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by: Oliver

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World's Most Shockings Sinkholes Caught on Camera ✔P91

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World's Most Shockings Sinkholes Caught on Camera ✔P91 Earthquake caught on camera ... Flash floods are distinguished from regular floods by a timescale of less than six hours Landslide are the most dangerous kind of floods, because they combine the destructive power of a flood with incredible speed and unpredictability .

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by: Oliver

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Water pollution | Water Contamination | Video for kids

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by: Oliver

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The UN's Plan To Defend Earth From Asteroids

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by: Oliver

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Will the ocean ever run out of fish? - Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Jennifer Jacquet

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By: Gillian

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Desertification is defined as a process of land degradation in arid, semi-arid and sub-humid areas due to various factors including climatic variations and human activities. Or, to put it in another way, desertification results in persistent degradation of dryland and fragile ecosystems due to man-made activities and variations in climate. Desertification, in short, is when land that was originally of another type of biome turns into a desert biome because of changes of all sorts. A huge issue that many countries have is the fact that there are large pockets of land that are going through a process that is known as desertification.

Overgrazing is the major cause of desertification worldwide. Other factors that cause desertification include urbanization, climate change, overdrafting of groundwater, deforestation, natural disasters and tillage practices in agriculture that place soils more vulnerable to wind. Desertification affects topsoil, groundwater reserves, surface runoff, human, animal and plant populations. Water scarcity in drylands limits the production of wood, crops, forage and other services that ecosystems provide to our community.

We already have the statistics for the future: the growth percentages of pollution, overpopulation, desertification. The future is already in place.
- Gunther Grass

According to UNESCO, one third of world's land surface is threatened by desertification and across the world it affects livelihood of millions of people who depend on the benefits of ecosystems that drylands provides. Desertification is another major environmental concern and a major barrier to meeting human basic needs in drylands and are being constantly threatened by increases in human pressures and climatic variability. In this article, we're going to give you an idea as to what are the causes of desertification, the effects that desertification has, and what we can do in order to deal with the problem at hand. Let's take a closer look at all of these topics.

According to Wikipedia,
"Desertification is a type of land degradation in which a relatively dry land region becomes increasingly arid, typically losing its bodies of water as well as vegetation and wildlife. It is caused by a variety of factors, such as climate change and human activities. Desertification is a significant global ecological and environmental problem."
Causes of Desertification

Urbanization and other types of land development. As mentioned above, development can cause people to go through and kill the plant life. It can also cause issues with the soil due to chemicals and other things that may harm the ground. As areas become more urbanized, there are less places for plants to grow, thus causing desertification.

Effects of Desertification

Farming becomes next to impossible. If an area becomes a desert, then it's almost impossible to grow substantial crops there without special technologies. This can cost a lot of money to try and do, so many farmers will have to sell their land and leave the desert areas.

Hunger: Without farms in these areas, the food that those farms produce will become much scarcer, and the people who live in those local areas will be a lot more likely to try and deal with hunger problems. Animals will also go hungry, which will cause even more of a food shortage.

Flooding: Without the plant life in an area, flooding is a lot more eminent. Not all deserts are dry; those that are wet could experience a lot of flooding because there is nothing to stop the water from gathering and going all over the place. Flooding can also negatively affect the water supply, which we will discuss next.

Poor Water Quality: If an area becomes a desert, the water quality is going to become a lot worse than it would have been otherwise. This is because the plant life plays a significant role in keeping the water clean and clear; without its presence, it becomes a lot more difficult for you to be able to do that.

Poverty: All of the issues that we've talked about above (related to the problem of desertification) can lead to poverty if it is not kept in check. Without food and water, it becomes harder for people to thrive, and they take a lot of time to try and get the things that they need.

Solutions for Desertification

Policy Changes Related to How People can Farm. In countries where policy change will actually be enforced on those in the country, policy change related to how often people can farm and how much they can farm on certain areas could be put into place to help reduce the problems that are often associated with farming and desertification.

Policy Changes to Other Types of Land Use. If people are using land to get natural resources or they are developing it for people to live on, then the policies that govern them should be ones that will help the land to thrive instead of allowing them to harm the land further. The policy changes could be sweeping or they could be depending on the type of land use at hand.

Technology Advances. In some cases, it's difficult to try and prevent desertification from happening. In those cases, there needs to be research and advancements in technology that push the limits of what we currently know. Advancements could help us find more ways to prevent the issue from becoming epidemic.

Putting Together Rehabilitation Efforts. There are some ways that we can go back and rehabilitate the land that we've already pushed into desertification; it just takes some investment of time and money. By putting these together, we can prevent the issue from becoming even more widespread in the areas that have already been affected.

Desertification is a huge problem that needs to be addressed accordingly, and if we take the time to do it now, we can prevent other problems from happening with it in the future. By taking that critical look at desertification, we have the tools that we need in order to get through the processes effectively.

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Causes, Effects and Solutions of Desertification - Conserve Energy Future

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What is Desertification? Desertification is defined as a process of land degradation in arid, semi-arid and sub-humid areas due to various factors including climatic variations and human activities. Or, to put it in another way, desertification results in persistent degradation of dryland and fragile ecosystems due to man-made activities and variations in climate.

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By: Gillian

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One of the main objectives set by UNI Global Union, through its Equal Opportunities Department has been to attain productive development based on gender equality. We regard this principle as essential to achieving sustainable development and true social justice for everyone.

The Equal Opportunites Department carries out programmes, campaigns and other activities in order to fulfil this goal, both within the organization and among our affiliates.
VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN
The socially and culturally built hierarchy between the genders holds certain power relationships. Any power relationship is asymmetrical by definition, i.e. one of the subjects of the relationship has power and the other one does not.

Usually, men are socially regarded as being of higher value. This asymmetrical situation is present in many areas of social life and can lead to violence (physical, verbal, or psychological).

Studies show that more than 1/3 of the women around the world have experienced violence at some point in their lives and it can happen at the workplace.
SEXUAL HARASSMENT
Sexual harassment is a form of violence that through a show of power intimidates, humiliates, and affects another person's dignity. This behavior is sexual in nature (physical contacts, sexual advances, comments and jokes with sexual content, exhibiting pornographic material or making inappropriate comments) and undesired; it is perceived by the victim as a condition to keep the job, or as one that creates a hostile, intimidating, and humiliating work environment.
THE WAGE GAP
One of the areas at the workplace where gender differences are seen is the difference in the remuneration that men and women workers receive for work of equal value. A study by the International Labour Organization in 2013 shows that the global wage gap is 23%.

However, this number does not account for the millions of women working in the informal economy with no protection. Also, many countries lack reliable statistics to prepare more accurate reports, therefore, this already high figure will be even higher.
Access to education continues to be key to bridging the wage gap. However, it is not the only instrument, since women with higher education are at the ends of the gap with their male peer. For that reason, UNI has pledged to work to make ILO Convention 100 requiring equal remuneration for men and women workers for work of equal value effective in every work site.
WOMEN'S HEALTH
Health is a universal human right. That's why, irrespective of religion, age or where we live, we have a right to the information and the healthcare services that allow us to care for our bodies and our quality of life.

It is not just being free of illnesses, but also having access to reasonable standards of living, housing, food, decent work, as well as appropriate level of medical assistance so that we can develop our full potential as individuals.

To be able to truly achieve gender equality, we need to look at the health and well-being of women. This is a precondition for the promotion of the sustainable growth of our communities.
WORK - LIFE BALANCE
Globalization of the economy has brought about changes in the labour market structure and labour organization, which had remained stable throughout the 20th century. The traditional model of sexual division of labour had placed productive tasks (supporting and providing for the family) in the hands of men and reproductive ones in the hands of women (caring for children and the elderly, housekeeping chores.)

Today, women increasingly share the provider role with men. However, there has not been a similar change in the distribution of domestic work. For that reason, women with both roles (productive and reproductive) work more hours than men, get less rest, and are burdened with a heavy workload that puts their health at risk and limits their chances of developing a professional career.

We must then reflect upon these issues and devise policies intended to balance work and family life to overcome gender inequalities, so that both men and women may have access to a full family life and a professional career.

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INCREASE GENDER REPRESENTATION/ GENDER BALANCE One of the main objectives set by UNI Global Union, through its Equal Opportunities Department has been to attain productive development based on gender equality. We regard this principle as essential to achieving sustainable development and true social justice for everyone.

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By: Gillian

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Rare Video: Japan Tsunami | National Geographic

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By: Gillian

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Answer (1 of 13): There are a few reasons that there are so many homeless people in cities. One. Economies change quicker than the all people can adapt to and this is where they live. Two. You may come from a family that would never let a family member live on the street, but in reality there a ...

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By: Gillian

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Drought turned the surrounding woodland into fuel, strong winds fanned the flames and in just a few hours this week fired consumed the Greek coastal resort of Mati, outside Athens . Homes and hotels were scorched or destroyed, more than 80 people died and many hundreds ran to the sea, seeking refuge from the flames.

People have had to be evacuated from Yosemite National Park, Sweden has lost an estimated 30,000 hectares of forest and large areas of bone-dry Latvia, Italy, Finland and Norway have all been blanketed in smoke.

The 2018 wildfire season has been dramatic, prompting headlines about the world being on fire, but it is only unusual in that so many places are experiencing major fires at the same time, scientists say. Large blazes wracked Indonesia in 2015, Canada and Spain in 2016, and Chile and Portugal in 2017. In Russia, villages, farmland and more than 1,100 square miles of forest were destroyed in 2010, and again in 2015.

Fires used to be seen as local, but we should see them as part of a global-scale phenomenon.

A 2016 report by the European Environment Agency suggests Mediterranean countries are seeing more heat extremes and reduced rainfall, resulting in more forest fires. The number of fires this year across Europe is up 40 percent on average, according to the European Forest Fire Information System.

The disastrous fires are due both to human behavior and planetary change, said David Bowman, a professor of environmental change biology at the University of Tasmania in Australia.

"Growing cities, poor planning, recurring heatwaves, more people living closer to forests and more combustible landscapes have together created a more fire-prone world," said Bowman.

On top of these factors is the devastating impact of climate change, which through higher temperatures is now accelerating ecological instability. "It is causing fire seasons to start earlier and finish later," said Bowman. "We are seeing more severe, more intense and longer lasting wildfires causing more loss of life and property. Fires used to be seen as local, but we should see them as part of a global-scale phenomenon."

"We are confronting more large fires, a tripling of homes burned and more frequent large evacuations in North America," said Tania Schoennagel, a fire scientist at the University of Colorado Boulder. "This trend will continue in response to further warming."

"Wildland fire can be a friend and a foe," explains the U.S. Forest Service.

"In the right place at the right time, wildland fire can create many environmental benefits, such as reducing grass, brush, and trees that can fuel large and severe wildfires and improve wildlife habitat," said a Forest Service spokesman. But In the wrong place at the wrong time, fires can threaten lives, homes and resources.

