Eco Geek

Gaby Hansen, Namibia University of Science and Technology and Christina Breed, University of Pretoria Many African cities have started drawing up climate plans. These promise cooler streets, urban forests and green roofs on buildings. This urban climate adaptation has become an urgent priority. Windhoek, Namibia’s capital, is a fast-growing city spread across hills and valleys. Its suburbs stand alongside expanding informal settlements. But life in this dry city is becoming […]

A new study has found that, as the Himalayas near a tipping point, close to 200 glacial lakes in ​India have been identified ​as high ⁠risk, with 56 classified as "very high risk", leaving millions exposed downstream. https://iono.fm/e/1718684 Read more here: https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/cop/himalayas-approaching-tipping-point-millions-livelihoods-stake-report-2026-09-14/

With the joint issues of an acute lack of housing across large parts of the planet, and increasing amounts of plastic waste, an MIT spinoff has developed a way to turn plastic waste into things like trusses, decks and home foundations that could help solve both problems at the same time. https://iono.fm/e/1718254 Find out more here: https://techxplore.com/news/2026-09-waterless-recycling-discarded-plastic-trusses.html

Saeed Akannah Junior, Bolgatanga Technical University When people discuss architecture in Ghana, attention often focuses on modern buildings: concrete houses, glass offices, shopping malls and ambitious urban developments. Yet across the country, another architectural tradition continues to offer lessons about how people have built and lived for generations. This is vernacular architecture. It is not uniquely Ghanaian. The term refers to buildings and settlements shaped largely by local knowledge, materials, […]

Proving many critics and naysayers wrong, 99.9 percent of materials from 26 decommissioned turbines at Hagshaw Hill in South Lanarkshire were recycled or reused—79.5 percent recycled and 20.4 percent reused. https://iono.fm/e/1717799 Read more here: https://theenergynewsbeat.substack.com/p/scottish-wind-farm-claims-victory

Petra Holden, University of Cape Town; Cherié Janine Forbes, University of Cape Town; Gerald Ngoma, University of Cape Town, and Martine Visser, University of Cape Town Across Africa, people are restoring and managing mangroves, grazing lands and urban green areas in the face of increasing threats from climate change. Increasingly they make decisions based on climate-related information supplied by governments, funders and researchers. But are they getting the information they […]

Marking the first time solar-powered plastic-to-hydrogen conversion has worked outside a laboratory using methods built for scale, researchers at the University of Cambridge have shown that a solar reactor can turn plastic waste into clean hydrogen fuel outdoors, at a scale close to commercial use. https://iono.fm/e/1717364 Read more here: https://happyeconews.com/solar-powered-plastic-to-hydrogen/

Iron is the most abundant metal on earth, and therefore also the cheapest, so it is great news that researchers have found that using it in lithium-ion batteries rather than cobalt or nickel can offer higher energy density, significantly lower costs, and enhanced safety. https://iono.fm/e/1716795 The science behind this can be found here: 

Oluwafemi E. Adeyeri, Australian National University Climate change has already doubled the world’s heatwaves between 2024 and 2025 and brought more severe droughts, floods and water shortages to Africa. These changes are damaging crops, homes, infrastructure and ecosystems, and placing growing pressure on people’s health and livelihoods. On 2 September 2026, the United Nations Environment Programme released a report called Limiting Overshoot. The overshoot is when average global warming remains […]