Feature Article

Report predicts forced displacement of poor people from their land to meet EU targets to grow fuel crops. The European Union’s biofuel policies are driving up global food prices and pushing people in poor countries off their land, says a recent report of ActionAid. EU has a target of 10 per cent renewable energy in transport by 2020, and 88 per cent of this is expected to come from biofuels. The report Fuel for Thought comes at a time when the European Commission is set to submit a report on Renewable Energy Directive to the European Parliament this year.

Using satellite laser altimetry, basal melting of ice shelves is determined to be the main driver of Antarctic ice-sheet loss, with changing climate the likely cause.

Even a cure is not preventing deaths from malaria in Uganda. Poor education and limited access to healthcare are among the reasons why.

Nature Outlook maps the challenges in tackling the malaria epidemic.

Some 10,000 bears are farmed in China to procure their bile for traditional Chinese medicine. This cruel practice
has stimulated a wave of condemnation across the country. (Correspondence)

As president of the Howard G. Buffett Foundation, I am disappointed with the suggestion by Ken Giller, our partner in
the nitrogen-fixation research programme N2 Africa, that the teaching of conservation agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa
is “wholly misplaced” (Nature 483, 525–527; 2012). (Correspondence)

Faced with slow progress towards an international agreement to limit greenhousegas emissions, governments are taking
the initiative by passing their own climate laws. Mexico — plagued by a persistent drought but optimistic about its prospects for wind power — made one of the boldest commitments of any nation to limit climate change.
Although many countries have established domestic climate regulations, Mexico is only the second, after the United Kingdom, to make tough national targets legally binding.

Climate and weather conditions, such as the North Atlantic Oscillation, precipitation and temperature influence the birth sex ratio (BSR) of various higher latitude species, including deer, elephant seals or northern human populations. Although, tropical regions show only little variation in temperature, climate and weather conditions can fluctuate with consequences for phenology and food resource availability. Here, we evaluate, whether the BSR of chimpanzees, inhabiting African tropical forests, is affected by climate fluctuations as well.