"Earth has evolved through fire and plants and humans have evolved to adapt to fiery landscapes," said Andrew Scott, author of a new book, Burning Planet, and professor of geology at Royal Holloway, University of London. "Fire has become the enemy in cities, but we have to learn to live with it."

Growing cities, poor planning, recurring heatwaves, more people living closer to forests, and more combustible landscapes have together created a more fire-prone world.

"Changing climatic and weather conditions are exacerbating these problems," said Fantina Tedim, a researcher at the University of Porto, Portugal. "Wildland is coming closer to settlements, rural areas are likely to be depopulated with the result that there is less management of forests and more build-up of flammable material."

Because humans can start fires so easily, there is no simple way to prevent them, short of drastic and likely unfeasible solutions like removing people permanently from susceptible areas or redesigning landscapes to remove trees completely.

"Managing fire is about managing landscape," said Bowman. "We are creating landscapes that are increasingly flammable. People are living in more and more dangerous environments because they believe technology will keep them safe."

"We are just not prepared," he continued. "Will there be more fires? With climate change, yes, lots more. We must get used to them, and learn to adapt. It's like the earth has thrown down the gauntlet and we are paralyzed."
CORRECTION: This story previously referred to the U.S. Fire Service. The agency is called the U.S. Forest Service.

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Fire, Fire Everywhere: The 2018 Global Wildfire Season Is Already Disastrous

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Drought turned the surrounding woodland into fuel, strong winds fanned the flames and in just a few hours this week fired consumed the Greek coastal resort of Mati, outside Athens . Homes and hotels were scorched or destroyed, more than 80 people died and many hundreds ran to the sea, seeking refuge from the flames.

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By: Gillian
http://www.onegreenplanet.org/animalsandnature/marine-animals-are-dying-because-of-our-plastic-trash/

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The role plastic products play in the daily lives of people all over the world is interminable. We could throw statistics at you all day long (e.g. Upwards of 300 MILLION tons of plastic are consumed each year), but the impact of these numbers border on inconceivable.

For those living on the coasts, a mere walk on the beach can give anyone insight into how staggering our addiction to plastic has become as bottles, cans, bags, lids and straws (just to name a few) are ever-present. In other areas that insight is more poignant as the remains of animal carcasses can frequently be observed; the plastic debris that many of them ingested or became entangled in still visible long after their death. Sadly, an overwhelming amount of plastic pollution isn't even visible to the human eye, with much of the pollution occurring out at sea or on a microscopic level.
LiveScience
The short-lived use of millions of tons of plastic is, quite simply, unsustainable and dangerous. We have only begun to see the far-reaching consequences of plastic pollution and how it affects all living things. According to a study from Plymouth University, plastic pollution affects at least 700 marine species, while some estimates suggest that at least 100 million marine mammals are killed each year from plastic pollution.

Here are some of the marine species most deeply impacted by plastic pollution.

1. Sea Turtles

Like many other marine animals, sea turtles mistake plastic waste for a viable food source, sometimes causing blockages in their digestive system. Though the declining sea turtle populations in the oceans are due to a variety of factors (most all of which involve human exploitation), plastic pollution plays a significant role.

Separate studies from 2013 suggest as many as 50 percent of sea turtles are ingesting plastic at an unprecedented rate, and dying because of it. Another study of the Loggerhead species found that 15 percent of young turtles examined had ingested such enormous quantities of plastic that their digestive system was obstructed.

2. Seals and Sea Lions

Marine life can become entangled in a variety of ocean debris including fishing nets, lines, and lures. Still, there are a number of seals and sea lions that become entangled in plastic bags or plastic packing bands leading to injury and death.

In fact, plastic packing bands and rubber bands continue to deeply impact the Steller Sea Lion population. An eight-year study in Southeast Alaska and British Columbia documented 388 sea lions entangled in plastic debris. These plastic packing bands and rubber bands can become so embedded in the animal that it can lead to severe infection and death.
Chris Jordan
3. Seabirds

Plastic pollution leads to the deaths of millions of marine bird species each year. Arguably more so than other birds, the Laysan albatross has been deeply impacted by plastic debris through their hunting techniques. When the albatross dives into the ocean to catch fish, squid or other food they use their beak to skim the surface, picking up plastic along the way.

Shockingly, an estimated 98 percent of albatross studied are found having ingested some kind of plastic debris. Once the plastic has been ingested, it causes an obstruction in the digestive tract and can puncture internal organs.

4. Fish

Fish, along with pretty much any marine mammal that brings in water through its gills, are increasingly at risk to microscopic plastic debris. A study performed at the University of Exeter UK suggested that microscopic marine debris could take up to six times as long for the animal to rid themselves of in comparison to ingesting the debris orally.

Of course plastic pollution deeply impacts species of fish, but unlike other animals on our list, this is the one animal that's also commonly eaten by humans. A number of studies suggest that the fish humans continue to consume have at one time or another ingested plastic microfibers, including brown trout, cisco, and perch.

5. Whales and Dolphins

EIA

Like other marine mammals, whales often mistakes marine debris for a potential food source. In some species, similar to that of the albatross, the whales mouth is so large it unknowingly picks up plastic debris (a technique observed in baleen whales). Necropsies performed after numerous whale strandings saw an increase in the amount of plastic debris found.

A study also found that hundreds of species of cetaceans have been negatively impacted by plastic pollution in the past two decades. The obstructions often puncturing and tearing the stomach lining, leading to starvation and death. According to Marine Pollution Bulletin, cetaceans are ingesting plastic debris at a rate as high as 31 percent, and in turn, 22 percent of those cetaceans were at an increased risk of death.

What Can You Do?

It's clear that plastic pollution impacts virtually every living organism in, or thriving off of, the oceans of our world. This is simply not acceptable. The balance of our ecosystem is essential to our quality of life and will ultimately depend on when the world decides to stop turning a blind eye to the issue and make the necessary lifestyle changes.

We all must remain diligent as we work to minimize our own individual consumption of plastic products. So, whether you're just beginning the journey to minimizing plastic in your life or not, there are a few key steps that never hurt to repeat.

Clean Up After Yourself

Sounds pretty self-explanatory, right? If you're on the beach or at the park, be mindful of a "leave with what you came with" policy. It also doesn't hurt to pick up after your neighbors if you notice they may have left a few things behind. Beach cleanups are a great way to help the environment and meet like-minded individuals who want to reduce their plastic footprint.

Recycle

It's simple to apply this to your everyday life by recycling in your own home. Most public places now offer waste versus recycling options, too. If you happen to be out, and you don't see an area for recyclables, simply ask. Worst case scenario is you're forced to take a plastic bottle or bag home with you and recycle it on your own.

When You Can: Just Say No

We understand that going completely plastic free is challenging for most families, but we all know plastic consumption isn't always well, necessary. Saying no to straws, buying in bulk and bringing your own reusable bags grocery shopping are just a few of the many ways you can cut down on the amount of plastic you're consuming.

For more information, check out these great articles:

For more Animal, Life, Vegan Food, Health, and Recipe content published daily, don't forget to subscribe to the One Green Planet Newsletter !

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These 5 Marine Animals Are Dying Because of Our Plastic Trash ... Here's How We Can Help

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According to a study from Plymouth University, plastic pollution affects at least 700 marine species, while some estimates suggest that at least 100 million marine mammals are killed each year from plastic pollution. Here are some of the marine species most deeply impacted by plastic pollution.

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Sinkholes

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2004 Tsunami Caught On Camera FULL VIDEO

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The Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP) is the largest of the five offshore plastic accumulation zones in the world's oceans. It is located halfway between Hawaii and California.
PLASTIC ACCUMULATION

It is estimated that 1.15 to 2.41 million tonnes of plastic are entering the ocean each year from rivers. More than half of this plastic is less dense than the water, meaning that it will not sink once it encounters the sea.

1.15 to 2.41 million metric tonnes of plastic are entering the ocean each year.

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The stronger, more buoyant plastics show resiliency in the marine environment, allowing them to be transported over extended distances. They persist at the sea surface as they make their way offshore, transported by converging currents and finally accumulating in the patch.

Once these plastics enter the gyre, they are unlikely to leave the area until they degrade into smaller microplastics under the effects of sun, waves and marine life. As more and more plastics are discarded into the environment, microplastic concentration in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch will only continue to increase.

ESTIMATION OF SIZE

The GPGP covers an estimated surface area of 1.6 million square kilometers, an area twice the size of Texas or three times the size of France.

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch covers an estimated surface of 1.6 million square kilometers

To formulate this number, the team of scientists behind this research conducted the most elaborate sampling method ever coordinated.

This consisted of a fleet of 30 boats, 652 surface nets and two flights over the patch to gather aerial imagery of the debris.

Sampling at different locations within the same time period allowed a more accurate estimate of the size of the patch and the plastic drifting in it.

LOCATION

Due to seasonal and interannual variabilities of winds and currents, the GPGP's location and shape are constantly changing. Only floating objects that are predominantly influenced by currents and less by winds were likely to remain within the patch.

By simulating concentration levels in the North Pacific, the researchers were able to follow the location of the patch, demonstrating significant seasonal and interannual variations. On average the patch orbits around 32°N and 145°W. However, the team observed seasonal shift from west to east and substantial variations in latitude (North to South) depending on the year.

The Ocean Cleanup is currently cleaning up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch with System 03.

Learn more

Help fund our scale-up and let's make the Great Pacific Garbage Patch a thing of the past

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At the time of sampling, there were more than 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic in the patch that weigh an estimated 100,000 tonnes. These figures are much higher than previous calculations.
TOTAL MASS AND COUNT

100'000 tonnes of plastic float in the GPGP, equivalent to over 740 Boeing 777's

The mass of the plastic in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP) was estimated to be approximately 100,000 tonnes, which is 4-16 times more than previous calculations. This weight is also equivalent to more than 740 Boeing 777s.

4 to 16 times more plastic in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch than Previously Estimated

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The center of the GPGP has the highest density and the further boundaries are the least dense.

A total of 1.8 trillion plastic pieces were estimated to be floating in the patch - a plastic count that is equivalent to 250 pieces of debris for every human in the world.

Using a similar approach as they did when figuring the mass, the team chose to employ conservative estimations of the plastic count. While 1.8 trillion is a mid-range value for the total count, their calculations estimated that it may be range from 1.1 to up to 3.6 trillion pieces.

Concentration

Using data from multiple reconnaissance missions, a mass concentration model was produced to visualize the plastic distribution in the patch.

The mass concentration model, pictured below, shows how the concentration levels gradually decrease by orders of magnitude towards the outside boundaries of the GPGP. The center concentration levels contain the highest density, reaching 100s of kg/km² while decreasing down to 10 kg/km² in the outermost region.

These results prove that plastic pollution at sea, while densely distributed within the patch, is scattered and does not form a solid mass, thus demystifying the trash island concept.

