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one way to narrow down what we should measure is to identify what affects our experiment. it would be useless
to measure factors that don't play a role in the experiment, so we can eliminate those. this can be done by identifying
whether you're testing on marine, freshwater, or terrestrial. From here follow what would be normally measured.

# data[].attributes.body
one way to narrow down what we should measure is to idenftify what affects our experiment. it would be useless to measure factors that dont play a role in the experiment, so we can eliminate those. this can be done by identifying whether you're testing on marine, freshwater, or terrestrial. From here, follow what would generally be measured.

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Different ways of knowing | Daniel Tammet

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Different ways of knowing | Daniel Tammet

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1. The Indonesian government planned by expanding mangrove forests up to 600,000 hectares.

2. Indonesia forest fire has decreased 82% in the years 2020. Indonesia is planning to develop the ecosystem by making electric vehicles and stop the use of gas in vehicles, building the largest solar power plant construction in Southeast Asia.

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a) Indonesia's government is trying to elimante floods and deforestations by rehabilitating up to 600,000 hectares of mangrove forest which may avoid these disasters. Furthermore, Indonesia's government have made new policies such as banning the process of cleaning/cutting down the forest for land or for palm oil.

b) The long term plan Indonesia have came up with to battle againts the emissions of carbon footprint is firstly by, funding in electrical cars to decrease the use of petrol based regular cars. Additionally, Indonesia's President had the idea of creating solar farms with hundreds of solar pannels so that clean energy can be harvested.

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a) Indonesia's main plan is to tackle deforestation and flooding. He plans to restore 600,000 hectares of mangrove forests
b)The first way is to plant solar farms (metaphorically) which will enable a eco-friendly environment in Indonesia and the second way is the implementation of electric vehicles as well.

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1. The Indonesian government contributed to environmental rehabilitation by expanding mangrove forests up to 600,000 hectares.

2. First, they want to build solar farms where they can capture clean, sustainable energy. The second would be support for the development of electric vehicles, which would result in a shift away from gasoline-powered automobiles.

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1.) Indonesia would rehabilitate the mangrove forests about 600,000 hectares in size

2.) First in funding the development of electric vehicles so it'll reduce cars that uses gas. Second they plan to create a solar farm which will become the main source of energy in the country

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1)Indonesia plans to tackle its flooding in deforestation. Their big plan is to rehabilitate or grow more of the mangrove forests over a large area, up to 600,000 hectares in size.

2)Indonesia came up with two ways that would help in fighting against the emissions of carbon footprint. first would be the funding of the development of electric vehicles, which would result in the change from cars using petrol. in addition would be to create a large solar farm with the aim of it being its main source of energy.

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a) Indonesia has made a number of policies regarding rehabilitation of the environment against flooding and deforestation. Some of the actions governments have taken are the rehabilitation of the magrove forrest which takes about 600,000 hectares of land. Also, Indonesia has done rehabilitation actions towards 3 million other lands from 2010- 2019

b) President Jokowi presented a couple of solutions and ways the government could help reduce carbon footprint and emissions. One of them would be utilizing electric vehicles by 2030 and replace the use of petrol based cars. Another way Indoensia could reduce carbon footprint is through the use of solar panels like a solar farms around the country hence they have clean energy.

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1. The Indonesian government participated in rehabilitating the environment against flooding and deforestation in multiple ways such as bans on clearing forest land for palm oil without a permit and a mitigation on forest fires.

2. The president of Indonesia mentioned two ways that Indonesia will contribute to reducing their carbon footprint. First, they are planning to create solar farms where clean and renewable energy can be harvested. Second, the government will fund the development of electric cars, also giving benefits to those who use electric cars instead of regular cars.

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a) Indonesia has laid out an ambitious plan to tackle deforestation, however the numbers has significantly decrease after they started rehabilitating the environment. They’ve made a number of policies aimed at protecting the country’s forests. These include a permanent ban on issuing new permits to clear primary forests and peatlands; a moratorium on new oil palm plantation licenses; forest fire mitigation; a social forestry program; land rehabilitation; and increased enforcement against environmental violations.

b) Indonesia aims to transform its forests into a carbon sink by 2030 by reducing deforestation and increasing reforestation, as the country targets going carbon neutral by 2070. Indonesia has an excellent opportunity to build on its considerable progress in reducing deforestation, restoring degraded forests and delivering a more sustainable food and land use system. Indonesia sees a good opportunity in reducing carbon footprint by the increase use of electric gas, and the development of clean energy industry, biofuel and green energy. Carbon market and price are one of the factors that needs to have fair changes to help this progress. These innovative changes may also need funds to facilitate changes and development at a faster rate. Indonesia is more than willing to get a support and contributions from international developed countries to achieve such ambitious goal by 2030.

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1) Indonesia plans to combat flooding in deforestation in one major way. This would be to rehabilitate the mangrove forests over a large area, which is supposedly about 600,000 hectares in size.
2) They mention two major ways that Indonesia will attempt to combat the emissions of carbon footprint. One of them is funding the development of electric vehicles, which should replace the use of gas cars. One more thing they plan to do is create a large solar farm which will eventually become the main source of energy for the country.

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Indonesia on decreasing the effect of  Climate change

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Indonesia on decreasing the effect of  Climate change

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Based on this video (you may use caption translate) (a)How did Indonesia participated and do their part in rehabilitating the environment agains flooding and deforestation. (b) discuss also the long term plan of the government to decrease emission of Carbon footprint. And the governments future energy choice to help sustain the Environment (graded)

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Pidato Jokowi di COP26: Pamer Kontribusi Indonesia Penanganan Perubahan Iklim

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Akshay Mahbubani

11:49 AM

in the beginning, there was a drastic increase in population shown as exponential phase. when limiting factors were implemented, it began to a transitional phase, decreasing in population. finally, it reaches a constant rate as shown as the plateau phase.

Vincent Yap

11:49 AM

over time, the population increases but stops increasing at the transitional phase, entering the plateau phase.

Arshad Mirchandani

11:49 AM

the population increases to its "carrying capacity" where resources are not enough to be shared amongst everyone

Rainald Firdaus Gunawan

11:50 AM

In some populations they rise first drastic increase in population and it becomes transitional phase and becomes constant next via the limiting factor

Desmond Clay Sutanto

11:52 AM

as time goes by, the population increases drastically coming to the what is called “transitional phase” then entering plateau phase

Adnan Akbany

11:53 AM

the population increases significantly in the beginning, however once the limiting factors were taken into account, there was a significant decrease in population instead and then reaches a stagnant motion

Dhannya Vita Chandra

11:55 AM

The curve starts with exponential growth, as no limiting factors affect it. However,  as time goes by, limiting factor is present, the growth rate slows down gradually (transitional phase) which then resulted in a population of constant size at the plateau phrase.

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Microplastics Have Been Found in Our Deepest Ocean Animals-klarence

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Microplastics Have Been Found in Our Deepest Ocean Animals-klarence

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Plastic are affecting the deepest ocean floor known to mankind. Alongside that statement, the deepest ocean habitats, including amphipods, are impacted by the contaminants of this occurrence. Since the organisms are contaminated by microplastics, it endangers other species that would eat those organisms and impacts the entirety of the food chain. Hence, plastic pollution is the noticeable part to our eyes as human. However, there are other unforeseen events occurring in the ocean.

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England's shoppers say goodbye to free plastic bags - Vincent

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England's shoppers say goodbye to free plastic bags - Vincent

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A 5p tax on plastic bags must be extended to all shops to prevent further damage to the environment, campaigners have warned.

Without the participation of smaller shops, and not just those employing more than 250 staff, the impact of the tax will be limited, they said.

Friends of the Earth said ministers should extend the scheme after surveys showed that convenience store owners were supportive of extending the scheme to all retailers.

English shoppers face a 5p charge for plastic carrier bags from today as part of a government scheme to reduce litter and protect wildlife.

