PARIS, 20 February 2013 (AFP) – Exposure to higher levels of fine particulates — the airborne pollution that is an emerging problem in many Asian cities — causes a sharp rise in deaths from heart attacks, a study published on Wednesday said. Research published in the European Heart Journal pointed the finger at so-called PM2.5 […]
30 January 2013 (Bloomberg News) – Beijing’s air, which has exceeded the World Health Organization’s “healthy” limit every day this year, is similar to that in an airport smoking lounge. The CHART OF THE DAY shows Beijing’s daily peak and average concentrations of PM2.5, the airborne particulate matter that raises risks for lung and heart […]
By HEATHER TIMMONS31 January 2013 NEW DELHI (The New York Times) – Beijing’s air pollution has reached such toxic levels recently that the Chinese government is finally acknowledging the problem – and acting on it. But in New Delhi on Thursday, air pollution levels far exceeded those in Beijing, only without any government acknowledgement […]
By Minxin Pei28 January 2013 (FORTUNE) – For a long time, environmental activists, economists, and China scholars have warned about the coming environmental disaster in China. Such a catastrophe finally appeared in the most dramatic form in mid-January, when a thick layer of poisonous pollutants smothered much of northern China and made air in Beijing […]
By RICHARD W. STEVENSON and JOHN M. BRODER21 January 2013 WASHINGTON (The New York Times) – President Obama made addressing climate change the most prominent policy vow of his second Inaugural Address, setting in motion what Democrats say will be a deliberately paced but aggressive campaign built around the use of his executive powers to […]
By Jean-Louis Santini20 January 2013 But despite President Barack Obama renewing his early promises to act, experts said political opposition would make it at least as difficult as during Obama’s first, failed push to get new legislation through Congress, and said decisive measures will remain unlikely. “All the public opinion polls show a better understanding […]
By Gail the Actuary11 January 2013 Most of us have heard that Thomas Malthus made a forecast in 1798 that the world would run short of food. He expected that this would happen because in a world with limited agricultural land, food supply would fail to rise as rapidly as population. In fact, at the […]
[As usual, apologies for the ad.] By Jaime A. FlorCruz, CNN19 January 2013 Beijing, China (CNN) – “Let the sunshine, let the sunshine in …” my wife Ana blurted into a song this week, as she gazed eastwards through the window of our apartment in downtown Beijing. The old tune from the Broadway show Hair […]
By Brian Bienkowski, Environmental Health News18 January 2013 (Scientific American) – As United Nations delegates end their mercury treaty talks today, scientists warn that ongoing emissions are more of a threat to food webs than the mercury already in the environment. At the same time, climate change is likely to alter food webs and patterns […]
United Nations, New York, 10 January 2013 (UPI) – People in developing countries are facing increasing health and environmental risks linked to exposure to mercury, a U.N. report says. Parts of Africa, Asia and South America are at risk of increasing emissions of mercury into the environment, mostly the use of the toxic element in […]
