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Looking at much of the media reporting ahead of this week's climate conference in Glasgow, you'd think the world was subject to biblical plagues-blasted by fires, floods, hurricanes, drought and disease. But as Bjorn Lomborg has explained recently in these pages, while global warming does pose problems, it is hardly the unmitigated disaster often portrayed. At times, the solutions activists propose can be far worse than what they're trying to prevent.

Humanity has solved much more dangerous problems than climate change over the past century, Mr. Lomborg argues. Even if policy makers do little to slow the rise of global temperatures, it will cost only 2.8% of global gross domestic product a year-a small price compared to that of air pollution, the least of the other major problems mankind has tackled since 1900.

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Opinion | The Real Risks of Global Climate Change

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Looking at much of the media reporting ahead of this week's climate conference in Glasgow, you'd think the world was subject to biblical plagues-blasted by fires, floods, hurricanes, drought and disease. But as Bjorn Lomborg has explained recently in these pages, while global warming does pose problems, it is hardly the unmitigated disaster often portrayed.

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ROME (AP) - Leaders of the world's biggest economies were set to tackle climate change Sunday, the final day of a weekend summit in Rome that is widely expected to set the tone for a major conference on the same issue taking place in Glasgow, Scotland, over the next two weeks.

The Group of 20 countries, which represent more than three-quarters of the world's greenhouse gas emissions, are looking for common ground on how to reduce emissions while helping poor countries deal with the impact of rising temperatures.

If the G-20 summit ends with only weak commitments, momentum could be lost for the larger annual talks in Glasgow, where countries from around the globe will be represented including poor ones most vulnerable to rising seas, desertification and other effects.

The future of coal, a key source of greenhouse gas emissions, has been one of the hardest things for the G-20 to agree on. However, the U.S. and other countries are hoping to get a commitment to end overseas financing of coal-fired power generation, said a senior U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity to preview President Joe Biden's plans.

Western countries have moved away from financing coal projects in developing countries, and major Asian economies are now doing the same: Chinese President Xi Jinping announced at the U.N. General Assembly last month that Beijing would stop funding such projects, and Japan and South Korea made similar commitments earlier in the year.

China has not set an end date for building domestic coal plants at home, however. Coal is still China's main source of power generation, and both China and India have resisted attempts for a G-20 declaration on phasing out domestic coal consumption.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said before the Rome summit that he tried but could not get a commitment on a coal phase-out from Xi, who did not travel to the gathering.

In Glasgow, Johnson said, "we want these leaders ... to focus on the commitments they can make, moving away from the use of fossil fuels, moving away from coal-fired power stations domestically."

Climate campaigners were hoping that rich G-20 countries would take steps to meet a long-standing but yet-to-be-fulfilled commitment to raise $100 billion annually to help developing countries move toward greener economies and adapt to the changing climate.

Prince Charles, a long-time environmentalist, was set to address the G-20 on Sunday.

G-20 leaders also discussed the COVID-19 pandemic and the uneven distribution of vaccines in the world. On Saturday they endorsed a global minimum tax on corporations, a linchpin of new international tax rules aimed at blunting fiscal paradises amid skyrocketing profits of some multinationals.

And after a meeting on the sidelines about Iran's nuclear program, Biden, Johnson, Germany's Angela Merkel and France's Emmanuel Macron made a joint statement expressing their "determination to ensure that Iran can never develop or acquire a nuclear weapon."

They also voiced concern that Tehran "has accelerated the pace of provocative nuclear steps" after halting negotiations on a return to the nuclear agreement, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

___ Associated Press writers Jill Lawless, Josh Boak, Zeke Miller and David McHugh in Rome contributed to this report.

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G-20 leaders turn to climate change on last day of summit

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ROME (AP) - Leaders of the world's biggest economies were set to tackle climate change Sunday, the final day of a weekend summit in Rome that is widely expected to set the tone for a major conference on the same issue taking place in Glasgow, Scotland, over the next two weeks.

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The costs of doing nothing vastly outweigh the costs of decarbonising a global economy which, since the Industrial Revolution, has been powered by fossil fuels. That may seem self-evident today, when catastrophic fires and floods offer daily reminders of how expensive continued inaction on climate change is. But 15 years ago, that insight was ground-breaking.

The 2006 Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change, for which I was a senior economist, was the first time a G7 government had used economic analysis to spell out the case for urgently reducing greenhouse gas emissions. A decade and a half on, its conclusions and recommendations are as valid as ever.

The review also exposed the limitations of using conventional economic modelling to answer transformational questions. It prompted an unhealthy race among economists to insert their own cost presumptions to derive contradictory results.

This points to a lingering problem in economics. Conventional models assume economists know beforehand what the costs of new technologies, preferences and behaviour will be in the future. These are the things that will determine the cost of any green transition. In other words, our estimates of the things we are most interested in are predetermined by assumptions that may not be accurate.

The fact is that the technique known as "static cost benefit analysis", the workhorse of economic modelling, was simply not designed to evaluate the large risks and transitions involved in tackling climate change. This matters because conventional approaches have consistently understated the risks from unmitigated climate change and overstated the costs of a low-carbon transition, thereby delaying policy action.

Forecasting the cost of a systemic transition is fiendishly complex. Adopting new, clean technologies early induces creativity and innovation across the whole economy and generates new learning and experience along the way.

It unleashes economies of scale in discovery and production, as businesses make and distribute things more cleverly and efficiently, dramatically lowering costs. This in turn makes deploying new technologies even more attractive, generating a virtuous cycle of innovation, investment and falling costs.

The cost of generating electricity with solar panels and the cost of storing it in lithium-ion batteries has fallen more than 80% over the last decade. Regardless of the need to decarbonise, people are now set to benefit from cheaper electricity and better performing cars than they otherwise would have. Economists never predicted it and the markets alone would never have delivered it.

Climate Change Committee/IRENA (2020) Renewable Power Generation Costs in 2019.

What happened was that renewable energy generation capacity grew faster than anyone expected, because the costs of installing and running renewables fell sharply. And costs fell sharply because capacity grew faster than anyone expected.

Conventional economic models cannot cope with the destabilising dynamics generated by these amplifying feedbacks, so they miss them entirely, together with the rapid cost cutting they entail. As a result, standard economic and energy forecasting models have been demonstrably wrong for decades.

A self-fulfilling prophecy

No cost benefit analysis can adequately answer the question "What will it cost to decarbonise in the long run?" The answer depends on the choices and actions taken today and in the future.

Once a tipping point is reached, such reinforcing feedbacks make the transition to new technology networks a self-sustaining process. If people expect the low-carbon transition will be cost-effective, they will invest in it.

In this way, expectations of rapid transformation become self-fulfilling. This makes credible and predictable government policy vital to provide investors and companies with confidence that a low-carbon future will be a profitable one.

Ambitious policy to generate a clean energy transition could ultimately be costless. After initial investment costs, it would likely generate considerable savings.

And once the clean innovation machine has been switched on and is running, it has the potential to become more efficient, innovative and productive than the conventional alternative. By driving prices for disruptive technologies extremely low, growth in new sectors will have a positive impact on productivity growth.

Rather than embarking on a fruitless attempt to predict the future using the wrong economic tools, our interests are better served trying to steer and design it. The economics profession is in a better position to cope with the risk and uncertainty this entails. Fifteen years on from the Stern Review, we can say with great confidence that the risks of action are far lower than the risks of inaction. More than that, those risks are in our gift to tame.

The global community has it in its power to make a cleaner, more secure and sustainable but also more efficient, innovative and productive economy a self-fulfilling prophecy. As world leaders gather in Glasgow for the latest UN climate summit, the call for action has never been more urgent.

This story is part of The Conversation's coverage on COP26, the Glasgow climate conference, by experts from around the world.
Amid a rising tide of climate news and stories, The Conversation is here to clear the air and make sure you get information you can trust. More.

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Climate change: how economists underestimated benefits of action for decades

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The costs of doing nothing vastly outweigh the costs of decarbonising a global economy which, since the Industrial Revolution, has been powered by fossil fuels. That may seem self-evident today, when catastrophic fires and floods offer daily reminders of how expensive continued inaction on climate change is.

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Your morning cup may depend on solving issues with a crop that both contributes to and is deeply affected by the changing climate.

A cupping session at Los Papales, a coffee farm in Jinotega, Nicaragua. Credit... Inti Ocon/Agence France-Presse, via Getty Images

This article is part of a special report on Climate Solutions, which looks at efforts around the world to make a difference.

Wilston Vilchez, a third-generation coffee farmer in the mountains of Nicaragua, has witnessed drastic climatic changes on his 25-acre coffee and cacao farm for years, but when two hurricanes hit within 15 days last year, many other farmers he knows realized they needed to be part of the solution.

"They might be small farmers, but they believe in doing something different that will benefit them all," he said.

Mr. Vilchez, who also manages an agricultural cooperative of about 300 farmers, said that the effects of climate change - rising temperatures, less predictable rainfall, wild swings from drought to flooding, new pests and more - were making it more and more difficult to earn a living from coffee, an experience felt by farmers around the world.

Various organizations and companies are seeking solutions to these challenges. They are helping farmers to improve production and efficiency, developing new strains of beans or farming wild species, and even growing coffee in labs. Producing coffee makes a significant environmental impact - estimates vary, but about 39 gallons of water are needed for one cup, according to UNESCO's Institute for Water Education.

However, people interviewed at these organizations and companies, and experts in the field, said that reducing greenhouse gas emissions would be the best way to ensure the future of coffee as we know it (or something close to what we know) and of the planet.

According to a 2014 study, under modest declines of greenhouse gas emissions, about 50 percent of the land with conditions suitable for growing the two main species of coffee, arabica and robusta, which account for 99 percent of commercial supply, "could disappear by 2050." Brazil and Vietnam, major producing countries, would be especially hard hit.

Denis Leonel, the manager of the farm Coqueiro, inspecting coffee crops that were affected by frosts in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais in July. Credit... Roosevelt Cassio/Reuters

To the billions of people around the world who rely on drinking coffee (to put it mildly), that forebodes many difficult mornings and possibly rising prices. To the 100 million or so coffee farmers, to say nothing of the tens of millions more who work in transporting, packaging, distributing, selling and brewing coffee, the effects of climate change are making an already precarious existence even more so.

On his farm and across the co-op, Mr. Vilchez works with Blue Harvest, a program from Catholic Relief Services (C.R.S.), started in 2014, which helps Central American coffee farmers restore and protect their water resources, for their benefit and for others who share the watershed downstream.

The program, which built on the organization's earlier work, began as Central America was in the grips of a coffee leaf rust epidemic about a decade ago. Coffee leaf rust is a fungus that decimates coffee plants, often leaving farmers with few choices: cut down their crop and replant, plant something else, or give up the farm. Some have linked the spread of the fungus to climate change because it thrives in warmer conditions with more variable precipitation.

Since climate change is making droughts both more frequent and intense, said Kristin Rosenow, an expert in agricultural development for C.R.S., using water more efficiently and preventing pollution of existing sources are crucially important.

Mr. Vilchez has worked with C.R.S. to restore his soil by planting cover crops. He has also helped other farmers to retain more soil moisture by planting shade trees, a traditional practice, and to employ other low-tech solutions, he said, speaking in Spanish translated by a C.R.S. staff member.

Ms. Rosenow said that these sorts of techniques, among others, like more targeted fertilizer use, had led to an increase of 24 percent in their yields for the farmers, and a 28 percent rise in income, some of which can be attributed to these techniques and some to access to new markets.

Another tactic is planting different varieties that can better withstand both the leaf rust and other climate stressors, according to Hanna Neuschwander, the director of strategy and communications at World Coffee Research.

Next year, World Coffee Research will start a global breeding network, which aims to introduce modern breeding techniques and new varieties in coffee-producing countries to help farmers dealing with new climatic conditions. Based on the information that is obtained, the organization will evaluate how new species perform in different environments around the world, a sort of real-time lab trial.

But there are challenges. When a farmer plants a coffee tree, it takes several years for it to make money. And because coffee trees can live for several decades, a tree that suits today's climate may be completely unsuited to future conditions, said Vern Long, the chief executive of World Coffee Research.

Sacks of coffee in the Zona de los Santos area of Costa Rica. Credit... Jeffrey Arguedas/EPA, via Shutterstock

One possible upside, Ms. Long added: Coffee farmers would not have to expand or move to higher altitudes that may be more suitable in the future but could be heavily forested and biodiverse, leading to loss of carbon sequestration potential and animal and plant habitat.

At the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in London, Aaron Davis, a coffee scientist who also specializes in climate change, is working on a different solution to ensure sustainability: introducing farmers to wild coffee species, which have not been widely cultivated previously, or at all, but are more tolerant of high temperatures and drought.

"Being a botanist and having done work in climatology, I can't emphasize enough that traditionally used species will not be enough," he said. "If you look at climate change models and projections, we need robust resilience and step change, not incremental change."

Maricel Saenz is also interested in step change, but in a different direction. She is the founder and chief executive of Compound Foods, a "beanless" coffee company that aims to produce coffee in a laboratory environment.

A coffee plant in Sierra Leone. Credit... Agence France-Presse, via Royal Botanical Gardens

Ms. Saenz, 29, is from Costa Rica, so naturally coffee and its future are important to her, she said. "It's a really complex situation, because coffee is one of the main victims and contributors to climate change," she said, citing the energy and water required to grow, transport and brew a cup of coffee.

Compound Foods does not grow any coffee - at least, not in the traditional sense. Instead, the company replicates the microbes from actual coffee cherries, which give a cup of coffee its flavor and aroma, Ms. Saenz said. The microbes are grown on their plant-based formula in bioreactors, a fermentation process similar to what happens naturally at a coffee farm.

At the moment, this makes a cold-brew style extract that mimics the flavor, color and smell of real coffee, but with much less energy and water. They plan to distribute this first product through coffee shops next year and, later, to create coffee grounds that can be brewed at home.

When asked about how her company might affect smallholder farmers who grow most of the world's coffee and often struggle to make a living, Ms. Saenz said that she was hoping to compete with the big industrial farmers and to find ways to support the farmers she grew up knowing.

In both the long and short term, that may mean addressing the root cause itself: greenhouse gas emissions.

As Vincent Amodoi, a project coordinator in Uganda for Farm Africa, a British charity that works with farmers, pastoralists and forest communities in East Africa, including coffee growers, said, "For me, climate change should be one of the major focuses for all governments in the world, and that is just not happening."

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Coffee and Climate Have a Complicated Relationship

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Your morning cup may depend on solving issues with a crop that both contributes to and is deeply affected by the changing climate. This article is part of a special report on Climate Solutions, which looks at efforts around the world to make a difference.

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파란색과 초록색 삽화 어스 아워 인스타그램 게시물

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금색, 분홍색 및 파란색 도형 건강 인플루언서 인스타그램 하이라이트 표지 세트 (1)

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Black and Yellow Pollution Photo Collage World Environment Day Poster

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https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-58657224

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Air pollution: Even worse than we thought - WHO

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The WHO is slashing recommended maximum limits of key pollutants as evidence of danger mounts.

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Global leaders, celebrities, individuals, youth groups and businesses from a record-breaking 192 countries and territories came together on Saturday 27 March, to lend their support for the planet.

#EarthHour and related hashtags trended across 42 countries on Twitter or Google search, and 1.2 billion social views came from TikTok alone with Earth Hour trending in most regions.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Pope Francis and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen were among the many influential leaders and celebrities who supported Earth Hour 2021, to draw attention to the nature and climate crises.

Earth Hour Virtual Spotlight video, featuring narration by John Kani and music by Miel de Botton, highlighting the link between nature loss and pandemics, had at least 2.4 million views in 24 hours, making it the most watched video in Earth Hour history.

SINGAPORE, 28 March 2021 - As Earth Hour rolled across the globe on Saturday, millions of people came together online to speak up for nature and inspire action for a brighter future. The movement, which is in its 15th year, saw individuals, influential leaders, celebrities, youth groups and businesses shine a virtual spotlight on our planet and the role we can all play in the global efforts to address the climate and nature crises.

Earth Hour 2021 generated 6.7 billion impressions globally on social media channels and other platforms including TikTok and LinkedIn, and its related hashtags trended across 42 countries on Twitter or Google search, making 2021 the most successful online event in Earth Hour's history. The Virtual Spotlight video, which highlights the link between nature loss and pandemics, garnered 2.4 million views in 24 hours making it the most watched video in Earth Hour history.

"The success of Earth Hour always moves me. Just when we think it can't get any bigger, it demonstrates again the enormous weight of public desire for environmental action. As the world faces unprecedented challenges, people have come together to speak up for nature - loudly and clearly - and inspire urgent action for the environment," said Marco Lambertini, Director General at WWF International.

"By continuing to destroy nature, we are the ones who are responsible for increasing our own vulnerability to pandemics, accelerating climate change, and threatening our food security. This has to change, and Earth Hour shows that millions of people around the world are demanding that change. From Indonesia to Kenya, Colombia to China, and from the US to Spain, people spoke up for nature at a time when nature needs us to reduce our impact, and we need healthy nature to support a healthy society. This is the year when we must commit to reverse nature loss by the end of this decade, building a nature positive society."

Celebrities and prominent public personalities from around the world supported Earth Hour to help raise awareness on the importance of nature and inspiring action. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, Pope Francis, Desmond Tutu, and many other influential leaders highlighted that by acting for nature, we can all create a fairer, healthier and more sustainable world. Hollywood actor , Modern Family star Sofia Vergara, Korean actor Park Seo-Joon, Jamaican recording artist , Olympic gold medalist Eliud Kipchoge, actress and UN ambassador , tennis ace Andy Murray, the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall, Colombian model Claudia Bahamon, and DJ Armin van Buuren were among the many public figures who participated in Earth Hour by speaking up for people and nature.

In recognition of the critical role young people will play in creating a more sustainable world, global youth groups including Fridays For Future, , United Nations Global Youth Biodiversity Network , World Organization for the Scout Movement , , and Global Youth Action Team participated in Earth Hour calling for a safer, healthier future for all. , the beloved children's animated series and Earth Hour's Global Children's ambassador, launched Earth Hour special episodes, songs and an activity book to educate children about the importance of nature.

Taking place just a few months before crucial climate and nature summits in 2021, Earth Hour is a strong reminder of people's determination to tackle our planet's biggest environmental challenges. As lights and cities dimmed, supporters took over social media by sharing an Earth Hour video about the deterioration of our planet and our increasing vulnerability to pandemics.

"Earth Hour continues to show us the impact we can achieve when we unite, sparking hope for the future we can shape for generations to come. Millions of people around the world are urging world leaders to act decisively by securing an international commitment for people and nature. We have an unmissable opportunity to agree on a global plan for a sustainable future using the global agreements on nature and climate scheduled later this year. By acting together now, we can solve the dual threats of climate change and nature loss. Let us seize this opportunity to secure a better future by putting both the health of people and our planet first," said Lambertini.

In a year with limited public gatherings, iconic monuments including the Olympic Bird's Nest Stadium in Beijing, Tokyo Skytree, Hong Kong's Victoria Harbour, Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Gardens by the Bay in Singapore, Eiffel Tower, London Eye, Kremlin, St Peter's Square in the Vatican, Rome's Colosseum, Acropolis in Athens and Niagara Falls switched off their lights as a symbolic gesture of solidarity for the planet. Millions of people at home also switched off to show their support for urgent action for climate, nature and people.

Earth Hour 2021 mobilized people across continents to raise their voices on environmental issues affecting their countries.

In Uganda, Earth Hour partnered with the Scouts, social organisations and government agencies for Earth Hour to push for a total single-use plastic ban. They also launched a "Keep It Green and Clean" campaign by organising a local clean-up and tree-planting drive.

Countries came together for the biggest Latin America Digital March for Earth Hour. The interactive platform allowed participants to personalize their avatars and message to "speak up for nature" under three themes: biodiversity, plastic and climate change.

Malaysia organized a 10km Virtual Run, the proceeds of which will help to fund projects on nature, wildlife and forests.

The Philippines launched an exciting 4-hour long film marathon named Earth Hour Phlix featuring different themed films for all ages to inspire people to #SpeakUpForNature and create the world they wish to live in.