Vertical distribution

The Ocean Cleanup measured the vertical distribution of plastic during six expeditions between 2013 to 2015. Results from these expeditions proved that the buoyant plastic mass is distributed within the top few meters of the ocean.,

Factors such as wind speed, sea state, and plastic buoyancy will influence vertical mixing. However, buoyant plastic will eventually float back to the surface in calmer seas. Larger pieces were observed to resurface much more rapidly than smaller pieces.

Persistency

Characteristics of the debris in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, such as plastic type and age, prove that plastic has the capacity to persist in this region.

Plastic in the patch has also been measured since the 1970's and the calculations from subsequent years show that microplastic mass concentration is increasing exponentially - proving that the input of plastic in the patch is greater than the output. Unless sources are mitigated, this number will continue to rise.

The vast majority of plastics retrieved were made of rigid or hard polyethylene (PE) or polypropylene (PP), or derelict fishing gear (nets and ropes particularly). Ranging in size from small fragments to larger objects and meter-sized fishing nets.

Size classes

Plastic within the patch was categorized into four size classes:
- Microplastics (0.05 - 0.5 cm)
- Mesoplastics (0.5 - 5 cm)
- Macroplastics (5 - 50 cm)
- Megaplastics (anything above 50 cm)

92% of the total mass is made of debris larger than 5mm

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When accounting for the total mass, 92% of the debris found in the patch consists of objects larger than 0.5 cm, and three-quarters of the total mass is made of macro- and mega plastic. However, in terms of object count, 94% of the total is represented by microplastics.

Categorization types

75% to 86% of GPGP Plastics Comes from Fishing Activities

Once the plastics were collected, a team of volunteers classified the plastic into:
- Type H: Hard plastic, plastic sheet or film;
- Type N: Plastic lines, ropes, and fishing nets;
- Type P: Pre-production plastics (cylinders, spheres or disks);
- Type F: Fragments made of foamed materials

These plastic types were then screened for clues on age and origin. This was performed by examining each object for dates, languages, trademarks, symbols or 'made in' statements.

Why large debris matter

Because the plastics have been shown to persist in this region, they will likely break down into smaller plastics while floating in the GPGP.

This deterioration into microplastics is usually the result of sun exposure, waves, marine life, and temperature changes. Microplastics have been discovered floating within the water surface layers, but also in the water column or as far down as the ocean floor.

Once they become this small, microplastics are very difficult to remove and are often mistaken for food by marine animals.

Not only does plastic pollution in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch pose risks for the safety and health of marine animals, but there are health and economic implications for humans as well.

Impact on wildlife

Plastic has increasingly become a ubiquitous substance in the ocean. Due to its size and color, animals confuse the plastic for food, causing malnutrition; it poses entanglement risks and threatens their overall behavior, health, and existence.

84% of samples contained toxic chemicals

Studies have shown that about 900 species have encountered marine debris, and 92% of these interactions are with plastic. 17% of the species affected by plastic are on the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) Red List of Threatened Species.

Toxic for Sea Surface Feeders

180X more plastic than food at the surface of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch

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Floating at the surface of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP) is 180x more plastic than marine life. Animals migrating through or inhabiting this area are then likely consuming plastic in the patch. For example, sea turtles by-caught in fisheries operating within and around the patch can have up to 74% (by dry weight) of their diets composed of ocean plastics. Laysan albatross chicks from Kure Atoll and Oahu Island have around 45% of their wet mass composed of plastics from surface waters of the GPGP.

Since 84% of this plastic was found to have at least one Persistent Bio-accumulative Toxic Persistent Bio-accumulative Toxic (PBT) chemical, animals consuming this debris are therefore ingesting the chemicals attached to the plastic.
Entanglement of Marine Life
Fishing nets account for 46% of the mass in the GPGP and they can be dangerous for animals who swim or collide into them and cannot extract themselves from the net. Interaction with these discarded nets, also known as ghost nets , often results in the death of the marine life involved.

Impact on Humans and Society

Once plastic enters the marine food web, there is a possibility that it will contaminate the human food chain as well. Efforts to clean and eradicate ocean plastic have also caused significant financial burdens.

Plastic pollution costs 13B dollars per year.

Affects the Human Foodchain

Through a process called bioaccumulation, chemicals in plastics will enter the body of the animal feeding on the plastic, and as the feeder becomes prey, the chemicals will pass to the predator - making their way up the food web that includes humans. These chemicals that affected the plastic feeders could then be present within the human as well.

Affects the Economy

According to a study conducted in collaboration with Deloitte, yearly economic costs due to marine plastic are estimated to be between $6-19bn USD. The costs stem from its impact on tourism, fisheries and aquaculture, and (governmental) cleanups. These costs do not include the impact on human health and the marine ecosystem (due to insufficient research available). This means that intercepting plastic in rivers is much more cost-effective than dealing with the consequences downstream. Learn more in our interactive map.

Resulting from several research missions, traveling across and above the GPGP, The Ocean Cleanup team compiled an unprecedented amount of data to better understand the plastic that persists in this region.

Boyan Slat - The New Picture of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (2018)

Research Expeditions

"To accurately quantify a problem of the size, we had to do research at a scale that had never been done before" - Boyan Slat

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Scientists have been studying this area since the 1970's - usually by means of dragging a small sampling net through the debris. This method showed a bias towards smaller objects and did not provide much insight into the larger pieces, and, thus, the entire scope of the GPGP.

Over the course of three years, researchers at The Ocean Cleanup went on several data collection missions. This included the Multi-Level-Trawl expedition, where they analyzed the depth at which buoyant plastic debris may be vertically distributed; the Mega Expedition using vessels to cross the patch with many trawls at once; and the Aerial Expedition which involved the use of a plane flying at low altitude to observe the debris from above.

2015 - Multi-Level-Trawl Expedition

Realizing that previous methods of analyzing the plastic in the patch needed improvement, The Ocean Cleanup designed a new research tool, called the multi-level-trawl, which allowed measurements of 11 water layers simultaneously going as far down as 5 meters below surface level. This trawl was then used in the Vertical Distribution Research.

The multi-level-trawl allowed the team to study further down into the water and understand to which depths buoyant plastic may be distributed. Through these studies, it was observed that buoyant plastic floats primarily in the first few meters of the water.

2015 - Mega Expedition

In 2015, 30 vessels and 652 surface nets, in parallel, crossed the GPGP as part of the Mega Expedition.
Numerous vessel owners offered the use of their ships for the mission. Of those ships, many carried behind them a Manta-trawl; including one mothership, the 171ft long Ocean Starr, which was able to carry two 6-meter-wide trawls and a survey balloon.

The fleet returned with over 1.2 million plastic samples that rendered an unprecedented amount of plastic measurements from the three months of study. Scientists present on the expedition noted that there was an alarming amount of plastic floating in the patch, and their preliminary findings indicated that there were more large objects than originally expected.

2016 - Aerial Expedition

After the Mega Expedition, the team wanted to learn more about these large plastic pieces that were difficult to come by. Megaplastics are more scattered than the smaller plastics, and, to study this important aspect of the patch, the team needed to cover an even larger area.

Using a C-130 Hercules aircraft, The Ocean Cleanup surveyed 311 km² with advanced sensors and an RGB camera (CS-4800i) that captured one photo every second of flight time. They took two flights and came back with over 7,000 single frame mosaics from the mission.

Ocean Research Laboratory

Once the ocean plastic was brought back to the Netherlands, it then needed to be counted, classified and analyzed.

Counting and Classifying

The first step in analyzing the plastic was to quantify it - to turn this physical matter into data.

Every piece of plastic that was recovered was cleaned, counted and classified by size and type. In total, 1.2 million plastic samples were counted, one by one, and were used to further study the physical properties and toxicity of the plastic that floats in the GPGP.

The Research team takes on the monumental task of counting and classifying the Mega Expedition samples.

Understanding Physical Properties

Not only is the size and count of the plastic in the GPGP important to calculate, but the way in which the plastic interacts in the water helps the team learn more about the buoyancy and depths of the plastic.

To test this, various experiments were performed on the plastic in environments that were intended to replicate oceanic conditions and particularly salinity. Laboratory tests were conducted to measure the vertical speed of the plastic as it resurfaces.

More than 4000 rising speed tests to understand how plastic particles behave in the water.

Understanding Toxicity

It is commonly known that harmful PBT (Persistent Bio-accumulative Toxic) chemicals are found in ocean plastics, so researchers at The Ocean Cleanup tested plastic samples from the expeditions for their chemical levels. Their results helped them to realize what chemicals are present in the patch and what that means for animals feeding there.

Plastics ranging from various type and size were analyzed by placing them in mixtures that would allow the various chemicals to be identified. A process known as Chromatography. They found through various tests that 84% of the plastics in the GPGP contain at least one type of PBT chemical.

Ocean Plastic Data Science

Numerous computational and mathematical processes and methods were used throughout the study of the GPGP, allowing the team to visualize and characterize many features of the patch and the plastic within it.

Turning Ocean Plastic into Data

When the manta trawls samples were captured and then brought on the vessel, several criteria were noted in the datasheets, including the date, duration, and final coordinates of each tow.

With this information, the team was able to identify the exact location where the plastic was retrieved. The location and duration of all tows were confirmed during a post-processing phase by inspecting all the recorded datasheets against GPS trackers that were installed on all participating vessels. The total distance of tows, for example, combined with the net's characteristics allowed the researchers to estimate the total surveyed surface.

Process Aerial Expedition Data

Aboard the C-130 Hercules aircraft used for the Aerial Expedition were three types of sensors: Lidar (an advanced active sensor that is similar to that used on Google's autonomous cars), SWIR imager (an infrared camera to detect ocean plastic) and an RGB camera.

There were 3 sensor technicians, 7 navigation personnel and 10 researchers who helped track the plastic from above and monitor the equipment on board.

The data from this expedition were then analyzed and processed resulting in multispectral and geo-referenced imagery that was used to screen the surface area for plastic by trained observers and a machine-learning algorithm, providing spatial distribution of larger debris (>0.5m).

A Key to Convert Pixels into Kilograms

The mass of the plastic debris in the GPGP was calculated using imagery from the Aerial Expedition. By comparing the top view surface against dry mass of multiple objects collected during the first expedition at sea, including ghost nets, the team was able to make these estimations.

Merge all the Data into Comprehensive Computer Models

The data and imagery gathered from these objectives were eventually used by our team of computational modelers to build various models and computer-generated graphics. These served as a visual representation of the studies and tests that had been performed during the expeditions.

Research of this nature is crucial when understanding the many facets of the GPGP. These models have helped the engineers at The Ocean Cleanup to further improve the design of the cleanup system, which was deployed mid-2018.

We also use modeling to identify the pathways that bring plastic to the gyres. In 2022 our researchers published a new study based on over 6000 plastic objects (over 5 cm in size) captured in the GPGP by our System 001/B cleaning system in 2019. We then compared our field observations with our 'virtual particle' modeling results, allowing us to see the most statistically probable sources of GPGP plastic.

