A sweet scent typically lingers around in the air at Kannauj, an ancient city in India’s most populous state of Uttar Pradesh. It’s an imprint of the countless occasions when it had rained, of roses that bloomed at dawn, and of sandalwood trees that once breathed centuries of calm.. Though mushy smells are not unique to Kannauj, the city utilized traditional distillation methods to make perfume out of these earthly scents.

Kannauj has had a longstanding tradition in perfume-making since four centuries ago. The city, colloquially known as the country’s ancient perfume capital, still uses rustic copper stills, wood-fired ovens, and bamboo pipes leading to sandalwood oil-filled vessels, or attar as it is colloquially known, to make their perfume. Though it gives a pre-industrial look, a closer peek would reveal an ecosystem of complex thermal regulation, plant chemistry, sustainability science, and hydro-distillation chemistry at work.

When synthetically-made but sustainable perfumes, and AI-generated ones share the spotlight today, Kannauj’s tryst with perfumes offer an alternative, sustainable model in traditional distillation, which is inherently low-carbon, zero-waste, and follow principles of a circular economy; all in alignment with sustainable development goals.

Traditional perfume-making is naturally sustainable

In industrial processing, hydro-distillation is a commonly done to separate substances with different boiling points. Heating the liquids produce vapors, which can later be liquefied in a separate chamber. Perfumers in Kannauj follow the same practice, except it promises to be more sustainable with the copper stills, a process colloquially known as dheg-bhakpa hydro-distillation.

There’s no alcohol or synthetic agents in use. Instead, they heat up raw botanicals – such as roses, vetiver roots, jasmine, or even sunbaked clay – to precise temperatures well short of burning, thereby producing fragrant vapor. The vapors are then guided into cooling chambers, where they condense and bond with a natural fixative, often sandalwood oil. Plant residue is the only byproduct, which finds use as organic compost to cultivate another generation of crops.

Trapping earthly scent to make perfume

In the past five years, Kannauj’s veteran perfumers noticed a quiet, but steady shift in their timely harvest and produce. Rose harvests have moved earlier by weeks. Vetiver roots grow shallower due to erratic rainfall. Jasmine yields are fluctuating wildly. The local Ganges river, which influences humidity levels essential for distillation timing, is no longer as predictable. For an entire natural aromatic economy built on seasonal synchrony, this uncertainty has rung alarm bells.

“The scent of a flower depends not just on the flower itself,” Vipin Dixit, a third-generation attar-maker whose family has distilled fragrance for decades, said to EdPublica.

“It depends on the weather the night before, on the heat at sunrise, on the moisture in the air. Even the soil has a scent-memory.”

As a result, perfumers in Kannauj have begun to adapt, applying traditional wisdom through a modern scientific lens. Local distillers are now working with botanists and environmental scientists to study soil microbiomes, measure scent compounds using chromatography, and develop community-based rainwater harvesting to ensure sustainable crop health.

One of the most surprising innovations is trapping petrichor — the scent of first rain — through earth attars. Clay is baked during extreme heat waves, mimicking summer conditions, then distilled to trap the scent of rain hitting dry soil. This aroma, called mitti attar, is one of the few scents in the world created from an environmental phenomenon; and not a flower.

At a time when the world is scrambling to save biodiversity, the humble attar may become a template for green chemistry — one that doesn’t just preserve scent, but also restores the relationship between science, nature, and soul.

In a stark warning for the world, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) released its latest report in June first week, The State of the Climate in the South-West Pacific 2024, painting a vivid picture of escalating climate extremes across ocean and land. The report, released to coincide with the 2025 Global Platform on Disaster Risk Reduction in Geneva and ahead of the 2025 UN Ocean Conference, warns that the South-West Pacific is already grappling with the climate future the rest of the world fears.

A record-breaking Year

2024 marked the warmest year on record for the region, driven by El Niño conditions and unprecedented ocean heating. Nearly 40 million square kilometers — over 10% of the global ocean surface — was scorched by marine heatwaves.

“2024 was the warmest year on record in the South-West Pacific region. Ocean heat and acidification combined to inflict long-lasting damage to marine ecosystems and economies. Sea-level rise is an existential threat to entire island nations. It is increasingly evident that we are fast running out of time to turn the tide,” said WMO Secretary-General Prof. Celeste Saulo in a recent media statement.

The heat was not limited to oceans. Extreme temperatures shattered records in Australia and the Philippines, increasing health risks and straining already vulnerable infrastructure.

Storms, floods, and vanishing ice

The report recounts an unprecedented cyclone season in the Philippines: 12 storms in just three months, affecting over 13 million people and displacing 1.4 million. Meanwhile, Indonesia’s last tropical glacier in New Guinea may vanish by 2026. Satellite estimates show a 30-50% ice loss since 2022.