Singapore organised a digital campaign to mobilise people for achieving net-zero emissions in Singapore by 2050 by inviting individuals to set up their own net-zero plans with tangible climate actions to reduce their overall carbon footprint.

In Eswatini, Minister of Natural Resources and Energy, Peter Bhembe, launched the "Climate Change to Save Earth" campaign on Earth Hour to inspire businesses to transition to renewable energy.

Next year, Earth Hour will be held on Saturday 26 March 2022 at 8:30p.m. local time.

---ends---
Notes to the Editors:
For more information, please contact: news@wwfint.org

Earth Hour 2021 Global Highlights Video

Earth Hour 2021: A message from United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres

Earth Hour 2021 Photo Gallery

Earth Hour global b-roll

Earth Hour highlights infographic

Earth Hour 2021 Official Video

Earth Hour Virtual Spotlight Video
About Earth Hour
Earth Hour is WWF's flagship global environmental movement. Born in Sydney in 2007, Earth Hour has grown to become one of the world's largest grassroots movements for the environment, inspiring individuals, communities, businesses and organizations in more than 180 countries and territories to take tangible environmental action. Historically, Earth Hour has focused on the climate crisis, but more recently, Earth Hour has strived to also bring the pressing issue of link nature loss and its impact on our health. The aim is to create an unstoppable movement for nature for addressing the climate and biodiversity crisis.The movement recognizes the role of individuals in creating solutions to the planet's most pressing environmental challenges and harnesses the collective power of its millions of supporters to drive change.

Earth Hour is kindly supported by Germany's Federal Ministry of the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety with funding from the International Climate Initiative (IKI), as a part of the project "Scaling up Biodiversity Communication".
About WWF
WWF is an independent conservation organization, with over 30 million followers and a global network active in nearly 100 countries. Our mission is to stop the degradation of the planet's natural environment and to build a future in which people live in harmony with nature, by conserving the world's biological diversity, ensuring that the use of renewable natural resources is sustainable, and promoting the reduction of pollution and wasteful consumption. Visit for the latest news and media resources; follow us on Twitter

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Earth Hour 2021 breaks all records calling for action in crucial year for climate, people and nature

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Global leaders, celebrities, individuals, youth groups and businesses from a record-breaking 192 countries and territories came together on Saturday 27 March, to lend their support for the planet. #EarthHour and related hashtags trended across 42 countries on Twitter or Google search, and 1.2 billion social views came from TikTok alone with Earth Hour trending in most regions.

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SINGAPORE, 18 February 2020 - On Saturday, 28 March at 8:30 p.m. local time, Earth Hour, one of the largest global grassroots movements for the environment, will bring people together around the world to show their commitment to the planet. With global biodiversity declining at an unprecedented and alarming rate, up to one million species threatened with extinction ¹ and the planet on the brink of runaway global warming, it is ever more important to raise awareness that nature is the critical foundation of a healthy planet and an immediate, powerful and cost-effective solution to climate disaster.

Earth Hour 2020 will see millions of people around the world join in at events, and will invite them to sign their support online at Voice for the Planet. These signatures will be later presented to world leaders in global forums such as the United Nations General Assembly to help secure a New Deal for Nature and People to address nature loss, reverse environmental decline, and safeguard our all our futures.

"The global rate of nature loss during the past 50 years is unprecedented in human history, threatening human lives and well-being," said Marco Lambertini, Director General, WWF International. ''The services provided by nature are estimated to be worth US$125 trillion a year - double the world's GDP - and without nature's resources, the businesses and services we depend on will fail. Nature also benefits us by providing our food, water and clean air, and is one of our strongest allies against climate change. It is vital that we add our Voice for the Planet to press for a New Deal for Nature and People in 2020 for a sustainable future for all."

Apart from civil society organisations and citizens, many heads of states, environmentalists and celebrities will also be celebrating Earth Hour, joining the movement needed to secure a healthy, climate-resilient and sustainable future for all. The official Earth Hour 2020 video shares the voices of citizens, businesses, governments and celebrities from across the world, including; Lara Worthington (Model and Actor, Australia), Antonio Guterres (UN Secretary-General), Alexander Van Der Bellen (President, Austria), Gonzalo Revoredo (Actor, Peru) Swoopna Suman (Musician, Nepal) and Deng Lun (Actor, China).

In the past decade, Earth Hour has inspired global participation in critical nature, climate and environmental initiatives, helping drive awareness and, in turn, action and policy change. Among its highlights, the movement has helped in the creation of a 3.5 million hectare marine-protected area in Argentina, a 2,700-hectare Earth Hour forest in Uganda and helped pass new legislation for the protection of seas and forests in Russia. Last year, WWF-Ecuador pushed for a law to ban the use of plastic bags, other single-use plastic and Styrofoam products in the capital and WWF-Indonesia initiated the planting of 20,000 mangrove seedlings in 13 cities.

Visit www.earthhour.org to find out what is happening at Earth Hour in locations around the world. Be a part of shaping history by raising your Voice for the Planet. This is our time to secure a healthy, sustainable and fairer future for all.

_______
Notes to Editors:
Link to official Earth Hour site

Watch the Official Earth Hour 2020 Video

Link to Earth Hour 2019 photos

Link for WWF's New Deal for Nature and People

Link for Earth Hour gifs on Giphy
For more information, please contact:
Lotika Mehta, Media Relations Manager

Email: lmehta@wwfint.org

Kanika Kohli, Communications Media Specialist

Email: kkohli@wwfint.org
About Earth Hour
Earth Hour is WWF's flagship global environmental movement. Born in Sydney in 2007, Earth Hour has grown to become one of the world's largest grassroots movements for the environment, inspiring individuals, communities, businesses and organizations in more than 180 countries and territories to take tangible environmental action for over a decade. Historically, Earth Hour has focused on the climate crisis, but more recently, Earth Hour has strived to also bring the pressing issue of nature loss to the fore. The aim is to create an unstoppable movement for nature, as it did when the world came together to tackle climate change. The movement recognizes the role of individuals in creating solutions to the planet's most pressing environmental challenges and harnesses the collective power of its millions of supporters to drive change.

Earth Hour is kindly supported by Germany's Federal Ministry of the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety with funding from the International Climate Initiative (IKI), as a part of the project "Scaling up Biodiversity Communication"
About WWF
WWF is one of the world's largest and most respected independent conservation organizations, with over 5 million supporters and a global network active in over 100 countries. WWF's mission is to stop the degradation of the earth's natural environment and to build a future in which humans live in harmony with nature, by conserving the world's biological diversity, ensuring that the use of renewable natural resources is sustainable, and promoting the reduction of pollution and wasteful consumption. Visit panda.org/news for the latest news and media resources.

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Earth Hour 2020 to mobilize millions of "Voices for The Planet"

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SINGAPORE, 18 February 2020 - On Saturday, 28 March at 8:30 p.m. local time, Earth Hour, one of the largest global grassroots movements for the environment, will bring people together around the world to show their commitment to the planet.

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SINGAPORE (20 March 2016) - On Saturday, as WWF's Earth Hour rolled across the world from Samoa to Santiago, millions came together to shine a light on the climate action our planet needs. The tenth edition of the movement's signature lights out event saw individuals, communities, organizations and landmarks in an unprecedented 178 countries and territories switch off in solidarity with global efforts to change climate change.

Taking place months after the historic climate summit in Paris, Earth Hour 2016 was celebrated across seven continents, aboard the International Space Station and served as a strong visual reminder of the globe's determination to tackle our planet's biggest environmental challenge yet. As more than 400 iconic landmarks dimmed their lights, a collective hope that our actions today can create promise for the planet and future generations shined through.

"The past 24 hours have shown us yet again the impact we can achieve when we unite for a cause," said Siddarth Das, Executive Director, Earth Hour Global. "Every light switch turned off represents a call to switch on our collective power and be the first line of defence for our planet as we form the frontlines of climate change."

While the Earth Hour movement has grown from a one-city event in Sydney in 2007 to the world's largest grassroots movement for the environment, the need for climate action has also accelerated. This year, WWF and Earth Hour teams used the Earth Hour movement to engage people in critical climate conversations and solutions.

As buildings in Singapore's central business district turned off their lights, people at the WWF-Singapore event came forward to 'plant a forest' in Sumatra, Indonesia which lost 2 million hectares of forest to burning between September and October 2015.

Across the globe, in the World Heritage site of the Galápagos Islands, where Earth Hour has previously helped achieve a ban on disposable plastic bags and expanded polystyrene packaging, the WWF-Ecuador team centred its Earth Hour event on the theme of locally-grown produce. As an island, access to food is a key issue for the Galápagos Islands and WWF-Ecuador is also partnering with restaurants and the hospitality sector in mainland Ecuador to create awareness on sustainable food.

In Tanzania, as the world switched off, WWF-Tanzania's Earth Hour campaign brought people together to install a solar-powered water pump to serve a primary school and local dispensary in the Temeke Municipality.

"As new climate records are broken month after month, the record-breaking participation of Earth Hour reminds us that we are also witnessing mounting momentum to change climate change. The grassroots are meeting the governments in their ambition for strong climate action, sparking hope for the future we can shape for generations to come," added Das.

These words were echoed by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in a video statement recorded for the movement in which he states that Earth Hour 2016 comes at a pivotal moment when the road ahead requires commitment and ambition and we all have a role to play.

To date in 2016, WWF's Earth Hour has been the force behind more than 1.23 million individual actions taken to help change climate change including participating in on-the-ground activities for reforestation and recycling, digital petitions for climate-friendly policy and online campaigns to promote climate awareness and action.

As part of the "Donate Your Social Power" campaign, supporters around the world also donated their social feeds to WWF and Earth Hour to shine a light on climate action. With automated posts and custom Earth Hour profile pictures appearing in personal newsfeeds worldwide, supporters helped spread awareness and action on climate across a potential social reach surpassing 18.7 million people.

"As the world stands at a climate crossroads, Earth Hour has ensured that the demand for climate action echoes across the globe, from glass skylines to digital timelines," said Das.

As the hour rolls to a close in Cook Islands today, WWF and Earth Hour teams around the world will continue to empower individuals, communities, businesses and governments to be a part of critical climate action for sustainable food and agriculture, climate education, conservation projects, renewable energy and climate-friendly legislation. Strengthened by the support shown this weekend, teams will renew the charge to tackle issues such as sustainable palm oil practices in Southeast Asia, a transition toward renewables in Sweden, Spain and Scotland, sustainable lifestyles in China and Chile and protecting forests and wildlife habitats in Africa and South and Central America.
Earth Hour 2016 by the numbers (based on initial estimates collected on 20 March 2016):
- record participation by 178 countries and territories;
- over 6,600 events registered on digital maps by individuals and organizations;
- 1.23 million individual actions taken to help change climate change (on-the-ground activities, digital actions and climate petitions);
- lights out at over 400 iconic landmarks including the Sydney Opera House (Sydney), Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament (London), the Tokyo Tower (Tokyo), the Empire State Building (New York), Marina Bay Sands Hotel (Singapore) and the Eiffel Tower (Paris);
- over 2.5 billion impressions of official campaign hashtags in the week leading up to and on Earth Hour (14-19 March).

Since 2007, WWF's Earth Hour has mobilized businesses, organizations, governments and hundreds of millions of individuals in over 7,000 cities and more than 170 countries and territories to act for a sustainable future.

Link to UN Secretary-General Statement on Earth Hour 2016: http://ehour.me/EH-UNSG

Link to videos and photos from Earth Hour 2016: https://www.earthhour.org/media-centre

************************
For media inquires or requests for press interviews, please contact: Rucha Naware, Communications Manager - Earth Hour Global; rucha@earthhour.org +65 8148 2477 About Earth Hour:
Earth Hour is WWF's global environmental movement. Born in Sydney in 2007, Earth Hour has grown to become the world's largest grassroots movement for the environment, inspiring individuals, communities, businesses and organizations in over 170 countries and territories to take tangible climate action. Celebrating the tenth edition of its signature lights out event in March 2016, the Earth Hour movement continues to harness the power of its millions of supporters to shine a light on climate action and the power of the individual to change climate change.
About WWF:
WWF is one of the world's largest and most respected independent conservation organizations, with over five million supporters and a global network active in more than 100 countries. WWF's mission is to stop the degradation of the earth's natural environment and to build a future in which humans live in harmony with nature, by conserving the world's biological diversity, ensuring that the use of renewable natural resources is sustainable, and promoting the reduction of pollution and wasteful

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As Skylines Darken For Earth Hour, Millions Shine A Light On Climate Action

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SINGAPORE (20 March 2016) - On Saturday, as WWF's Earth Hour rolled across the world from Samoa to Santiago, millions came together to shine a light on the climate action our planet needs. The tenth edition of the movement's signature lights out event saw individuals, communities, organizations and landmarks in an unprecedented 178 countries and territories switch off in solidarity with global efforts to change climate change.

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Scientific evidence shows that nature loss is linked to an increased risk of pandemics.

Earth Hour 2021 comes ahead of key events where decisions will be taken by world leaders on climate, sustainable development, and nature preservation, that will define our future and the future of the planet.

To ensure public safety as COVID restrictions continue in most parts of the world, Earth Hour will be celebrated virtually.

25 February 2021, Singapore- On Saturday, 27 March at 8:30 p.m. local time, Earth Hour, one of the largest global grassroots movements for the environment, will virtually bring together millions of people, businesses and leaders from around the world to shine a spotlight on the urgent need to address nature loss and climate change. With pointing towards a close link between nature's destruction and rising incidences of infectious disease outbreaks like COVID-19, Earth Hour 2021 will unite people online to speak up for nature. This global event comes ahead of key moments when world leaders will take critical decisions on, climate change and sustainable development , setting the course of our future.

The occurrence of several catastrophic incidents last year including extreme weather events, devastating wildfires and the COVID-19 outbreak highlighted that preventing nature loss is crucial for safeguarding our future. A global assessment of biodiversity targets showed that the world failed to meet the 2020 deadline for achieving the targets set for preventing nature loss a decade ago. Earth Hour marks a pivotal opportunity for civil society organisations, individuals, businesses and environmentalists to call on world leaders for setting nature on a path to recovery by 2030.

"Healthy natural ecosystems are the cornerstone of thriving, equitable and sustainable societies. Our current socio-economic models are leading to the devastating destruction of nature which is increasing our vulnerability to pandemics, accelerating climate change, and placing livelihoods at risk.'' said Marco Lambertini, Director General, WWF International. ''2021 is a crucial year for humanity. As the world tries to turn the tide and recover from the ravages of the COVID-19 pandemic and rebuild itself, we need to put nature at the centre of our recovery efforts to future proof our economies and societies. Earth Hour is a critical moment for individuals, leaders, and environmentalists to unite and call for urgent action to reverse nature loss and secure a nature-positive world by 2030."

In the past decade, Earth Hour has inspired the global initiatives for protection of nature, climate and the environment, helping drive awareness, action and policy change. The movement helped in the creation of a 3.5 million hectare protected marine area in Argentina, a 2,700-hectare Earth Hour forest in Uganda, secured new legislation for the protection of seas and forests in Russia, pushed for a ban on single-use plastics and Styrofoam products in the Ecuadorian capital, and initiated the planting of 20,000 mangrove seedlings in 13 cities in Indonesia.

Visit www.earthhour.org to find out more about events happening this Earth Hour around the world.

###

Notes to Editors:

Learn more about Earth Hour's first-ever "Virtual Spotlight"

Watch the Earth Hour 2021 Official Video
For more information, please contact:
Kanika Kohli | Media Specialist | kkohli@wwfint.org
About Earth Hour
Earth Hour is WWF's flagship global environmental movement. Born in Sydney in 2007, Earth Hour has grown to become one of the world's largest grassroots movements for the environment, inspiring individuals, communities, businesses and organizations in more than 180 countries and territories to take tangible environmental action for over a decade. Historically, Earth Hour has focused on the climate crisis, but more recently, Earth Hour has strived to also bring the pressing issue of nature loss to the fore. The aim is to create an unstoppable movement for nature, as it did when the world came together to tackle climate change. The movement recognizes the role of individuals in creating solutions to the planet's most pressing environmental challenges and harnesses the collective power of its millions of supporters to drive change.

Earth Hour is kindly supported by Germany's Federal Ministry of the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety with funding from the International Climate Initiative (IKI), as a part of the project "Scaling up Biodiversity Communication".
About WWF
WWF is an independent conservation organization, with over 30 million followers and a global network active in nearly 100 countries. Our mission is to stop the degradation of the planet's natural environment and to build a future in which people live in harmony with nature, by conserving the world's biological diversity, ensuring that the use of renewable natural resources is sustainable, and promoting the reduction of pollution and wasteful consumption. Visit this page for the latest news and media resources; follow us on Twitter @WWF_media

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Earth Hour 2021 shines a spotlight on the perilous state of the planet, calling for urgent action to set nature on the path of recovery.

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Scientific evidence shows that nature loss is linked to an increased risk of pandemics. Earth Hour 2021 comes ahead of key events where decisions will be taken by world leaders on climate, sustainable development, and nature preservation, that will define our future and the future of the planet.

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https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-53521001.amp

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By Victoria Gill

Science correspondent, BBC News

Image source, Getty Images

Image caption,

The single biggest use of plastics is in packaging and it tends to be used just once before being thrown away

An estimated 1.3 billion tonnes of plastic is destined for our environment - both on land and in the ocean - by 2040, unless worldwide action is taken.

Dr Costas Velis from the University of Leeds said the number was "staggering" but that we had "the technology and the opportunity to stem the tide".

"This is the first comprehensive assessment of what the picture could be in 20 years' time," Dr Velis explained. "It's difficult to picture an amount that large, but if you could imagine laying out all that plastic across a flat surface, it would cover the area of the UK 1.5 times.

"It's complex [to calculate] becayse plastic is everywhere and, in every part of the world, it's different in terms of how it's used and dealt with."

Image source, Getty Images

Image caption,

Beach plastic may be a very small fraction of the waste out there

To turn this complex problem into numbers, the researchers tracked the production, use and disposal of plastic around the world. The team then created a model to forecast future plastic pollution. What they called a "business as usual" scenario - based on the current trend of increasing plastic production and no significant change in the amount of reuse and recycling - produced the 1.3 billion tonne estimate.

By adjusting their model, the researchers were able to project how much different interventions would affect that number; they tweaked their model to increase recycling, reduce production and replace plastic with other available materials.

Winnie Lau from the US-based Pew Charitable Trusts, which funded the research, told BBC News that it was vital to put in place every possible solution. "If we do that," she said, "we can reduce the amount of plastic that goes into the ocean - by 2040 - by 80%."

Steps the researchers called for included:

reducing growth in plastic production and consumption

substituting plastic with paper and compostable materials

designing products and packaging for recycling

expanding waste collection rates in middle/low-income countries and supporting the "informal collection" sector

building facilities to dispose of the 23% of plastic that cannot be recycled economically, as a transitional measure

reduce plastic waste exports

But even if "all feasible action" was taken, Dr Velis explained, the model showed there would be 710 million extra tonnes of plastic waste in the environment in the next two decades.

There is no "silver bullet solution", for the plastic problem. But an often overlooked issue that this study highlighted was the fact that an estimated 2 billion people in the Global South have no access to proper waste management. "They have to just get rid of all their rubbish, so they have no choice but to burn or dump it," said Dr Velis.

And despite playing a major role in reducing global plastic waste, the roughly 11 million waste pickers - people who collect and sell reusable materials in low-income countries - often lack basic employment rights and safe working conditions.

Image source, David Shukman

Image caption,

Waste pickers often work in unsafe conditions

Dr Velis said: "Waste pickers are the unsung heroes of recycling - without whom the mass of plastic entering the aquatic environment would be considerably greater." He added that policies to support them and make their work safer were a vital part of solving this problem.

"The authors are clear that there are large uncertainties in the data and analysis but regardless of the exact figures, the increasing rate of plastic production to meet increasing global demand has pretty dire consequences for the environment," he told BBC News.

