pollution – Page 8 – Desdemona Despair

What appears to be a shark washed up on Keller Beach in Point Richmond on 24 August 2022. Photo: William Fitzgerald

September 3, 2022

Environmental group reports “unprecedented” algae bloom, fish dying across SF Bay – “This appears to be a substantial fish kill, most likely related to the unprecedented red tide algal bloom we have been tracking for the past month”

By Alyssa Goard 28 August 2022 (Bay City News) – Environmental nonprofit San Francisco Baykeeper is reporting that an algae bloom is happening across the San Francisco Bay, something they believe is unprecedented in the history of the bay. Additionally, in the past week Baykeeper said it’s received an increasing number of reports of dead […]

A rare earth mine near the Chinese border owned by a company that has no permits. On paper, Sin Kyaing Company is owned by a local militia leader named Lagwi Bawm Lang. But like other Burmese companies in the rare earth mining industry, it is really a front for illegal investment by Chinese businesspeople. Photo: Global Witness

August 14, 2022

New evidence shows massive and rapid expansion of illicit rare earths industry in Myanmar – “China has effectively offshored this toxic industry to Myanmar over the past few years, with terrible consequences for local communities and the environment”

9 August 2022 (Global Witness) – Myanmar has seen a rapid expansion of illegal mining of heavy rare earth minerals, used in green energy technologies, smartphones and home electronics, with the industry fuelling human rights abuses, environmental destruction and funding local militias linked to the brutal military regime, our new investigation reveals today. Our report shows that […]

A view of the greens and fairways on a golf course near New Romney in Kent on 5 August 2022, as parched parts of England faced a hosepipe ban ahead of another predicted heatwave. Months of little rainfall, combined with record-breaking temperatures in July, left rivers at exceptionally low levels, depleted reservoirs, and dried out soil. Photo: Gareth Fuller / PA

August 8, 2022

News roundup for 8 August 2022 – Climate impacts have worsened vast range of human diseases – “Forever chemicals” have made rainwater “unsafe to drink” globally

Esther Elaar, a pregnant mother living in Loima, Turkana County, Northern Kenya, fetches and carries 20 litres of water for her family to use every day. Photo: BBC Media Action

June 26, 2022

Is the world running out of freshwater? “A lot of women have miscarried in this area while going to look for water”

By Simge Eva Dogan 1 June 2022 (Wellcome) – More than half of the world’s population faces water scarcity for at least one month a year. Safe water is a basic human right and essential for our health, whether we use it for drinking, food production or hygiene. But it’s also a finite resource. Only […]

Earth energy imbalance, global net flux, 2001-2021. The 12-month EEI, Mar 2021-Feb 2022, set another record. The annual Earth’s Energy Imbalance was +1.52 W/m2, the energy equivalent to 1 million Hiroshima-sized atomic bombs every day. Data: NASA CERES. Graphic: Leon Simons

May 8, 2022

New NASA data show Earth heating at unprecedented rate – “Like 800,000 nuclear power plants of 1 GW capacity heating Earth 24/7, 365 days a year”

By Leon Simons 5 May 2022 (Twitter) – NASA data shows our Earth is heating at unprecedented speed: 1.64 W/m2. CERES radiative flux data for 2021 has come available. The annual Earth’s Energy Imbalance was +1.52 W/m2, the energy equivalent to 1 million Hiroshima sized atomic bombs every day. Another 12-month EEI record (from Mar […]

Fires burn and smoke pours into the night sky at the scene of an explosion at an illegal crude oil bunkering site at Abaezi forest, in Ohaji-Egbema Local Government Area of Imo state, Nigeria, 23 April 2022. More than 100 people lost their lives. Photo: REUTERS

April 24, 2022

“National disaster”: Blast at illegal Nigerian oil refinery kills more than 100 people – Nigerian President vows to clamp down on illegal refineries after “catastrophe”

YENAGAO, Nigeria, April 24 (Reuters) – Charred bodies were left scattered among burnt palms, cars and vans on Sunday after a weekend explosion which killed more than 100 people at an illegal oil refining depot on the border of Nigeria’s Rivers and Imo states. Flip flops, bags, and clothing belonging to those who died littered […]

Firefighters try to extinguish a fire that broke out at the Ghazipur landfill in New Delhi on 28 March 2022. Photo: Ravi Choudhary / PTI

April 21, 2022

Third fire in Delhi Ghazipur landfill in as many weeks – Environment minister summons municipal waste officials

NEW DELHI, 21 April 2022 (The Wire) – A fire broke out at the Ghazipur landfill in east Delhi on Wednesday, Delhi Fire Service officials said. A call about the fire was received around 4:07 pm and eight fire tenders were rushed to the spot, said Atul Garg, Director, Delhi Fire Service. The fire-fighting operations […]

Smoke billows from a fire at Ghazipur landfill, in New Delhi, India, late Saturday, 9 April 2022. Photo: Kamal Kishore / PTI

April 10, 2022

Fire at Delhi’s Ghazipur landfill site again, weeks after major blaze was doused — “Waste, plastic, cloth … once it catches fire, it keeps burning”

10 April 2022 (The Quint) – A fire broke out at the Ghazipur landfill in East Delhi on Saturday night, 9 April, officials stated, about two weeks after a major fire broke out at the same site that required almost 50 hours of firefighting operations to douse. This fire, however, was put out within three hours and there was no casualty, as per […]

A haze caused by dust covers the capital Nicosia, in the southeast Mediterranean island of Cyprus, on Monday, 4 April 2022. The World Health Organization (WHO), the U.N. health agency, says nearly everybody in the world breathes air that doesn't meet its standards for air quality. WHO is calling for more action reduce fossil-use use that generate pollutants that cause respiratory and blood-flow problems and lead to millions of preventable deaths each year. Photo: Petros Karadjias / AP Photo

April 10, 2022

Millions dying across the world due to poor-quality air that 99 percent of world’s population breathes – “After surviving a pandemic, it is unacceptable to still have 7 million preventable deaths and countless preventable lost years of good health due to air pollution”

By Jamey Keaten 4 April 2022 GENEVA (AP) – The U.N. health agency says nearly everybody in the world breathes air that doesn’t meet its standards for air quality, calling for more action to reduce fossil-fuel use, which generates pollutants that cause respiratory and blood-flow problems and lead to millions of preventable deaths each year. The […]

Global net anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions projected to 2050. Projected global GHG emissions from Nationally Determined Contribution (NDCs) announced prior to COP26 would make it likely that warming will exceed 1.5°C and also make it harder after 2030 to limit warming to below 2°C. Graphic: IPCC

April 5, 2022

Amid backsliding on climate, the renewables effort now must be tripled – “A litany of broken climate promises”

By António Guterres 4 April 2022 (The Washington Post) – A report released Monday by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is a litany of broken climate promises. Together with the IPCC’s previous two reports on physical science and adaptation in the past year, it reveals the yawning gap between climate pledges and reality. And the reality is that we are […]