This indicated that over 75% of plastics in the GPGP - not only the 46% made up of fishing nets, as we discovered in 2018 - are attributable to offshore fishing activities. More research will be required in order to discover if this also applies to the other garbage patches around the world.

Learn more

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The Great Pacific Garbage Patch * The Ocean Cleanup

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The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is the largest accumulation of ocean plastic in the world and is located between Hawaii and California. Scientists of The Ocean Cleanup Foundation have conducted the most extensive analysis ever of this area.

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By Aayaan

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10 Causes of world hunger | Concern Worldwide U.S.

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Food insecurity and hunger cause many children to become (if not worse) due to malnutrition. As part of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals, Concern is working to eliminate hunger and malnutrition by 2050. This would mean nearly 3 million lives changed for the better.

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Refuges are trying to get in to a freedom land

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Refuges are trying to get in to a freedom land

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Croatia border clashes as country says it cannot take more refugees

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EU member state says it is struggling to cope after 6,500 people enter in one day but will care for those already inside

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Republished from the pages of National Geographic magazine

When the fiercest hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic is bearing down on you, a salvaged armchair under a wood-and-tin awning might seem a poor choice of shelter. But that's where Don E. ("I'd rather keep my last name out of it") was parked when Wilma hit South Florida at 6:30 a.m. last October 24. For Don and a buddy, it was the start of the workday at Jimbo's Place, a ramshackle beer and bait shop down by the water on Miami's Virginia Key. "Once we got out here, it was kind of too late to do anything but ride it out," Don says with a small laugh.

Jimbo's looks like nothing so much as an abandoned shack. But whether through good luck or unexpectedly sound construction, it survived Wilma's fury. Mercifully, the winds had ebbed from 185 miles per hour (297.7 kilometers per hour) at sea to 120 miles per hour (193.1 kilometers per hour) by the time the storm hit, but Wilma still left almost all of South Florida without power. For the next two weeks a generator and donated bags of ice kept Jimbo's open-the only establishment on the key where visitors could be assured of a cold beer and a friendly welcome.

Wilma was a record breaker in a season of unsettling records. Katrina, at the end of August, killed more than a thousand people and left much of New Orleans and the neighboring coast in ruins. The damage exceeded a hundred billion dollars-the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history-and the toll in fractured lives is incalculable. Rita, in September, rivaled Wilma in intensity and ravaged the Gulf Coast through western Louisiana and East Texas.

These three monster storms were part of an unmatched run of Atlantic hurricanes-15 in all. With a total of 27 named tropical storms, 2005 was the first year meteorologists exhausted their preseason list of 21 Atlantic cyclone names and had to dip into the Greek alphabet for the latecomers.

Days after Wilma, one visitor to Jimbo's was already worrying about what future hurricane seasons might bring. Sharan Majumdar, 34, is a hurricane researcher at the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, just across the highway from Jimbo's. He is one of a cadre of scientists trying to understand nature's most powerful storms and more reliably predict their surges, ebbs, and lurching paths from birth to landfall.

Swatting at sand flies on a warm November night, Majumdar says he can't really blame his fellow patrons at Jimbo's for deciding to stay put during Wilma. Forecasts today can get hurricane tracks wrong by hundreds of miles and wind speeds by tens of miles per hour (16.1 kilometers per hour). As a result, Majumdar says, "people often return after an evacuation to find nothing really happened." The solution, he says, is to improve forecasting through better science. "That's the only way to get people to trust the warnings."

The stakes have never been higher. Population is burgeoning along vulnerable coasts in the U.S., Asia, and the Caribbean. In the southeastern U.S., for example, coastal populations grew more than 50 percent from 1980 to 2003. The North Atlantic hurricane nursery, responding to a natural climate cycle, is experiencing a baby boom that isn't expected to end for a decade or more. And behind it all lurks the grim possibility that global warming is making these storms stronger.

Like all weather, hurricanes are fueled by heat-the heat of sun-drenched tropical seas, which powers the storms by sending warm, moist air rushing toward the frigid upper atmosphere like smoke up a chimney. As surrounding air is sucked in at the base of the storm, Earth's rotation gives it a twist, creating a whorl of rain bands. These whiptails of thunderstorm activity are strongest where they converge in a ring of rising, spinning air, the eyewall, which encloses the cloud-free eye.

Hurricanes (called typhoons in the western Pacific and tropical cyclones in the Indian Ocean) can propel themselves to an altitude of 50,000 feet (15,240 meters) or more, where the rising air finally vents itself in spiraling exhaust jets of cirrus clouds. The largest ever, the 1979 Pacific typhoon Tip, sent gale-force winds across more than 650 miles (965.6 kilometers). Even an average hurricane packs some 1.5 trillion watts of power in its winds-equivalent to about half the world's entire electrical generating capacity.

Starting this great weather engine requires surface waters of 80 degrees or more, moist air, and little wind shear-a difference in wind speed at the surface and aloft that can tear apart a developing hurricane. But those ingredients often produce nothing more than a tropical disturbance-an unremarkable cluster of thunderstorms. "Disturbances look very similar day to day," says David Nolan of the Rosenstiel School, "and then all of a sudden you get a big burst of convection, then within six hours it becomes a depression, then it becomes a hurricane, then it's flooding my apartment." Katrina soaked Nolan's 14th-floor Miami Beach home as the storm crossed Florida on its fateful course to New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. "It would be really nice to say what you need to make a hurricane," he adds. "And we really can't do that yet."

One thing was clear in 2005: Conditions were ideal for making hurricanes. From June through November-the official Atlantic hurricane season-bulletins and warnings streamed from the National Hurricane Center in Miami. But the most telling moment of the season came on November 29, one day before its official end, when NHC director Max Mayfield and other officials gave a summary report. Even as the officials recited a sobering roll call of power and destruction, the NHC duty forecaster was charting tropical storm Epsilon, just then getting ready to spin itself into yet another hurricane.

Yet 2005 was just a continuation of the upward trend that began in 1995. Because of a tropical climate shift that brought warmer waters and reduced wind shear, the Atlantic has spawned unusual numbers of hurricanes for nine of the past eleven seasons. "We're 11 years into the cycle of high activity and landfall," NOAA meteorologist Gerry Bell says, "but I can't tell you if it will last another ten years, or thirty."

Weather satellites make it easy for meteorologists to keep tabs on hurricanes. But ordinary satellite images show only the cloud tops. Spaceborne infrared sensors can reveal more detail, charting the size and shape of the warm eye, and satellite radar and microwave sensors can map the rain. Hurricane hunter aircraft actually fly right into Atlantic hurricanes. But they only probe conditions at altitudes of several thousand feet, above the worst turbulence, Jack Beven of the NHC says-"not at the surface, where they really matter to people."

Last year, though, scientists flew a robotic aircraft straight into the maelstrom when tropical storm Ophelia was parked off the mid-Atlantic coast. The craft, called Aerosonde, swooped and circled for ten hours, as low as 1,200 feet (365.8 meters), monitoring winds and the flow of heat and moisture from the ocean into the storm.

That foray was a test, but forecasters routinely probe the heart of storms with shorter lived devices called dropsondes. Released from highflying aircraft into hurricanes and the surrounding winds, these instrument-packed tubes descend by parachute. "They take about 15 minutes from 40,000 feet (12,192 meters) to splash," Majumdar says. Along the way, they measure temperature, pressure, humidity, and wind every half second, transmitting it all to the airplane before they hit the water.

By cranking dropsonde data into computer models that can simulate a storm and how it is likely to evolve, researchers have sharpened their forecasts of storm tracks. Three-day forecasts of Atlantic storm positions were off by an average of 440 miles (708.1 kilometers) in the 1970s; by 2005 the average error had dropped to 173 miles (278.4 kilometers). But one-day forecasts were still wide of the mark by an average of 70 miles (112.7 kilometers)-more than enough to keep coastal dwellers second-guessing the experts. The data and models still can't capture storms in enough detail to forecast all of their feints and swerves.

Storm intensity is proving even harder to forecast. Three-day wind-speed forecasts, off by an average of 23 miles per hour (37 kilometers per hour) in the early 1990s, had improved only marginally by 2005. Hurricanes regularly surprise observers with their mood shifts. In a matter of hours, a Category 5 storm (winds over 155 miles per hour [249.4 kilometers per hour]) can fade to a Category 3 (111-130 miles per hour [178.6-209.2 kilometers per hour]), or a mere tropical storm can explode into a killer. "Intensity changes are the things that really hurt people," says NOAA's Bell.

The state of the ocean below a storm explains some intensity shifts. In 1995, tropical storm Opal was inching toward Category 1 status-an entry-level hurricane-as it made its way through the western Gulf of Mexico. Then, in just 14 hours, it surged to Category 4. Satellite readings of the warm sea surface showed nothing unusual. But Nick Shay of the Rosenstiel School and his colleagues discovered that the warm layer wasn't limited to the top few yards of the ocean, as it usually is in the Gulf. Cold water at greater depths acts as a brake on hurricane intensity when the winds churn it to the surface. But Opal had strayed across a pool of warm water extending hundreds of feet down. No matter how hard the wind blew, it stirred up more hurricane fuel, causing the storm to intensify.

The tropical ocean is littered with these deep warm pockets, and their importance was underscored last year by both Katrina and Rita, which shot up to Category 5 when they passed over a deep band of warm Gulf water called the Loop Current. Satellites can detect subsurface warmth by looking for subtle bulges in the sea surface, Shay says. "It's not really rocket science, but here's something that works and improves intensity forecasts by 5 to 15 percent."

Waves, on the other hand, can blunt a storm. Whipped up by a hurricane, they can reach heights of more than a hundred feet (30.5 meters), exerting a drag on the winds that created them. "Heat adds fuel, but waves slow the winds down-they're fighting each other," says Shuyi Chen of the Rosenstiel School, who is collaborating on a powerful new computer model, called the Hurricane Weather and Research Forecasting model, that will simulate the fine details of the interplay between atmosphere, waves, and ocean. "You can get a forecast one to two categories wrong if you don't get the waves right."

Forecasters also need to understand a hurricane's internal workings. Katrina, for example, had grown into a certifiable monster by the morning of Sunday, August 28. Sucking energy from the Loop Current, the storm had screamed from the low end of Category 3 to a peak of 175 miles per hour (281.6 kilometers per hour), well into Category 5, in just 12 hours. As Katrina barreled toward land, the NHC issued an apocalyptic warning: "POTENTIALLY CATASTROPHIC HURRICANE KATRINA MENACING THE NORTHERN GULF COAST."

And then, swiftly and remarkably, the storm took a breather. In satellite images late Sunday, hours before landfall, a huge bite appeared in the southern side of the eyewall. Scientists probing the storm with aircraft and radar in a project called RAINEX worked out what had happened. Katrina's ferocious rain bands had converged toward the heart of the storm, cutting off the eyewall's moisture supply. The old eyewall broke up and a new one formed farther out-an inertial brake that slowed the storm just as a skater's arms slow her spin when she thrusts them outward.