To play this content, please enable JavaScript, or try a different browser

Video caption,
What happens to microplastics in the ocean?

Prof Jamie Woodward, also from the University of Manchester, pointed out the irony in this scenario being laid out during the pandemic.

"Plastic has kept many frontline workers safe through this," he said. "But PPE waste over the next decade could be horrendous.

"There are parallels with the climate change problem in that business as usual will be disastrous. We need to radically change our behaviour."

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'Staggering' levels of plastic pollution by 2040 - BBC News

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By Victoria Gill Science correspondent, BBC News An estimated 1.3 billion tonnes of plastic is destined for our environment - both on land and in the ocean - by 2040, unless worldwide action is taken. Dr Costas Velis from the University of Leeds said the number was "staggering" but that we had "the technology and the opportunity to stem the tide".

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노란색 트렌디한 사진 중심 소매 내 스토리

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https://www.nknews.org/2021/11/two-koreas-should-fight-global-warming-together-former-rok-climate-ambassador/

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Two Koreas should fight global warming together: Former ROK climate ambassador | NK News

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A North Korean delegation’s attendance at the U.N. Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow this week has raised hopes for diplomatic contact on the sidelines of the event, with South Korean officials citing the possibility of talks on forestry cooperation. Such cooperation on climate change iss…

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Two Koreas should fight global warming together: Former ROK climate ambassador

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https://api.nationalgeographic.com/distribution/public/amp/environment/article/global-warming-overview

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Glaciers are melting, sea levels are rising, cloud forests are dying, and wildlife is scrambling to keep pace. It has become clear that humans have caused most of the past century's warming by releasing heat-trapping gases as we power our modern lives. Called greenhouse gases, their levels are higher now than at any time in the last 800,000 years.

We often call the result global warming, but it is causing a set of changes to the Earth's climate, or long-term weather patterns, that varies from place to place. While many people think of global warming and climate change as synonyms, scientists use "climate change" when describing the complex shifts now affecting our planet's weather and climate systems-in part because some areas actually get cooler in the short term.

Climate change encompasses not only rising average temperatures but also extreme weather events, shifting wildlife populations and habitats, rising seas, and a range of other impacts. All of those changes are emerging as humans continue to add heat-trapping greenhouse gases to the atmosphere, changing the rhythms of climate that all living things have come to rely on.

What will we do-what can we do-to slow this human-caused warming? How will we cope with the changes we've already set into motion? While we struggle to figure it all out, the fate of the Earth as we know it-coasts, forests, farms, and snow-capped mountains-hangs in the balance.

Understanding the greenhouse effect

The "greenhouse effect" is the warming that happens when certain gases in Earth's...

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What is global warming, facts and information?

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Glaciers are melting, sea levels are rising, cloud forests are drying, and wildlife is scrambling to keep pace.

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https://www.google.co.kr/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2021/10/31/politics/g20-climate-communique/index.html

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g20 agrees on key climate goals around global warming limits and coal financing

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but lacks firm commitments - cnnpolitics

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G20 agrees on key climate goals around global warming limits and coal financing, but lacks firm commitments

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The Group of 20's leaders' summit ended Sunday with an agreement on climate that commits its member nations to end coal financing by the end of the year and to aim to contain global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

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http://www.koreaittimes.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=108749

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JB Financial Group announced on October 7 that it produced eco-bag goods and conducted an environmental campaign. / Courtesy of JB Financial Group

JB Financial Group announced on October 7 that as a part of reducing the use of disposable products for environmental protection, it produced eco-bag goods and conducted an environmental campaign to present them to employees through its webzine.

This campaign was conducted for the purpose of reducing the use of disposable plastic bags and encouraging the use of eco-bags for environmental protection, and JB Financial Group executives and employees also actively participated and responded.

An employee of JB Financial Group who participated in the campaign said, "Using eco-bags has reduced the use of disposable products in daily life, and it is a meaningful experience to practice environmental protection."

Previously, JB Financial Group carried out contactless social contribution activities such as "making toy soap" and "donating used books" in line with the social paradigm changing due to COVID-19.

"We decided to plan the production of eco-bag goods to help solve the environmental problem that has emerged as a social issue," said a JB Financial Group official. "We plan to actively carry out environmental contribution campaigns that can be easily practiced in our daily life."

Meanwhile, JB Financial Group is South Korea's comprehensive financial group with Jeonbuk Bank, Kwangju Bank, JB Woori Capital, and JB Asset Management as subsidiaries, Phnom Penh Commercial Bank (PPCBank), JB Capital Myanmar, JB Securities Vietnam, and JB Phnom Penh Asset Management as grand-subsidiaries.

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JB Financial Group launches eco-bag gift environment campaign

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JB Financial Group announced on October 7 that as a part of reducing the use of disposable products for environmental protection, it produced eco-bag goods and conducted an environmental campaign to present them to employees through its webzine.This campaign was conducted for the purpose of reducing

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https://physicsworld.com/a/climate-change-in-a-nutshell-the-causes-and-effects-of-global-warming-simply-put/

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Taken from the October 2021 issue of Physics World. Members of the Institute of Physics can enjoy the full issue via the Physics World app.

Laura Hiscott reviews Small Gases, Big Effect: This is Climate Change by David Nelles and Christian Serrer

(Courtesy: Shutterstock/Bruce Rolff)

It might sound impossible to explain something as complex as the mechanisms of climate change both simply and accurately. But this is exactly what David Nelles and Christian Serrer - students at the University of Friedrichshafen, Germany - have achieved with their book Small Gases, Big Effect: This is Climate Change.

Approved by more than 100 scientists, Small Gases, Big Effect starts with a breakdown of the components of the Earth's climate, before detailing the many interconnected factors that can influence it. The book then lays out evidence on how climate change is affecting different regions of the globe and their ecosystems; the positive and negative feedback loops that come into play; and ultimately the impacts on humans, both direct and indirect.

Fitting with its aims of concisely presenting the "nuts and bolts of climate change", the book is written very matter-of-factly, in short, easily digestible chunks that don't tire the reader's attention. Every double-page spread features a graphic, either illustrating a concept to help you properly grasp it or showing the data on various impacts that global warming has had.

While the book acknowledges that the people worst affected by climate change are generally those who have contributed the least to the problem, it includes many examples of effects already being observed in European countries.

For instance, one graphic shows that some animal and plant species in Switzerland have migrated to higher altitudes in the mountains in recent years, while another highlights the increasing spread of tiger mosquitoes - which can transmit the Dengue virus - into European countries between 2000 and 2017. For readers in Europe, it's a timely reminder that climate chaos is not a distant problem but something that will also manifest close to home.

2021 Particular Books £7.99hb 128pp

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Climate change in a nutshell: the causes and effects of global warming, simply put - Physics World

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Taken from the October 2021 issue of Physics World. Members of the Institute of Physics can enjoy the full issue via the Physics World app. Laura Hiscott reviews Small Gases, Big Effect: This is Climate Change by David Nelles and Christian Serrer It might sound impossible to explain something as complex as the mechanisms of climate change both simply and accurately.

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How plastic pollution is affecting seals and other marine life

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Microplastics, abandoned fishing gear and other plastic pollution are among our biggest environmental threats. It's hurting sea animals and making them sick

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Black and Yellow Pollution Photo Collage World Environment Day Poster (1)

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https://www.google.co.kr/amp/s/api.nationalgeographic.com/distribution/public/amp/environment/article/global-warming-overview

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Learn about why and how our climate is changing.

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https://www.oceanrecov.org/?gclid=Cj0KCQjw5oiMBhDtARIsAJi0qk07JOE6KOlxBHhFq6R5U__SmzXRFqf6oKBP6iQAr9VgxNqefumgucsaAkItEALw_wcB

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Ocean Recovery Alliance - Ocean Recovery Alliance

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30 Schools in North America, live with Erden, "somewhere" in the Pacific during his epic rowing expedition from California to Hong Kong On the 21st of June, 2021, Erden Eruc, a global adventurer, started his epic journey, "" across the Pacifc Ocean, rowing from Crescent City, California to Hong Kong, in the first-ever human-powered solo Pacific crossing north of the equator.

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A polar bear on Barter Island, near Kaktovik. (Lisa Hupp/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service)

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is beginning its next review of polar bears' status under the Endangered Species Act.

The review, which the Fish and Wildlife Service conducts every five years, could result in polar bears being "uplisted" to endangered, with further protections, or de-listed altogether. And of course, they might just stay right where they are, listed as threatened and still protected under the Endangered Species Act and other laws.

Erin Knoll is the Threatened and Endangered Species Coordinator for the Fish and Wildlife Service's Alaska region. While polar bears' status as a threatened species often draws a lot of attention, Knoll says it's too early to say what recommendations might come out of the review or what implications they might have.

Listen here:
[Sign up for Alaska Public Media's daily newsletter to get our top stories delivered to your inbox.] The following transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.
Erin Knoll: So every five years, we review the status of listed species. So we are looking for information, any new information since the last review, which was done in 2017. And that information includes information about the species, its habitat and any threats that it might face, or it does face, since the last review. And we're looking for information from the public, you know, any researchers that are out there. We have already coordinated with partners and reached out to them, including the state of Alaska, tribal governments, corporations, researchers at universities and other countries, to see if they have any new information.

Casey Grove: Gotcha. So it's kind of an open call to people, but there's also coordination and sort of some outreach involved there?

EK: Yes, we send out letters to our existing partners, but then we want to keep it open, and we don't want to limit ourselves. So we reached out. It goes out to the general public too.

CG: So, understanding that this is kind of a long-term process, what, in the future, are the possible implications of polar bears being uplisted to endangered, if that were to happen?

EK: So right now, we're working on this five-year status review. And it's important to understand that a status review only results in a recommendation. And that recommendation could be a recommendation to uplist to endangered or to downlist, or in this case, delist. If the recommendation is to uplist, we would go through the rulemaking process. So we would write a proposed rule, which would then get published in the Federal Register. So now we're talking like a couple years out, and then that proposed rule would result in a 60-day comment period for the public, at a minimum. And once that comment period closes, we would review and consider all public comments prior to finalizing a rule. So when polar bears were first listed as threatened, we also published a special rule called a 4D rule. And that provides them protections very similar to what they would have if they were to be uplisted as endangered. If they were to be uplisted as endangered, we would review our conservation management plan and see if there were any additional measures that would be needed to continue to conserve polar bears. But as they're currently listed as threatened, they receive almost the same protections as they would if they were to be uplifted to endangered.

CG: It's probably important to point out that the Endangered Species Act isn't the only thing that affords protections to polar bears, right? There are other laws, and what are those? And how do those compare to the Endangered Species Act?

EK: Yeah, so polar bears are also protected by the Marine Mammal Protection Act, and CITES, which is the Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. And it's really the Marine Mammals Protection Act that provides the polar bears with a lot of protections. But the Endangered Species Act does give us additional flexibility to work with states and provide funding for listed species. It also directs us to work with federal agencies that authorize, fund, permit and carry out projects to ensure that those projects minimize impacts to listed species, like the polar bear. And then we can also work with private landowners to help with any listed species conservation.

CG: Okay. I have to ask, because I think there's been a lot of attention on polar bears as a victim of climate change, in that, it's pretty well established that fossil fuel emissions have caused global warming, which has melted sea ice and affected polar bears pretty negatively. Is there any way, at this point, of saying even hypothetically that an endangered listing for polar bears might have an impact on fossil fuels - either the fossil fuel industry or regulations on the use of fossil fuels?

EK: So in the 2008 listing decision that we published, listing polar bears as threatened, we did recognize that loss of sea ice habitat due to human-induced climate change is the primary threat. However, under the Endangered Species Act, we don't have the authority to regulate those greenhouse gas emissions. And similarly, in the listing rule, we noted that there wasn't a regulation at the national or international level that directly and effectively addressed the primary threat to polar bears, which is range-wide loss of sea ice habitat. And this still holds true today. So really, we would just continue with what we're currently doing, which is continue to work with partners and federal agencies that permit, fund and carry out projects in Alaska to minimize any impacts to polar bears in their habitat.

CG: Is it fair to say that polar bears get a lot of attention as a threatened species?

EK: Yes. Polar bears are what we call a "charismatic megafauna."

Casey Grove is host of Alaska News Nightly and a general assignment reporter at Alaska Public Media. cgrove [at] alaskapublic (dot) org | 907.550.8446 | About Casey

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Threatened by melting sea ice, polar bears' status up for review under Endangered Species Act

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The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is beginning its next review of polar bears' status under the Endangered Species Act. The review, which the Fish and Wildlife Service conducts every five years, could result in polar bears being "uplisted" to endangered, with further protections, or de-listed altogether.

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https://cyprus-mail.com/2021/11/03/how-green-are-you/

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Five everyday items that might not be as environmentally friendly as you think By Prudence Wade Cotton totes might be better than single-use plastic bags – but how many do you own? With COP26 in full swing in Glasgow many of us are considering how we can do our bit…

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How green are you?

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Thousands of dead sea creatures are washing up on English beaches | CNN

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British environmental watchdogs have launched an investigation after thousands of dead sea creatures washed up on beaches in North East England.

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https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02990-w

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Top climate scientists are sceptical that nations will rein in global warming

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A Nature survey reveals that many authors of the latest IPCC climate-science report are anxious about the future and expect to see catastrophic changes in their lifetimes.

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The food we eat is one of the leading sources of the toxic ambient fine particulate matter PM2.5, leading to over 890,000 premature death per year, according to a new study examining air pollution released through the global food supply chain.

The study by the University of Minnesota, looked into emissions across five stages of food production: pre-production (land-use change, fertilizer production) production (on-farm energy use, manure management, grazing, fertilizer use agricultural waste burning) post-production (food industry, retail), distribution, and waste.

Most PM2.5 emissions are generated by the energy and transport sectors, by burning fossil fuels which release pollutants in the air. However, the agriculture sector has its own share of such pollutants: the research found the global food system is a significant contributor to total anthropogenic emissions of primary PM2.5 (58%), ammonia (72%), nitrogen oxides(13%), sulfur dioxide (9%), and all other organic compounds released which do not include methane (19%).

Exposure to air pollution is the world's leading environmental (health) risk factor for mortality. According to the WHO, air pollution kills an estimate of 7 million people worldwide every year, where 4.2 million of death are linked to exposure to PM2.5. Reducing air pollution can improve public health and well-being while reducing greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change.

"Food systems pose a wicked problem. We pointed out the paradigm of "eating enough and eating right": it is of utmost importance to meet the food demands of a growing population, but we also need to meet it with the least environmental damage," said Srinidhi Balasubramanian, lead author of the study while carrying her Postdoctoral Research at the University of Minnesota now Assistant Professor in the Environmental Science and Engineering Department at the Indian Institute of Technology di Bombay.

By reviewing more than 4746 peer-reviewed English language publications from the past decade, the researchers found land-use change, livestock and crop production, and agricultural waste burning produces the highest amount of PM2.5 and directly affect human health. Agricultural production emissions deriving from energy use in farms and fertilizers use were dominant in North America and Europe. In Asia, Africa, and South America, land-use change from forest to feedstock and crop production, manure management, and agricultural waste burning were the primary contributors to PM2.5 emissions, particularly in Brasil, Angola, Indonesia and Thailand.

Research indicated that the number of premature deaths yearly might be even higher than the 890,000 calculated, as air pollution regulations in several countries often do not include the emissions accounting within the agricultural sector: "We identify gaps in emissions data and air quality predictions as a major limitation in our understanding of the air quality impacts of the global food system." Emissions from agriculture-driven land-use change and livestock in Africa, as an example, are poorly constrained in comparison to the United States and Europe," continued Balasubramanian.

Little is reported as well on ammonia emissions, which is heavily featured within fertilizers, and has a key role in the formation of ambient PM2.5.

Accelerating climate action in all different production stages of the agricultural sector will be vital to decrease air pollution, but without measuring emissions, countries might be unable to identify effective mitigation strategies that could reduce pollution.

Countries their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), the non-binding plans set by national governments defining their intensions with regards to climate change-related actions, offer some examples of how a focus on air pollution can increase climate change mitigation ambition and ultimately tackle food supply chain emissions.

Most companies in the agriculture sector suggest technological solutions can help reduce greenhouse gas emissions, proposing climate-smart and sustainable intensification of agriculture to curb emissions.

"Focusing on technological improvements cannot address the core problem and will only delay and deepen the engulfed climate, environmental, health, food and nutrition security crises," says Lasse Bruun, CEO of 50by40, a global coalition of more than 70 organisations dedicated to cutting the global production and consumption of animal products by 50% by 2040.

Technological developments were found to be only a complementary mitigation practice (link to 10%) whereas reducing intensive farming practices, such as limiting fertilizers use, remains the most effective way for the food supply chain to meet global emission reduction targets.

Livestock farming and industry, which contribute to increasing PM2.5 emissions through land-use, will also need a deep transformation: "A just livestock transition can accelerate equitable food distribution, improve public health and the environment, and result in beneficial socio-economic benefits," continued Bruun.

Increased commitments from stakeholders along the whole food supply chain will be key to tackle emissions: lowering nitrogen oxidesand sulfur dioxide emissions within food retail, distribution and transportation could be mitigated by shifting away from fossil fuels towards cleaner and energy-efficient technologies.

Currently, over one third of food worldwide is lost or wasted along the supply chain. New food waste management practices as well as a reduction of food production could help decrease ammonia emissions released by the decomposition of organic waste at landfill sites, which enters the air we breathe.

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Air Pollution Caused By Global Food Production Is Killing More Than 890,000 People A Year, Study Finds

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The food we eat is one of the leading sources of the toxic ambient fine particulate matter PM2.5, leading to over 890,000 premature death per year, according to a new study examining air pollution released through the global food supply chain.

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https://citizensgbr.org/c/plastic-free-pledge

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Used for minutes, lasts for centuries - single-use plastics have become a scourge on our environment.

Plastic straws, bottles, bags and takeaway containers are so ingrained in our daily lives that they're hard to escape. With plastic waste recently found in the Antarctic and at the bottom of the ocean, it's clear that nowhere has escaped the epidemic, including the Great Barrier Reef.

Not only does plastic pollution directly impact marine life, its production releases billions of kgs of CO ₂ into the atmosphere every year. This fuels climate change, the Reef's biggest threat. Plastic pollution also carries disease long distances across the ocean, causing coral sickness where it lands.

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Plastic Free Pledge: Citizens of the Great Barrier Reef

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Used for minutes, lasts for centuries - single-use plastics have become a scourge on our environment. Plastic straws, bottles, bags and takeaway containers are so ingrained in our daily lives that they're hard to escape. With plastic waste recently found in the Antarctic and at the bottom of the ocean, it's clear that nowhere has escaped the epidemic, including the Great Barrier Reef.

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https://www.google.co.kr/amp/s/api.nationalgeographic.com/distribution/public/amp/environment/article/global-warming-effects

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The planet is warming, from North Pole to South Pole. Since 1906, the global average surface temperature has increased by more than 1.6 degrees Fahrenheit (0.9 degrees Celsius)- even more in sensitive polar regions. And the impacts of rising temperatures aren't waiting for some far-flung future-the effects of global warming are appearing right now. The heat is melting glaciers and sea ice, shifting precipitation patterns, and setting animals on the move.

Many people think of global warming and climate change as synonyms, but scientists prefer to use "climate change" when describing the complex shifts now affecting our planet's weather and climate systems. Climate change encompasses not only rising average temperatures but also extreme weather events, shifting wildlife populations and habitats, rising seas, and a range of other impacts. All of these changes are emerging as humans continue to add heat-trapping greenhouse gases to the atmosphere.

Scientists already have documented these impacts of climate change:

Ice is melting worldwide, especially at the Earth's poles. This includes mountain glaciers, ice sheets covering West Antarctica and Greenland, and Arctic sea ice. In Montana's Glacier National Park the number of glaciers has declined to fewer than 30 from more than 150 in 1910.

Much of this melting ice contributes to sea-level rise. Global sea levels are rising 0.13 inches (3.2 millimeters) a year, and the rise is occurring at a faster rate in recent years.

