply chains to capture the true emissions of tourism – and it’s about four times larger than all previous estimates.
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Travel is getting cheaper, but more carbon-intensive.
Renato Podestá Castilho/Flickr
Dr Arunima Malik, University of Sydney; Dr Ya-Yen Sun, The University of Queensland
For the first time research has quantified the global carbon footprint of tourists. It's big – and getting bigger.
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Environment + Energy
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Gary Haq, University of York
Pollutants can increase stress levels, which in turn affects judgment and makes some people more likely to commit crime.
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Richard E. Peltier, University of Massachusetts Amherst
According to one study, more than 8 million people per year die early from air pollution exposure.
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Health + Medicine
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Saliou Niassy, International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology; Sevgan Subramanian, International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology
The Fall armyworm will remain in Africa for a long time unless concerted action is taken.
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Philip Clarke, University of Melbourne; An Tran-Duy, University of Melbourne; David Smerdon, The University of Queensland
Deaths of chess players led to alarm the game could cause fatal stress. Some researchers have tested that theory.
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Politics + Society
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Heidi Matthews, York University, Canada
Recent historical research has revealed that after the Nazis surrendered at end the Second World War, thousands of German women were raped by Allied forces.
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Gabrielle Lynch, University of Warwick
The majority of Kenyans appear to be happy as President Uhuru Kenyatta and opposition leader Raila Odinga's pledge to “build bridges.”
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Science + Technology
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Anne Toomey, Pace University
Science can't just stay in the ivory tower. But what does impact really mean and how does it happen? A study of more than a decade of ecological fieldwork projects in Bolivia suggests a better way.
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