By Dylan Freestone Dubai’s Burj Khalifa currently stands as the world’s tallest building at 828 metres tall, which is roughly three times the size of the Eiffel tower. Its design saw many breakthroughs in architectural engineering allowing it to withstand extremes of heat, wind and sandstorms and soar to such a height that it is possible to watch the sun set twice if one takes the rapid elevators to the top. Unfortunately there is a darker side to this record-breaking skyscraper. During its 6 year construction, only one death was officially reported, when a man fell in 2007. However, a Human Rights Watch study concluded that there were many deaths which were omitted relating to “heat exhaustion, overwork and suicide.” Furthermore, 95% of the workforce in the United Arab Emirates are migrants who are exploited and many of the workers involved in the Burj Khalifa earned the equivalent of under $10 a day. The Human Rights Watch report made reference to a psychiatrist in Dubai, Dr Shiv
One of the greatest conservation triumphs of the era is an upturn in African elephant populations in several countries. Kenya in particular has seen its elephant population more than double over the last 30 years . After facing heavy threats to the species globally from poaching and habitat lost from human development, conservation scientists are jumping for joy as efforts to increase populations have proved successful in many regions. There are 3 main species of elephants , most people are familiar with the African and Asian elephant, but the former can actually be split into two genetically different types: the African bush elephant and the smaller African forest elephant. As a keystone species elephants are a vital part of their natural ecosystems. Many plant species depend on forest dwelling elephants to spread their seeds through their digestive system. They also act as gardeners for forest regions, uprooting trees with their trunks and leaving micro ponds with their footsteps wh
By Connie Chandler Global warming is one of the biggest threats to currently face our planet. Each decade since the 1980s has been warmer than all preceding decades on record with a global average temperature 0.61(±0.05) °C higher in the 2010s than the 1961-1998 average (Osborn & Jones, 2020). 2016 holds the record for the hottest year on record with a global average temperature 0.94 °C higher than the 20th century average of 13.9 °C (NOAA, 2017). 2020 only narrowly missed out the record by having an average temperature 0.02 °C cooler than that of 2016 (Thompson, 2020). An increase in global temperature by less than one degree may not sound like a huge change, but it takes a huge amount of heat energy to heat up all the oceans, atmospheres and land by this much. For perspective, in the 17th century, global average temperatures were between 1 and 2°C colder than the period between 1951-1980 and this caused the ‘Little Ice Age’. During this time ice was extremely prevalent in the no
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