Rising temperatures are affecting wildlife and their habitats. Vanishing ice has challenged species such as the Adélie penguin in Antarctica, where some populations on the western peninsula have collapsed by 90 percent or more.

As temperatures change, many species are on the move. Some butterflies, foxes, and alpine plants have migrated farther north or to higher, cooler areas.

Precipitation (rain and snowfall) has increased across the globe, on average. Yet some regions are experiencing more severe drought, increasing the risk of wildfires, lost crops, and drinking water shortages.

Some species-including mosquitoes, ticks, jellyfish, and crop pests-are thriving. Booming populations of bark beetles that feed on spruce and pine trees, for example, have devastated millions of forested acres in the U.S.

Other effects could take place later this century, if warming continues. These include:

Sea levels are expected to rise between 10 and 32 inches (26 and 82 centimeters) or higher by the end of the century.

Hurricanes and other storms are likely to become stronger. Floods and droughts will become more common. Large parts of the U.S., for example, face a higher risk of decades-long "megadroughts" by 2100.

Less freshwater will be available, since glaciers store about three-quarters of the world's freshwater.

Some diseases will spread, such as mosquito-borne malaria (and the 2016 resurgence of the Zika virus).

Ecosystems will continue to change: Some species will move farther north or become more successful; others, such as polar bears, won't be able to adapt and could become extinct.

Read next: Is Global Warming Real?

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The planet is warming, from North Pole to South Pole. Since 1906, the global average surface temperature has increased by more than 1.6 degrees Fahrenheit (0.9 degrees Celsius)- even more in sensitive polar regions. And the impacts of rising temperatures aren't waiting for some far-flung future-the effects of global warming are appearing right now.

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The absence of Flue Gas Desulfuriser, which controls SO2 and NOx pollution, in 38 of the 40 operational units in Tamil Nadu remains a cause of concern even as new thermal plants are on the pipeline.

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TN: Thermal Power Plant Emissions Continue Pollution, 4 Cities are SO₂ Hotspots | NewsClick

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The absence of Flue Gas Desulfuriser, which controls SO2 and NOx pollution, in 38 of the 40 operational units in Tamil Nadu remains a cause of concern even as new thermal plants are on the pipeline.

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Water pollution revealed as main environmental concern for Irish households

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Water pollution has been revealed as the primary environmental concern for Irish households. That's according to the Central Statistics Office's (CSO) General Household Survey, which found that over 79% of households around the country rated water pollution as "very important". ...

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https://news.un.org/en/story/2021/09/1099152

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1) Air pollution kills millions and harms the environment

It may have dropped from the top of news headlines in recent months, but air pollution remains a lethal danger to many: it precipitates conditions including heart disease, lung disease, lung cancer and strokes, and is estimated to cause one in nine of all premature deaths, around seven million every year.

Air pollution is also harming also harms our natural environment. It decreases the oxygen supply in our oceans, makes it harder for plants to grow, and contributes to climate change.

Yet, despite the damage it causes, there are worrying signs that air pollution is not seen as a priority in many countries: in the first ever assessment of air quality laws, released on 2 September by the UN Environment Programme ( UNEP), it was revealed that around 43 per cent of countries lack a legal definition for air pollution, and almost a third of them have yet to adopt legally mandated outdoor air quality standards.

2) The main causes

Five types of human activity are responsible for most air pollution: agriculture, transport, industry, waste and households.

Agricultural processes and livestock produce methane, an extremely powerful greenhouse gas, and a cause of asthma and other respiratory illnesses. Methane is also a by-product of waste burning, which emits other polluting toxins, which end up entering the food chain. Meanwhile industries release large amounts of carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, particulate matter and chemicals.

Transport continues to be responsible for the premature deaths of hundreds of thousands of people, despite the global phase out of dangerous leaded fuel at the end of August. This milestone was lauded by senior UN officials, including the Secretary-General, who said that it would prevent around one million premature deaths each year. However, vehicles continue to spew fine particulate matter, ozone, black carbon and nitrogen dioxide into the atmosphere; it's estimated that treating health conditions caused by air pollution costs approximately $1 trillion per year globally.

Whilst it may not come as a great shock to learn that these activities are harmful to health and the environment, some people may be surprised to hear that households are responsible for around 4.3 million deaths each year. This is because many households burn open fires and use inefficient stoves inside homes, belching out toxic particulate matter, carbon monoxide, lead and mercury.

3) This is an urgent issue

The reason that the UN is ringing alarm bells about this issue now, is that the evidence of the effects of air pollution on humans is mounting. In recent years exposure to air pollution has been found to contribute to an increased risk of diabetes, dementia, impaired cognitive development and lower intelligence levels.

On top of this, we have known for years that it is linked to cardiovascular and respiratory disease.

Concern about this type of pollution dovetails with increased global action to tackle the climate crisis: this is an environmental issue as well as a health issue, and actions to clean up the skies would go a long way to reducing global warming. Other harmful environmental effects include depleted soil and waterways, endangered freshwater sources and lower crop yields.

4) Improving air quality is a responsibility of government and private sector

On International Day of Clean Air for blue skies, the UN is calling on governments to do more to cut air pollution and improve air quality.

Specific actions they could take include implementing integrated air quality and climate change policies; phasing out petrol and diesel cars; and committing to reduce emissions from the waste sector.

Businesses can also make a difference, by pledging to reduce and eventually eliminate waste; switching to low-emission or electric vehicles for their transport fleets; and find ways to cut emissions of air pollutants from their facilities and supply chains.

5)...and it is our responsibility, as well

At an individual level, as the harmful cost of household activities shows, a lot can be achieved if we change our behaviour.

Simple actions can include using public transportation, cycling or walking; reducing household waste and composting; eating less meat by switching to a plant-based diet; and conserving energy.

The Website for the International Day contains more ideas of actions that we can take, and how we can encourage our communities and cities to make changes that would contribute to cleaner skies: these include organizing tree-planting activities, raising awareness with events and exhibitions, and committing to expanding green open spaces.

How clean is your air?

You may well be wondering exactly how clean or dirty the air around you is right now. If so, take a look at a UNEP website which shows how exposed we are to air pollution, wherever we live.

The site indicates that more than five billion people, or around 70 per cent of the global population, are breathing air that is above the pollution limits recommended by the World Health Organization ( WHO).

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Blue sky thinking: 5 things to know about air pollution

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Around 90 per cent of people go through their daily lives breathing harmful polluted air, which has been described by the United Nations as the most important health issue of our time. To mark the first International Day of Clean Air for blue skies, on 7 September, UN News explains how bad it is and what is being done to tackle it.

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https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/plastic-pollution

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Studies have shown air pollution is a major risk factor for respiratory infection - the leading cause of death among children under five - but bad air's specific impacts on developing bodies have remained somewhat of a mystery.

A Stanford-led study reveals a link between tiny airborne particles and child health in South Asia, a region beset with air pollution and more than 40 percent of global pneumonia cases. The analysis, published in Environmental Pollution, estimates the effect of increased particulate on child pneumonia hospitalizations is about twice as much as previously thought, and indicates a particular industry may play an outsized role in the problem.

The findings could help public health officials and policymakers better target emissions reduction programs to improve child health.

Everybody wants to protect kids' health. Now, we have evidence of a clear health benefit to children from reducing ambient PM2.5 emissions in Dhaka."

Allison Sherris, study lead author, postdoctoral research fellow in Earth system science at Stanford's School of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences

For many of the 21 million residents of Dhaka, Bangladesh - the study's focus area - air pollution is an all-too-regular part of life, especially in winter, when coal-burning brick kilns around the city operate. Of special concern is PM2.5, airborne particles 2.5 micrometers wide or smaller. The larger of these particles are about one-thirtieth the width of a human hair, small enough to inhale deep into the lungs.

Once inside the lungs, these particles can cause inflammation and impair the body's ability to fight infection. But particles from different sources can have different shape, size and chemical composition, and it's not clear what specific components of PM2.5 might be most harmful.

Few studies have evaluated the health effects of PM2.5 in infants and young children, especially in low-income countries where children are more than 60 times as likely to die from air pollution exposure as children in high-income countries, according to the World Bank. Among studies that have, most focused on the indoor environment, where the use of biomass-burning cookstoves has been associated with child respiratory infection.

"Specifying the impact of industry-generated air pollution on child health provides compelling evidence to support interventions to reduce pollution," said study senior author Stephen Luby, a professor of infectious diseases at Stanford University. "This is often more salient to politicians than the marginal contribution of emissions to global climate change."

Sherris, Luby and their colleagues analyzed long-term PM2.5 monitoring data alongside community health surveillance of respiratory infections from the Atomic Energy Centre, Dhaka, and the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh. They found pneumonia incidence among children under 5 increased by 3.2 percent for every PM2.5 increase of 10 micrograms per cubic meter of air - a standard measure in air pollution analysis.

The mean PM2.5 level in Dhaka was on average over three times higher than the World Health Organization standard. The association between air pollution and child pneumonia suggests that air pollution is a major contributor to the leading cause of child death in Bangladesh and across South Asia.

That difference equates to more than 200,000 additional child pneumonia cases in Bangladesh each year, and nearly two million additional cases across South Asia. The increase is also approximately double similar prior estimates of pneumonia hospitalizations associated with increased PM2.5 and about 10 times more than such estimates for outpatient visits.

The difference from previous findings may reflect the young age of the study population - most children in the study were two or younger - the source composition of particulate matter in Dhaka, and the fact that the study included nearly all community infection cases, rather than just focusing on cases that made it to clinics and hospitals.

Prior studies by researchers at the Atomic Energy Centre, Dhaka found that biomass burning contributed the most to outdoor PM2.5 levels, followed by brick kiln emissions and soil dust. However, on days when brick kilns contributed a heavier than-usual amount of PM2.5 to the mix of bad air, the link between PM2.5 and child pneumonia was stronger.

The findings are among the first evidence that communities and policymakers can point to that suggests a measurable impact of brick kilns on child health. Considering 9 out of 10 people live in areas with air pollution exceeding World Health Organization guidelines, further investigation into whether particles from brick kilns and other sources have different health impacts could inform health and environmental interventions around the world. Luby leads a collaboration among public health experts, industry stakeholders, technology consultants and government agencies to improve the industry. He received funding for related work focused on brick kilns and other industries, funded by the Sustainability Initiative that gave rise to Stanford's new school focused on climate and sustainability.

"We're still only looking at a small slice of the potential health outcomes that might be linked to this kind of air pollution, and we still lack perfect measurements of exposure to it," said Sherris. "The true health burden is likely much greater.

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Study reveals a link between air pollution and child health

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Studies have shown air pollution is a major risk factor for respiratory infection - the leading cause of death among children under five - but bad air's specific impacts on developing bodies have remained somewhat of a mystery.

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https://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/shopping-storing/food/grocery-shop-climatarian-tips

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5 Ways to Grocery Shop Like a Climatarian

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If you want to grocery shop like a climatarian, here are some habits that will help reduce your carbon footprint. Pointers include using reusable grocery bags and purchasing food produced locally.

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https://www.river-cleanup.org/en/donate?gclid=Cj0KCQjw5oiMBhDtARIsAJi0qk2oN-3XVctpqRDnhLztFR9sKI5pOSEUAe5OQINYn5OvBeSpnH6VMCQaAh23EALw_wcB

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What can you do?

We appreciate all River Warriors worldwide who participate in our River Cleanup events and actively help us make our rivers clean. To set up these actions, we rely on donations and sponsorships. By donating to River Cleanup, you become part of the solution and bring a positive change to our environment.

Why we need your support

Every year over 8 billion kg of plastic ends up in our oceans. 80% is comes there through rivers! Our mission at River Cleanup is to stop the pollution reaching the oceans and to make our rivers clean again. We do this by activating people to join or start a cleanup and by deploying smart technologies.

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In the last 3 years, over 100.000 people joined our actions to clean up in or along a river nearby. The moment you pick up trash, someone else's trash, you change! Every first Sunday of the month, we have many River Warriors taking action worldwide. So take a pair of gloves and a bag, go for a walk close to home and be amazed at how much trash you will find! Just try it and become part of the solution!
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We appreciate all River Warriors worldwide who participate in our River Cleanup events and actively help us make our rivers clean. To set up these actions, we rely on donations and sponsorships. By donating to River Cleanup, you become part of the solution and bring a positive change to our environment.

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( Beyond Pesticides, October 7, 2021) The Arizona State Auditor General reports a lack of groundwater monitoring for pesticides and other contaminants by the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ). For over six years, the agency failed to monitor groundwater and soil for agricultural pesticide contamination. Furthermore, the agency did not implement key groundwater monitoring processes over four years, despite law requirements. This lack of waterway monitoring resulted in an increased number of impaired surface waters across the state.

Pesticide contamination in waterways is historically commonplace and widespread throughout U.S. rivers and streams, with at least five or more different pesticides present in 90 percent of water samples. Thousands of tons of pesticides enter waterways (e.g., rivers, streams, lakes, oceans) around the U.S. from agricultural and nonagricultural sources, contaminating essential drinking water sources, such as surface water and groundwater. Reports like these are essential in determining appropriate regulatory action to protect human, animal, and environmental health from chemical toxicant contamination. The report states, "[The] Department has not developed all required aquifer water quality standards, conducted key ongoing groundwater monitoring of the State's aquifers, monitored for agricultural pesticides in groundwater and surrounding soil, or reduced the number of impaired surface waters in the State, limiting its ability to keep these waters safe from pollution."

Arizona's state Auditor General established this report to determine whether the ADEQ upheld the responsibility to develop aquifer water quality standards (AWQS). ADEQ's Water Quality Division is responsible for waterway protection and improvement systems, including developing an AWQS to protect Arizona groundwater. These standards include conducting ambient groundwater monitoring, monitoring agricultural pesticides in groundwater and the surrounding soil, and reducing impaired surface waters in Arizona. Moreover, the report investigates whether ADEQ provided information related to per- and polyfluroralkyl substance (PFAS) contamination in waterways. To determine if ADEQ upheld its responsibility to protect groundwater, the auditors reviewed state and federal water laws, ADEQ website information, and documentation (i.e., policies, procedures, finances, annual reports, and staff interviews).

The report finds ADEQ did not develop the required AWQS for eight different toxicants, including arsenic, uranium, coliform bacteria, chlorite, chlorobenzene, haloacetic acid, bromate, and trihalomethane (e.g., chloroform). Therefore, aquifers that transmit liquid to groundwater tables lack protection from these contaminants, decreasing drinking water safety, especially for private well users. Additionally, the report finds that ADEQ did not fulfill AWQS development objectives for these eight contaminants for the past seven to 29 years. Since 2017, ADEQ evaded monitoring ambient groundwater responsible for detecting and evaluating the impact of chemical contamination. Furthermore, the Department failed to conduct state-required monitoring of groundwater and adjacent soil for agricultural pesticides. The ADEQ established a goal to reduce the total amount of impaired or contaminated surface water to meet federal surface water quality standards. However, between 2014 and 2020, the number of impaired surface waters in Arizona increased from 136 to 155. Lastly, although the Department aims to address the issue through various steps (i.e., monitorization, investigation, remediation), PFAS continues to contaminate Arizona's (and the nation's) waterways.

Pesticide contamination of surface and groundwater raises another issue of deficient waterway monitoring and regulations that allow pesticides to accumulate in waterways. One of the ways the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) protects human and environmental health is by regulating pesticides under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) and point source pollution in waterways as regulated by the Clean Water Act and Safe Drinking Water Act. However, EPA under the previous administration rolled back waterway regulations, which do little to protect aquatic ecosystem health that marine, and terrestrial species, including humans, require. Previously, U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)-National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) has criticized EPA for not establishing sufficient water quality benchmarks for pesticides. According to NAWQA, "Current standards and guidelines do not completely eliminate risks posed by pesticides in waterways because: (1) values are not established for many pesticides, (2) mixtures and breakdown products are not considered, (3) the effects of seasonal exposure to high concentrations have not been evaluated, and (4) some types of potential effects, such as endocrine disruption and unique responses of sensitive individuals, have not yet been assessed."

According to advocates, this report represents an all too familiar pattern of government and state agencies failing to uphold their responsibility to protect the public from toxic pollutants. Aquatic environments continuously encounter environmental pollutants, and this study demonstrates that certain unmonitored toxic compounds exceed federal drinking water standards. All eight contaminants lacking adequate AWQS have links to severe health problems, especially among vulnerable individuals such as infants/children, pregnant individuals, and the elderly or immunocompromised. These health issues range from kidney problems to an increase in various cancers. However, the ubiquity and persistence of certain compounds make it difficult to limit the number of toxicants that enter waterways. Many of the most commonly used pesticides in the U.S. are detectable in both surface and groundwater, which serve as drinking water sources for half of the U.S. population. As the number of pesticides in waterways increases, it has detrimental impacts on aquatic ecosystem health, especially as some chemicals work synergistically (together) with others to increase the severity of the effect. In addition to adverse health effects on marine organisms, these chemicals harm terrestrial organisms relying on surface or groundwater. The report, " Human Health and Ocean Pollution," finds that the combination of nonpoint source chemical contamination from pesticide runoff can have an adverse synergistic effect on species' health and ecosystem. Many of these chemicals cause endocrine disruption, reproductive defects, neurotoxicity, and cancer in humans and animals while being highly toxic to aquatic species.

Between 2009 and 2013, preceding this report, pesticide monitoring data show that ten pesticides have the potential to contaminate groundwater, including those containing active ingredients like chlorpyrifos, diuron, and quaternary ammonium compounds (quats). However, ADEQ states the Department halted pesticide groundwater monitoring owing to a lack of funding and staff. Although these pesticides were not present at concentrations polluting groundwater, these compounds can accumulate in soil and water, increasing concentrations over time. Furthermore, these pesticides cause adverse health effects: chlorpyrifos is neurotoxic, diuron is carcinogenic, and quats sensitize and irritate the respiratory system. Groundwater pollution is a significant issue, especially in the Southwestern United States. For the first time, the U.S. government announced a Colorado River water shortage. The river supplies water to nearly 40 percent of Arizona residents, in addition to other adjacent states. This announcement follows a 2020 groundwater model update from the Arizona Department of Water Resources that reveals there is not enough groundwater to legally meet dozens of developmental requirements and ensure a water supply for 100 years.

All aquatic environments are essential to human health and well-being, feeding billions, supporting millions of jobs, and supplying medicinal materials. Therefore, this report recommends ADEQ adopt legislation for AWQS to match that of federal drinking water standards or establish AWQS for the eight contaminants. The report recommends the following:

"Conduct statutorily required ambient groundwater monitoring and agricultural pesticide monitoring in groundwater and soil.

Perform a workload analysis to assess its costs for developing AWQS and conduct ambient groundwater and agricultural pesticide monitoring and then work with the Legislature to obtain the needed resources.

Reduce the number of impaired surface waters in the State by developing and reviewing implementation plans for reducing impaired surface waters in a timely manner."

Government and health officials must address chemical pollution to safeguard human general health, fitness, and well-being. Furthermore, climate crisis implications like melting glaciers present a new concern over the levels of chemical concentrations in waterways from pesticides and other persistent organic pollutants trapped in ice. Beyond Pesticides has long advocated for healthier and more environmentally friendly pest management practices to protect the environment and wildlife, particularly water resources. Therefore, pesticide use should be phased out and ultimately eliminated to protect the nation's and world's waterways and reduce the number of pesticides that make their way into drinking water. Replacing pesticides with organic regenerative systems conserves water, nurtures soil fertility, reduces surface runoff and erosion, and reduces the need for nutrient input (i.e., fertilizers). Most critically, organic systems eliminate the use of toxic chemicals that threaten so many aspects of human and ecosystem life, including water resources. For more information about pesticide contamination in water, see Beyond Pesticides' article Pesticides in My Drinking Water? Individual Precautionary Measures and Community Action, where Beyond Pesticides states: "This problem requires individual precautionary measures and preventive, community-based action to protect [individual and public health] and ultimately, stop ongoing pesticide use that ends up in drinking water from numerous agricultural, public land, and home and garden use. Beyond Pesticides urges a solution that keeps pesticides out of the water, rather than trying to clean them up after they enter our waterways and drinking water supply."
All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of Beyond Pesticides.
Source: Arizonia Public Media, State Auditor Review

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Water Contamination with Pesticides Goes Unmonitored as Problem Escalates - Beyond Pesticides Daily News Blog

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(Beyond Pesticides, October 7, 2021) The Arizona State Auditor General reports a lack of groundwater monitoring for pesticides and other contaminants by the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ). For over six years, the agency failed to monitor groundwater and soil for agricultural pesticide contamination.