The introduction of the 5p charge in England brings it into line with schemes already operating in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, as part of a drive to encourage a switch away from throwaway carrier bags.

According to the government, 8.5bn thin-gauge plastic bags were used last year by customers of UK supermarkets alone. That is down from the all-time peak of 12bn in 2006, but still amounts to more than 23m a day.

In England the average person goes through nearly 12 thin-gauge bags per month, while in Wales, where there has been a 5p charge per bag since 2011, shoppers use just two per month. On the basis of charging elsewhere, the government expects bag numbers to fall by more than 70% – cutting the number ending up in landfill or in the oceans by many billions every year.

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A 5p tax on plastic bags must be extended to all shops to prevent further damage to the environment, campaigners have warned.

Without the participation of smaller shops, and not just those employing more than 250 staff, the impact of the tax will be limited, they said.

Friends of the Earth said ministers should extend the scheme after surveys showed that convenience store owners were supportive of extending the scheme to all retailers.

English shoppers face a 5p charge for plastic carrier bags from today as part of a government scheme to reduce litter and protect wildlife.

Consumers in Slough prepare for the new rules on plastic bags. Photograph: Martin Godwin/The Guardian

The introduction of the 5p charge in England brings it into line with schemes already operating in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, as part of a drive to encourage a switch away from throwaway carrier bags.

According to the government, 8.5bn thin-gauge plastic bags were used last year by customers of UK supermarkets alone. That is down from the all-time peak of 12bn in 2006, but still amounts to more than 23m a day.

In England the average person goes through nearly 12 thin-gauge bags per month, while in Wales, where there has been a 5p charge per bag since 2011, shoppers use just two per month. On the basis of charging elsewhere, the government expects bag numbers to fall by more than 70% - cutting the number ending up in landfill or in the oceans by many billions every year.

Retailers have tried to take the sting out of the looming charge by emphasising the benefits to local causes. The government estimates that more than £70m a year - and the lion's share generated by supermarkets - will be raised for good causes across England.

At Tesco, for example, customers will get the chance to vote in store and online for the projects they most want to see go ahead in their own local areas.

Some shoppers are puzzled about the exemptions to the rules, which include corner shops, and when they are buying food items that need more protection, such as fresh fish. Only larger retailers who employ more than 250 people will have to levy the charge, which environmental campaigners who otherwise welcome the change say makes absolutely no sense.

Plastic bags caught in a tree in Southport, Merseyside. Photograph: Mar Photographics/Alamy

David Powell, senior resources campaigner at Friends of the Earth, says: "The English charge is a good start, but it makes no sense that it only applies to big retailers. Shoppers will get mixed messages depending on where they shop. This could defeat the main point of the charge in the first place - to change the way people and stores think about over-using plastic bags."

The initiative appears to have the support of the majority of shoppers in England, with 62% thinking it is reasonable to charge 5p for all carrier bags - a 6% increase on 2012, a poll for the Break the Bag Habit coalition of litter charities found. But the survey found 51% were in support of an even more comprehensive scheme that extended the charge to all retailers.

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England's shoppers say goodbye to free plastic bags

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As England introduces a 5p charge for plastic bags, campaigners say the exemption for small shops should be ended

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High court rules UK government plans to tackle air pollution are illegal- Akshay

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High court rules UK government plans to tackle air pollution are illegal- Akshay

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The government’s plan for tackling the UK’s air pollution crisis has been judged illegally poor at the high court, marking the second time in 18 months that ministers have lost in court on the issue.

Legal NGO ClientEarth, which brought the case, argued that current plans ignore many measures that could help achieve this, placing too much weight on costs.

Air pollution causes 50,000 early deaths and £27.5bn in costs every year, according to the government’s own estimates, and was called a “public health emergency” by MPs in April.

Documents further showed that the government’s plan to bring air pollution down to legal levels by 2020 for some cities and 2025 for London had been chosen because that was the date ministers thought they would face European commission fines, not which they considered “as soon as possible”.

There had been a draft government plan for 16 low emission zones, which polluting vehicles are charged to enter, in cities outside London but the number was cut to just five on cost grounds.

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High court rules UK government plans to tackle air pollution are illegal

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The government's plan for tackling the UK's air pollution crisis has been judged illegally poor at the high court, marking the second time in 18 months that ministers have lost in court on the issue. The defeat is a humiliation for ministers who by law must cut the illegal levels of nitrogen dioxide suffered by dozens of towns and cities in the "shortest possible time".

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what will the world look like in 2050 -Matthew 

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what will the world look like in 2050 -Matthew 

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In 2050 cars all around the world will not be able to use fuels. the fuels are going to be replaced by a battery the cars on 2050 are going to be powered by electricity example of electric cars on 2021: Tesla. the world the buildings on 2050 are going to be futuristic. the chefs in the restaurant the cleaners, the security's are going to be replaced by robots and machines that are advanced

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Microplastics Have Been Found in Our Deepest Ocean Animals -Adnan

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Microplastics Have Been Found in Our Deepest Ocean Animals -Adnan

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Scientists found plastics in the guts of amphipods at Challenger Deep, some 10,890 meters below the sea surface.

The deepest marine organisms known to humans are contaminated by plastics, according to a study published Wednesday.

Researchers presented “the deepest record of microplastic ingestion, indicating it is highly likely there are no marine ecosystems left that are not impacted by plastic pollution,” according to the paper in Royal Society Open Science.

Led by Alan Jamieson, a marine ecologist at Newcastle University, the team examined the guts of small organisms called lysianassid amphipods—colloquially known as “sea fleas”—collected from six deep ocean habitats.

Though the trenches ranged in location from Japanese to Chilean waters, all of them were within the “hadal zone,” meaning they were at least 6,000 meters under the sea. The study even includes amphipods collected at Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench, which is the lowest known point in the seabed at 10,890 meters below the ocean surface.

Despite such remote habitats, Jamieson’s team found plastic and synthetic fibres such as nylon, polyethylene, and polyvinyl alcohol in the guts of most amphipods they examined. “Of the 90 individual amphipods examined, 65 individuals (approximately 72 percent) contained at least one microfibre or fragment,” the team concluded.

The researchers called hadal habitats “the ultimate sink” for any contaminants that drift down from higher levels of the ocean. Because organisms that live in depleted and isolated regions often evolve to capitalize on carrion and food particles, they may be more prone to rapidly ingesting plastics that make it to the seafloor.

Amphipods at each location faced different odds of plastic ingestion. For instance, all of the Mariana Trench organisms had microplastics in their guts, whereas only half of the amphipods found in the New Hebrides Trench were contaminated. The team is not yet certain what causes this range between various locations, but higher consumption rates seem to be correlated with deeper habitats.

Read More: There Is Plastic 'Everywhere,' Says Guy Swimming Across Pacific Ocean

What is clear, though, is that plastic pollution in the deep ocean is not only a problem for the organisms that live there. Amphipods are food for fish, crustaceans, and even birds at the ocean surface, and some of its predators are consumed by humans. Microplastics eaten by small prey species can have implications for the entire marine food web.

“Once the microplastics enter the hadal food chain, there is a strong possibility that they will be locked into a perpetual cycle of trophic transfer,” the team cautioned.

While reports of dead animals washing up on shore with their stomachs filled with plastic have become sadly common, the new study reveals that beached carcasses are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to plastic pollution in our oceans.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/d3mwjk/microplastics-have-been-found-in-our-deepest-ocean-animals

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The three species of amphipods collected six hadal trenches around the Pacific rim, (a) Hirondellea gigas, (b) Hirondellea dubia, and (c) Eurythenes gryllus. Image: Jamieson et al/Royal Society

The deepest marine organisms known to humans are contaminated by plastics, according to a study published Wednesday.

Researchers presented "the deepest record of microplastic ingestion, indicating it is highly likely there are no marine ecosystems left that are not impacted by plastic pollution," according to the paper in Royal Society Open Science.

