The COVID-19 pandemic brings home a point that Jane Goodall recently echoed in a stern warning to the world. In an interview, the celebrated primatologist said humanity will end if we do not change our ways, specifically how and what we eat, which has caused undue damage to forests.

Fifteen universities in Canada have joined forces to tackle climate change by pledging to follow responsible investment practices. The charter recognizes climate change to have profound social, economic, and environmental changes in Canada and around the world. As such, universities have a responsibility to act constructively to address this challenge.

Computational biologists in the Media Lab's Molecular Machines group and the MIT Center for Bits and Atoms have successfully engineered new proteins with improved genome editing capabilities and patterned from naturally occurring enzymes. This breakthrough reported in Nature Biotechnology significantly expands the spectrum of DNA sequences that can be accurately and effectively accessed.

Researchers were successful in developing a genetically modified (GM) rice that can reduce high blood pressure when consumed, without any side effects. Scientists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences genetically modified a variety of rice by introducing a gene that consisted of nine angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE)-inhibitory peptides plus a blood-relaxing peptide linked together.

Lately when I read the news I get the frightening sense that the majority of humanity is just waiting. Leaders in politics and business are waiting for the day they can get back to business as usual, while performing the balancing act of protecting the economy versus protecting human lives from the costs of the COVID-19 pandemic. Everyone else besides is just waiting for things to get back to normal. But the trouble is, there is no getting back to normal. Everything is changing.

While technology and data analysis have revolutionized farming in high-income countries, farmers in low-income nations have often been left out. New tools developed by CGIAR centers are narrowing the digital divide for smallholder farmers. These tools are increasingly gaining international notice beyond the field of agriculture, as a recent international award attests. The 2020 Innovative Applications in Analytics Award (IAAA) was awarded to the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT, and the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA).

Plastic pollution is one of the most visible and complex environmental issues today. Interested and concerned parties include researchers, governmental agencies, nongovernmental organizations, industry, media, and the general public. One key assumption behind the issue and the public outcry is that plastics last indefinitely in the environment, resulting in chronic exposure that harms animals and humans. But the data supporting this assumption are scant.

Collaboration among scientists to transform food, land and water systems will be key to feeding the world in the face of climate change, COVID-19 and other challenges, says the world’s largest agricultural research network. CGIAR, a global partnership with almost 50 years’ experience in agricultural research for development, argues that fragmentation of the research agenda into single commodities and other pieces of the problem has limited the potential of science to holistically transform food systems, and advance global goals to end poverty and hunger by 2030.

A household’s vulnerability to climate shocks and its resilience to recover can now be measured, suggests a recently published study. The study’s authors have turned their measurement approach into an easy-to-use framework using data from smallholder households facing droughts in India. Vulnerability and resilience are two interrelated factors in climate change research. The authors say vulnerability is determined by exposure, sensitivity and a pre-existing capacity to adapt to the climate shock (in this case, drought), resilience is the ability of households to recover.

‘Biodiversity’ involves 8 million plant and animal species, the ecosystems that house them, and the genetic diversity among them. 5th June, World Environment Day observed by the UN since 1972, provides a global platform to focus efforts on pressing environmental issues. Bushfires to locust infestations and the global disease pandemic of COVID-19, shows now more than ever, our intricate interdependence on the environment.