Precipitation patterns swung to extremes. While Malaysia, Indonesia, and Papua New Guinea faced above-average rainfall and floods, parts of Australia and New Zealand were parched by drought.

The ocean in crisis

The annual sea surface temperature in 2024 was the highest since records began in the early 1980s. Combined with acidification and deoxygenation, ocean warming is devastating marine life and altering storm patterns.

Worryingly, the South-West Pacific sea-level rise already exceeds the global average, threatening islands where over half the population lives within 500 meters of the coast.

Displacement and cultural loss

The Fijian island of Serua, battered by floods and eroding shores, exemplifies the dire choices communities must make.

Despite government offers to relocate, many residents resist because of their deep connection to the land, or “vanua,” a concept embedding identity, spirituality, and ancestry.

“On two separate occasions, the island experienced such extreme flooding that it was possible to cross the entire island by boat without encountering land,” the WMO report said.

Hope in anticipation: Early warnings save lives

Not all is bleak. A case study from the Philippines showcased how early warning systems and anticipatory action helped mitigate the toll of the 2024 cyclone season. The Food and Agriculture Organization’s anticipatory action teams helped relocate fishing boats and distribute cash aid ahead of the storms.

“While the frequency of tropical cyclones may decrease, their intensity will rise. Building resilience is essential,” the report warns.

A Global Response: UNOC3 Signals Change, But Action Must Follow

As the WMO’s warnings echoed, the United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC3) concluded in Nice, France (June 9-13, 2025), providing a parallel platform of hope and accountability.

• The High Seas Treaty reached 49 ratifications, nearing the 60 needed for enforcement.
• Nearly $10 billion in funding was pledged for ocean health, though experts note that the real need is $175 billion annually.
• Countries endorsed the 30×30 conservation goal and backed measures against deep-sea mining and plastic pollution.

“We must move from plunder to protection,” said UN Secretary-General António Guterres in his closing address.

These developments reinforce the urgency of the WMO findings. Real-world impacts in the South-West Pacific — from disappearing glaciers to cultural erosion in Fiji — illustrate what is at stake.

The South-West Pacific is not a distant front line. It is the epicenter of an unfolding climate reality. With international mechanisms like the High Seas Treaty nearing activation and early warning systems proving effective, the question is no longer whether we can respond — but whether we will act in time.

As the seas rise and the clock ticks, it’s not just islands at risk. It’s the future of global climate stability.

Understanding where microplastics end up in our ecosystem, can help with efforts at environment monitoring amidst widespread plastic pollution. In a recent study, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have discovered a surprising factor that could help predict microplastic hotspots — biofilms.

Biofilms are thin, sticky layers of biopolymers secreted by microorganisms – are commonly found along riverbeds and seashores. The study, published in the journal, Geophysical Research Letters, suggests these biological coatings can significantly influence whether microplastics settle into sediments or get carried away by water flow.

“Microplastics are definitely in the news a lot,” Heidi Nepf, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at MIT, the study’s senior author, said in a media statement. “And we don’t fully understand where the hotspots of accumulation are likely to be. This work gives a little bit of guidance.”

The study used a controlled flow tank experiment simulating natural riverbed conditions. The researchers found that microplastics were far less likely to accumulate in sandy beds that contained simulated biofilms. In these cases, particles that landed on the surface were more exposed and easily swept away by water.

“These biological films fill the pore spaces between the sediment grains,” Hyoungchul Park, a postdoc at MIT and the study’s first author, explained. “That makes the deposited particles more exposed to flow forces, making it easier for them to be resuspended.”

The experiment involved pumping water mixed with fluorescent microplastic particles through tanks with different bed compositions—some with clean sand and others with added biological material mimicking biofilm. The results showed a clear trend: microplastics stuck more to sand beds without biofilms and less to those with the sticky biological layers.

“The biofilm is blocking the plastics from accumulating in the bed because they can’t go deep into the bed,” Dr. Nepf said. “They just stay right on the surface, and then they get picked up and moved elsewhere.”

The findings may have important implications for environmental monitoring and microplastic mitigation efforts. For instance, in mangrove ecosystems, where outer edges tend to be sandy and interiors richer in biofilm, the sandy outer zones could become key areas for microplastic buildup.

“These results suggest the sandy outer regions may be potential hotspots for microplastic accumulation,” Dr. Park noted in the media statement, pointing to possible priority areas for targeted cleanup or protective measures.

While the interaction between biofilms and microplastics is just one piece of the puzzle, the study offers a useful lens for researchers and policymakers trying to trace and manage plastic pollution in aquatic environments.

“It gives guidance to where you should go to find more plastics versus less,” Dr. Nepf added, suggesting that knowing how sediments interact with flow and biology could improve predictions and cleanup strategies.