Led by Alan Jamieson, a marine ecologist at Newcastle University, the team examined the guts of small organisms called lysianassid amphipods-colloquially known as "sea fleas"-collected from six deep ocean habitats.

Though the trenches ranged in location from Japanese to Chilean waters, all of them were within the "hadal zone," meaning they were at least 6,000 meters under the sea. The study even includes amphipods collected at Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench, which is the lowest known point in the seabed at 10,890 meters below the ocean surface.

Despite such remote habitats, Jamieson's team found plastic and synthetic fibres such as nylon, polyethylene, and polyvinyl alcohol in the guts of most amphipods they examined. "Of the 90 individual amphipods examined, 65 individuals (approximately 72 percent) contained at least one microfibre or fragment," the team concluded.

The researchers called hadal habitats "the ultimate sink" for any contaminants that drift down from higher levels of the ocean. Because organisms that live in depleted and isolated regions often evolve to capitalize on carrion and food particles, they may be more prone to rapidly ingesting plastics that make it to the seafloor.

Amphipods at each location faced different odds of plastic ingestion. For instance, all of the Mariana Trench organisms had microplastics in their guts, whereas only half of the amphipods found in the New Hebrides Trench were contaminated. The team is not yet certain what causes this range between various locations, but higher consumption rates seem to be correlated with deeper habitats.

Read More: There Is Plastic 'Everywhere,' Says Guy Swimming Across Pacific Ocean

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Microplastics Have Been Found in Our Deepest Ocean Animals

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The three species of amphipods collected six hadal trenches around the Pacific rim, (a) Hirondellea gigas, (b) Hirondellea dubia, and (c) Eurythenes gryllus. Image: Jamieson et al/Royal Society The deepest marine organisms known to humans are contaminated by plastics, according to a study published Wednesday.

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European parliament votes to ban single-use plastics -Rainald

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European parliament votes to ban single-use plastics -Rainald

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The European Parliament has voted to ban single-use plastic cutlery, cotton buds, straws and stirrers as part of a sweeping law against plastic waste that despoils beaches and pollutes oceans.

The pollutants include plastics from bottle caps, straws, wet wipes, and others as this is considered to be a solid domestic waste hence the source would be human interaction/ human needs (thrown)

Some of its impacts if not given a solution would be " 25m tonnes of plastic waste, but less than 30% is collected for recycling. More than 80% of marine litter is plastic." and the EU tries to aim to have 25% of plastic bottles coming from recycled material by 2025 and by 2029, 90% should already be recycled based plastic.

This is considered as a non-point source as there are a lot of factors that come under solid domestic waste ( a lot of causes) Moreover, plastics are not biodegradable hence making them persistent as they will take a long time to break down. Lastly if not given a solution, this will be considered as a chronic pollutant as the effects might go long term.

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Bangalore's toxic foam lake spills chemicals into the streets - Arshad

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Bangalore's toxic foam lake spills chemicals into the streets - Arshad

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The lake "Bellandur" located in Bangalore has been increasing in pollution levels for some time now. This pollution is usually caused by unfiltered sewage entering, causing it to create the foam shown on the pictures.

That isn't the problem at hand though, The problem is when it rains. When there is a heavy enough rain, the water levels of the river will rise enough to spew said foam out onto the streets.

Since the foam is made from sewage, it is very toxic and does many things such as irritate the skin, make an unbearable stench, and more.

The problem has already been identified as early as the year 2000, and despite the numerous petitions from locals, the government has not done much about it.

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Chemical pollution is causing brain damage in polar bears - Dhannya 

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Chemical pollution is causing brain damage in polar bears - Dhannya 

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The Arctic is a wild, remote, sparsely populated region, with little industry. Nevertheless, pollution is a real threat to the people and wildlife living there. The Arctic Ocean basin acts like a reservoir or ‘sink’ for industrial and agricultural chemicals from Europe, Asia, and even further afield which are transported there in the air and ocean currents; therefore these pollutants are non-point pollutants. This is an example of acute pollution because prevailing ocean and wind currents bring contaminants to the Arctic where they are subsequently trapped by the cold climate. This process is often referred to as the “grasshopper effect,” as chemicals repeatedly evaporate and condense while in their journey toward the Arctic. The new study, a collaboration between scientists from Aarhus University and the University of Copenhagen demonstrates how pollutants like perfluorinated compounds, which have been used to treat industrial and commercial products for decades, disturb different signal molecules and enzymes in the bears' brains.  Bears with high levels of some POPs (persistent organic pollutants) have low levels of vitamin A, thyroid hormones, and some antibodies. This may ultimately impact the polar bears' behavior, hormonal balance, and ability to survive in an already hostile environment.

Sources: https://sciencenordic.com/arctic-chemicals-denmark/chemical-pollution-is-causing-brain-damage-in-polar-bears/1415520
https://discoveringthearctic.org.uk/science/arctic-science/arctic-pollution/

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Algeria's desperate wildfire fight: Buckets and branches

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Algeria's desperate wildfire fight: Buckets and branches

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Tens of thousands of hectares around the villages of Larbaâ Nath Irathen, Beni Douala and Aït Mesbah were completely engulfed in flames, leaving charred silhouettes of the evergreen trees that used to line the hills.

Early reports conclude that this year's fires inflicted more damage to Algeria's forests than all the fires from 2008 to 2020 combined.

At least 90 people died fighting the flames, including 33 military personnel who received honourable funeral processions - figures far higher than ever seen before.

Despite fighting fires year after year, and boasting one of Africa's biggest military budgets, Algeria does not have amphibious firefighting airplanes.

Instead, a handful of Mi-26 helicopters equipped with 1,000-litre buckets and overloaded fire engines tried their best to snuff out the infernos.

As a result, the government had to resort to asking the European Union to help out, and, on 12 August, French President Emmanuel Macron quickly sent out two planes.

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-58269789

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The once verdant mountains of the Algerian region of Tizi Ouzou, peppered with olive groves and coniferous trees, were ravaged by more than 100 forest fires over the past fortnight.

The heat could be felt from dozens of kilometres away.

At a petrol service station in the province of Bouira, a man working the pump laboured with the suffocating atmosphere.

"[The heat] is coming from over the mountain. I've never seen fires like this," he said, squinting into the distance.

Forest fires are not a new phenomenon for Algeria, and the north-eastern region of Tizi Ouzou in particular.

On the contrary, they are regular occurrences that first responders tussle with almost every year.

Yet, in the midst of a heatwave, no rain, and unrelenting gusts of wind, this year's blazes caused extensive damage.

Tens of thousands of hectares around the villages of Larbaâ Nath Irathen, Beni Douala and Aït Mesbah were completely engulfed in flames, leaving charred silhouettes of the evergreen trees that used to line the hills.

Volunteers had to use whatever they could find to try and extinguish the fires

Early reports conclude that this year's fires inflicted more damage to Algeria's forests than all the fires from 2008 to 2020 combined.

At least 90 people died fighting the flames, including 33 military personnel who received honourable funeral processions - figures far higher than ever seen before.

Despite fighting fires year after year, and boasting one of Africa's biggest military budgets, Algeria does not have amphibious firefighting airplanes.

Instead, a handful of Mi-26 helicopters equipped with 1,000-litre buckets and overloaded fire engines tried their best to snuff out the infernos.

As a result, the government had to resort to asking the European Union to help out, and, on 12 August, French President Emmanuel Macron quickly sent out two planes.

Helicopters used huge buckets of water to help put out the flames

The villagers of Beni Douala joined the fight with shovels, branches or whatever other supplies were readily available to them.

"Maybe its passport has expired," joked Fethi Fellah, a young volunteer, when asked if he had spotted a firefighting plane.

"Besides the firefighters, no-one has come to help us out," he said, while directing a procession of cars down from the mountain and into the city of Tizi Ouzou, where families were gathered at community centres in makeshift shelters.

One such establishment was the banquet hall Le Printemps, hosting dozens of people who had fled their homes.

