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I have digested the explanations for why trying to live on Mars is a bad idea. Very good points are made, but one important thing is missed. One day, a disaster will befall Earth that will most likely wipe out the human race. It might be an extinction type asteroid impact, a nuclear war, a …

"Recipe for disaster" certainly got my attention. It made it clear just how serious a matter climate change is likely to be for farming and food production. It then talks about solutions, stating: one big answer is eating less meat ( 16 November, p 44 ). The article later advised against buying organic food because …

My only surprise was that the researchers looking down their microscope at asteroid rock samples only saw terrestrial bacterial contamination and not golden retriever dog hair, which permeates the entire universe ( 30 November, p 15 ).

In quick crossword #172 ( 30 November, p 45 ), the clue for 7 Down should have been Rb.

You report that Mesopotamians felt happiness in their livers. For Iraqis like myself, the liver is indeed a seat for emotions. All in all, it seems that people's feelings in Iraq nowadays are harmonious with how those in Mesopotamia felt, as a recent hit pop song in Iraq shows. The lyrics go something like: "The …

You report that H5N1 bird flu may be adapting to become more infectious to humans. Considering the high death rate in people infected so far and the projections that even minor mutations could cause a virulent pandemic, mass production of an H5N1 vaccine and the inoculation of most of the population should be considered ( …

The COP 29 climate summit was held in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, whose economy is massively dependent on exploiting its huge fossil fuel resources. The nearby Caspian Sea is rapidly drying out as a result of hydrocarbon-propelled global warming. Yet this connection seems to have eluded stingy higher-income nations as they failed to cough …

The climate-related food crisis is a consequence of overpopulation, causing the destruction of huge areas of natural environment by animal farming in particular and intensive chemical agriculture, both highly polluting ( 16 November 2024, p 44 ). The constant quest to defeat nature with chemicals, intensive farming, genetic engineering etc. only offers stop-gap measures. Eventually, …

The idea that robot pets would solve our carbon footprint issue seems a bit blinkered. The pet options aren't just cat, dog or robot. Small herbivores have a far smaller carbon footprint, one that may be less than that of a dog-sized robot ( 12 October 2024, p 22 ). What's more, the suggestion that …

Pertaining to the problem of urban heat, many suburban roads in the UK have effectively more than doubled in width, as front gardens have been largely or completely paved over. As well as a loss of wildlife habitat, this has significantly increased the heat island effect. In my street, less than 5 per cent of …