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https://www.thedailystar.net/toggle/news/polka-eco-friendly-alternative-traditional-plastic-bags-2208681?amp

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The uses of plastics cannot be curtailed completely, but eco-friendly plastics may step in to reduce environmental pollution as well as to fulfil consumers' different purposes. Environment-friendly alternatives for plastics can be created using either recycled plastics or natural materials. Shalbrikkho, a Bangladeshi startup working with biodegradable and recycled products has initiated 'Polka', a green and sustainable alternative to traditional plastics using the way to create such alternatives with natural materials.
What is Polka?
Polka is a bioplastic product that is made from potatoes or potato starch. It is not plastic at all. However, this product is semi-transparent like traditional plastics making it a good alternative against polybags. Normal plastics can easily be attached or put together with the help of fire. Polka is different from this characteristic of plastics. It has a quality of fire retardant materials, which prevents the fire from spreading or slows down its spread. Traditional plastic bags take thousands of years to decompose completely because they are hydrophobic. Since Polka bags are hydrophilic, these start absorbing water gradually after being discarded, and soon these get completely decomposed in soil. It takes the highest 180 days to degrade in soil.

The main raw material of 'Polka' is potatoes. After grating potatoes finely, they keep them in water for some minutes and then extract the liquid from those grated potatoes as much as possible. After a few important steps such as heating and appropriately drying this liquid, the starch is being extracted from potatoes. This starch along with other essential products is used to make a special chemical formula, which is then spread evenly on a solid surface to produce Polka bags. The preparation of this innovative chemical from the extraction of potatoes manually takes around 2 hours, whereas the further procedure to make the 'Polka' sheets from this chemical formula takes seven to eight hours. Then these sheets are attached or stitched like a normal bag to complete such bags. Some handheld pieces of machinery have been developed by the team of Shalbrikkho for this purpose.
An expiry date for polka bags
As these bags are made from natural materials, they need to be used for a certain period before they start to degrade. In general, Polka bags can be stored for three to four months in hot and humid areas. But if the area is cold and dry, then these bags will be good enough to store and use for around 8 to 10 months.
How did it all start?
A few years ago, Mahbub Sumon, the founder of Shalbrikkho came to know personally how potato farmers and cold storage businessmen struggle due to the surplus of potatoes while working to create solar electricity for cold storage in Munshiganj. He already had an idea about the possibility of creating compostable bioplastics from starch. So Mahbub thought that it could be a good plan to use this surplus of potatoes to make starch, and then use this starch to create bioplastic products for our country. In this way, the loss of potato farmers and cold storage businessmen could be reduced, along with the pollution of using poly bags. This thought led Sumon to start making 'Polka' bags.

Mahbub Sumon said, "These are many uses of plastic. And many of them can be replaced by Polka. But to develop such alternatives, we need to carry out our research uninterruptedly which is quite expensive. Since we work with a self-fund, it is hard to continue such research and to arrange good pieces of machinery, lab and raw materials at the same time."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Polka: an eco-friendly alternative to traditional plastic bags

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The uses of plastics cannot be curtailed completely, but eco-friendly plastics may step in to reduce environmental pollution as well as to fulfil consumers' different purposes. Environment-friendly alternatives for plastics can be created using either recycled plastics or natural materials.

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.lboro.ac.uk/news-events/news/2021/november/what-would-four-degree-global-warming-feel-like/

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
What would 4°C of global warming feel like?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
COP26 is underway and keeping 1.5°C within reach will feature prominently in world leaders’ discussions.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The report highlights dire consequences for health, the economy, biodiversity and the climate. It also says a drastic reduction in unnecessary, avoidable and problematic plastic, is crucial to addressing the global pollution crisis overall.

To help reduce plastic waste at the needed scale, it proposes an accelerated transition from fossil fuels to renewable energies, the removal of subsidies and a shift towards more circular approaches towards reduction.

Titled From Pollution to Solution: a global assessment of marine litter and plastic pollution, the report shows that there is a growing threat, across all ecosystems, from source to sea.

Solutions to hand

But it also shows that there is the know-how to reverse the mounting crisis, provided the political will is there, and urgent action is taken.

The document is being released 10 days ahead of the start of the crucial UN Climate Conference, COP26, stressing that plastics are a climate problem as well.

For example, in 2015, greenhouse gas emissions from plastics were 1.7 gigatonnes of CO2 equivalent; by 2050, they're projected to increase to approximately 6.5 gigatonnes. That number represents 15 per cent of the whole global carbon budget - the​​ amount of greenhouse gas that can be emitted, while still keeping warming within the Paris Agreement goals.

Recycling not enough

Addressing solutions to the problem, the authors pour cold water on the chances of recycling our way out of the plastic pollution crisis.

They also warn against damaging alternatives, such as bio-based or biodegradable plastics, which currently pose a threat similar to conventional plastics.

The report looks at critical market failures, such as the low price of virgin fossil fuel feedstocks (any renewable biological material that can be used directly as a fuel) compared to recycled materials, disjointed efforts in informal and formal plastic waste management, and the lack of consensus on global solutions.

Instead, the assessment calls for the immediate reduction in plastic production and consumption, and encourages a transformation across the whole value chain.

It also asks for investments in far more robust and effective monitoring systems to identify the sources, scale and fate of plastic. Ultimately, a shift to circular approaches and more alternatives are necessary.

Making the case for change

For the Executive Director of UNEP, Inger Andersen, this assessment "provides the strongest scientific argument to date for the urgency to act, and for collective action to protect and restore our oceans, from source to sea."

She said that a major concern is what happens with breakdown products, such as microplastics and chemical additives, which are known to be toxic and hazardous to human and wildlife health and ecosystems.

"The speed at which ocean plastic pollution is capturing public attention is encouraging. It is vital that we use this momentum to focus on the opportunities for a clean, healthy and resilient ocean", Ms. Andersen argued.

Growing problem

Currently, plastic accounts for 85 per cent of all marine litter.

By 2040, it will nearly triple, adding 23-37 million metric tons of waste into the ocean per year. This means about 50kg of plastic per meter of coastline.

Because of this, all marine life, from plankton and shellfish; to birds, turtles and mammals; faces the grave risk of toxification, behavioral disorder, starvation and suffocation.

The human body is similarly vulnerable. Plastics are ingested through seafood, drinks and even common salt. They also penetrate the skin and are inhaled when suspended in the air.

In water sources, this type of pollution can cause hormonal changes, developmental disorders, reproductive abnormalities and even cancer.

Economy

According to the report, there are also significant consequences for the global economy.

Globally, when accounting for impacts on tourism, fisheries and aquaculture, together with the price of projects such as clean-ups, the costs were estimated to be six to 19 billion dollars per year, during 2018.

By 2040, there could be a $100 billion annual financial risk for businesses if governments require them to cover waste management costs. It can also lead to a rise in illegal domestic and international waste disposal.

The report will inform discussions at the UN Environment Assembly in 2022, where countries will come together to decide a way forward for more global cooperation.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Plastic pollution on course to double by 2030

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Plastic pollution in oceans and other bodies of water continues to grow sharply and could more than double by 2030, according to an assessment released on Thursday by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP). |

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Black and Yellow Pollution Photo Collage World Environment Day Poster

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https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-56793317

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Table Mountain fire: Historic buildings destroyed in Cape Town

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The University of Cape Town's library and a historic windmill are hit as all students are evacuated.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Plastic pollution: we all know it's a problem. In 2015, we produced almost 450 million tons of plastic, with that number expected to double by 2050.

Think that it's all managed? Think again: less than 10% is recycled. And every year more than 8 million tons make their way into our oceans.

How much of ocean pollution is plastic?

Credit: Naja Bertolt Jensen/ Unsplash

Plastics make up 80% off all marine debris - from what's floating on the surface to deep-sea sediments.

The amount of plastic ending up in our oceans is sobering - by 2050, there is expected to be more plastic pollution than fish, by weight, in the ocean.

Ways plastic gets into the ocean?

Credit: Brian Yurasits/ Unsplash

Plastic debris ends up in the ocean in a variety of ways, making the quest to stop plastic pollution much more difficult.

Some of these paths to the water include:

Litter, including plastic bags, take out containers, packaging, which are swept down storm drains into local waterways, working down rivers into the ocean;

Plastic products, including litter but also fishing nets, lost or thrown overboard at sea.

This is not the main culprit: more than 80% of plastic ending up in the ocean comes from land-based activities;

Illegal dumping or poor waste management of trash on beaches around the globe;

Microplastics from cosmetic and hygiene products, or clothing in our washing machines going down the drain;

Industrial byproducts from improperly conducted or managed production processes.

How plastic pollution impacts the ocean

Credit: Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung/flickr

You may have heard of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch: a collection of large and small plastic debris that has accumulated in the Pacific Ocean, corralled by ocean currents and currently covering at least 1.6 million kilometers of the ocean surface.

The patch is overwhelming due to discarded plastics from countries around the Pacific Rim and is a stark visual reminder of the massive problem. It isn't the only one, either. There are plastic patches growing in every one of our oceans.

Additional impacts of ocean plastic pollution:

Death of marine life

Many marine animals such as turtles and dolphins mistake plastic fragments for food. Ingesting plastic is often fatal to animals, as the plastic blocks their digestive tract and causes them to starve.

Many seabirds, seals, turtles, and whales also get entangled in plastic matter and suffocate, drown, or become easier prey for predators.

Impact on the food chain
Tests done on some marine species have shown that endocrine-disrupting chemicals in plastic have affected their reproductive systems. For example, oysters impacted by plastic-saturated environments produce less eggs. These tests have raised new questions about the impacts of plastic on our food supply as animals ingest plastic from the first days of life.

The far reaches of microplastics

Once plastics enter the sea, sun, wind, and wave activity break them down into smaller and smaller fragments. These fragments, called microplastics, have been found in all corners of the globe, from within Arctic sea ice to the slopes of Mount Everest.

Microplastics are swept up in the water cycle, returning to land via precipitation and impacting soil quality. Microplastics are also ingested by wildlife, impacting not only their biological systems but also contaminating our food supply.

The health impacts of ingesting microplastics are still relatively unknown. However, they are chemically active materials and can bind to other compounds that can harm human health.

What can be done about ocean plastic pollution?

Credit: OCG Saving The Ocean/ Unsplash

Once in the ocean, it's extremely difficult to retrieve plastics.

Efforts, however, are under way. The Ocean Cleanup is an organization working to develop new technologies that make ocean plastics cleanup possible, with a goal to eliminate 90% of ocean plastic waste.

However, once the debris breaks down into microplastics, recovery is virtually impossible.

So what can be done?

The most impactful solution is to stop plastic waste from entering our oceans in the first place. This is easier said than done, and has a lot more to do with national and corporate practices than the individual. Improved waste management systems, recycling processes, and the reduction of single-use plastics would play a significant role in pollution reduction.

As an individual, however, you can do your part to make a difference:

Sign up for EHN's plastic pollution newsletter to stay up to date on the latest on plastic waste.

Avoid single-use plastics. Use reusable shopping bags, takeout containers, travel mugs, straws.

Limit your purchasing of plastic products. Most things plastic come in a more natural material - glass food storage containers instead of plastic, bulk foods and toiletries instead of smaller-sized, heavily packaged products, etc.

Wear clothing made from natural materials such as cotton, linen, or wool. Many microplastics that enter the ocean come from our clothing! Clothing made with synthetic materials - polyester, nylon - shed microparticles in the wash that then enter our water systems.
There are now products available to catch microfibers that are shed from your clothing. Do some research on microfiber filters and find a product that fits your lifestyle.

Clean up around your community! Grab a bag and collect litter from the side of the road, parks, fields, sidewalks, and more. Collecting plastic before it finds its way into a gutter or a body of water is an easy way to help mitigate the pollution.

Petition for change. If this matters to you (and it should!), let others know. Find like-minded people in your community, speak to local legislators, and/or call your senators and representatives.

Related coverage

How plastics damage our lives and the environment-and why recycling is not the answer.

""I've been studying microplastics for a long time and this is the study that blew me away."

A container ship accident off the Sri Lankan coast is a stark reminder of the "other" planetary problem.

Algae can catch up to a trillion pieces of microplastics, according to a new study.

A new study finds microplastics exposed to freshwater or saltwater for several weeks are around 10 times more likely to enter the cells of mice compared to pristine particles.

"When we lie on the beach, we're not only lying on a bed of sand but a bed of plastics."

New research estimates more than 1,000 tons of microplastic particles, potentially circulating in global atmospheric currents, are deposited at conservation sites each year.
Banner photo: Credit: Tom Mossholder/Unsplash

Plastic pollution: we all know it's a problem. In 2015, we produced almost 450 million tons of plastic, with that number expected to double by 2050.

Think that it's all managed? Think again: less than 10% is recycled. And every year more than 8 million tons make their way into our oceans.

How much of ocean pollution is plastic?

Credit: Naja Bertolt Jensen/ Unsplash

Plastics make up 80% off all marine debris - from what's floating on the surface to deep-sea sediments.

The amount of plastic ending up in our oceans is sobering - by 2050, there is expected to be more plastic pollution than fish, by weight, in the ocean.

Ways plastic gets into the ocean?

Credit: Brian Yurasits/ Unsplash

Plastic debris ends up in the ocean in a variety of ways, making the quest to stop plastic pollution much more difficult.

Some of these paths to the water include:

Litter, including plastic bags, take out containers, packaging, which are swept down storm drains into local waterways, working down rivers into the ocean;

Plastic products, including litter but also fishing nets, lost or thrown overboard at sea.

This is not the main culprit: more than 80% of plastic ending up in the ocean comes from land-based activities;

Illegal dumping or poor waste management of trash on beaches around the globe;

Microplastics from cosmetic and hygiene products, or clothing in our washing machines going down the drain;

Industrial byproducts from improperly conducted or managed production processes.

How plastic pollution impacts the ocean

Credit: Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung/flickr

You may have heard of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch: a collection of large and small plastic debris that has accumulated in the Pacific Ocean, corralled by ocean currents and currently covering at least 1.6 million kilometers of the ocean surface.

The patch is overwhelming due to discarded plastics from countries around the Pacific Rim and is a stark visual reminder of the massive problem. It isn't the only one, either. There are plastic patches growing in every one of our oceans.

Additional impacts of ocean plastic pollution:

Death of marine life

Many marine animals such as turtles and dolphins mistake plastic fragments for food. Ingesting plastic is often fatal to animals, as the plastic blocks their digestive tract and causes them to starve.

Many seabirds, seals, turtles, and whales also get entangled in plastic matter and suffocate, drown, or become easier prey for predators.

Impact on the food chain
Tests done on some marine species have shown that endocrine-disrupting chemicals in plastic have affected their reproductive systems. For example, oysters impacted by plastic-saturated environments produce less eggs. These tests have raised new questions about the impacts of plastic on our food supply as animals ingest plastic from the first days of life.

The far reaches of microplastics

Once plastics enter the sea, sun, wind, and wave activity break them down into smaller and smaller fragments. These fragments, called microplastics, have been found in all corners of the globe, from within Arctic sea ice to the slopes of Mount Everest.

Microplastics are swept up in the water cycle, returning to land via precipitation and impacting soil quality. Microplastics are also ingested by wildlife, impacting not only their biological systems but also contaminating our food supply.

The health impacts of ingesting microplastics are still relatively unknown. However, they are chemically active materials and can bind to other compounds that can harm human health.

What can be done about ocean plastic pollution?

Credit: OCG Saving The Ocean/ Unsplash

Once in the ocean, it's extremely difficult to retrieve plastics.

Efforts, however, are under way. The Ocean Cleanup is an organization working to develop new technologies that make ocean plastics cleanup possible, with a goal to eliminate 90% of ocean plastic waste.

However, once the debris breaks down into microplastics, recovery is virtually impossible.

So what can be done?

The most impactful solution is to stop plastic waste from entering our oceans in the first place. This is easier said than done, and has a lot more to do with national and corporate practices than the individual. Improved waste management systems, recycling processes, and the reduction of single-use plastics would play a significant role in pollution reduction.

As an individual, however, you can do your part to make a difference:

Sign up for EHN's plastic pollution newsletter to stay up to date on the latest on plastic waste.

Avoid single-use plastics. Use reusable shopping bags, takeout containers, travel mugs, straws.

Limit your purchasing of plastic products. Most things plastic come in a more natural material - glass food storage containers instead of plastic, bulk foods and toiletries instead of smaller-sized, heavily packaged products, etc.

Wear clothing made from natural materials such as cotton, linen, or wool. Many microplastics that enter the ocean come from our clothing! Clothing made with synthetic materials - polyester, nylon - shed microparticles in the wash that then enter our water systems.
There are now products available to catch microfibers that are shed from your clothing. Do some research on microfiber filters and find a product that fits your lifestyle.

Clean up around your community! Grab a bag and collect litter from the side of the road, parks, fields, sidewalks, and more. Collecting plastic before it finds its way into a gutter or a body of water is an easy way to help mitigate the pollution.

Petition for change. If this matters to you (and it should!), let others know. Find like-minded people in your community, speak to local legislators, and/or call your senators and representatives.

Related coverage

How plastics damage our lives and the environment-and why recycling is not the answer.

""I've been studying microplastics for a long time and this is the study that blew me away."

A container ship accident off the Sri Lankan coast is a stark reminder of the "other" planetary problem.

Algae can catch up to a trillion pieces of microplastics, according to a new study.

A new study finds microplastics exposed to freshwater or saltwater for several weeks are around 10 times more likely to enter the cells of mice compared to pristine particles.

"When we lie on the beach, we're not only lying on a bed of sand but a bed of plastics."

New research estimates more than 1,000 tons of microplastic particles, potentially circulating in global atmospheric currents, are deposited at conservation sites each year.
Banner photo: Credit: Tom Mossholder/Unsplash

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Too much plastic is ending up in the ocean - and making its way back onto our dinner plates.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
ANI
The barrier wall controls air currents and prevents erosion by obstructing the wind near the ground and stops the soil from blowing off-site, a source said.

Shapoorji Pallonji Engineering and Construction (E&C) looks to ensure that the construction of the Central Vista Avenue project does not add to air pollution. For this, the contracting company has implemented multiple steps in consultation with Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), in addition to the mandatory health safety and environment measures.

Delhi has experienced severe air pollution in the months of November and December in the past few years whenever wind speeds reduce. This period also coincides with stubble burning in adjoining states, vehicular pollution, etc, adding to the issue.

To tackle this, the engineering company has put up a wind breaking wall around the entire 3km periphery of the site.

The barrier wall controls air currents and prevents erosion by obstructing the wind near the ground and stops the soil from blowing off-site, a source told TOI.

Furthermore, eight anti-smog guns have been installed at vantage points, which spray fine droplets of water over the site which helps dust particles settle down, and curbs creation of any further dust amid digging and other construction activities.

The project has to be completed by the contractor before January 26, 2022 as the Republic Day parade will take place on Rajpath. The efficacy and adequacy of the pollution-control measures were being monitored by a dedicated team, a senior company official said.

Four water tankers have been provided for periodic sprinkling of water, while care is being taken to limit dust pollution from stone cutting and grinding works. Alongside, there is an automatic wheel washing facility made at the exit gate with more to be installed in the weeks to come.

To maintain air quality, the company is carrying out ambient air monitoring through an NABL-accredited agency.

Pocket monitoring meters are being used for daily checks and reviews are being conducted periodically based on feedback from stakeholders.

(Catch all the Business News, Breaking News Events and Latest News Updates on The Economic Times.)