If Katrina had been moving just a little faster, it could have hit land as a Category 5 horror. Instead, thanks to the timing of its eyewall replacement, it sideswiped New Orleans as a milder-but still devastating-Category 3.

For a hurricane, landfall is a death sentence. Once its watery fuel supply has been cut off, the storm inevitably weakens. But that is scant solace to those caught up in its death throes.

From a washed-out stretch of Highway 90 along the Mississippi coast, almost four months after Katrina, the view inland took your breath away. The once lush coastline was still a litter of debris and splintered wood, houses swept from their concrete slabs, ancient spreading oaks stripped of Spanish moss and festooned with rags and tattered plastic.

Water was the primary agent of destruction here. Most hurricane casualties come not from wind but from rain, waves, and, as the scene here made harshly evident, surge-the vast mound of seawater that is pushed in front of the storm, rising 28 feet (8.5 meters) or more in the case of Katrina.

"If you really want to wallop something," says Rick Luettich, a coastal oceanographer at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, "Mississippi and Alabama are pretty close to ideal for maximum storm surge." The coastal waters are shallow, easily plowed up by inrushing winds. Local features matter too, says Luettich, who has worked on a computer program that forecasts surge height. Bays and estuaries can funnel and intensify surge, for example, while barrier islands and wetlands can buffer it.

Coastal development weakens those defenses, as a flight over an adjacent stretch of coast in Louisiana makes clear. Channels crisscross the marshlands, dredged for boat traffic. They let salt water into the back marshes, killing vegetation that holds them together. Add all the dikes and levees that hem in the Mississippi, cutting off the sediment that once replenished the marshes, and the result is staggering: More than 20 percent of Louisiana's coastal wetlands reverted to open water from the 1950s through 2000, 27 square miles (70 square kilometers) every year. The pilot holds up his chart of the tattered coast. "This here is the newest edition," he says. "But it's already out of date."

The full impact of a giant hurricane can't be measured in categories and wind speeds, in damage to homes and ecosystems, or even in lives lost. Those who live through one are never quite the same afterward. Tammy VanderZyl was a manager at Remoulade restaurant in New Orleans. She weathered Katrina in her apartment, then lived on the edge for three weeks with a group of near strangers. "You see things you never thought you would see," she recalls. "I saw whitecaps in my parking lot."

In his recent book, Divine Wind, Kerry Emanuel, a meteorologist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, intersperses the science and lore of hurricanes with paintings, poems, and literary excerpts inspired by the great storms of history. None is more poignant than the haiku VanderZyl composed after confronting Katrina:

For VanderZyl and many of her fellow New Orleanians, the answer to the final line is obvious: right back home. The city will be different now. But leave? "No way," she says. "Things would have to get way worse than this."

Just over the horizon of scientific certainty lies the disturbing possibility that they might. Kerry Emanuel is by all accounts a cautious scientist. For years he believed there was no good evidence that global warming was making hurricanes any stronger. But last year new calculations stopped him in his tracks. When he looked at the total power of tropical cyclones worldwide, he was faced with the conclusion that during the past three decades, the storms have grown almost twice as destructive.

Emanuel's results, published weeks before Katrina, were soon joined by another study, led by Peter Webster of the Georgia Institute of Technology. Webster concluded that the strongest storms-Categories 4 and 5-have become nearly twice as common over 35 years. The likely culprit, both scientists say, is global warming, which is adding hurricane-nurturing heat to the oceans.

It would be easier to find a building undamaged by Katrina in New Orleans' Ninth Ward than to locate a reputable climate scientist who doubts that human activity is warming the Earth. But the claim that hurricanes are growing stronger as a result has set off a tempest of its own. William Gray of Colorado State University, a pioneer hurricane forecaster, has called it "plain wrong." He and the NHC's Christopher Landsea say Emanuel and Webster's statistics are fuzzy and that data on past storms can't be trusted. Until weather satellites became common in the 1970s, many tropical storms at sea went unrecorded, and since then changes in sensing technology have made it difficult to compare hurricane strengths.

Emanuel agrees that the data aren't perfect. "But this is an important issue," he says, "and the only way to get a better answer would be to have a longer record of reliable data," which would make any trends stand out.

To improve the record, Landsea has been analyzing hurricanes back to the mid-1800s, trying to gauge their intensity from accounts of storm surge and wind damage. Other researchers are looking for signs of past hurricanes at the bottom of coastal lakes, where the strongest storms deposited layers of windblown beach sand, and in the wood of old trees from coastal forests. Rainwater from hurricanes is minutely lighter than regular rain, so a tree drenched by passing hurricanes preserves a subtle record of each storm in its growth rings.

While the debates go on, hurricanes will continue to strike increasingly populous coasts. That, says Landsea, is reason enough to worry. "The changes in society are as important, if not more important than global warming, or even natural cycles," he says. "When you double some vulnerable populations every 20 to 30 years, that's what's going to cause disasters. We've got a huge problem even if hurricanes don't change at all."

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Atlantic Hurricane Article, Storm Information, Hurricane Research Facts -- National Geographic

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Republished from the pages of National Geographic magazine When the fiercest hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic is bearing down on you, a salvaged armchair under a wood-and-tin awning might seem a poor choice of shelter. But that's where Don E.

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Every day too many men and women across the globe struggle to feed their children a nutritious meal. In a world where we produce enough food to feed everyone, 821 million people - one in nine - still go to bed on an empty stomach each night. Even more - one in three - suffer from some form of malnutrition.

Eradicating hunger and malnutrition is one of the great challenges of our time. Not only do the consequences of not enough - or the wrong - food cause suffering and poor health, they also slow progress in many other areas of development like education and employment.
In 2015 the global community adopted the 17 Global Goals for Sustainable Development to improve people's lives by 2030. Goal 2 - Zero Hunger - pledges to end hunger, achieve food security, improve nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture, and is the priority of the World Food Programme.

Every day, WFP and its partners work to bring us closer to a zero hunger world. With our humanitarian food assistance, we provide nutritious food to those in urgent need. Meanwhile our complementary programmes address the root causes of hunger, building the resilience of communities, so we don't need to keep saving the same lives each year.
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The world has made great progress in reducing hunger: There are 216 million fewer hungry people than in 1990-92, despite a 1.9 billion increase in the world's population. But there is still a long way to go, and no one organization can achieve Zero Hunger if it works alone. If we want to see a world free of hunger by 2030, governments, citizens, civil society organizations and the private sector must collaborate to invest, innovate and create lasting solutions.

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Every day too many men and women across the globe struggle to feed their children a nutritious meal. In a world where we produce enough food to feed everyone, 821 million people - one in nine - still go to bed on an empty stomach each night.

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How Mosquitoes Use Six Needles to Suck Your Blood  |  Deep Look

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Terrible!

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Children are the most visible victims of undernutrition. It is estimated that undernutrition-including stunting, wasting, deficiencies of vitamin A and zinc, and fetal growth restriction (when a baby does not grow to its normal weight before birth)-is a cause of 3·1 million child deaths annually or 45 percent of all child deaths in 2011 (UNICEF, World Health Organization [WHO], & The World Bank, 2018). Undernutrition magnifies the effect of every disease, including measles and malaria. The estimated proportions of deaths in which undernutrition is an underlying cause are roughly similar for diarrhea (61%), malaria (57%), pneumonia (52%), and measles (45%) (Black 2003, Bryce 2005). Undernutrition can also be caused by diseases, such as those that cause diarrhea, by reducing the body's ability to convert food into usable nutrients.

From GAIN. https://www.gainhealth.org
Stunting

Globally 150 million under-five-year olds were estimated to be stunted in 2017. (UNICEF, WHO, & The World Bank, 2018).

The global trend in stunting prevalence and numbers affected is decreasing. Between 2000 and 2017 stunting prevalence declined from 33 percent to 22 percent and numbers declined from 198 million to 150 million (UNICEF, WHO, & The World Bank, 2018).

In 2017, about half of all stunted children under five years of age lived in Asia and over one-third in Africa (UNICEF, WHO, & The World Bank, 2018).

Wasting and severe wasting

Globally, 50.5 million under-five-year olds were wasted (or low weight for height) in 2017 (UNICEF, WHO, & The World Bank, 2018).

Globally, wasting prevalence in 2017 was estimated at almost 8 percent (UNICEF, WHO, & The World Bank, 2018).

Approximately two-thirds of all wasted children under five years old lived in Asia and over one-quarter in Africa, with similar proportions for severely wasted children (UNICEF, WHO, & The World Bank, 2018).

Take a three-question hunger quiz on this section
Quite a few trace elements or micronutrients-vitamins and minerals-are important for health. Three very important micronutrient deficiencies in terms of health consequences for people in lower-middle-income countries are:
Iron

In many lower-middle-income countries, iron deficiency anemia is aggravated by worm infections, malaria and other infectious diseases such as HIV and tuberculosis.

The major health consequences include poor pregnancy outcome, impaired physical and cognitive development, increased risk of morbidity (illness) in children and reduced work productivity in adults. Anemia contributes to 20 percent of all maternal deaths (FAO, 2017).

Vitamin A

Vitamin A deficiency can cause night blindness and reduce the body's resistance to disease. In children, vitamin A deficiency can also impair growth.

An estimated 250 million preschool children are vitamin A deficient. An estimated 250,000 to 500,000 vitamin A-deficient children become blind every year, half of them dying within 12 months of losing their sight (FAO, 2017).

Iodine

Iodine deficiency is one of the main cause of impaired cognitive development in children, especially in iodine-deficient areas of Africa and Asia. About 38 million babies are born with iodine deficiency (FAO, 2017).

Iodine deficiency has a simple solution: iodized salt. Thanks to this intervention, the number of countries where iodine deficiency is a public health problem has been halved over the past decade. However, 54 countries still have a serious iodine deficiency problem. (WHO)

The world produces enough food to feed everyone. For the world as a whole, per capita caloric availability and food diversity (the variety of food groups in a diet) have increased between the 1960s and 2011 (FAO, 2017). This growth in food availability, along with improved access to food, helped reduce the percentage of chronically undernourished people in lower-middle-income countries from about 30 percent in the 1990-92 to about 13 percent two decades later (FAO, 2017). A principal problem is that many people in the world still do not have sufficient income to purchase (or land to grow) enough food or access nutritious food. This is an element of "food security". The FAO defines four dimensions of food security, all of which must be fulfilled simultaneously, for food security to exist. The four dimensions are: 1) physical availability of food, 2) economic and physical access to food, 3) food utilization, and 4) the stability of those other dimensions over time.