Many people found their homes consumed by the infernos

Resilience, desperation and indignation were etched on their faces as they understood that they were left to their own devices.

"The authorities have not helped us evacuate, we had to rely on volunteers who went from village to village," said Ines, a volunteer who did not want to share her family name.

"They are partially responsible for the elevated death toll. Every year we have forest fires and the proper mechanisms are still not in place," she said.

Both Prime Minister Aymen Benabderrahmane and President Abdelmadjid Tebboune said that the origin of the forest fires were criminal, while failing to produce concrete evidence for the claims.

They blamed separatist groups fighting for self-determination in the Kabyle region around Tizi Ouzou, and also said it would "review" diplomatic relations with Morocco, which it accuses of backing the groups.

However, such accusations ignore the fact that countries around the Mediterranean have also struggled with forest fires in recent weeks, including Turkey, Greece, Cyprus, Italy and France.

Climate change in the region is likely to be causing an increase in the conditions in which wildfires occur.

Unfortunately, global warming is not yet a significant part of Algerian public discourse.

More than 90% of Algeria's exports are in the hydrocarbon sector, so fossil fuels are integral to the country's strategic interests.

During the 2019 presidential election debate, for instance, not once was an environmental agenda discussed by any of the five candidates.

Yet the human and environmental losses from natural disasters are becoming just too costly to ignore.

At least 90 people died trying to put out the fires

Forest fires are not the only symptoms of climate change in Algeria.

The Sahara desert, which makes up about 80% of the country's area, is getting bigger.

It has expanded by 10% over the past century, according to the Journal of Climate, published by the American meteorological society.

Increased desertification disrupts pastoral grazing routes and forces farmers to draw deeper into underground aquifers for water resources.

For the already marginalised populations on the edges of the desert, global warming makes daily life in the summertime extremely difficult.

You might also be interested in:

Schoolchildren in the Adrar province, for example, have some of the country's lowest literacy rates, partly because the school buildings are not adapted to the region's extreme temperatures.

In the capital city of Algiers, water stress has limited large parts of the city to just a few hours of running water per day.

President Tebboune has announced that three emergency desalination plants are to be constructed to alleviate the problem.

However, until climate change is taken seriously, and a specific environmental policy is implemented, reactive solutions will only provide short-term relief.

The blazes in the mountainous Kabyle region are some of the worst in the country's history

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Algeria's desperate wildfire fight: Buckets and branches

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Despite a huge military budget, oil-rich Algeria is ill-equipped to tackle annual fires.

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Wildfire smoke linked to thousands of coronavirus cases on West Coast

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Wildfire smoke linked to thousands of coronavirus cases on West Coast

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The presence of wildfire smoke last year during the pandemic may have been responsible for at least 19,000 additional coronavirus cases on the West Coast, and 700 subsequent deaths, a new study shows.

The study, published Friday in the journal Science Advances, offers the most detailed accounting yet of how the devastating 2020 wildfire season is believed to have amplified the coronavirus outbreak.

It traces increases in infections to periods of smoke in more than 50 counties in California, Oregon and Washington.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Wildfire-smoke-linked-to-thousands-of-COVID-19-16385466.php

-Akshay

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The presence of wildfire smoke last year during the pandemic may have been responsible for at least 19,000 additional coronavirus cases on the West Coast, and 700 subsequent deaths, a new study shows.

The study, published Friday in the journal Science Advances, offers the most detailed accounting yet of how the devastating 2020 wildfire season is believed to have amplified the coronavirus outbreak.

It traces increases in infections to periods of smoke in more than 50 counties in California, Oregon and Washington.

Some of the biggest smoke-related spikes were in the Sierra foothills and Central Valley, according to the study, but parts of the Bay Area also saw jumps. In Sonoma County, 13.1% of the cases from March to December last year were linked to smoke, or 1,754. This compares to 17.3% of the cases in Butte County, which had the largest percentage of smoke-associated cases of any California county.

Calaveras County fared the worst in terms of per-capita deaths. More than half of the county's 22 coronavirus fatalities were tied to smoke. The highest number of overall COVID-19 deaths associated with smoke were in Fresno and Alameda counties, with 131 and 110 people dying, respectively.

While a correlation between wildfire smoke and COVID-19 doesn't prove causation, the study's authors say the tie is no coincidence. Plenty of research since the start of the pandemic has suggested that exposure to smoke's primary unhealthy component PM 2.5, which refers to particulate matter that is 2.5 micrometers in size or smaller, compromises people's immunity and increases susceptibility to COVID-19. Scientists also hypothesize that the virus may be spread by the particles.

The new findings come as the delta variant fuels yet another surge of coronavirus infections across the country while fire season is again in high gear in the West. Parts of California are already blanketed in smoke, with bad air recently reported as far away as New York and North Carolina.

"It's a horrible combination," said Francesca Dominici, one of the authors of the study and a biostatistician at Harvard University's T.H. Chan School of Public Health. "Together, the wildfires and COVID-19 make us even sicker."

The new research is based on statistical modeling done by Dominici and her colleagues at Harvard University and California's Environmental Systems Research Institute in San Bernardino County.

The team's models crunched coronavirus numbers in 92 counties during non-smoky periods from March 15 to Dec. 16 and how these numbers changed when wildfire smoke brought particulate pollution. The area the researchers examined covered 95% of the population in California, Oregon and Washington. They excluded areas that did not have sufficient data for modeling.

The models took into consideration lag times between viral exposure and testing, and they adjusted for several variables, including changes in weather and population.

Areas with the most coronavirus cases and deaths linked to smoke last year were often those closest to the fires.

The researchers found that across the counties a daily increase in PM 2.5 concentrations of 10 micrograms per cubic meter of air in smoke over 28 days correlated with an average 11.7% increase in coronavirus cases and 8.4% increase in COVID-19 deaths. The 24-hour concentration of PM 2.5 is generally considered unhealthy for some people when it gets above 35 micrograms per cubic meter of air.

In California, Sutter County followed Butte County in tallying the largest percentage of smoke-related coronavirus cases: 16.2% of all infections. Both are north of Sacramento, where bad air from several Sierra fires collected. In Mendocino County, where California's largest fire in history burned, the August Complex fires, 14.6% of cases were associated with smoke.

Sacramento County, meanwhile, counted the most overall coronavirus cases tied to wildfires in the state: 4,639.

Beyond proximity to fires, the researchers said that the same factors resulting in some areas having more coronavirus cases than others - racial makeup, pre-existing medical conditions and access to health care, for example - explain why certain areas may be more vulnerable to smoke.

In some counties, including San Francisco, the number of coronavirus cases tied to smoke was actually less than what it would have been without a smoky fire season, according to the study. The researchers presumed that residents in these areas took extra precautions because of the wildfires, such as staying indoors as much as possible, buying air filters and wearing masks while outside. This could have boosted their level of protection to the virus.

The 2020 fire season went down as one of the nation's worst, with a record 4.1 million acres burned in California. Many remember the eerie orange sky that emerged over the Bay Area because of wildfire smoke last September.

John Balmes, a professor of medicine at UCSF who was not affiliated with the new paper, said the research both helps validate the connection between wildfires and COVID-19 and underscores the need to do something about it.

"This study is just one more set of evidence that we have to be doubling down on our efforts to reduce catastrophic wildfire risk," he said.

In the meantime, Balmes and the study's authors advise people to avoid exposure to smoke as best they can.

Kurtis Alexander is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: kalexander@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @kurtisalexander

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Wildfire smoke linked to thousands of coronavirus cases on West Coast

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The presence of wildfire smoke last year during the pandemic may have been responsible for at least 19,000 additional coronavirus cases on the West Coast, and 700 subsequent deaths, a new study shows. The study, published Friday in the journal Science Advances, offers the most detailed accounting yet of how the devastating 2020 wildfire season is believed to have amplified the coronavirus outbreak.