Download The Economic Times News App to get Daily Market Updates & Live Business News.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Work on Central Vista project continues with steps to curb pollution

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
To tackle air pollution problems, the engineering company has put up a wind breaking wall around the entire 3km periphery of the site. The barrier wall controls air currents and prevents erosion by obstructing the wind near the ground and stops the soil from blowing off-site, a source told TOI.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The report highlights dire consequences for health, the economy, biodiversity and the climate. It also says a drastic reduction in unnecessary, avoidable and problematic plastic, is crucial to addressing the global pollution crisis overall.

To help reduce plastic waste at the needed scale, it proposes an accelerated transition from fossil fuels to renewable energies, the removal of subsidies and a shift towards more circular approaches towards reduction.

Titled From Pollution to Solution: a global assessment of marine litter and plastic pollution, the report shows that there is a growing threat, across all ecosystems, from source to sea.

Solutions to hand

But it also shows that there is the know-how to reverse the mounting crisis, provided the political will is there, and urgent action is taken.

The document is being released 10 days ahead of the start of the crucial UN Climate Conference, COP26, stressing that plastics are a climate problem as well.

For example, in 2015, greenhouse gas emissions from plastics were 1.7 gigatonnes of CO2 equivalent; by 2050, they're projected to increase to approximately 6.5 gigatonnes. That number represents 15 per cent of the whole global carbon budget - the​​ amount of greenhouse gas that can be emitted, while still keeping warming within the Paris Agreement goals.

Recycling not enough

Addressing solutions to the problem, the authors pour cold water on the chances of recycling our way out of the plastic pollution crisis.

They also warn against damaging alternatives, such as bio-based or biodegradable plastics, which currently pose a threat similar to conventional plastics.

The report looks at critical market failures, such as the low price of virgin fossil fuel feedstocks (any renewable biological material that can be used directly as a fuel) compared to recycled materials, disjointed efforts in informal and formal plastic waste management, and the lack of consensus on global solutions.

Instead, the assessment calls for the immediate reduction in plastic production and consumption, and encourages a transformation across the whole value chain.

It also asks for investments in far more robust and effective monitoring systems to identify the sources, scale and fate of plastic. Ultimately, a shift to circular approaches and more alternatives are necessary.

Making the case for change

For the Executive Director of UNEP, Inger Andersen, this assessment "provides the strongest scientific argument to date for the urgency to act, and for collective action to protect and restore our oceans, from source to sea."

She said that a major concern is what happens with breakdown products, such as microplastics and chemical additives, which are known to be toxic and hazardous to human and wildlife health and ecosystems.

"The speed at which ocean plastic pollution is capturing public attention is encouraging. It is vital that we use this momentum to focus on the opportunities for a clean, healthy and resilient ocean", Ms. Andersen argued.

Growing problem

Currently, plastic accounts for 85 per cent of all marine litter.

By 2040, it will nearly triple, adding 23-37 million metric tons of waste into the ocean per year. This means about 50kg of plastic per meter of coastline.

Because of this, all marine life, from plankton and shellfish; to birds, turtles and mammals; faces the grave risk of toxification, behavioral disorder, starvation and suffocation.

The human body is similarly vulnerable. Plastics are ingested through seafood, drinks and even common salt. They also penetrate the skin and are inhaled when suspended in the air.

In water sources, this type of pollution can cause hormonal changes, developmental disorders, reproductive abnormalities and even cancer.

Economy

According to the report, there are also significant consequences for the global economy.

Globally, when accounting for impacts on tourism, fisheries and aquaculture, together with the price of projects such as clean-ups, the costs were estimated to be six to 19 billion dollars per year, during 2018.

By 2040, there could be a $100 billion annual financial risk for businesses if governments require them to cover waste management costs. It can also lead to a rise in illegal domestic and international waste disposal.

The report will inform discussions at the UN Environment Assembly in 2022, where countries will come together to decide a way forward for more global cooperation.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Plastic pollution on course to double by 2030

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Plastic pollution in oceans and other bodies of water continues to grow sharply and could more than double by 2030, according to an assessment released on Thursday by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP). |

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-07586-5

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Global warming will happen faster than we think

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Three trends will combine to hasten it, warn Yangyang Xu, Veerabhadran Ramanathan and David G. Victor.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The Lagos State Government has said street trading, hawking on drainages and pedestrian bridges contribute to environmental pollution in the state.

The Corps Marshal of the Lagos Environmental Sanitation Corps, Gbemisola Akinpelu (retd.), said this in a statement on Tuesday.

She was quoted to have spoken during a presentation at the Department of Sociology, University of Lagos, Akoka.

"Lagos State with a population of over 20 million, due to high influx of people from far and wide, is faced with a perennial problem of trading activities on walkways, road verges, medians, setbacks, drainages, pedestrian bridges and even on the main road, which affect free-flow of human and vehicular movement, thereby compounding the environmental sanitation issue in the state," she said.

Akinpelu further explained that the efforts of LAGESC to curb indiscriminate street trading have been unsuccessful.

"The agency has been up and doing at ensuring that sanity prevailed in the areas where street trading and hawking have become a daily occurrence in the state. Despite the agency's efforts through stakeholders' meetings, advocacy and sensitisation, voluntary compliance has been extremely difficult due to the traditional ways of conducting market activities amongst traders such as displaying and hawking goods on the roadsides despite the designated market places, while the agency's enforcement protocol has also resulted in arrests and prosecution of recalcitrant traders by the courts," she said.

The Head of Research, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Sociology, UNILAG, Dr Adebowale Ayobade, said, "I advocate the regulation of street trading through the creation of specific hours of the day and locations where traders can legitimately carry out their activities without constituting an environmental nuisance to the state."

Copyright PUNCH

All rights reserved. This material, and other digital content on this website, may not be reproduced, published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed in whole or in part without prior express written permission from PUNCH.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Street trading contributes to environmental pollution, says Lagos - Punch Newspapers

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Lagos State Government has said street trading, hawking on drainages and pedestrian bridges contribute to environmental pollution in the state. The Corps Marshal of the Lagos Environmental Sanitation Corps, Gbemisola Akinpelu (retd.), said this in a statement on Tuesday. She was quoted to have spoken during a presentation at the Department of Sociology, University of Lagos, Akoka.

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-58152836

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
"Some plants and vegetation have sprung back to life and I have no doubt, that this fund, as well as the expertise of those in the National Trust, will help nurse the mountain back to health in the future," he explained.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Slieve Donard: Mourne Mountains fire recovery fund awarded £322k

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
"Some plants and vegetation have sprung back to life and I have no doubt, that this fund, as well as the expertise of those in the National Trust, will help nurse the mountain back to health in the future," he explained.

# data[].attributes.body
https://physicsworld.com/a/climate-change-in-a-nutshell-the-causes-and-effects-of-global-warming-simply-put/

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Taken from the October 2021 issue of Physics World. Members of the Institute of Physics can enjoy the full issue via the Physics World app.

Laura Hiscott reviews Small Gases, Big Effect: This is Climate Change by David Nelles and Christian Serrer

(Courtesy: Shutterstock/Bruce Rolff)

It might sound impossible to explain something as complex as the mechanisms of climate change both simply and accurately. But this is exactly what David Nelles and Christian Serrer - students at the University of Friedrichshafen, Germany - have achieved with their book Small Gases, Big Effect: This is Climate Change.

Approved by more than 100 scientists, Small Gases, Big Effect starts with a breakdown of the components of the Earth's climate, before detailing the many interconnected factors that can influence it. The book then lays out evidence on how climate change is affecting different regions of the globe and their ecosystems; the positive and negative feedback loops that come into play; and ultimately the impacts on humans, both direct and indirect.

Fitting with its aims of concisely presenting the "nuts and bolts of climate change", the book is written very matter-of-factly, in short, easily digestible chunks that don't tire the reader's attention. Every double-page spread features a graphic, either illustrating a concept to help you properly grasp it or showing the data on various impacts that global warming has had.

While the book acknowledges that the people worst affected by climate change are generally those who have contributed the least to the problem, it includes many examples of effects already being observed in European countries.

For instance, one graphic shows that some animal and plant species in Switzerland have migrated to higher altitudes in the mountains in recent years, while another highlights the increasing spread of tiger mosquitoes - which can transmit the Dengue virus - into European countries between 2000 and 2017. For readers in Europe, it's a timely reminder that climate chaos is not a distant problem but something that will also manifest close to home.

2021 Particular Books £7.99hb 128pp

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Climate change in a nutshell: the causes and effects of global warming, simply put - Physics World

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Taken from the October 2021 issue of Physics World. Members of the Institute of Physics can enjoy the full issue via the Physics World app. Laura Hiscott reviews Small Gases, Big Effect: This is Climate Change by David Nelles and Christian Serrer It might sound impossible to explain something as complex as the mechanisms of climate change both simply and accurately.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The improper disposal of waste into the oceans is one of the world's main environmental problems.

The dumping of toxic materials, plastics and sewage into our rivers and seas pollutes and kills fish, shellfish and other organisms. It also can lead to potential health implications for the people that consume them.

In Brazil, 50 tonnes of fish died after the dumping of toxic products into the Piquiri River, in Panama in 2019.

This year, Lebanon has also suffered the effects of water pollution: more than 40 tonnes of fish were found dead after pesticide spills in the Litani River.

Pollution of coastal regions by urban and industrial sewage, among other types of waste, facilitates the proliferation of bacteria that cause diseases such as cholera, bacterial dysentery, and typhoid fever.

In addition, plastics correspond to 80% of all waste found in oceans. Every year, about 10 million tonnes of waste are dumped into the water with disposable and cosmetic containers among the most common types of plastic rubbish discarded.

During their decomposition, plastics give off toxins that contaminate fish and shellfish. By eating these animals, humans can subsequently be exposed to these chemicals. Consuming these foods can cause health problems.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Find Out How Plastic Waste and Water Pollution Affect Health

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The improper disposal of waste into the oceans is one of the world's main environmental problems. The dumping of toxic materials, plastics and sewage into our rivers and seas pollutes and kills fish, shellfish and other organisms. It also can lead to potential health implications for the people that consume them.

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.google.com/amp/s/api.nationalgeographic.com/distribution/public/amp/science/article/plastic-trash-in-seas-will-nearly-triple-by-2040-if-nothing-done

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Plastic trash flowing into the seas will nearly triple by 2040 without drastic action

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An ambitious plan, two years in the making, might have the solution.

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The Earth's average global temperature is 1.2 degrees Celsius (around 2.2 degrees Fahrenheit) hotter than in preindustrial times, causing shifts in weather patterns and more frequent and severe extreme weather events such as storms and droughts.

This global warming, also known as climate change, is the result of humans filling the air with gases that intensify a process called the greenhouse effect.

The greenhouse effect occurs when the sun's rays reach the Earth's atmosphere and the majority of the radiation bounces back out into space. When this happens, a small portion is absorbed by chemicals in our atmosphere. These are known as greenhouse gases.

By looking at air bubbles from hundreds of thousands of years ago until today, scientists have found that temperatures go up or down in lockstep with the amount of greenhouse gases like methane and carbon dioxide.

Human activity has started to change the delicate balance of chemicals in our atmosphere.

Since the dawn of the industrial revolution, humans have been burning fossil fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas for energy. When these substances are burned, they emit excess greenhouse gases, mostly in the form of carbon dioxide.

According to measurements taken in February and March from the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii, carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is now reaching levels 50 percent higher than in the preindustrial period. More greenhouse gases means more heat trapped in the atmosphere and, over time, a warmer planet.

When the average temperature of the Earth is raised, even by just a few degrees, we see some pretty dramatic effects. For example, it can cause a rise in ocean temperatures that can lead to more extreme storms and flooding.

Klaus Jacob, a special research scientist at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in New York, explained one consequence of warmer oceans.

"As the ocean gets warmer, it expands," Jacob said. "So as sea level rises, you need only smaller and smaller storms to reach the same elevation in New Orleans, or New York City, or anywhere else where we have storms. ... And so you get much more frequent flooding."

At the same time, some areas are dealing with long droughts because warmer temperatures cause more evaporation and dry out the land and vegetation, which leads to problems like crop shortages and widespread forest fires.

The severe current, and potential future, consequences of climate change were laid out in a landmark report conducted by the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which was released in August.

The assessment found that if the world follows the scenario of very low greenhouse gas emissions, it's plausible that warming of greater than 1.5 or 2 degrees Celsius above preindustrial temperatures can be avoided.

But if that scenario - which involves very drastic, rapid and sustained cuts in carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, enforced by governments and businesses - is not followed, the world could be heading toward being 3 degrees Celsius warmer by 2100.

In all cases, there will be more extreme events like hurricanes and heat waves that cause flooding, wildfires and droughts. It's only a question of how severe we allow the situation to become.

When it was published, the report was described as "a code red for humanity" by U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres.

The U.N. timed the report's release to lead into the U.N. Climate Change Conference, also known as COP26, in Glasgow, Scotland. The ongoing fight to limit global warming and to deal with its effects hinges on successful talks between world leaders at the conference, which will take place in early November.

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Read more from Yahoo News:

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What is the greenhouse effect and how does it lead to global warming?

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The Earth's average global temperature is 1.2 degrees Celsius (around 2.2 degrees Fahrenheit) hotter than in preindustrial times, causing shifts in weather patterns and more frequent and severe extreme weather events such as storms and droughts. This global warming, also known as climate change, is the result of humans filling the air with gases that intensify a process called the greenhouse effect.

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Biodiversity is vital for all life on Earth: How can we protect it?

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The first part of the UN biodiversity summit in Kunming, China is underway. To mark the event, Euronews and CGTN (China Global Television Network) together with leading experts and analysts, debated the latest efforts to protect nature worldwide.

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https://www.newscientist.com/article/6-6-charts-that-show-what-climate-change-is-doing-to-our-planet/

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6 charts that show what climate change is doing to our planet

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As the COP26 summit in Glasgow meets to discuss global action on climate change, atmospheric scientist Betsy Weatherhead explains what the science says about greenhouse gases and global warming

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https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-58657224.amp

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Air pollution: Even worse than we thought - WHO

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The WHO is slashing recommended maximum limits of key pollutants as evidence of danger mounts.

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World leaders have been meeting for 29 years to try to curb global warming, and in that time Earth has become a much hotter planet.

Trillions of tons of ice has disappeared over that period, the burning of fossil fuels has spewed billions of tons of heat-trapping gases into the air, and hundreds of thousands of people have died from heat and other weather disasters stoked by climate change, statistics show.

When more than 100 world leaders descended on Rio de Janeiro in 1992 for an Earth Summit to discuss global warming and other environmental issues, there was "a huge feeling of well-being, of being able to do something. There was hope really," said Oren Lyons, faithkeeper of the Turtle Clan of the Onondaga Nation, one of the representatives for Native Americans at the summit.

Now, the 91-year-old activist said, that hope has been smothered: "The ice is melting. ... Everything is bad. ... Thirty years of degradation."

Data analyzed by The Associated Press from government figures and scientific reports shows "how much we did lose Earth," said former U.S. Environmental Protection Agency chief William K. Reilly, who led the American delegation three decades ago.

That Earth Summit set up the process of international climate negotiations that culminated in the 2015 Paris accord and resumes today in Glasgow, Scotland, where leaders will try to ramp up efforts to cut carbon pollution.

Back in 1992, it was clear that climate change was a problem "with major implications for lives and livelihoods in the future," U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said this month. "That future is here, and we are out of time."

World leaders have hammered out two agreements to curb climate change.

In Kyoto in 1997, a protocol set carbon pollution cuts for developed countries but not poorer nations. That did not go into effect until 2005 because of ratification requirements. In 2015, the Paris agreement made every nation set its own emission goals.

In both cases, the United States, a top-polluting country, helped negotiate the deals but later pulled out of the process when a Republican president took office. The U.S. has since rejoined the Paris agreement.

The yearly global temperature has increased almost 1.1 degrees Fahrenheit since 1992, based on multiyear averaging, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Earth has warmed more in the past 29 years than in the previous 110. Since 1992, the world has broken the annual global high temperature record eight times.

In Alaska, the average temperature has increased 2.5 degrees Fahrenheit since 1992, according to NOAA. The Arctic had been warming twice as fast as the globe as a whole, but it now has jumped to three times faster in some seasons, according to the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program.

That heat is melting Earth's ice.

Since 1992, Earth has lost 36 trillion tons of ice, according to calculations by climate scientist Andrew Shepherd of the University of Leeds. That includes sea ice in the Arctic and Antarctic that melts now more in the summer than it used to, the shrinking of giant ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica, and melting glaciers.

And Michael Zemp, who runs the World Glacier Monitoring Service, said Shepherd's numbers may be a little low. He calculates that since 1992, the glaciers of the world have lost nearly 9.5 trillion tons of ice, about a trillion tons more than Shepherd's figures.

With more ice melt in the ocean and water expanding as it warms, the world's average sea level has risen about 3.7 inches since 1992, according to the University of Colorado. That may not sound like much, but it is enough to cover the United States in water to a depth of 11 feet, University of Colorado sea level researcher Steve Nerem calculated.

Wildfires in the United States have more than doubled in how much they have burned. From 1983-92, wildfires consumed an average of 2.7 million acres a year. From 2011-20, the average was up to 7.5 million acres, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.

"The unhealthy choices that are killing our planet are killing our people as well," said Dr. Maria Neira, director of the World Heath Organization's environment, climate change and health program.

The United States has had 265 weather disasters that caused at least $1 billion in damage -- adjusted to 2021 dollars -- since 1992, including 18 so far this year. Those disasters have caused 11,991 deaths and cost $1.8 trillion. From 1980-92, the U.S. averaged three of those billion-dollar weather disasters a year. Since 1993, the country has averaged nine a year.

Worldwide there have been nearly 8,000 climate, water and weather disasters, killing 563,735, according to the International Disaster Database. Those figures are probably missing a lot of disasters and deaths, said the Debarati Guha-Sapir, who oversees the database for the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters at the University of Louvain School of Public Health in Brussels.

Medical researchers earlier this year looked at 732 cities worldwide and calculated how many deaths were from climate change-caused extra heat. They found that on average since 1991, there have been 9,702 heat deaths from global warming a year just in those studied cities, which adds up to 281,000 climate-caused heat deaths since 1992.

But that's a small proportion of what really is happening, said study author Ana Vicedo-Cabrera, an epidemiologist at the Institute of Social and Preventative Medicine at the University of Bern in Switzerland.

Using those cities, researchers calculated that during the four hottest months of the year, the added heat from climate change is responsible for 0.58% of the globe's deaths. That comes to about 100,000 heat deaths caused by climate change a year for 29 years, she said.

WHO officials said those figures make sense and calculate the annual death toll from climate change will rise to 250,000 a year in the 2030s.

Scientists say this is happening because of heat-trapping gases. Carbon dioxide levels have increased 17% from 353 parts per million in September 1992 to 413 in September 2021, according to NOAA. The agency's annual greenhouse gas index, which charts six gases and weights them according to how much heat they trap, rose almost 20% since 1992.

From 1993 to 2019, the world put more than 885 billion tons of carbon dioxide in the air from the burning of fossil fuels and making of cement, according to the Global Carbon Project, a group of scientists who track emissions.

A pessimistic Lyons, the Native American activist, said, "I would say this meeting in Glasgow is the last shot."

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World leaders have been meeting for 29 years to try to curb global warming, and in that time Earth has become a much hotter planet. Trillions of tons of ice has disappeared over that period, the burning of fossil fuels has spewed billions of tons of heat-trapping gases into the air, and hundreds of thousands of people have died from heat and other weather disasters stoked by climate change, statistics show.

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https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02990-w

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Top climate scientists are sceptical that nations will rein in global warming

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A Nature survey reveals that many authors of the latest IPCC climate-science report are anxious about the future and expect to see catastrophic changes in their lifetimes.

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https://c11.kr/tjse

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Worsening soil pollution and waste proliferation threaten the future of global food production, human health and the environment, a report has said.

According to a joint report released Friday by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) titled "Global Assessment of Soil Pollution", soil pollution has been intentionally recognised as a major threat to soil health.

The report was launched as part of the celebrations for World Environment Day (5 June) and the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021-2030).

