UK cities need greener new builds

UK cities need greener new builds – and more of them

Amid the growing local government bankruptcy crisis, as many as half of the local authorities in England and Wales might be forced to cut their green spaces budgets. The situation in Scotland and Northern Ireland is not much better. A survey by the Local Government Association in February 2024 found that 48% of local authorities say they plan to defund, to varying degrees, the parks and other green spaces within their areas.

England’s urban green spaces alone are estimated to provide up to £6.6 billion in benefits to the communities that use them each year. Yet using them isn’t open to everyone.

There is significant social inequality in terms of access to urban green spaces. In December 2023, the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs parliamentary committee heard evidence that the most affluent 20% of urban wards have as much as five times more publicly accessible green space that the most deprived wards.

Urban green spaces have long been poorly funded and vulnerable to local government budget cuts. The question then is how to create more inclusive and sustainable green spaces in our cities.

Read the full article here!

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Nature’s Pharmacy, Our Treasure Chest: Why We Must Conserve Our Natural Heritage

Medicinal plants grow naturally around us. Over centuries, cultures around the world have learned how to use plants to fight illness and maintain health. These readily available and culturally important traditional medicines form the basis of an accessible and affordable health-care regime and are an important source of livelihood for indigenous and rural populations. Increasingly, medicinal species that reside in natural areas have received scientific and commercial attention. In the United States, of the top 150 prescription drugs, at least 118 are based on natural sources. A child suffering from leukemia in 1960 faced a 10 percent chance of remission; by 1997, the likelihood of remission had been increased to 95 percent thanks to two drugs derived from a wild plant native to Madagascar. But we still know little about the treasure trove inhabiting our wild places. As of 1995, less than 1 percent of all tropical plant species had been screened for potential pharmaceutical applications

Water and carbon cycling

Looking for a quick yet detailed overview of the water and carbon cycles? Look no more! A fantastic resource provided by the RGS to support your studies. It can be accessed here!

Achievements, Gaps, and Emerging Challenges in Controlling Malaria in Ethiopia

Controlling malaria is one of the top health sector priorities in Ethiopia. The concrete prevention, control, and treatment interventions undertaken in the past two decades have substantially reduced the morbidity and mortality attributable to malaria. Emboldened by these past achievements, Ethiopia envisages to eliminate malaria by 2030. Realizing this ambition, however, needs to further strengthen the financial, technical, and institutional capacities to address the current as well as emerging challenges. It particularly needs to step up measures pertaining to diagnosis, domestic resource mobilization, vector surveillance, and seasonal weather forecasting. Read the full article here!

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