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Sri Lanka's push to combat climate change -Arshad

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Sri Lanka's push to combat climate change -Arshad

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Sri Lanka has started to push towards a more environmentally friendly approach for obtaining power. This is aimed towards reducing the effects of things like coal as fuel, which is very harmful.

The Sri Lankan government aims to obtain 70% of all of its power from renewables by the year 2030.

This will by done by encouraging local Sri Lankans to install solar panels. They aim to do so by distributing loans with an interest rate of 4% at maximum.

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Climate Change in Indonesia: Flood as an Environmental Disaster - Michael

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Climate Change in Indonesia: Flood as an Environmental Disaster - Michael

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Indonesia has recently been hit by severe flooding in areas around the country. Earlier this year, intense rainfall and extreme weather conditions caused severe flooding in South Kalimantan. The flood lasted for more than two weeks and is estimated to have affected 712,129 people and displaced more than 110,000 (South Kalimantan Flood a Gloomy Picture of Natural Destruction, 2021).

https://projectchild.ngo/blog/2021/02/24/climate-change-in-indonesia-flood-as-an-environmental-disaster/

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How COVID Overwhelmed The Already Overburdened ‘Medical Waste’ Sector 

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How COVID Overwhelmed The Already Overburdened ‘Medical Waste’ Sector 

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The rise in the medical waste can be accredited to the waste management sector’s failure to manage and effectively dispose off waste. Waste management during COVID-19 in India and other countries still might have a chance to improve. According to several researchers, disposed off face masks can be used to make roads to reduce pandemic-related medical waste.

According to a study conducted at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia, published in the journal Science of the Total Environment, one kilometre of a two-lane road can use about 3 million masks, preventing 93 tonnes of medical waste from ending up in landfills. The study also reveals that the new road-making material combines single-use face masks and processed building rubble to meet engineering safety standards and provide strength.

Almost every household has generated biomedical waste during the pandemic. According to data published by Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), India had produced 33,000 tonnes of biomedical waste between June 2020 and January 2021.

India witnessed an increase of 46% of biomedical waste due to COVID-19, with 139 tonnes per day in April 2021 and 203 tonnes per day in May 2021. However, the percentage of biomedical waste treated declined from 92.8% to 88%.
-kezia

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Libya today is the 20th most water-stressed country in the world. Four million Libyans face imminent water shortage if new solutions are not implemented to tackle declining water, sanitation, and health (WASH) conditions.  The situation has become more problematic due to continued population growth, low rainfall, and higher water demand for agriculture and industrial use. Although, victories due to the help of USAID and IHE Delft have been impactful achievements. These organizations have provided financial aid and programming to the Libyan government which is exactly the type of support necessary to formally resolve the water crisis in Libya.

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Scientists are observing changes in the Earth's climate in every region and across the whole climate system, according to the latest IPCC Report. Many of the changes observed in the climate are unprecedented in thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of years, and some of the changes already set in motion -- such as continued sea level rise -- are irreversible over hundreds to thousands of years.

sciencedaily.com

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How I view my future is depending on our choices of action. If our choices make a good impact to the environment then in the future we could have a healthier and better environment. But if our choices make a negative impact to the environment then in the future our environment would be same as now or worst.

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what are the most urgent issues that need to be tackled?- Dylan
The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a dramatic loss of human life worldwide and presents an unprecedented challenge to public health, food systems and the world of work. The economic and social disruption caused by the pandemic is devastating: tens of millions of people are at risk of falling into extreme poverty, while the number of undernourished people, currently estimated at nearly 690 million, could increase by up to 132 million by the end of the year.

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What will the world look like in 2050? - Viresh

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What will the world look like in 2050? - Viresh

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Due to the decline of certain animal species and increase of CO2 world-wide, we can predict what the world would look like by 2050. I'm assuming that certain places would be in ruins such as the Amazon Rainforest, Indonesia, and various other places. The sea levels would have risen very much, polar ice caps completely melted, cities are in ruin, the rainforests are burnt down, and oxygen content in the air has significantly decreased to the point where everyone needs gas masks when they leave their homes.

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what will the world look like in 2050? -neena

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what will the world look like in 2050? -neena

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know one knows what the future is going to look like. our world is constantly evolving and rapidly changing. with new things happening everyday its hard to predict the future, however there are many environmental issues that aren't being dealt with properly or at all. if these issues are dealt with sooner we may not have a future at all. we still have quite some time for these issues to be dealt with and if they are i think the world would be way more different especially in terms of technology, but its hard to say how life would be like.

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The world in 2050 is more hostile and less fertile, more crowded and less diverse. Compared with 2019, there are more trees, but fewer forests, more concrete, but less stability. The rich have retreated into air-conditioned sanctums behind ever higher walls. The poor – and what is left of other species – is left exposed to the ever harsher elements. Everyone is affected by rising prices, conflict, stress and depression.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/dec/30/environment-2050-flooded-cities-forced-migration-amazon-turning-savannah.     - kezia

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ood morning. Here is the shipping forecast for midday, 21 June, 2050. Seas will be rough, with violent storms and visibility ranging from poor to very poor for the next 24 hours. The outlook for tomorrow is less fair."

All being well, this could be a weather bulletin released by the Met Office and broadcast by the BBC in the middle of this century. Destructive gales may not sound like good news, but they will be among the least of the world's problems in the coming era of peak climate turbulence. With social collapse a very real threat in the next 30 years, it will be an achievement in 2050 if there are still institutions to make weather predictions, radio transmitters to share them and seafarers willing to listen to the archaic content.

I write this imaginary forecast with an apology to Tim Radford, the former Guardian science editor, who used the same device in 2004 to open a remarkably prescient prediction on the likely impacts of global warming on the world in 2020.

Journalists generally hate to go on record about the future. We are trained to report on the very recent past, not gaze into crystal balls. On those occasions when we have to venture ahead of the present, most of us play it safe by avoiding dates that could prove us wrong, or quoting others.

Radford allowed himself no such safe distance or equivocation in 2004, which we should remember as a horribly happy year for climate deniers. George W Bush was in the White House, the Kyoto protocol had been recently zombified by the US Congress, the world was distracted by the Iraq war and fossil fuel companies and oil tycoons were pumping millions of dollars into misleading ads and dubious research that aimed to sow doubt about science.

Radford looked forward to a point when global warming was no longer so easy to ignore. Applying his expert knowledge of the best science available at the time, he predicted 2020 would be the year when the planet started to feel the heat as something real and urgent.

"We're still waiting for the Earth to start simmering," he wrote back in that climate-comfortable summer of 2004. "But by 2020 the bubbles will be appearing."

The heat of the climate movement is certainly less latent. In the past year, the world has seen Greta Thunberg's solo school strikes morph into a global movement of more than six million demonstrators; Extinction Rebellion activists have seized bridges and blocked roads in capital cities; the world has heard ever more alarming warnings from UN scientists, David Attenborough and the UN envoy for climate action, Mark Carney; dozens of national parliaments and city councils have declared climate emergencies; and the issue has risen further to the fore in the current UK general election than any before it. With only weeks to go until 2020, the bubbles of climate anxiety are massing near the surface.

Radford's most precise predictions relate to the science. Writing after the record-breaking UK heat of 2003, he warned such scorching temperatures would become the norm. "Expect summer 2020 to be every bit as oppressive." How right he was. Since then, the world has sweltered through the 10 hottest years in history. The UK registered a new high of 38.7C this July, which was the planet's warmest month since measurements began.

Hostile world: tackling forest fires in China. Photograph: Costfoto/Barcroft Media

He also correctly anticipated how much more hostile this would make the climate - with increasingly ferocious storms (for the first time on record, there have been category 5 hurricanes, such as Dorian and Harvey, for four years in a row), intensifying forest fires (consider the devastating blazes in Siberia and the Amazon this year, or California and Lapland in 2018) and massive bleaching of coral reefs (which is happening with growing frequency across most of the world). All of this has come to pass, as have Radford's specific predictions of worsening floods in Bangladesh, desperate droughts in southern Africa, food shortages in the Sahel and the opening up of the northwest passage due to shrinking sea ice (the huge cruise liner, Crystal Serenity, is among the many ships that have sailed through the Bering Strait in recent years - a route that was once deemed impossible by even the most intrepid explorers).