The report said soil pollution also affects the soil's ability to provide ecosystems services, including the production of safe and sufficient food, compromising global food security.

"It hits the most vulnerable hardest especially children and women.

"The supply of safe drinking water is threatened by the leaching of contaminants into groundwater and runoff," it said.

The report found that soil pollution has serious implications for agrifood systems and human health because of its long-term impact on the environment.

"Many ecosystem services are hampered by soil pollution, losing productivity and resilience in the long term.

"Soil pollution causes reduced crop yields and food wastage due to high levels of contaminants, loss of biodiversity and increased incidence of pests, decreased water quality and eutrophication of the marine environment," it said.

"Soil protection is of the utmost importance to ensure the success of our future agri-food systems, ecosystem restoration and all lives on earth," QU Dongyu, the director-general of the Food and Agriculture Organisation, said in the forward of the report.

"Our society wants more nutritious and safe foods, free of contaminants and pathogens," he said.

Inger Andersen, UNEP's executive director, referred to the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, jointly led by UNEP and FAO, as an opportunity for change.

She called for stronger enforcement of global conventions on the environment as well as long-term monitoring to stop industrial pollution. She also called for the adoption of agricultural practices that support the use of environmentally friendly pesticides.

"It is time to reconnect with our soils, as it is where our food begins," she said.

"Soil pollution should no longer be a hidden reality. Let us all be part of the solution to solution pollution," she said in the forward of the report."

Use of pesticides

The report said the use of pesticides increased by 75 per cent between 2000 and 2017 with some 109 million tonnes of synthetic nitrogen fertilisers applied worldwide in 2018.

"The use of plastics in agriculture has increased significantly in recent decades with 708000 tonnes of non-packaging plastic consumed in agriculture in the EU in 2019.

"The global annual production of industrial chemicals has doubled to approximately 2.3 billion tonnes since the beginning of the 21st century and is projected to increase by 85 per cent by 2030.

"Waste production is also on the rise, the world currently produces 2 billion tonnes of waste annually and that is predicted to rise to 3.4 billion tonnes by 2050 due to population growth and urbanisation," the report said.

The report predicted soil and environmental pollution would continue to deteriorate unless there was a shift in production and consumption patterns and a stronger political commitment to support sustainable management.

Action needed

The report emphasised actions needed to prevent and halt soil pollution and to remediate polluted soils.

"All stakeholders must take decisive steps in the prevention of soil pollution, starting with small action in people's consumption decision and extending to the development of stringent policies and incentives that encourages industrial innovation and the adoption of environmentally sound technologies," it said.

It added that greater research is required to determine the extent of soil pollution while stressing the proliferation of organic contaminants and others such as pharmaceuticals, antimicrobials that lead to more resistant bacteria, industrial chemicals, and plastic residues are of growing concern.

The UN report called for the establishment of a Global Soil Pollution Information and Monitoring System, stronger legal frameworks for preventing and remediating polluted soils, and initiatives to foster technical cooperation and capacity development.

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Worsening soil pollution threatens future food production, ecosystems - Report

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Worsening soil pollution and waste proliferation threaten the future of global food production, human health and the environment, a report has said. According to a joint report released Friday by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) titled "Global Assessment of Soil Pollution ", soil pollution has been intentionally recognised as a major threat to soil health.

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https://www.pnas.org/content/97/18/9875

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Contributed by James Hansen

Estimated Forcings.

We separate CO ₂, CH ₄, and CFCs in Fig. 1 because they are produced by different processes and have different growth rates. We associate with CH ₄ its indirect effects on tropospheric O ₃ and stratospheric H ₂O to make clear the importance of CH ₄ as a climate forcing. We assume that one-fourth of the 0.4 W/m ² climate forcing due to increasing tropospheric O ₃ is caused by increasing CH ₄ (chapter 2 in ref. 4; ref. 19). We calculate an indirect effect of 0.1 W/m ² for CH ₄ oxidized to H ₂O in the stratosphere ( 20). The recent trend of stratospheric H ₂O ( 20, 21) is even larger than CH ₄ could cause, but part of the observed trend may be a result of transport from the troposphere.

The estimated negative forcing due to stratospheric O ₃ depletion, −0.1 W/m ², is smaller than the −0.2 W/m ² that we used earlier ( 6) because of changes in the vertical profile of O ₃ depletion estimated from observations. O ₃ trends recommended by the World Meteorological Organization ( 22) have less depletion in the tropopause region (where O ₃ loss causes surface cooling) and greater loss in the middle stratosphere (where O ₃ loss causes surface warming) compared with the O ₃ changes that we used previously ( 5, 6).

Climate forcing by CO ₂ is the largest forcing, but it does not dwarf the others (Fig. 1). Forcing by CH ₄ (0.7 W/m ²) is half as large as that of CO ₂, and the total forcing by non-CO ₂ GHGs (1.4 W/m ²) equals that of CO ₂. Moreover, in comparing forcings due to different activities, we must note that the fossil fuels producing most of the CO ₂ are also the main source of aerosols, especially sulfates, black carbon, and organic aerosols ( 4, 23). Fossil fuels contribute only a minor part of the non-CO ₂ GHG growth via emissions that are not essential to energy production.

Aerosols cause a climate forcing directly by reflecting sunlight and indirectly by modifying cloud properties. The indirect effect includes increased cloud brightness, as aerosols lead to a larger number and smaller size of cloud droplets ( 24), and increased cloud cover, as smaller droplets inhibit rainfall and increase cloud lifetime ( 25). Absorbing aerosols cause a semidirect forcing by heating the atmosphere, thus reducing large-scale cloud cover ( 5). In addition, absorbing aerosols within cloud drops and in interstitial air decrease cloud brightness.

Forcing by atmospheric aerosols is uncertain, but research of the past decade indicates that it is substantial ( 4, 26- 28). The aerosol forcing that we estimate ( 6) has the same magnitude (1.4 W/m ²) but a sign that is opposite that of the CO ₂ forcing. Fossil fuel use is the main source of both CO ₂ and aerosols, with land conversion and biomass burning also contributing to both forcings. Although fossil fuels contribute to growth of some of the other GHGs, it follows that the net global climate forcing due to processes that produced CO ₂ in the past century probably is much less than 1.4 W/m ². This partial offsetting of aerosol and greenhouse forcings has been discussed ( 29- 31). Offsetting of global mean forcings does not imply that climate effects are negligible.

A corollary following from Fig. 1 is that climate forcing by non-CO ₂ GHGs (1.4 W/m ²) is nearly equal to the net value of all known forcings for the period 1850-2000 (1.6 W/m ²). Thus, assuming only that our estimates are approximately correct, we assert that the processes producing the non-CO ₂ GHGs have been the primary drive for climate change in the past century.

Consistency Checks.

Two empirical pieces of information are consistent with our estimated net climate forcing: ( i) global warming of the past century and ( ii) observed heat storage in the ocean. The second of these is direct and fundamental.

Paleoclimate data ( 13, 32, 33) imply that the equilibrium global climate sensitivity for doubled CO ₂ (a forcing of about 4 W/m ²) is 3 ± 1°C (thus ¾ ± ¼°C per W/m ²). This figure is similar to the sensitivity derived from climate models ( 4, 12), but it has a higher precision and confidence level. This climate sensitivity implies a thermal response time of the ocean surface of 50-100 years ( 32, 34). One implication of this ocean response time is that the observed global warming of ¾°C since the late 1800s is consistent with the equilibrium warming of 1.2°C that a forcing of 1.6 W/m ² implies, because about 70% of the forcing was introduced in the last 50 years ( 6, 35). The remaining global warming of 0.4-0.5°C that is "in the pipeline" is consistent with the present planetary energy imbalance of 0.6 ± 0.1 W/m ² ( 8).

The ocean is the only place that the energy from a planetary radiation imbalance can accumulate, because of the low thermal conductivity of land and the limit on ice melting implicit in the observed sea level rise ( 36). Thus observed ocean heat storage requires a planetary energy imbalance of the same magnitude. Analyses of global ocean data ( 7) reveal that ocean heat content increased by 2 × 10 ²³ joules between the mid-1950s and the mid-1990s. This heat storage could be a natural dynamical fluctuation. But the simplest interpretation is that the change in ocean heat content and the implied planetary energy imbalance are a reflection of the net global climate forcing. Observed heat storage between the mid-1950s and mid-1990s yields a mean heating of 0.3 W/m ² averaged over the Earth's surface for that period ( 7). This finding is consistent with the ocean heat storage simulated in global climate models that use the forcings of Fig. 1; the heat storage in the models increases from near zero in the 1950s to a mean of 0.5 W/m ² in the 1990s ( 8, 35). Thus observed ocean heat storage provides empirical evidence for the sign and approximate magnitude of the net climate forcing of Fig. 1.

Carbon Dioxide.

The growth rate of forcing by CO ₂ doubled between the 1950s and the 1970s (Fig. 3 A) but was flat from the late 1970s until the late 1990s, despite a 30% increase in fossil fuel use ( 39). This finding implies a recent increase in terrestrial and/or oceanic sinks for CO ₂, which may be temporary. The largest annual increase of CO ₂, 2.7 ppm, occurred in 1998. The annual increase was 2.1 ppm in 1999, although the growth rate had decreased to 1.3 ppm/year by the end of the year.

Methane.

A dramatic growth rate change has occurred for CH ₄ (Fig. 3 B). The small interannual variability of CH ₄ before 1982 reflects smoothing inherent in ice core data ( 37). Factors that may have slowed the CH ₄ growth rate are recognized, as discussed below, but most of them are not accurately quantified.

CFCs.

The growth rate of the two principal CFCs is near zero (Fig. 3 C) and will be negative in the future as a result of production restrictions imposed by the Montreal Protocol ( 40). Other CFCs together cause a climate forcing that may approach that of CFC-12 early in the twenty-first century ( 4, 41). But most of these are being phased out, and, assuming compliance with production agreements ( 42), the net change in CFC climate forcing in the next 50 years will be small, as discussed below.

Carbon Dioxide.

Coal and oil are now about equal sources of CO ₂ emissions (Fig. 4). Coal is the source of potentially large future emissions, as its known resources are an order of magnitude greater than those of either oil or gas ( 43). Coal use has declined in much of the world, but it has been increasing in the United States and China ( 39, 43).

The increase in atmospheric CO ₂ in recent decades (Fig. 2) represents about half of the emissions from fossil fuels and changes in tropical land use; the remaining CO ₂ from these sources is taken up by the ocean, terrestrial biosphere, and soils. The flat growth rate of CO ₂ forcing, despite increased emissions, is at least in part a reflection of increased terrestrial sequestration of carbon in the 1990s ( 44). The slowing growth rate of emissions may itself allow a higher proportion of CO ₂ emissions to be sequestered. Thus the prognosis for future sequestration is uncertain, but maintenance of a flat growth rate of CO ₂ forcing surely requires a flattening of the growth rate of fossil fuel emissions, which have grown 1.2%/year since 1975 (Fig. 4).

Methane.

The decline in the CH ₄ growth rate (Fig. 3 B) probably is caused in part by changes of chemical emissions (such as CO and NO ₄) that affect OH, the primary sink for CH ₄ ( 19, 45, 46). However, a reduced growth rate of CH ₄ sources also may be involved ( 37, 47). The short lifetime of CH ₄, about 8 years, means that a reduction of several percent in a major source could have caused the reduced growth rate of CH ₄. Sources and sinks of CH ₄ are not known to that accuracy ( 19, 45, 48).

The primary natural source of CH ₄ is microbial decay of organic matter under anoxic conditions in wetlands ( 45, 49). Anthropogenic sources, which in sum may be twice as great as the natural source ( 45), include rice cultivation, domestic ruminants, bacterial decay in landfills and sewage, leakage during the mining of fossil fuels, leakage from natural gas pipelines, and biomass burning. Global warming could cause the natural wetland source to increase ( 49), but if warming causes a drying of wetlands, it might reduce the CH ₄ source.

Aerosols.

Climate forcing by anthropogenic aerosols may be the largest source of uncertainty about future climate change. The approximate global balancing of aerosol and CO ₂ forcings in the past (Fig. 1) cannot continue indefinitely. As long-lived CO ₂ accumulates, continued balancing requires a greater and greater aerosol load. Such a solution, we have argued ( 30), would be a Faustian bargain. Detrimental effects of aerosols, including acid rain and health impacts, will eventually limit the permissible atmospheric aerosol amount and thus expose latent greenhouse warming.

We do not even know the sign of the current trend of aerosol forcing, because such information would require knowledge of the trends of different aerosol compositions. Direct aerosol forcing depends on aerosol single scattering albedo ( 5, 50) and thus on the amount of absorbing constituents. Indirect aerosol forcing also depends on aerosol absorption, through the semidirect effect on cloud cover ( 5) and the cloud particle single scattering albedo. Calculations for cloud particles with imbedded black carbon cores ( 51) suggest an effect on cloud albedo at distances up to 1,000 km from the carbon aerosol source.

Carbon Dioxide.

This scenario calls for the mean CO ₂ growth rate in the next 50 years to be about the same as in the past two decades. The additional forcing in 50 years is about 1 W/m ² for an average annual CO ₂ increment of 1.5 ppm.

Is such a CO ₂ growth rate plausible? We note that the CO ₂ growth rate increased little in the past 20 years, while much of the developing world had rapid economic growth. The United States also had strong growth with little emphasis on energy efficiency, indeed with increasing use of energy-inefficient sports utility vehicles. This fact suggests that there are opportunities to achieve reduced emissions consistent with strong economic growth. Limiting CO ₂ growth to 75 ppm in the next 50 years probably requires a moderate decrease in CO ₂ emission rates, as continuation of high terrestrial sequestration of CO ₂ is uncertain.

In the near term (2000-2025) this scenario can be achieved by improved energy efficiency and a continued trend toward decarbonization of energy sources, e.g., increased use of gas instead of coal. Technologies for improved efficiency exist (ref. 52; available at www.natcap.org), and implementation can be driven by economic self-interest, but governments need to remove barriers that discourage buying of energy efficiency ( 53). Business-as-usual scenarios often understate a long-term trend toward decarbonization of the energy supply (figure 8 in ref. 54), but the IPCC Special Report on Emissions Scenarios ( 9) includes a subset that is consistent with our CO ₂ scenario.

In the longer term (2025-2050) attainment of a decreasing CO ₂ growth rate will require greater use of energy sources that produce little or no CO ₂. Some renewable energy systems will be developed without concern for climate. But if such systems are to play a substantial role by the second quarter of the century, it is important to foster research and development investments now in generic technologies at the interface between energy supply and end use-e.g., gas turbines, fuel cells, and photovoltaics ( 43).

Methane.

Our scenario aims for a forcing of −0.2 W/m ² for CH ₄ change in the next 50 years. This goal requires the reduction of anthropogenic CH ₄ sources by about 30%. Most CH ₄ sources are susceptible to reductions, many in ways that are otherwise beneficial ( 55, 56). Reduction of CH ₄ would have the added benefit of increasing atmospheric OH and reducing tropospheric O ₃, a pollutant that is harmful to human health and agriculture ( 57).

The amount of CH ₄ produced by rice cultivation, perhaps the largest anthropogenic source, depends on cultivar choice ( 58), irrigation management ( 59), and fertilization ( 60). Mitigation strategies that maintain yields include intermittent irrigation ( 61), with the added advantage of reducing plant pests and malaria-carrying mosquitoes. Ruminants offer substantial potential for emission reduction via dietary adjustments ( 62), as the farmer's objective is to produce meat, milk, or power from the carbon in their feed, not CH ₄. CH ₄ losses from leaky natural gas distribution lines could be reduced, especially in the former Soviet Union, which is served by an old system that was built without financial incentives to reduce losses ( 63). Similarly, CH ₄ escaping from landfills, coal mining and oil drilling sites, and anaerobic waste management lagoons can be reduced or captured, with economic benefits that partially or totally offset the costs ( 56).

The economic benefits of CH ₄ capture probably are insufficient to bring about the 30% CH ₄ reduction that we suggest. But with additional incentives-e.g., as part of multigas strategies for limiting GHG climate forcing ( 64)-a 30% reduction in CH ₄ sources seems reasonable. In addition, it will be necessary to avoid new large CH ₄ sources. For example, in new pipeline distribution systems in Asia it will be important to use technology that minimizes losses.

The pollutant carbon monoxide (CO) contributes to increased CH ₄ and O ₃ through its effect on OH ( 65, 66). A small downward trend in atmospheric CO has occurred in recent years, apparently as a result of pollution control in Western countries ( 67). More widespread use of advanced technologies that reduce CO emissions will help achieve CH ₄ and O ₃ reductions.

CFCs.

The Montreal Protocol is aimed at reversing stratospheric ozone depletion. A secondary benefit is reduction of climate forcing by the controlled gases. If production phase-out follows the current plan ( 40), the forcing by controlled gases will be about 0.15 W/m ² less in 2050 than at present, primarily because of declining amounts of CFC-12 and CFC-11. Uncontrolled gases, some of which are substitutes for ozone-depleting chemicals, are likely to increase and cause a positive forcing of about that same magnitude in the next 50 years; the largest contributor to this forcing is HFC-134a (chapter 2 of ref. 4).

Verification of the CFC phase-out requires continuing attention and atmospheric monitoring ( 42), but overall the protocol has been a model of international environmental cooperation. The Protocol's Multilateral Fund recently approved $150 million for China and $82 million for India, the two largest remaining producers, for complete phase-out of their CFC production ( 40). The cost of the fund over a decade was about $1 billion ( 40).

At present the net change in climate forcing by these gases over the next 50 years is expected to be about zero. If the phase-out were extended to include additional gases, such as HFC-134a, and destruction of the accessible bank of CFC-12, a negative forcing change of −0.1 W/m ² would seem possible.

Tropospheric Ozone.

Climate forcing by anthropogenic tropospheric O ₃ is now 0.4 ± 0.15 W/m ² ( 4, 6). Principal precursor emissions are volatile organic compounds and nitrogen oxides (NO x) ( 57, 68). Primary sources of the precursors are transportation vehicles, power plants, and industrial processes ( 57). Business-as-usual scenarios have O ₃ continuing to increase in the future ( 4, 68). Because O ₃ in the free troposphere can have a lifetime of weeks, tropospheric O ₃ is a global problem; e.g., emissions in Asia are projected to have a significant effect on air quality in the United States. High levels of O ₃ have adverse health and ecosystem effects. Annual costs of the impacts on human health and crop productivity are each estimated to be on the order of $10 billion/year in the United States alone.

Despite limited success of past attempts to reduce O ₃ ( 57), the human and ecological costs of this pollutant suggest that it should be a target for international cooperation in the next half-century. Air pollution in some Asian regions is already extreme, with high ecological and health costs. Unlike the Kyoto negotiations on CO ₂ emissions, which cast the developed and developing worlds as adversaries, all parties should have congruent objectives regarding O ₃. Analogous to the approach to CFCs, sharing of technology may have mutual environmental and economic benefits.

Tropospheric O ₃ is decreasing downwind of regions such as Western Europe, where NO x emissions are controlled ( 67), but increasing downwind of East Asia ( 69). There is a clear potential for cleaner energy sources and improved combustion technology to achieve an O ₃ reduction. Our scenario assumes that a small reduction of tropospheric O ₃ forcing, at least sufficient to balance the expected rebound of stratospheric O ₃, is plausible by 2050.

Aerosols.

Aerosols, unlike GHGs, are not monitored to an accuracy defining their global forcing and its temporal change. It is often assumed ( 4) that aerosol forcing will become more negative in the future, which would be true if all aerosols were to increase in present proportions. However, it is just as likely that aerosol forcing will become less negative. Such an outcome is possible, e.g., if nonabsorbing sulfates decrease because of regulations aimed at reducing acid rain.

Black carbon reduces aerosol albedo, causes a semidirect reduction of cloud cover, and reduces cloud particle albedo. All of these effects cause warming. Conceivably a reduction of climate forcing by 0.5 W/m ² or more could be obtained by reducing black carbon emissions from diesel fuel and coal. This reduction might become easier in the future, with more energy provided via electricity grids from power plants ( 43). But a quantitative understanding of the role of absorbing aerosol in climate change is required to formulate reliable policy recommendations.

