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Climate Science

What happened when a low-lying European country shifted from higher river dikes to giving floodwater more room at 30 locations over 13 years?

Between 2007 and 2019, the Netherlands spent €2.3 billion on Room for the River, a program that lowered dikes, dug secondary channels and bought out farmers along more than 30 stretches of the Rhine, Waal, Meuse and IJssel — deliberately giving the water somewhere to spread rather than building the walls higher.

By Terra Daily Editorial Team · Aug 7, 2026

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Marsdaily

At the equator on a Martian summer afternoon, temperatures can reach a tolerable 20°C — but the moment the sun sets, the near-absent atmosphere bleeds the heat away and the surface drops to −84°C by morning, a daily swing no unprotected human body could survive.

Mars can briefly produce Earthlike ground temperatures in equatorial sunlight, then plunge toward −84°C before dawn. The physics behind that swing exposes just how alien the planet remains.

By Terra Daily Editorial Team · Aug 7, 2026

Climate Science

Honey sealed inside Egyptian tombs more than 3,000 years ago can survive intact, dark and crystallised rather than rotten, because honey's low water content, acidic pH around 3.9, and the trickle of hydrogen peroxide produced by bee enzymes create an environment where almost no microbe can grow

Sealed honey recovered from Egyptian tombs more than 3,000 years old survives because bees build a three-part defence — low water, pH around 3.9, and hydrogen peroxide from glucose oxidase — that leaves almost no microbe able to grow.

By Terra Daily Editorial Team · Aug 3, 2026

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News about planet Earth.

Terra Daily is an independent publication covering planet Earth, natural hazards, water systems, ecosystems, climate impacts, and the science behind life on a changing planet. The site pairs a deep archive with current reporting on the research, communities, policy shifts, and environmental events shaping Earth's living and physical systems. We employ modern AI technologies to support our editorial workflows; every published piece is editorially directed and reviewed.

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