A couple of his predictions were slightly premature (the snows on Kilimanjaro and Mt Kenya have not yet disappeared, though a recent study said they will be gone before future generations get a chance to see them), but overall, Radford's vision of the world in 2020 was remarkably accurate, which is important because it confirms climate science was reliable even in 2004. It is even more precise today, which is good news in terms of anticipating the risks, but deeply alarming when we consider just how nasty scientists expect the climate to become in our lifetime. Unless emissions are slashed over the next decade, a swarm of wicked problems are heading our way.

How wicked? Well, following Radford's example, let us consider what the world will look like in 2050 if humanity continues to burn oil, gas, coal and forests at the current rate.

The difference will be visible from space. By the middle of the 21st century, the globe has changed markedly from the blue marble that humanity first saw in wondrous colour in 1972. The white northern ice-cap vanishes completely each summer, while the southern pole will shrink beyond recognition. The lush green rainforests of the Amazon, Congo and Papua New Guinea are smaller and quite possibly enveloped in smoke. From the subtropics to the mid-latitudes, a grimy-white band of deserts has formed a thickening ring around the northern hemisphere.

Coastlines are being reshaped by rising sea levels. Just over 30cm at this stage - well short of the 2 metres that could hit in 2100 - but still enough to swamp unprotected stretches of land from Miami and Guangdong to Lincolnshire and Alexandria. High tides and storm surges periodically blur the boundaries between land and sea, making the roads of megacities resemble the canals of Venice with increasing frequency.

On the ground, rising temperatures are changing the world in ways that can no longer be explained only by physics and chemistry. The increasingly hostile weather is straining social relations and disrupting economics, politics and mental health.

Generation Greta is middle aged. Their teenage fears of the complete extinction of the human race have not yet come to pass, but the risk of a breakdown of civilisation is higher than at any previous time in history - and rising steadily. They live with a level of anxiety their grandparents could have barely imagined.

The climate activist Greta Thunberg leads a school strike outside of the Swedish Parliament in 2018. Photograph: Michael Campanella/The Guardian

The world in 2050 is more hostile and less fertile, more crowded and less diverse. Compared with 2019, there are more trees, but fewer forests, more concrete, but less stability. The rich have retreated into air-conditioned sanctums behind ever higher walls. The poor - and what is left of other species - is left exposed to the ever harsher elements. Everyone is affected by rising prices, conflict, stress and depression.

This is a doorway into peak climate turbulence. Global heating passed the 1.5C mark a couple of years earlier and is now accelerating towards 3C, or possibly even 4C, by the end of the century. It feels as if the dial on a cooker has been turned from nine o'clock to midnight. Los Angeles, Sydney, Madrid, Lisbon and possibly even Paris endure new highs in excess of 50C. London's climate resembles Barcelona's 30 years earlier. Across the world, droughts intensify and extreme heat becomes a fact of life for 1.6bn city dwellers, eight times more than in 2019. For a while, marathons, World Cups and Olympics were moved to the winter to avoid the furnace-like heat in many cities. Now they are not held at all. It is impossible to justify the emissions and the world is no longer in the mood for games.

Extreme weather is the overriding concern of all but a tiny elite. It wreaks havoc everywhere, but the greatest misery is felt in poorer countries. Dhaka, Dar es Salaam and other coastal cities are hit almost every year by storm surges and other extreme sea-level incidents that used to occur only once a century. Following the lead set by Jakarta, several capitals have relocated to less-exposed regions. But floods, heatwaves, droughts and fires are increasingly catastrophic. Healthcare systems are struggling to cope. The economic costs cripple poorly prepared financial institutions. Insurance companies refuse to provide cover for natural disasters. Insecurity and desperation sweep through populations. Governments struggle to cope.

"By 2050, if we fail to act, many of the most damaging, extreme weather events we have seen in recent years will become commonplace," warns Michael Mann, the director of the Earth System Science Center at Pennsylvania State University. "In a world where we see continual weather disasters day after day (which is what we'll have in the absence of concerted action), our societal infrastructure may well fail ... We won't see the extinction of our species, but we could well see societal collapse."

Huge waves at Porthcawl, Wales: there will be more extreme storms and longer droughts. Photograph: Ben Birchall/PA

Adding to the anxiety is the erratic temperature of the planet. Instead of rising smoothly it jolts upwards, because tipping points - once the stuff of scientific nightmares - are reached one after another: methane release from permafrost; a die-off of the tiny marine organisms that sequestered billions of tonnes of carbon; the dessication of tropical forests. People have come to realise how interconnected the world's natural life-support systems are. As one falls, another is triggered - like dominos or the old board game, Mouse Trap. In some cases, they amplify one another. More heat means more forest fires, which dries out more trees, which burn more easily, which releases more carbon, which pushes global temperatures higher, which melts more ice, which exposes more of the Earth to sunlight, which warms the poles, which lowers the temperature gradient with the equator, which slows ocean currents and weather systems, which results in more extreme storms and longer droughts. It is also now clear that positive climate feedbacks are not limited to physics, but stretch to economics, politics and psychology. The Amazon is turning into a savannah because the loss of forest is weakening rainfall, which makes harvests lower, which gives farmers an economic motivation to clear more land to make up for lost production, which means more fires and less rain.

On our current course, carbon concentrations in the atmosphere will pass 550 parts per million by midcentury, up from around 400ppm today. Katharine Hayhoe, an atmospheric scientist and director of the Climate Science Center at Texas Tech University, explains how this stacks the odds in favour of disaster.

"By 2050, we'd be seeing events that are far more frequent and/or far stronger than we humans have ever experienced before, are occurring both simultaneously and in sequence."

Her greatest concern is that food production and water supply systems could buckle under the strain, with dire humanitarian consequences in areas that are already vulnerable.

Generation Greta live with a level of anxiety their grandparents could barely have imagined

Hunger will rise, perhaps calamitously. The United Nations' International Panel on Climate Change expects food production to decline by 2% to 6% in each of the coming decades because of land-degradation, droughts, floods and sea-level rise. The timing could not be worse. By 2050, the global population is projected to rise to 9.7 billion, which is more than two billion more people to feed than today.

When crops fail and starvation threatens, people are forced to fight or flee. Between 50 and 700 million people will be driven from their homes by midcentury as a result of soil degradation alone, the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) estimated last year. Fires, floods and droughts will prompt many others to migrate within and across borders. So will the decline of mountain ice, which is a source of meltwater for a quarter of the world's population. The poorest will be worst affected, though they have the least responsibility for the climate crisis. For the US author and environmentalist, Bill McKibben, this injustice will make the greatest impact in 2050.

"Forcing people to move from their homes by the hundreds of millions may do the most to disrupt the world. And, of course, it's a deep tragedy, because these are precisely the people who have done the least to cause the problem," he says.

In 2050, climate apartheid goes hand-in-hand with increasingly authoritarian politics. Three decades earlier, worried electorates voted in a generation of populist "strongmen" in the hope they could turn back the clock to a more stable world. Instead, their nationalism made a global solution even harder to achieve. They preferred to focus on the immigration consequences of global heating rather than the carbon-capital causes. When voters realised their mistake, it was too late. The thugocracy refused to give up power. They no longer deny the climate crisis; they use it to justify ever-more repressive measures and ever-wilder efforts to find a technological fix. In the past 20 years, nations have tried volcano mimicking, cloud brightening, albedo modification and carbon dioxide removal. Most were expensive and ineffective. Some made weather circulation even less reliable. Powerful countries now threaten rivals not just with nuclear weapons, but with geo-engineering threats to block sunlight or disrupt rainfall patterns.