Aerosols have to be monitored globally, thus by satellite, because of their heterogeneity. Measurements must yield precise aerosol optical depth, size distribution, and composition to define the direct forcing and provide data to analyze indirect effects. Such measurements are possible with precision multispectral (UV to infrared) polarimetry, with each region viewed over a wide range of angles ( 70). These data should be accompanied by visible imaging for scene definition and infrared interferometry to yield a temperature profile and cloud properties. Simultaneous lidar data could provide precise vertical profiles of the aerosols.

Non-CO₂ GHGs.

These gases are probably the main cause of observed global warming, with CH ₄ causing the largest net climate forcing. There are economic incentives to reduce or capture CH ₄ emissions, but global implementation of appropriate practices requires international cooperation. Definition of appropriate policies requires better understanding of the CH ₄ cycle, especially CH ₄ sources.

Climate forcing by CFCs and related chemicals is still growing today, but if Montreal Protocol restrictions are adhered to, there should be no net growth in this forcing over the next 50 years. A small decrease from today's forcing level is possible, at least comparable in magnitude to the expected small rebound in stratospheric O ₃ forcing.

Tropospheric O ₃ increases in business-as-usual scenarios, which assume that CH ₄ increases and that there is no global effort to control O ₃ precursors. Despite limited success in past efforts to reduce O ₃, the human health and ecological impacts of O ₃ are so great that it represents an opportunity for international cooperation. At least it should be possible to prevent tropospheric O ₃ forcing in 2050 from exceeding that of today.

Carbon Dioxide.

CO ₂ will become the dominant climate forcing, if its emissions continue to increase and aerosol effects level off. Business-as-usual scenarios understate the potential for CO ₂ emission reductions from improved energy efficiency and decarbonization of fuels. Based on this potential and current CO ₂ growth trends, we argue that limiting the CO ₂ forcing increase to 1 W/m ² in the next 50 years is plausible.

Indeed, CO ₂ emissions from fossil fuel use declined slightly in 1998 and again in 1999 ( 71), while the global economy grew. However, achieving the level of emissions needed to slow climate change significantly is likely to require policies that encourage technological developments to accelerate energy efficiency and decarbonization trends.

Aerosols.

Climate forcing due to aerosol changes is a wild card. Current trends, even the sign of the effect, are uncertain. Unless climate forcings by all aerosols are precisely monitored, it will be difficult to define optimum policies.

We argue that black carbon aerosols, by means of several effects, contribute significantly to global warming. This conclusion suggests one antidote to global warming, if it becomes a major problem. As electricity plays an increasing role in future energy systems, it should be relatively easy to strip black carbon emissions at fossil fuel power plants. Stripping and disposal of CO ₂, although more challenging, provide an effective backup strategy.

Accepted June 16, 2000.

View Abstract

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Global warming in the twenty-first century: An alternative scenario

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A common view is that the current global warming rate will continue or accelerate. But we argue that rapid warming in recent decades has been driven mainly by non-CO2 greenhouse gases (GHGs), such as chlorofluorocarbons, CH4, and N2O, not by the products of fossil fuel burning, CO2 and aerosols, the positive and negative climate forcings of which are partially offsetting.

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https://apnews.com/article/climate-science-technology-environment-europe-98e55f2c64aa6d3dc76a5fc64f8d4ba2

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World leaders have been meeting for 29 years to try to curb global warming, and in that time Earth has become a much hotter and deadlier planet.

Trillions of tons of ice have disappeared over that period, the burning of fossil fuels has spewed billions of tons of heat-trapping gases into the air, and hundreds of thousands of people have died from heat and other weather disasters stoked by climate change, statistics show.

When more than 100 world leaders descended on Rio de Janeiro in 1992 for an Earth Summit to discuss global warming and other environmental issues, there was "a huge feeling of well-being, of being able to do something. There was hope really," said Oren Lyons, faithkeeper of the Turtle Clan of the Onondaga Nation, one of the representatives for Native Americans at the summit.

Now, the 91-year-old activist said, that hope has been smothered: "The ice is melting. ... Everything is bad. ... Thirty years of degradation."

Data analyzed by The Associated Press from government figures and scientific reports shows "how much we did lose Earth," said former U.S. Environmental Protection Agency chief William K. Reilly, who headed the American delegation three decades ago.

That Earth Summit set up the process of international climate negotiations that culminated in the 2015 Paris accord and resumes Sunday in Glasgow, Scotland, where leaders will try to ramp up efforts to cut carbon pollution.

Back in 1992, it was clear climate change was a problem "with major implications for lives and livelihoods in the future," U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the AP this month. "That future is here and we are out of time."

World leaders have hammered out two agreements to curb climate change. In Kyoto in 1997, a protocol set carbon pollution cuts for developed countries but not poorer nations. That did not go into effect until 2005 because of ratification requirements. In 2015, the Paris agreement made every nation set its own emission goals.

In both cases, the United States, a top-polluting country, helped negotiate the deals but later pulled out of the process when a Republican president took office. The U.S. has since rejoined the Paris agreement.

The yearly global temperature has increased almost 1.1 degrees Fahrenheit (0.6 degrees Celsius) since 1992, based on multi-year averaging, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Earth has warmed more in the last 29 years than in the previous 110. Since 1992, the world has broken the annual global high temperature record eight times.

In Alaska, the average temperature has increased 2.5 degrees (1.4 degrees Celsius) since 1992, according to NOAA. The Arctic had been warming twice as fast as the globe as a whole, but now has jumped to three times faster in some seasons, according to the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program.

That heat is melting Earth's ice. Since 1992, Earth has lost 36 trillion tons of ice (33 trillion metric tons), according to calculations by climate scientist Andrew Shepherd of the University of Leeds. That includes sea ice in the Arctic and Antarctic that melts now more in the summer than it used to, the shrinking of giant ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica, and melting glaciers.

And Michael Zemp, who runs the World Glacier Monitoring Service, said Shepherd's numbers may be a little low. He calculates that since 1992, the glaciers of the world have lost nearly 9.5 trillion tons of ice (8.6 trillion metric tons), about a trillion tons more than Shepherd's figures.

With more ice melt in the ocean and water expanding as it warms, the world's average sea level has risen about 3.7 inches (95 millimeters) since 1992, according to the University of Colorado. That may not sound like much, but it is enough to cover the United States in water to a depth of 11 feet (3.5 meters), University of Colorado sea level researcher Steve Nerem calculated.

Wildfires in the United States have more than doubled in how much they have burned. From 1983 to 1992, wildfires consumed an average of 2.7 million acres a year. From 2011 to 2020, the average was up to 7.5 million acres, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.

"The unhealthy choices that are killing our planet are killing our people as well," said Dr. Maria Neira, director of the World Heath Organization's environment, climate change and health program.

The United States has had 265 weather disasters that caused at least $1 billion in damage - adjusted to 2021 dollars - since 1992, including 18 so far this year. Those disasters have caused 11,991 deaths and cost $1.8 trillion. From 1980 to 1992, the U.S. averaged three of those billion-dollar weather disasters a year. Since 1993, the country has averaged nine a year.

Worldwide there have been nearly 8,000 climate, water and weather disasters, killing 563,735, according to the EMDAT disaster databas e. Those figures are probably missing a lot of disasters and deaths, said the Debarati Guha-Sapir, who oversees the database for the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters at the University of Louvain School of Public Health in Brussels.

Medical researchers earlier this year looked at 732 cities worldwide and calculated how many deaths were from climate change-caused extra heat. They found that on average since 1991, there have been 9,702 heat deaths from global warming a year just in those studied cities, which adds up to 281,000 climate-caused heat deaths since 1992.

But that's a small proportion of what really is happening, said study author Ana Vicedo-Cabrera, an epidemiologist at the Institute of Social and Preventative Medicine at the University of Bern in Switzerland. Using those cities, researchers calculated that during the four hottest months of the year, the added heat from climate change is responsible for 0.58% of the globe's deaths.

That comes to about 100,000 heat deaths caused by climate change a year for 29 years, she said.

WHO officials said those figures make sense and calculate the annual death toll from climate change will rise to 250,000 a year in the 2030s.

Scientists say this is happening because of heat-trapping gases. Carbon dioxide levels have increased 17% from 353 parts per million in September 1992 to 413 in September 2021, according to NOAA. The agency's annual greenhouse gas index, which charts six gases and weights them according to how much heat they trap, rose almost 20% since 1992.

From 1993 to 2019, the world put more than 885 billion tons (803 billion metric tons) of carbon dioxide in the air from the burning of fossil fuels and making of cement, according to the Global Carbon Project, a group of scientists who track emissions.

A pessimistic Lyons, the Native American activist, said, "I would say this meeting in Glasgow is the last shot."

___

Read stories on climate issues by The Associated Press at https://apnews.com/hub/climate.

___

Follow Seth Borenstein on Twitter at @borenbears.

___

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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Earth gets hotter, deadlier during decades of climate talks

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World leaders have been meeting for 29 years to try to curb global warming, and in that time Earth has become a much hotter and deadlier planet. Trillions of tons of ice have disappeared over that period, the burning of fossil fuels has spewed billions of tons of heat-trapping gases into the air, and hundreds of thousands of people have died from heat and other weather disasters stoked by climate change, statistics show.

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https://www.cnbc.com/2021/11/03/bill-gates-doubts-aim-to-limit-global-warming-to-1point5-degrees-achievable-.html

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Bill Gates doubts goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees is achievable

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The U.K. is currently hosting the COP26 climate change conference, which will run from Oct. 31 to Nov. 12.

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https://m.economictimes.com/news/india/51-cut-in-stubble-burning-this-season-against-corresponding-period-last-year-air-quality-panel/articleshow/87507754.cms?_gl=1*1qo3hfj*_ga*TkNyWkN1QmU4bF81WnlUdDhTblJnSG81MWtWcEJ5dl9iRkJnN1dVT3dERV85MlFRQnllSWJxRExvdmUzWkdybQ..

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PTI
Between October 27 and November 2 this year, only 12,853 farm fires have been recorded as against 23,628 cases in the corresponding period of 2020 -- a reduction of 10,775 cases (45.6 per cent).

Incidents of stubble burning have come down by over 51 per cent this season so far compared to the corresponding period last year, according to the Centre's Commission for Air Quality Management ( CAQM). The panel said enforcement agencies have inspected 8,575 sites in Punjab, Haryana and NCR districts of Uttar Pradesh and an environmental compensation of around Rs 58 lakh has been imposed for crop residue burning.

" Paddy residue burning events in Punjab, Haryana, NCR districts of UP and Rajasthan and Delhi have come down from 43,918 in 2020 to 21,364 in 2021 during the period from September 15 to November 2," it said in a statement.

The reduction in fire counts is 51.35 per cent in the current year compared to the corresponding period last year.

Between October 27 and November 2 this year, only 12,853 farm fires have been recorded as against 23,628 cases in the corresponding period of 2020 -- a reduction of 10,775 cases (45.6 per cent).

(Catch all the Business News, Breaking News Events and Latest News Updates on The Economic Times.)

Download The Economic Times News App to get Daily Market Updates & Live Business News.

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51% cut in stubble burning this season against corresponding period last year: Air quality panel

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Incidents of stubble burning have come down by over 51 per cent this season so far compared to the corresponding period last year, according to the Centre's Commission for Air Quality Management ( CAQM).

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https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-mid-wales-44375517

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US aircraft 'sparked grass fire' on Epynt mountain

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More than 150 hectares on the Epynt mountain caught fire after a training drill involving an Osprey.

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https://m.economictimes.com/news/india/delhi-pollution-overall-air-quality-dips-to-very-poor-category-ahead-of-diwali/videoshow/87505583.cms?_gl=1*115ipt1*_ga*TkNyWkN1QmU4bF81WnlUdDhTblJnSG81MWtWcEJ5dl9iRkJnN1dVT3dERV85MlFRQnllSWJxRExvdmUzWkdybQ..

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Delhi pollution: Overall air quality dips to 'very poor' category ahead of Diwali

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The overall Air Quality Index (AQI) of Delhi reached the "very poor" category on November 03. The air quality over Delhi-NCT is likely to remain in the lower end of the 'Poor' to 'Very Poor' categories on November 2 and November 3, said the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD).

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https://c11.kr/tjsk

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Removal of pollutants from the air, or atmospheric deposition, is a natural cleaning mechanism. However, the removed toxic matters don't just disappear on the Earth. China's Soil Pollution Survey released in 2014 shows that 19.4% of the Chinese farmland soil was polluted and 82% of pollutant was toxic heavy metals such as cadmium, which can cause chronic health problems.

Atmospheric deposition is an important source of these heavy metals in the soil but it tends to be neglected. Unlike sources from irrigation water, sewage sludge, fertilizers and livestock manures, atmospheric deposition can't easily be perceived. And the paucity of measurements also makes it difficult to track what happens to heavy metals when they fall from the air to the soil.

Earlier in 2013, a series of control measures was launched to improve air quality in China. As a consequence, the concentrations of fine particles and sulfate aerosols were reduced significantly during 2013 to 2017.

Dr. Yuepeng Pan with the Institute of Atmospheric Physics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences was a researcher dedicated to tracking atmospheric processing and deposition of air pollutants and their impacts on ecosystem. He was greatly encouraged by the positive effect of the Clean Air Act and meanwhile he wondered, "Will the Clean Air Act also affect the atmospheric deposition? If yes, what implication can we get?"

In a recent study published in Atmosphere, Dr. Pan and his group tracked the atmospheric depositions of heavy metals at an agricultural site of rural Beijing. They found that the deposition flux of heavy metals that exist entirely in fine particles declined significantly compared to those that exist in coarse particulate form, indicating that the Clean Air Act implemented in recent years were highly effective, with beneficial "side effect" in reducing ambient heavy metals from anthropogenic emissions.

Pan also noticed that while the bulk deposition flux of heavy metals declined substantially compared to the records ten years ago, the current deposition flux of lead is still higher than that reported in Europe. In addition, Pan and his team found that the annual bulk deposition flux of heavy metals tended to decrease during 2017-2020, coinciding with the annual variations of particulate matter. They attributed this decline to the fluctuations of the emissions from their major sources rather than to precipitation controlling the deposition processes.

"This beneficial side effect of Clear Air Act is totally unintended, but from this we can learn that to further reduce the airborne heavy metals in the North China Plain, future control measures should pay more attention to soil/dust, biomass burning, coal combustion and industrial emissions," Pan suggested, "because these sources contributed to ~90% of chemical components in atmospheric depositions. "

###

Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.

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Cleaner air, less soil pollution: Unintended but beneficial side effect of Clean Air Act

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Removal of pollutants from the air, or atmospheric deposition, is a natural cleaning mechanism. However, the removed toxic matters don't just disappear on the Earth.

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https://c11.kr/tjsl

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The Swiss city of Lausanne, the country's fourth-largest city and serving as a host for a number of international sports bodies, is currently trying to cope with the effects of a recent discovery of wide-scale soil pollution caused by toxic compounds from an old garbage incinerator.

The situation, which has troubling implications for children and those who eat home-grown food, is unprecedented in the wealthy Alpine nation, which prides itself on its pristine mountains, lakes and pastures.

A domestic waste incineration plant, closed since 2005, is being blamed for the dioxin fall-out. Dioxins, which belong to the so-called 'dirty dozen' dangerous chemicals known as persistent organic pollutants, have the potential to be highly toxic. They have been shown to affect several organs and systems.

The problem was discovered by sheer chance between January and May this year at a planned new ecological allotment in the capital of Olympic sport overlooking Lake Geneva. For years, pollution monitoring had focused on air and water.

"As we did not look for dioxins, we never found them," Natacha Litzistorf, the city councilor for the environment, told Agence France-Presse (AFP). The discovery triggered soil analysis measurements at 126 sites across the city. Experts also looked at the risks associated with exposure to polluted soils.

Maps of the dioxin-polluted area in the center of Lausanne, Switzerland, Oct. 15, 2021. (AFP Photo)

Pollution map

This week Lausanne announced that those studies found the dioxin levels - and the expanse of the affected area - were much worse than previously thought.

The city has issued a map showing four concentric rings, with zones containing concentrations in the soil of 20-50 nanograms (ng) per kilogram, 50-100, 100-200 and then above 200 in the middle. A peak of 640 was recorded in the city center.

The affected zone stretches 5.25 kilometers (3.2 miles) inland and measures around 3.6 kilometers across.

People are instructed to wash fruit and vegetables grown in gardens and allotments and wash their hands after touching soil. In zones with more than 100 ng toxic equivalent per kg, root vegetables grown in the area must be washed and peeled. Courgettes, cucumbers, gherkins, squashes, marrows and melons grown in the soil should not be eaten.

In all the affected zones, people should not eat chickens raised on the soil, offer or sell eggs from such chickens, while only those in the 20-50 zone can eat their eggs - though just one per week.

The dioxin-polluted playground of la Sallaz surrounded by orange fences in Lausanne, Switzerland, Oct. 12, 2021. (AFP Photo)

Parents must also stop infants aged under four from ingesting soil, for example by touching their mouths after playing on the ground. Warning signs have been installed around the city's parks and playgrounds.

'Tempt the devil'

The concentric circles appear to lead to only one source. "We quickly suspected the cause was linked to a former incinerator," Litzistorf said.

The Vallon plant opened in 1958 and was initially welcomed as a way of dealing with the city's garbage. "At the time, it was thought much better to site waste incinerators in the city center to protect agriculture in the countryside," Litzistorf explained. The dioxin pollution dates from 1958 to 1982, when the Vallon filters were upgraded to environmental norms.

Didier Burgi, who owns a vegetable garden plot, said the discovery had sparked questions among veteran home growers. "We are not going to eat the squashes. We don't have a lot of them, but there was specific information about them and we're not going to tempt the devil," he told AFP.

The major Chatelard allotment, by the new football stadium on the edge of the city, heard Thursday that it had readings under 20 ng. Plot holder Jose Torres compared his imperfect tomatoes to the flawless ones in supermarkets. "Everything you buy is full of chemicals," he said. "From my plot, I know what I'm eating."

Jacqueline Felder, tilling her beans, spinach, lettuce and carrots in the afternoon sunshine, said: "I've been growing vegetables for 15 years. We are not worried. People are afraid of everything these days. The Earth is our mother. Respect it."

Next steps

The World Health Organization (WHO) says short-term exposure to high levels of dioxins may result in skin lesions, such as chloracne and patchy darkening of the skin, and altered liver function. Long-term exposure is linked to impairment of the immune system, the developing nervous system, the endocrine system and reproductive functions.

Litzistorf said she was not aware of anyone coming forward with physical conditions linked to dioxin pollution. But the question of potential liability remains unresolved, as does the issue of what to do next, as the dioxin hunt expands.

Whether the soil can be cleaned up, on such a wide scale, "is the question that everyone is asking", said Litzistorf - along with who should do it, how, and how much it might cost.

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Soil in Switzerland's Lausanne largely polluted by toxic dioxins

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The Swiss city of Lausanne, the country's fourth-largest city and serving as a host for a number of international sports bodies, is currently trying to cope with the effects of a recent discovery of wide-scale soil pollution caused by toxic compounds from an old garbage incinerator.

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Leaders vow to protect forests, plug methane leaks at COP26

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World leaders promised to protect Earth's forests, cut methane emissions and help South Africa wean itself off coal at the U.N. climate summit Tuesday - part of a flurry of deals intended to avert catastrophic global warming.

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https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/arctic-melt-will-polar-bears-vanish-by-2100-7578881/

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https://www.earth.com/news/the-arctic-may-lose-its-last-ice-area-this-century/

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https://c11.kr/tjso

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Soil pollution is deteriorating worldwide as a result of unsustainable farming practices and industrial processes, all of which poses a major and growing threat to global food production, human health,...

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'Utmost importance': Worsening soil pollution among planet's biggest challenges, UN warns

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Soil pollution is deteriorating worldwide as a result of unsustainable farming practices and industrial processes, all of which poses a major and growing threat to global food production, human health,...

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https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-59016075