World

Florida began sinking mermaid-shaped reef sculptures More than 300 sculpted reef modules, including ocean-friendly concrete mermaids, now sit on the seafloor off South Florida as part of a growing marine restoration project launched seven years ago. Known as the 1000 Mermaids Artificial Reef Project, the initiative combines public art with habitat creation to help restore…

Deep in the Scottish Highlands, a process of regeneration is taking place An English businessman who bought a traditional 23,000-acre Scottish hunting estate in 2003 has spent more than two decades changing its heavily grazed landscape, planting one million native trees and successfully bringing red squirrels back to the glens. Paul Lister bought the Alladale…

A British couple bought a derelict 85-foot, seven-storey Victorian water tower at auction An 85-foot Victorian water tower that once supplied an asylum in South London has been turned into a family home after a major multi-million-pound restoration by a British couple. The Grade II-listed structure in Kennington was built in 1877 to supply water…

Phoenix coated 36 miles of roads to fight extreme heat Painting city streets with a light-coloured, reflective coating can cool the asphalt underneath, but it can also increase heat exposure for people walking on the road. That unexpected trade-off emerged from a major trial in the American Southwest. In 2020, the City of Phoenix Street…

Alaska eradicated rats from a 6,869-acre Aleutian island More than two centuries after a shipwreck brought non-native rats to a remote Alaskan island, removing the invasive rodents has led to a rapid recovery of wildlife across the 6,869-acre island in the Aleutian archipelago. According to monitoring reports and press releases from the United States Fish…

False Creek NEU’s impact goes beyond the buildings it serves. Its success has helped demonstrate that sewage and wastewater heat recovery can work at the utility scale, and has encouraged other communities throughout Metro Vancouver to explore similar approaches. Every day thousands of showers, sinks and toilets flush warm wastewater down the drain. Now some…

Michael and Lynne carried out much of the renovation themselves. (Pictures: Homes.com) A former bank building in Detroit, Michigan that sat vacant for about a decade has been turned into a two-bedroom home after a couple spent years restoring it by hand. The unusual property, built in 1925, is now on the market for $1.3…

When the federal government began bringing the windswept barrier islands of eastern North Carolina under protected parkland, a quiet property deal near Pamlico Sound helped bring the story of a once-thriving coastal community to an end. In 1967, Henry Pigott agreed to sell his property on Portsmouth Island to help create Cape Lookout National Seashore….

Flock Safety ALPR camera system on a roadside pole A former Texas police officer accused of using automated licence-plate reader technology to monitor a female colleague has surrendered his law-enforcement licence to avoid criminal charges. Michael Palitz, who previously served as a sergeant with the Pasadena Police Department in the Greater Houston area, reached an…

Gibbon Conservation Center director Gabi Skollar feeds one of the little apes Every morning, as dawn breaks over the dry hills north of Los Angeles, a chorus of sirens, deep hoots and high-pitched calls echoes across the Santa Clarita Valley. The sounds come from the Gibbon Conservation Center, a sanctuary that has spent half a…