More from @davidfickling

David Fickling

@davidfickling

Jun 7

Fascinating detail in this story: the Korubo, an Amazonian group who first made contact with the outside world in 1996, farm bananas (from Papua New Guinea) and melon (an Old World fruit):

theguardian.com/global-develop…

@domphillips

Story by @domphillips, a wonderful journalist currently missing in this part of the Amazon.

Of course it's possible they only started farming them since 1996. But I wouldn't be surprised if they were already doing it. Even "uncontacted tribes" are embedded in trading networks that span the globe.

Read 5 tweets

David Fickling

@davidfickling

May 22

The real victor of Australia's election has been popular will on the environment. Living up to that mandate will be harder. #AusVotes22

bloomberg.com/opinion/articl…

A few important points on this election, relative to history:

It's almost certain that Labor's majority will be the smallest for an incoming Australian government since 1931 or 1913.

(shown here as a proportion of all House of Representatives seats -- the House now has twice as many MPs as it did until the 1940s)

Read 19 tweets

David Fickling

@davidfickling

May 3

@rpollard

India's heatwave is terrifying, pushing up ever closer to tipping points where even healthy humans can die after just hours of exposure outdoors. My column with @rpollard:

bloomberg.com/opinion/articl…

@rpollard

@rpollard A term that hitherto is mostly known to meteorologists and climatologists is likely to become grimly familiar over the coming years: wet-bulb temperature, the combination of heat and humidity that determines our ability to cool our bodies down via sweating.

@rpollard

@rpollard When people say "it's hot, but it's OK because it's a dry heat" they're describing a real physiological process.

Human bodies cool down by sweating, but to do that the air needs to be able to absorb the moisture on our skin. When humidity rises, that gets harder.

Read 20 tweets

David Fickling

@davidfickling

Apr 29

There's another oil crisis going on right now -- not with black gold, but red gold: palm oil.

The effects could push a hungry world closer to starvation:

bloomberg.com/opinion/articl…

Indonesia, the biggest producer of palm oil, this week put an embargo on exports of palm oil.

The idea is to calm domestic cooking-oil prices ahead of the Eid al-Fitr holiday -- but putting the blame and burden on exports is misdiagnosing the problem.

bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

Although food accounts for about 70% of palm oil used globally, the real swing factor in the market is transport fuel.

In the 2010s, production boomed and then collapsed as the EU blended palm into biodiesel, and then imposed anti-dumping tariffs. Another boom is now underway.

Read 17 tweets