Poverty is the principal cause of hunger. The causes of poverty include lack of resources, unequal income distribution in the world and within specific countries, conflict and hunger itself. As of 2013, when the most recent comprehensive data on global poverty was collected, about 767 million people are living below the international poverty line of less than $1.90 per person per day (The World Bank, 2016). This was a decrease of about 1 billion people below the poverty line from 1990 (The World Bank, 2016). However, although the number of people living in extreme poverty globally has been declining, in lower-middle-income regions, such as sub-Saharan Africa, the number is actually growing (FAO, 2017).

Hunger is also a cause of poverty, and thus of hunger, in a cyclical relationship. By causing poor health, small body size, low levels of energy and reductions in mental functioning, hunger can lead to even greater poverty by reducing people's ability to work and learn, thus leading to even greater hunger. See Victoria et al. 2008.

Conflict. More than half (489 million) of the 815 million hungry people in the world live in countries affected by conflict (FAO et al., 2017). Ranging from non-state and state-based violence to one-sided violence, some of the conflicts that result in internal or international displacement have occurred in Syria, Yemen, Somalia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Myanmar, among many other countries throughout the world. In addition, most of the 19 countries listed by FAO as countries in complex, prolonged conflict are located in Africa (FAO et al., 2017).

In 2016, the average prevalence of undernourishment in countries undergoing conflict was about four percentage points greater than the prevalence in non-conflict countries (FAO et al., 2017). About 75 percent of children in the world who are stunted live in conflict areas (FAO et al., 2017).

Conflict in rural areas interferes with food and agriculture production, when transportation or market infrastructure are affected, land is seized or resources are destroyed, or the violence forces displacement from home (FAO, 2017). In addition to impacting food systems, conflict can also impact the economy, driving up food prices and making it difficult to buy necessary foods (FAO et al., 2017). In areas of severe violence, it may be difficult to deliver humanitarian assistance to address undernutrition (FAO, World Food Programme [WFP], & European Union [EU], 2018).

Source: FAO, WFP, & EU, 2018

Political instability. In countries facing political instability, the resulting decline of the economy reduces the value of the country's currency, leading to higher food prices and less nutritious food available for purchase (FAO, WFP, & EU, 2018). The loss of jobs in a declining economy also impacts people's ability to afford food, as income declines as well (FAO, WFP, & EU, 2018). Countries like the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan, Yemen and Venezuela are examples of countries in which political instability is currently affecting food security (FAO, WFP, & EU, 2018).

Food and agricultural policy. A lack of adoption of more productive technologies for agriculture in lower-middle-income countries contributes to large differences in amount of crops produced when compared with upper income countries (FAO, 2017). Within regions, the gap between potential crop yield and actual crop yield can be as large as 76 percent, as seen in Sub-Saharan Africa (FAO, 2017).

Also, past agricultural practices implemented to increase crop yield have unintended consequences in the form of land and soil degradation, and using up or polluting the available groundwater (FAO, 2017). This then affects future capacity for food production, as these resources have been permanently depleted (FAO, 2017). However, more countries are beginning to adopt "conservation agriculture," where various strategies are used to prevent the rapid depletion of scarce natural resources (FAO, 2017).

Climate change. Throughout the previous 30 years, natural disasters have become increasingly common (FAO, 2017). Unstable weather patterns can lead to drought - in 2016, El Niño was responsible for conditions of severe food insecurity for 20 million people (FAO, WFP, & EU, 2018). On the other extreme, hurricane and cyclone seasons have produced more powerful storms, causing damage to livelihoods, agricultural production and local market prices, in countries in the Caribbean and Asia (FAO, 2017). In agricultural-driven areas, especially in parts of Africa (Somalia, southeastern Ethiopia, and countries in West Africa), drought has driven economic, food production and political stability crises (FAO, WFP, & EU, 2018). For countries facing prolonged conditions or yearly disasters, undernutrition worsens, as there is little time for recovery (FAO, 2017).

The ecological impacts of climate change can affect the emergence or re-emergence of diseases on a larger scale, especially those with vectors (like mosquitoes and fleas) that thrive in warm humid environments (FAO, 2017). Disease caused by these vectors can prolong the cycle of malnutrition (FAO, 2017).

Source: FAO, WFP, & EU, 2018
Revised May 25, 2018, with the assistance of Crystal Lam, George Washington University, MPH candidate
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UNICEF, World Health Organization, & The World Bank. (2018, May 14). Levels and trends in child malnutrition. UNICEF / WHO / World Bank Group Joint Child Malnutrition Estimates Key findings of the 2018 edition. Retrieved from http://data.unicef.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/JME-2018-brochure-.pdf. Accessed May 2018.

Victora, C. G., Adair, L., Fall, C., Hallal, P. C., Martorell, R., Richter, L., ... & Maternal and Child Undernutrition Study Group. (2008). Maternal and child undernutrition: consequences for adult health and human capital. The lancet, 371(9609), 340-357. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2258311/. Accessed September 2016.

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World Hunger, Poverty Facts, Statistics 2018 - World Hunger News

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Children are the most visible victims of undernutrition. It is estimated that undernutrition-including stunting, wasting, deficiencies of vitamin A and zinc, and fetal growth restriction (when a baby does not grow to its normal weight before birth)-is a cause of 3·1 million child deaths annually or 45 percent of all child deaths in 2011 (UNICEF, World Health Organization [WHO], & The World Bank, 2018).

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An urgent warning has been issued for a bushfire heading towards Winfield in Queensland's Bundaberg Region.

Fire services are urging residents to leave immediately, as it will soon be too dangerous to drive.

"Follow your bushfire survival plan now," the warning reads. "If you do not have a plan, your safest option is to leave immediately if it is clear to do so. If you cannot leave, identify where you will seek shelter from the bushfire. If you are not in the area, do not return, as conditions are too dangerous."

There are separate warnings for Mullet Creek and Euleilah, and Deepwater, Baffle Creek, Rules Beach and Oyster Creek.

"A large and unpredictable fire is travelling in southerly direction towards the Winfield community," the warning continues.

"The fire is expected to have a significant impact on the community within the hour.

Conditions are now very dangerous and firefighters may soon be unable to prevent the fire advancing. The fire may pose a threat to all lives directly in its path. Fire crews may not be able to protect your property. You should not expect a firefighter at your door: act now."

It comes after residents were forced to shelter on a north Queensland beach after being told to flee in the middle of the night as a bushfire closed in on their community.

Police had to rouse residents of Campwin Beach and Sarina Beach, south of Mackay, from their beds overnight but it appears everyone is safe, along with their homes.

The two beachside townships are no longer at risk after joining the list of Queensland communities forced to evacuate as the state's bushfire crisis rolls on.

Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has expressed relief that no lives have been lost so far.

And she was clearly elated earlier today as she announced that firefighters had saved the town of Gracemere near Rockhampton, after 8000 people were forced to leave their homes.

"The town has been saved. (There is) relief, joy, everyone should just be so happy today," she told ABC radio while also warning the state faces five more days of dangerous fire conditions.

She said residents who fled overnight to the beach were safe, and may be allowed to return home today.

Gracemere residents are also going home, after spending the night with friends, family and in evacuation centres.

The premier also revealed that everyone was safe at Rules Beach and Deepwater, north of Bundaberg, after some residents initially refused to obey warnings and get out.

"There was not one person left there. In the end they did listen," she said, again expressing her frustrations that some had chosen to put their lives at risk by staying to defend their homes.

More than 100 fires continue to burn across the state.

Firefighters have welcomed an easing in the weather, with winds backing off. But temperatures remain high and will continue in the days ahead, meaning the crisis is far from over.

The premier said it was too soon to know how many properties might have been lost, but assessment teams would head into fire-hit communities as soon as possible.

But for now, she said the focus remained on keeping people safe with very hot and dangerous conditions to continue for the next five days. It's already been confirmed that some houses have been lost at Deepwater and Finch Hatton, west of Mackay.

It's also feared structures have been lost at Mount Larcom, on the Bruce Highway south of Rockhampton. People have not yet been allowed to return. More than 40 schools in central Queensland remained closed on Thursday.

About 1500 people fled the monster blaze in the Deepwater region that has already razed at least four homes and scorched tens of thousands of hectares of bush and farmland.

A third dangerous fire threatened Mount Larcom in the afternoon, prompting more evacuations. One resident, Rhonda Anderson, rode her horse 30km to Gladstone as a wall of smoke dwarfed the small town, AAP reports.

The Bureau of Meteorology declared a "catastrophic" fire danger - the highest possible risk rating - in some central areas, while firefighters battle to contain more than 140 blazes across the state.

"This is a very stressful situation for families. I need you to all be strong. I need you to all listen. Your family and the protection of our community is vital," Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk warned those told to leave.

"So we need to reach out to community members who are frail, who are elderly, who have a disability. Please listen to authorities, it is going to get a lot worse," she added.

Firefighters have also been fighting blazes in Baffle Creek, Rules Beach and Oyster Creek, Eungella and Dalrymple Heights, where people were ordered to evacuate before fires cut the road.

Most people made it out by road but some had to be ferried over Baffle Creek. Deputy Police Commissioner Bob Gee warned residents that the conditions were so dangerous people could die if they refused to leave.

"People will burn to death. Their normal approaches probably won't work if this situation develops the way it is predicted to develop," he said. "It is no different to a Category 5 cyclone coming through your door."

By Wednesday night temperatures had eased slightly and winds had dropped, but authorities warned the state was still in the grip of heatwave and severe fire conditions.

Fire and Emergency Services Commissioner Katarina Carroll said conditions in the Central Queensland area were still dire.

"Obviously while it might ease we still have grave concerns throughout the night so we are not through this yet."

Crews from South Australia are expected to arrive today, with more from around Australia to arrive later in the week.

"We are not out of the woods, There is a big fire risk across the state," Ms Palaszczuk said, warning the extreme heatwave would continue until Tuesday.

The worst of the conditions in central Queensland are so destructive they have been compared to those that fanned the infernos that recently devastated California.

The Bureau of Meteorology said scorching temperatures had broken records across Queensland, with the state capital Brisbane reaching 37.9 degrees Celsius.

"We will see more fires flare up very very quickly, so this is the start of it," Ms Carroll warned those evacuating.

"It is very difficult to get a sense of how long people have in the area because the winds are picking up faster than what was expected - so evolving, but very, very quickly," she added.

Member for Gladstone Glenn Butcher told the ABC that police earlier "arrested" several people refusing to leave the path of bushfires in Baffle Creek, about 120km south of Gladstone.

"You do feel for them, but at the end of the day the price of a small house or a shed compared to your life ... at the end of the day, human life is top priority."

Mr Butcher said at least 12 people were known to still be in the area, adding some residents refusing to leave the evacuation zone were parents who also had children with them.

Resident Luana Royle from the central Queensland town of Finch Hatton told the ABC that the area had been hit hard by the blaze.

"Our fires around here, you couldn't even see 500 metres in front of you this morning," she said.

"Everyone is OK, but two houses have went, which is pretty sad."

Australia is no stranger to extreme weather, experiencing flash floods, sandstorms and even extreme drought in areas that are now being inundated.