This is not an inevitable future. Unlike Radford's prediction for 2020, this vision of 2050 factors in human behaviour, which is more volatile and less predictable than the laws of thermodynamics. Many of the horrors above are already baked into the climate, but our response to them - and each other - is not predetermined. When it comes to the science, the dangers can be substantially reduced if humanity shifts decisively away from business-as-usual behaviour over the next decade. When it comes to the psychology and politics, we can make our situation better immediately if we focus on hope in shared solutions, rather than fears of what we will lose as individuals.

That means putting faith in institutions, warning one another about risks, and treasuring shared eccentricities and traditions - a bit like the shipping forecast.

A storm is certainly brewing. The science is clear on that. The question now is how we face it.

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The environment in 2050: flooded cities, forced migration - and the Amazon turning to savannah

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ood morning. Here is the shipping forecast for midday, 21 June, 2050. Seas will be rough, with violent storms and visibility ranging from poor to very poor for the next 24 hours. The outlook for tomorrow is less fair."

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What are the most urgent issues that need to be tackled?
- Covid-19
- The crisis highlights the need for urgent action to cushion the pandemic's health and economic consequences, protect vulnerable populations, and set the stage for a lasting recovery. The economic and social disruption caused by the pandemic is devastating: tens of millions of people are at risk of falling into extreme poverty. Moreover, COVID-19 is responsible for at least 3 million excess deaths in 2020. As of 31 December 2020, COVID-19 had infected over 82 million people and killed more than 1.8 million worldwide. Recently, there were harrowing images and videos of overloaded hospitals in many countries that have been circulating on social media as families of COVID-19 patients reported difficulties in finding available beds and ICUs at referral hospitals.

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INDONESIA IS SINKING
The Indonesian capital of Jakarta is home to 10 million people but it is also one of the fastest-sinking cities in the world. If this goes unchecked, parts of the megacity could be entirely submerged by 2050

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-44636934

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The Indonesian capital of Jakarta is home to 10 million people but it is also one of the fastest-sinking cities in the world. If this goes unchecked, parts of the megacity could be entirely submerged by 20 5 0, say researchers. Is it too late?

It sits on swampy land, the Java Sea lapping against it, and 13 rivers running through it. So it shouldn't be a surprise that flooding is frequent in Jakarta and, according to experts, it is getting worse. But it's not just about freak floods, this massive city is literally disappearing into the ground.

"The potential for Jakarta to be submerged isn't a laughing matter," says Heri Andreas, who has studied Jakarta's land subsidence for the past 20 years at the Bandung Institute of Technology.

"If we look at our models, by 2050 about 95% of North Jakarta will be submerged."

It's already happening - North Jakarta has sunk 2.5m in 10 years and is continuing to sink by as much as 25cm a year in some parts, which is more than double the global average for coastal megacities.

Jakarta is sinking by an average of 1-15cm a year and almost half the city now sits below sea level.

The impact is immediately apparent in North Jakarta.

In the district of Muara Baru, an entire office building lies abandoned. It once housed a fishing company but the first-floor veranda is the only functional part left.

The submerged ground floor is full of stagnant floodwater. The land around it is higher so the water has nowhere to go. Buildings that are so deeply sunk are rarely abandoned like this, because most of the time the owners will try to fix, rebuild and find short-term remedies for the issue. But what they can't do is stop the soil sucking this part of the city down.

An open air fish market is just a five-minute drive away.

"The walkways are like waves, curving up and down, people can trip and fall," says Ridwan, a Muara Baru resident who often visits the fish market. As the water levels underground are being depleted, the very ground market-goers walk on is sinking and shifting, creating an uneven and unstable surface.

"Year after year, the ground has just kept sinking," he said, just one of many inhabitants of this quarter alarmed at what is happening to the neighbourhood.

North Jakarta has historically been a port city and even today it houses one of Indonesia's busiest sea ports, Tanjung Priok. Its strategic location where the Ciliwung river flows into the Java Sea was one of the reasons why Dutch colonists chose to make it their bustling hub in the 17th Century.

Today 1.8 million people live in the municipality, a curious mixture of fading port businesses, poor coastal communities and a substantial population of wealthy Chinese Indonesians.

Fortuna Sophia lives in a luxurious villa with a sea view. The sinking of her home is not immediately visible but she says cracks appear in the walls and pillars every six months.

"We just have to keep fixing it," she says, standing beside her swimming pool with her private dock just a few metres away. "The maintenance men say the cracks are caused by the shifting of the ground."

She's lived here for four years but it has already flooded several times: "The seawater flows in and covers the swimming pool entirely. We have to move all our furniture up to the first floor."

But the impact on the small homes right by the sea is magnified. Residents who once had a sea view now see only a dull grey dyke, built and rebuilt in a valiant attempt to keep seawater out.

"Every year the tide gets about 5cm higher," Mahardi, a fisherman, said.

None of this has deterred the property developers. More and more luxury apartments dot the North Jakarta skyline regardless of the risks. The head of the advisory council for Indonesia's Association of Housing Development, Eddy Ganefo, says he has urged the government to halt further development here. But, he says, "so long as we can sell apartments, development will continue".

The rest of Jakarta is also sinking, albeit at a slower rate. In West Jakarta, the ground is sinking by as much as 15cm annually, by 10cm annually in the east, 2cm in Central Jakarta and just 1cm in South Jakarta.

Coastal cities across the world are affected because of rising sea levels caused by climate change. Increased sea levels occur because of thermal expansion - the water expanding because of extra heat - and the melting of polar ice. The speed at which Jakarta is sinking is alarming experts.

It may seem surprising but there are few complaints from Jakartans because for residents here the subsidence is just one among a myriad of infrastructure challenges they have to deal with daily.

And that is part of the story of why this is happening.

The dramatic rate at which Jakarta is sinking is partly down to the excessive extraction of groundwater for use as drinking water, for bathing and other everyday purposes by city dwellers. Piped water isn't reliable or available in most areas so people have no choice but to resort to pumping water from the aquifers deep underground.

But when groundwater is pumped out, the land above it sinks as if it is sitting on a deflating balloon - and this leads to land subsidence.

The situation is exacerbated by lax regulation allowing just about anyone, from individual homeowners to massive shopping mall operators, to carry out their own groundwater extractions.

"Everyone has a right, from residents to industries, to use groundwater so long as this is regulated," says Heri Andreas. The problem is that they take more than what is allowed.

People say they have no choice when the authorities are unable to meet their water needs and experts confirm that water management authorities can only meet 40% of Jakarta's demand for water.

A landlord in central Jakarta, known only as Hendri, runs a dormitory-like block called a kos-kosan and has been pumping his own groundwater for 10 years to supply tenants. He is one of many on his street who do this.

"It's better to use our own groundwater rather than relying on the authorities. A kos-kosan like this needs a lot of water."

The local government has only recently admitted it has a problem with illegal groundwater extraction.

In May, the Jakarta city authority inspected 80 buildings in Central Jakarta's Jalan Thamrin, a road lined with skyscrapers, shopping malls and hotels. It found that 56 buildings had their own groundwater pump and 33 were extracting water illegally.

Jakarta's Governor Anies Baswedan says everyone should have a licence, which will enable the authorities to measure how much groundwater is being extracted. Those without a licence will have their building-worthiness certificate revoked, as would other businesses in the same building.

Authorities are also hoping that the Great Garuda, a 32km outer sea wall being built across Jakarta Bay along with 17 artificial islands, will help rescue the sinking city - at a cost of about $40bn.

It's being supported by the Dutch and South Korean governments and creates an artificial lagoon in which water levels can be lowered to allow the city's rivers to drain. It will help with the flooding which is an issue when the rains come.

But three Dutch non-profit groups released a report in 2017 which cast doubt on whether the sea wall and artificial islands could solve Jakarta's subsidence problem.

Jan Jaap Brinkman, a hydrologist with the Dutch water research institute Deltares, argues it can only ever be an interim measure. He says it will only buy Jakarta an extra 20-30 years to stop the long-term subsidence.

