Countries around the world face higher risks of extreme weather events like floods, droughts and extreme heat as the ongoing El Niño intensifies and extends, with the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) now assessing it will become the strongest in history. In its latest update, WMO assessed with 100% certainty that El Niño — the result […] Continue reading ->
KATHMANDU – Shekhar Lamichhane is grieving even as he struggles to breathe. The 65-year-old asthma patient needs oxygen support. Some of his family members, including siblings, were swept away in Nepal’s flash flood on 26 August when glacial ice and rock slammed into the valley below near the Nepal–China border. “I am on oxygen support. […] Continue reading ->
Around 200,000 people in the Israeli-occupied West Bank will lose access to vital food aid from the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) due to funding cuts, exacerbating food insecurity. In the Gaza Strip, the nutrition and health crisis is set to worsen further due to a lack of medical supplies and sanitation, the World […] Continue reading ->
BENGALURU – India’s flagship air pollution action plan, the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP), has mostly failed to deliver, according to research presented at the eighth India Clean Air Summit. Officials, scientists, and other experts highlighted the 2019 program’s severe shortcomings and red-flagged critical gaps. An “NCAP 2.0′ has been widely expected, but the central […] Continue reading ->
Nearly a year after Israel and Hamas agreed to a US-brokered cease-fire, some 94% of Gaza’s 2.1 million Palestinian residents lack adequate shelters with 84% facing severe constraints in heating, cooling, cooking, lighting and hygiene and nearly 60% facing “critical” or “catastrophic” shelter needs. This according to a new analysis by the Global Shelter Cluster, […] Continue reading ->
As Delhi’s officials finally take tough action on major pollution sources, the demand for a similar approach is rising in other states – as seen at the 8th Indian Clean Air Summit held this week in Bangalore. BANGALORE, INDIA – Two decades ago, authorities in Delhi switched public and heavy duty transport from largely diesel […] Continue reading ->
The lung capacity of thousands of children stunted by traffic fumes on London’s streets recovered fully in the five years after the city imposed limits on its most polluting vehicles, a landmark study has found. The research, published Tuesday in The Lancet Public Health, tracked more than 3,400 children in London and Luton, a commuter […] Continue reading ->
Twice in three years – at its 75th anniversary and again this July at the Constitution’s 80th – the World Health Oganization (WHO) has told the official story of what it has achieved. Twice, water, sanitation, air, chemicals and climate have been left out. The former head of WHO’s environmental health programme argues this is […] Continue reading ->
CHENNAI, India – Women in drought-prone areas are at a higher risk of intimate partner violence during the hot summer months, but heat action plans being drafted by cities and countries rarely account for this public health issue. The unique vulnerability of women to intensifying climatic events such as heatwaves was at the centre of […] Continue reading ->
As wildfires rage across continents, heatwaves claim thousands of lives and ocean temperatures shatter records, UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned on Friday that the climate crisis has entered “overdrive.” “This is only a warm-up act,” he said. “El Niño is strengthening, adding fuel to a planet already on fire with scorching heat domes, apocalyptic wildfires […] Continue reading ->