On Wednesday in New South Wales, three people were killed when Sydney was hit by severe thunderstorms and heavy rainfall.

The local Bureau of Meteorology reported more than 106 millimetres of rain in some places within a few hours.

Flights were cancelled, railway lines closed and motorists stranded on flooded roads, as a month's worth of rain fell there early Wednesday morning.
- with AAP

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Cops drag hundreds out of bed to flee fires

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An urgent warning has been issued for a bushfire heading towards Winfield in Queensland's Bundaberg Region. Fire services are urging residents to leave immediately, as it will soon be too dangerous to drive. "Follow your bushfire survival plan now," the warning reads.

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Here’s What Happens Inside You When a Mosquito Bites

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Here’s What Happens Inside You When a Mosquito Bites

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The video above shows a brown needle that looks like it's trying to bury itself among some ice-cubes. It is, in fact, the snout of a mosquito, searching for blood vessels in the flesh of a mouse.

This footage was captured by Valerie Choumet and colleagues from the Pasteur Institute in Paris, who watched through a microscope as malarial mosquitoes bit a flap of skin on an anaesthetised mouse. The resulting videos provide an unprecedented look at exactly what happens when a mosquito bites a host and drinks its blood.

For a start, look how flexible the mouthparts are! The tip can almost bend at right angles, and probes between the mouse's cells in a truly sinister way. This allows the mosquito to search a large area without having to withdraw its mouthparts and start over.

"I was genuinely amazed to see the footage," says James Logan from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, who studies mosquitoes. "I had read that the mouthparts were mobile within the skin, but actually seeing it in real time was superb. What you assume to be a rigid structure, because it has to get into the skin like a needle, is actually flexible and fully controllable. The wonders of the insect body never cease to amaze me!"

From afar, a mosquito's snout might look like a single tube, but it's actually a complicated set of tools, encased in a sheath called the labium. You can't see the labrum at all in the videos; it buckles when the insect bites, allowing the six mouthparts within to slide into the mouse's skin.

Four of these-a pair of mandibles and a pair of maxillae-are thin filaments that help to pierce the skin. You can see them flaring out to the side in the video. The maxillae end in toothed blades, which grip flesh as they plunge into the host. The mosquito can then push against these to drive the other mouthparts deeper.

The large central needle in the video is actually two parallel tubes-the hypopharynx, which sends saliva down, and the labrum, which pumps blood back up. When a mosquito finds a host, these mouthparts probe around for a blood vessel. They often take several attempts, and a couple of minutes, to find one. And unexpectedly, around half of the ones that Choumet tested failed to do so. While they could all bite, it seemed that many suck at sucking.

The video below shows what happens when a mosquito finally finds and pierces a blood vessel. On average, they drink for around 4 minutes and at higher magnifications, Choumet could actually see red blood cells rushing up their mouthparts. They suck so hard that the blood vessels start to collapse. Some of them rupture, spilling blood into the surrounding spaces. When that happens, the mosquito sometimes goes in for seconds, drinking directly from the blood pool that it had created.

When the mosquitoes were infected with the Plasmodium parasites that cause malaria, they spent more time probing around for blood vessels. It's not clear why-the parasites could be controlling the insect's nervous system or changing the activity of genes in its mouthparts. Either way, the infected mosquitoes give up much less readily in their search for blood, which presumably increases the odds that the parasites will enter a new host.

Many hours after a bite, Choumet's team found Plasmodium in the rodents' skin, huddled in areas that were also rife with the mosquito's saliva. The mosquito starts salivating as soon as it probes the mouse's skin, releasing substances that prevent blood vessels from constricting, stop blood from clotting, and prevent inflammation. Sometimes, Choumet could see the saliva as small bubbles that hung around the tips of the mouthparts. And even after the mosquito stops feeding, pockets of saliva linger in the lower layers of the skin. Plasmodium parasites seem to stay in the same place-perhaps they work together with the salivary chemicals to suppress the mouse's immune system.

The team also tested "immunised" mice, which were loaded with antibodies that recognise a mosquito's saliva. "Some people, especially in Africa and Asia, are bitten several times every day, so we wanted to know if mosquitoes behaved differently when they bit animals that were immunised against their saliva," says Choumet.

She found that the antibodies reacted with the insect's saliva during a bite, forming noticeable white clumps at the tips of the probing mouthparts. This clogged up smaller blood vessels, which stopped the mosquitoes from drinking from them. But the insects got around this problem by probing around for longer, and by hitting the largest blood vessels.

Beyond the stunning videos, these discoveries are unlikely to lead to new ways of preventing or treating malaria by themselves. However, they do tell us a lot more about the event that kicks off every single malaria case-a mosquito bite. It's a resource that other researchers will undoubtedly use. "I have submitted a grant application to investigate aspects of the interactions between mosquitoes, hosts and parasites," says Logan. "The techniques and discoveries from this paper are very exciting to me, and will be of value to future activities of my own research group."

Hat-tip to James Logan for alerting me to the story via Twitter, and inspiring the headline!

Reference: Choumet, Attout, Chartier, Khun, Sautereau, Robbe-Vincent, Brey, Huerre & Bain. 2012. Visualizing Non Infectious and Infectious Anopheles gambiae Blood Feedings in Naive and Saliva-Immunized Mice. PLoS ONE http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0050464

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Here's What Happens Inside You When a Mosquito Bites

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The video below shows a brown needle that looks like it's trying to bury itself among some ice-cubes. It is, in fact, the snout of a mosquito, searching for blood vessels in the flesh of a mouse. This footage was captured by Valerie Choumet and colleagues from the Pasteur Institute in Paris.

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Horrible world Issues

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Bringing the hope of Christ to the academy We’re a community of professors, for professors The world desperately needs your God-given calling. In Faculty Commons, we understand the immense challenges you face as you seek to thrive in today’s academy. We’re here to help you find the encouragement, resources, and community that you need. Come […]

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Rare Video: Japan Tsunami | National Geographic

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pollution, the addition of any substance ( solid, liquid, or gas) or any form of energy (such as heat, sound, or radioactivity) to the environment at a rate faster than it can be dispersed, diluted, decomposed, recycled, or stored in some harmless form. The major kinds of pollution, usually classified by environment, are air pollution, water pollution, and land pollution. Modern society is also concerned about specific types of pollutants, such as noise pollution, light pollution, and plastic pollution. Pollution of all kinds can have negative effects on the environment and wildlife and often impacts human health and well-being.

History of pollution

Although environmental pollution can be caused by natural events such as forest fires and active volcanoes, use of the word pollution generally implies that the contaminants have an anthropogenic source-that is, a source created by human activities. Pollution has accompanied humankind ever since groups of people first congregated and remained for a long time in any one place. Indeed, ancient human settlements are frequently recognized by their wastes- shell mounds and rubble heaps, for instance. Pollution was not a serious problem as long as there was enough space available for each individual or group. However, with the establishment of permanent settlements by great numbers of people, pollution became a problem, and it has remained one ever since.

Cities of ancient times were often noxious places, fouled by human wastes and debris. Beginning about 1000 ce, the use of coal for fuel caused considerable air pollution, and the conversion of coal to coke for iron smelting beginning in the 17th century exacerbated the problem. In Europe, from the Middle Ages well into the early modern era, unsanitary urban conditions favoured the outbreak of population-decimating epidemics of disease, from plague to cholera and typhoid fever. Through the 19th century, water and air pollution and the accumulation of solid wastes were largely problems of congested urban areas. But, with the rapid spread of industrialization and the growth of the human population to unprecedented levels, pollution became a universal problem.

By the middle of the 20th century, an awareness of the need to protect air, water, and land environments from pollution had developed among the general public. In particular, the publication in 1962 of Rachel Carson's book Silent Spring focused attention on environmental damage caused by improper use of pesticides such as DDT and other persistent chemicals that accumulate in the food chain and disrupt the natural balance of ecosystems on a wide scale. In response, major pieces of environmental legislation, such as the Clean Air Act (1970) and the Clean Water Act (1972; United States), were passed in many countries to control and mitigate environmental pollution.

Giving voice to the growing conviction of most of the scientific community about the reality of anthropogenic global warming, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was formed in 1988 by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) to help address greenhouse gas emissions. An IPCC special report produced in 2018 noted that human beings and human activities have been responsible for a worldwide average temperature increase between 0.8 and 1.2 °C (1.4 and 2.2 °F) since preindustrial times, and most of the warming over the second half of the 20th century could be attributed to human activities, particularly the burning of fossil fuels.

Pollution control

The presence of environmental pollution raises the issue of pollution control. Great efforts are made to limit the release of harmful substances into the environment through air pollution control, wastewater treatment, solid-waste management, hazardous-waste management, and recycling. Unfortunately, attempts at pollution control are often surpassed by the scale of the problem, especially in less-developed countries. Noxious levels of air pollution are common in many large cities, where particulates and gases from transportation, heating, and manufacturing accumulate and linger. The problem of plastic pollution on land and in the oceans has only grown as the use of single-use plastics has burgeoned worldwide. In addition, greenhouse gas emissions, such as methane and carbon dioxide, continue to drive global warming and pose a great threat to biodiversity and public health.
Jerry A. Nathanson

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Pollution | Definition, History, Types, & Facts

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Pollution, addition of any substance or form of energy to the environment at a rate faster than it can be dispersed or stored in a harmless form. The major kinds of pollution are usually classified by environment and include air, water, and land pollution. Learn more about the history of pollution.

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All the latest breaking news on Car crash. Browse The Independent's complete collection of articles and commentary on Car crash.

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Queensland bushfires: fast-moving fire claims home as six towns urged to evacuate

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Issues!

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More than 3 billion people live on less than $2.50 a day and an estimated 1.3 billion live in extreme poverty, making do with $1.25 or less daily.

Can you imagine what it's like to not have enough food to eat and go to bed hungry at night?

Poverty is still a big problem in the world today, as you can see from the numbers. This is in spite of the progress that you see around you. The good news is that in 2010, only 18% of the world's population was living way below the poverty line as compared to 36% in 1990. It's a small victory, but the progress is slow.

The World Bank aims to reduce global poverty to 9% by 2020 and to 3% by 2030. They plan to do this by focusing more on promoting income growth for the bottom 40% of the population and boosting shared prosperity. It's a herculean task.

How is poverty measured?

The problem with poverty is that the causes are extremely complicated with different factors contributing to the problem. Ending it requires more than just economic growth. "Developed" countries with strong economies still have a significant number of people who are struggling to survive.

How do we even measure poverty? The state of poverty is not the same for everybody. A person may be earning $3 a day but their financial capability still needs to be compared to the rest of the population. So, a poor person in the US has a different poverty level than a poor person in Sub-Saharan Africa.

More: Child Labour in Sweatshops

Quick Facts on Global Poverty

According to UNICEF, around 22,000 children die each day due to poverty. Hunger, lack of sanitation and access to clean water and lack of resources for proper health care are the main reasons.

Back in 2011, 165 million children were stunted due to malnutrition.

