Unlocking nature's mysteries

Reconstructing how our planet’s climate and landscapes have evolved over hundreds to millions of years is an enormous field of research that attracts surprisingly limited attention in the popular media. In this talk, Dr Daniel Schillereff will outline the remarkable stories of past climate variability that scientists can infer from the colours of mud deposited around the world and explain how these data are used to better constrain future climate projections.

Until recently, crop residues were still one of the largest industrial waste product. In developing countries like China and India, field-based burning of these residues is still the most common, and economic way to deal with it. Burning releases smoke containing many different polluted gases and particles, which may contribute very significantly to regional air pollution episodes. The people from megacities start to complain, and the government tried to ban it. So how would those farmers react? Here is what we can observe from the space.