Coral reefs are remarkably noisy places, and young fish rely on those sounds to find a reef to settle into. Sadly, that sound is getting quieter as reefs decline due largely to climate change. DW spoke to Tim Gordon, a marine biologist at the University of Exeter, about his research into restoring corals at Australia’s Great Barrier Reef — by playing the sound of healthy reefs underwater.

Poland has seen extreme drought become their ‘new normal’ for years now. Already this year, there are signs of a poor harvest season ahead. But because of the novel coronavirus, aid for drought-afflicted farmers could be significantly lower this year. The country has also recently seen drought-induced fires in their largest national park.

Droughts have been affecting large parts of Europe over the past couple years, including Germany. DW's Louise Osborne has been reporting on these conditions and what they means for the continents’ farmers. It seems the jet stream is also be playing a large role in annual weather patterns.

While personal choices may make us feel better about our relationship with the Earth, some argue that the effects of changing personal consumption habits are minimal and can instead distract us from more destructive culprits. Meehan Crist is a writer-in-residence of biological sciences at Columbia University and she's recently written about this and what COVID-19 means for climate change.

Before coronavirus lockdowns, DW visited a family in the town of Eitorf, Germany that has gone to great lengths to reduce their carbon footprint in every way possible. They have employed some pretty creative methods. Since then, it’s been getting warmer, but the family says they are still using their outdoor fridge. They've also invested in a solar cooker and planted a garden.

For millennia, humans have reared animals to eat. But modern industrialized meat production is not sustainable. Alternatives to meat are gaining popularity — but just how eco-friendly are they? DW spoke with Benjamin Bodirsky of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany to learn more about meat alternatives.

At the Sinogene factory just outside Beijing, you can get your beloved pet cloned. That's right — you can now pay for a genetically identical replacement for your companion animal, be it a cat, dog, or even a horse. It's a lucrative business, especially because China's pet market is booming.

While most humans live in some form of lockdown, wildlife is enjoying a freer and less stressful existence. With less noise and less traffic on the roads, city-dwelling birds are piping up. In Madrid, wild animals are wandering more freely — while some pets have been given up for adoption when their owners got sick or even died of COVID-19.

Since cows are holy to Hindus, after the current Hindu-nationalist government took office in India in 2014, many states banned cow slaughter. So farmers turned out unproductive animals, resulting in millions of cows on the loose. On the dusty roads of rural Rajasthan, cows roam the streets, eating anything in their path — including plentiful plastic waste. And suffer as a result.

The renewable energy biogas comes from fermenting organic matter such as green waste or manure. In theory, it can be produced on just about any farm. But in practice, many farmers cannot afford the necessary technology to convert this waste into power. A German engineer is seeking to change that with a simple, inexpensive mobile biogas system.