Nature insights Desk

Community is commonly defined as a human creation, urban settlements, cultures, and networks that are defined by common purpose and identity. But this definition is narrow. It typically leaves out the fact that community is much older than humanity: community is a principle of life. Nature has been structured in interdependent systems long before humans appeared on Earth. Forests are communities, oceans are communities, grasslands are communities, and even tiny ecosystems are communities: all...

History sometimes behaves like a geological force. Wars do not only change borders or governments; they reshape forests, rivers, oceans, and soil. The First World War (1914–1918) and the Second World War (1939–1945) left deep environmental marks across continents. When industrial technology was turned toward war, nature became an unintended battlefield. Landscapes were blasted, forests burned, rivers altered, and ecosystems disrupted in ways that lasted decades. Looking at these wars through...

When Kuala Lumpur was visited in the early 2010s, it still carried the ecological memory of a tropical rainforest city, frequent rainfall, dense greenery, and hills that regulated temperature and water flow. Over the past decade, however, rapid urban expansion has begun to reshape that balance. Data from Malaysia’s urban development trends show that built-up areas have expanded significantly, often at the expense of hillslopes and peri-urban green zones. Hill cutting for high-end residential...