"There is only one solution and everybody knows the solution," he says.

That would be to halt all groundwater extraction and solely rely on other sources of water, such as rain or river water or piped water from man-made reservoirs. He says Jakarta must do this by 2050 to avoid major subsidence.

It is not a message that is being taken to heart yet and Jakarta's Governor Anies Baswedan thinks a less drastic measure will do.

He says people should be able to extract groundwater legally as long as they replace it using something called the biopori method.

This involves digging a hole, 10cm in diameter and 100cm deep, into the ground to allow water to be reabsorbed into the soil.

Critics say this scheme would only replace water at a superficial level, whereas in Jakarta water is often pumped out from several hundred metres below ground level.

There is technology to replace groundwater deep at its source but it's extremely expensive. Tokyo used this method, known as artificial recharge, when it faced severe land subsidence 50 years ago. The government also restricted groundwater extraction and businesses were required to use reclaimed water. Land subsidence subsequently halted.

But Jakarta needs alternative water sources for that to work. Heri Andreas, from Bandung Institute of Technology, says it could take up to 10 years to clean up the rivers, dams and lakes to allow water to be piped anywhere or used as a replacement for the aquifers deep underground.

Jakarta's residents adopt a somewhat fatalistic attitude to their future in this sinking city.

"Living here is a risk," says Sophia Fortuna in her home. "The people here have all accepted that risk."

Additional reporting by Tom de Souza. Interactive elements Arvin Surpriyadi, Davies Surya, and Leben Asa.

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Jakarta, the fastest-sinking city in the world

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With frequent floods, sinking markets and engulfed homes, by 2050 parts of Jakarta will be underwater.

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The influential groups that talk about the environment-Akshay

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The influential groups that talk about the environment-Akshay

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The Nature conservancy protects ecologically important lands and waters around the world with the help of more than 500 staff scientists.

its programs include climate change, marine ecosystems and etc.

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At this rate and this standard of law, I imagine the future to be a place with extremely scarce resources. This will result in an extremely expensive future. anyone that owns the rights to any specific resource will result in them being one of the richest people. This will increase the already wide gap between the 1% and the lower 99%. This will also result in anything natural not being able to grow normally, but will be massively industrialized.

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Influential groups that I know about- Rainald

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Influential groups that I know about- Rainald

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The EDF (Environmental Defense Fund) based in the United States, works on and studies on issues like global warming, ecosystem restoration and population health. The Funds mission is to preserve the natural systems on which all life depends by providing long-lasting solutions through the method of science, economics and law.

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1. water pollution
2. In Indonesia and around the world, people are navigating the COVID-19 pandemic, and millions are striving to endure this crisis with an added challenge. They lack access to life’s most critical water resource.
3. I'm very concerned about the people in Indonesia that has lacked safe water because consuming unsafe water can cause death.

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1. Waste disposal
2. An excessive amount of waste is produced and dumped in the oceans, which can be very dangerous towards marine life and can cause some species to be extinct. Chile is one of the worst country for recycling plastic, with less than 1% of their total usage actually being recycled. sadly 99% ends up in landfill
3. I am concerned with my surroundings because i am trying to help making the environment better for the future

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- water pollution and over fishing.
- in 2018, capture fisheries produced a whopping 94.4 million tons of fish. According to FAO's overfishing statistics for 2020, that's an average increase of around 5.4 percent when looking at the previous three years.Examples of overfishing exist in areas such as the North Sea, the grand banks of newfoundland and the east china sea In these locations, overfishing has not only proved disastrous to fish stocks, but also to the fishing communities relying on the harvest.
- i am concerned as the pollution in the water keep increasing and the marine life keep losing their habitat and slowly they might become extinction.

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1- climate change/global warming
2-due to global warming many forest fires have occured. one of the most recent example s of this is the fores fires in turkey, another would be the wildfire in australia hat happened last year. major floods have also been caused due to climate change. these floods have occured a lot in countries such as india, china, and indonesia.
3- climate change is a very serious issue that needs to be taken care of soon if not things like fires and floods can get even worse and could eventually wipe out entire organisms

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water pollution needs to be given more attention because plastic and trash damage the ocean ecosystem and they are often mistaken as food.

A recent incident was in parts of Yorkshire in England where the most commonly identified pollutants in the water were sewage and slurry which effects the water quality and human health. They saw 48 incidents in a period from 2020 -2021.

water pollution is a serious concern because people who think that the trash they throw into the water will not affect ocean life and their ecosystems should educate themselves more.

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How much do i know about Environmental issues? - Arshad

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How much do i know about Environmental issues? - Arshad

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1. -One environmental issue that i think needs more attention would be that of e-waste.
-One incident relating to this is that old phones are simply thrown away after they are either too slow, or do not work. Not only does this build up land waste, but on top of that, there are some harmful parts inside phones such as batteries which could leak out and intoxicate the soil, and kill any wildlife there. It could also cause a large fire hazard. Even if the batteries are removed, there are precious metals such as copper and tiny amounts of gold which could be re-used.
-I am concerned with this as it could pose a threat for us because, with an increase in devices being used, it could cause anywhere from a massive resource depletion, all the way to soil contamination and wildlife being removed from their habitat.

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1. Air Pollution
2.Jakarta has dealt with such a situation from year to year. Since fine particulate PM 2.5 measurement began in 2014 until today, Jakarta has always breached its annual air quality standards for the parameter by 200-300 percent. Many studies have projected that due to the health impact of the long-term exposure to such a hazardous level, premature deaths, which currently stand at 3,700, could multiply to 22,100 per year in 2050. Jakartans tend to focus on politics and fragmentation instead of pressing issues that are related to their own health. Second, air pollution is much less visible compared to issues of flooding, water pollution, and waste.
3. I am very concerned as this may lead to a much worse situations are experienced by sensitive groups such as pregnant women, children under 5 years old and people with long-term health problems especially in this pandemic.

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1. Climate change
2. Wild fires in Europe due to the sudden change in the climate in countries such as turkey and Italy. Witnesses claimed that it has been raining "ash" as this was due to the strong heat waves from the scorching sun.
3. I am very concerned about this since wild fires causes deforestation and loss of habitats. in my opinion, we should pay more attention to this.

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1. Global Warming

2. Global warming is a direct cause of greenhouse gasses being trapped in the atmosphere and destroying the Ozone layer. Melting of the polar ice caps. This event has caused sea levels to rise and animals & plants to die due to the increased heat and rising sea. Australian wildfires were also a direct consequence of global warming.

3. I'm extremely concerned about the global crisis that we're currently facing and the amount of people that do not think it's real. The rising sea levels caused by global warming are already coming at an alarming rate; Jakarta has been said to be sinking at about 1"/year.

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Protecting Biodiversity from Urbanization

Last northern white rhinos dies in conservation after years of habitat destruction and poachers. Since 19 March 2018, there are only two known rhinos of this subspecies left, called Najin and Fatu, both of which are female

I am very concerned about the species that are endangered, who knows in 10 years more and more species are going to be extinct.

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1. Forest fires is an environmental issue that needs to be given more attention.
2.  A forest fire raged for 2 days in Cyprus, destroying large areas and burning down countless trees.
3. I am very concerned as the wildlife that inhabit that area have suffered irreplaceable damage.

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1. deforestation
2. In the first four months of 2021, deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon totaled 1,157 square kilometers, an area nearly the size of Los Angeles and down 4% from a year earlier
3. deforestation causes loss of habitat for the animals and the decrease in trees. if cutting/burning down of trees keeps happening to build new road etc, we will eventually run out of trees which is a source of oxygen and will causes natural disasters such as hurricanes, fires, parasites and floods.

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How much do I know about Environmental issues?

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How much do I know about Environmental issues?

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1. Answer the following questions below:
- Can you try to think of an Environmental issue that needs to be given more attention.
-Cite one recent incident related to the Environmental issue you are pertaining to. \
- Describe how concern are you with your surroundings.