BERLIN – Global life expectancy rose again in 2023 after a decline during the COVID pandemic with overall life expectancy 20 years higher as compared to 1950. But North America and Latin America are seeing higher death rates among adolescents and young adults due to a crisis in mental health – reflected in higher rates […] Continue reading ->
Development funding for fossil fuel-based energy projects jumped 80 per cent in 2023 to $9.5bn, up from $5.3bn in 2022, even as toxic air causes more than 8m premature deaths annually, according to a new report. Governments continue to channel billions more in international aid into projects that prolong fossil fuel use than into tackling […] Continue reading ->
The ozone layer that protects human and animal health from the sun’s harmful ultraviolet (UV) radiation continues to be on track for recovery in the coming decades, according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in its latest report released this week. In 2024, the ozone hole was smaller when compared to the previous years. This […] Continue reading ->
A sweeping new report by a consortium of climate and health experts offers a global indictment of how fossil fuels harm populations – from extraction to emissions, devastating human health from cradle to grave. Treating the fossil fuel sector like the tobacco sector will help, recommends the study’s authors. Fossil fuel advertisements should be banned, […] Continue reading ->
While deaths from malaria have fallen by 29% since over the past two decades, mortality could rise again this year due to the cuts in global health funding seen recently, says Peter Sands, executive director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. “There has been a significant impact…and I suspect that we […] Continue reading ->
China saw a decline in overall levels of health-harmful particulate pollution (PM 2.5) in 2024 as compared to 2023 thanks to ardent mitigation efforts of leading pollution sources. But India remained a global air pollution hotspot, while wildfire activity led to above average PM 2.5 levels in Canada, Siberia and central Africa, according to the […] Continue reading ->
SRINAGAR, INDIA – When record-breaking rains, landslides and cloudbursts lashed northern India in late August — across Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh — highways turned into rivers, homes collapsed and death tolls mounted. But beneath the visible destruction lies a quieter emergency: public health systems buckling under the strain. In Kashmir, the Jhelum […] Continue reading ->
Hundreds of migrant construction workers are likely to have died of heat stress while building soccer stadiums in the Qatari desert for the recent Fifa World Cup. But people’s exposure to extreme heat – temperatures of 38°C and higher – is becoming widespread as climate-related temperatures soar. “Billions of people are already exposed to dangerous […] Continue reading ->
GENEVA — Negotiations over a United Nations (UN) treaty to combat the plastic pollution crisis ended in failure early Friday morning, as 183 nations were unable to bridge vast divides over production limits, toxic chemicals and financing after three years of diplomacy. Norway officially announced the failure at 7am Geneva time after a final overtime […] Continue reading ->
GENEVA – A new draft of the global plastics treaty published Wednesday found a clever solution to answering the difficult questions facing nations seeking the historic treaty: delete them from the text. The long-awaited draft arrived at a tense moment in negotiations over what many hoped would be a watershed treaty to address the crisis […] Continue reading ->