Around 1 billion people welcomed the 21 st century not knowing how to read and write.

Infectious diseases continue to cause the deaths of the poor people around the world. Diarrhea causes the death of 1.8 million children each year.

More: Facts about Child Slavery

Although poverty has been declining for the last 3 decades, the poor people in Sub-Saharan Africa continued to increase between 1981 and 2010. It went up from 205 million to 414 million.

Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for 1/3 of the world's poorest people, another 1/3 comes from India and then China, contributing 13% to the global poverty statistics.

In 2010, the average income of the poor people in developing countries increased from 74 cents to 87 cents per day. But the income of the extreme poor in Sub-Saharan Africa remained flat at less than half of $1.25 per day.

Around 1.1 billion people in developing countries don't have access to water and 2.6 billion live in poor conditions lacking basic sanitation.

1.6 billion people live without electricity.

Ending Poverty

Studies show that the more developed a country becomes, the larger the income gap grows. We can see from these numbers that a country's economic growth does not guarantee that its citizens will be lifted out of poverty. What needs to be solved is the inequality that develops.

If you can imagine, a poor person in an industrialized country will find it harder to interact within their society, than a poor person in a poor country. The disparity will be more obvious when there is a wider income gap between the rich and the poor. Due to this inequality, the instances of crime can increase when people find themselves looked down upon and disrespected. They feel the injustice of their situation even more.

More: Child Labor Working Conditions

No one wants to be poor. Sometimes you are born to it and your circumstances give you fewer options. You spend your days trying your best to survive, with no energy left to think about being creative and being concerned about the things that you and I think about daily.

What are the solutions being proposed to solve the problem of poverty around the world?

1. Bring education to the extremely poor to enable them to have better jobs.

2. Give them Health Care to improve their physical conditions and make them more competitive.

3. Use the budget allocated for War and Weapons to stop Global Hunger.

4. Governments should invest in programs and projects that will be beneficial to improving the lives of the poor - to open opportunities for them to lift themselves out of poverty. More schools, better sanitation, a cleaner environment and more income opportunities.

5. Give people living without electricity access to renewable energy.

Reducing poverty is doable. Now more than ever, we have the technology and the tools we need to end it. What we need is to increase our efforts and support current initiatives. With everyone's help and the willingness of our poor population, we might just succeed.

Learn more about the social and environmental issues we are facing today. Find out how you can contribute to the efforts to make our world a better place. Read The World Counts: Stories

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More than 3 billion people live on less than $2.50 a day and an estimated 1.3 billion live in extreme poverty, making do with $1.25 or less daily. Can you imagine what it's like to not have enough food to eat and go to bed hungry at night?

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Fake news: What exactly is it – and how can you spot it?

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Misinformation has been part of society of thousands of years but perhaps has become more prevalent since the election of Donald Trump.

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Explore National Geographic. A world leader in geography, cartography and exploration.

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Issues!

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¹ World Health Organization Media Centre Fact Sheet. Violence Against Children, February 2018.

² World Health Organization Media Centre Fact Sheet N°150. Child Maltreatment, September 2016.

³ UNODC, Global Report on Trafficking in Persons 2016 (United Nations publication, Sales No. E.16.IV.6).

⁴ endviolenceagainstchildren.org

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Child Abuse is Worldwide. Protect Vulnerable Children.

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1 World Health Organization Media Centre Fact Sheet. Violence Against Children, February 2018. 2 World Health Organization Media Centre Fact Sheet N°150. Child Maltreatment, September 2016. 3 UNODC, Global Report on Trafficking in Persons 2016 (United Nations publication, Sales No. E.16.IV.6). 4 endviolenceagainstchildren.org

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"If we don't have it, we don't need it," pronounces Daniel Fagre as we throw on our backpacks. We're armed with crampons, ice axes, rope, GPS receivers, and bear spray to ward off grizzlies, and we're trudging toward Sperry Glacier in Glacier National Park, Montana. I fall in step with Fagre and two other research scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey Global Change Research Program. They're doing what they've been doing for more than a decade: measuring how the park's storied glaciers are melting.

So far, the results have been positively chilling. When President Taft created Glacier National Park in 1910, it was home to an estimated 150 glaciers. Since then the number has decreased to fewer than 30, and most of those remaining have shrunk in area by two-thirds. Fagre predicts that within 30 years most if not all of the park's namesake glaciers will disappear.

"Things that normally happen in geologic time are happening during the span of a human lifetime," says Fagre. "It's like watching the Statue of Liberty melt."

Scientists who assess the planet's health see indisputable evidence that Earth has been getting warmer, in some cases rapidly. Most believe that human activity, in particular the burning of fossil fuels and the resulting buildup of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, have influenced this warming trend. In the past decade scientists have documented record-high average annual surface temperatures and have been observing other signs of change all over the planet: in the distribution of ice, and in the salinity, levels, and temperatures of the oceans.

"This glacier used to be closer," Fagre declares as we crest a steep section, his glasses fogged from exertion. He's only half joking. A trailside sign notes that since 1901, Sperry Glacier has shrunk from more than 800 acres (320 hectares) to 300 acres (120 hectares). "That's out of date," Fagre says, stopping to catch his breath. "It's now less than 250 acres (100 hectares)."

Everywhere on Earth ice is changing. The famed snows of Kilimanjaro have melted more than 80 percent since 1912. Glaciers in the Garhwal Himalaya in India are retreating so fast that researchers believe that most central and eastern Himalayan glaciers could virtually disappear by 2035. Arctic sea ice has thinned significantly over the past half century, and its extent has declined by about 10 percent in the past 30 years. NASA's repeated laser altimeter readings show the edges of Greenland's ice sheet shrinking. Spring freshwater ice breakup in the Northern Hemisphere now occurs nine days earlier than it did 150 years ago, and autumn freeze-up ten days later. Thawing permafrost has caused the ground to subside more than 15 feet (4.6 meters) in parts of Alaska. From the Arctic to Peru, from Switzerland to the equatorial glaciers of Man Jaya in Indonesia, massive ice fields, monstrous glaciers, and sea ice are disappearing, fast.

When temperatures rise and ice melts, more water flows to the seas from glaciers and ice caps, and ocean water warms and expands in volume. This combination of effects has played the major role in raising average global sea level between four and eight inches (10 and 20 centimeters) in the past hundred years, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Scientists point out that sea levels have risen and fallen substantially over Earth's 4.6-billion-year history. But the recent rate of global sea level rise has departed from the average rate of the past two to three thousand years and is rising more rapidly-about one-tenth of an inch a year. A continuation or acceleration of that trend has the potential to cause striking changes in the world's coastlines.

Driving around Louisiana's Gulf Coast, Windell Curole can see the future, and it looks pretty wet. In southern Louisiana coasts are literally sinking by about three feet (a meter) a century, a process called subsidence. A sinking coastline and a rising ocean combine to yield powerful effects. It's like taking the global sea-level-rise problem and moving it along at fast-forward.

The seventh-generation Cajun and manager of the South Lafourche Levee District navigates his truck down an unpaved mound of dirt that separates civilization from inundation, dry land from a swampy horizon. With his French-tinged lilt, Curole points to places where these bayous, swamps, and fishing villages portend a warmer world: his high school girlfriend's house partly submerged, a cemetery with water lapping against the white tombs, his grandfather's former hunting camp now afloat in a stand of skeleton oak snags. "We live in a place of almost land, almost water," says the 52-year-old Curole.

Rising sea level, sinking land, eroding coasts, and temperamental storms are a fact of life for Curole. Even relatively small storm surges in the past two decades have overwhelmed the system of dikes, levees, and pump stations that he manages, upgraded in the 1990s to forestall the Gulf of Mexico's relentless creep. "I've probably ordered more evacuations than any other person in the country," Curole says.

The current trend is consequential not only in coastal Louisiana but around the world. Never before have so many humans lived so close to the coasts: More than a hundred million people worldwide live within three feet (a meter) of mean sea level. Vulnerable to sea-level rise, Tuvalu, a small country in the South Pacific, has already begun formulating evacuation plans. Megacities where human populations have concentrated near coastal plains or river deltas-Shanghai, Bangkok, Jakarta, Tokyo, and New York-are at risk. The projected economic and humanitarian impacts on low-lying, densely populated, and desperately poor countries like Bangladesh are potentially catastrophic. The scenarios are disturbing even in wealthy countries like the Netherlands, with nearly half its landmass already at or below sea level.

Rising sea level produces a cascade of effects. Bruce Douglas, a coastal researcher at Florida International University, calculates that every inch (2.5 centimeters) of sea-level rise could result in eight feet (2.4 meters) of horizontal retreat of sandy beach shorelines due to erosion. Furthermore, when salt water intrudes into freshwater aquifers, it threatens sources of drinking water and makes raising crops problematic. In the Nile Delta, where many of Egypt's crops are cultivated, widespread erosion and saltwater intrusion would be disastrous since the country contains little other arable land.

In some places marvels of human engineering worsen effects from rising seas in a warming world. The system of channels and levees along the Mississippi effectively stopped the millennia-old natural process of rebuilding the river delta with rich sediment deposits. In the 1930s oil and gas companies began to dredge shipping and exploratory canals, tearing up the marshland buffers that helped dissipate tidal surges. Energy drilling removed vast quantities of subsurface liquid, which studies suggest increased the rate at which the land is sinking. Now Louisiana is losing approximately 25 square miles (65 square kilometers) of wetlands every year, and the state is lobbying for federal money to help replace the upstream sediments that are the delta's lifeblood.

Local projects like that might not do much good in the very long run, though, depending on the course of change elsewhere on the planet. Part of Antarctica's Larsen Ice Shelf broke apart in early 2002. Although floating ice does not change sea level when it melts (any more than a glass of water will overflow when the ice cubes in it melt), scientists became concerned that the collapse could foreshadow the breakup of other ice shelves in Antarctica and allow increased glacial discharge into the sea from ice sheets on the continent. If the West Antarctic ice sheet were to break up, which scientists consider very unlikely this century, it alone contains enough ice to raise sea level by nearly 20 feet (6 meters).

Even without such a major event, the IPCC projected in its 2001 report that sea level will rise anywhere between 4 and 35 inches (10 and 89 centimeters) by the end of the century. The high end of that projection-nearly three feet (a meter)-would be "an unmitigated disaster," according to Douglas.

Down on the bayou, all of those predictions make Windell Curole shudder. "We're the guinea pigs," he says, surveying his aqueous world from the relatively lofty vantage point of a 12-foot-high (3.7-meter) earthen berm. "I don't think anybody down here looks at the sea-level-rise problem and puts their heads in the sand." That's because soon there may not be much sand left.

Rising sea level is not the only change Earth's oceans are undergoing. The ten-year-long World Ocean Circulation Experiment, launched in 1990, has helped researchers to better understand what is now called the ocean conveyor belt.

Oceans, in effect, mimic some functions of the human circulatory system. Just as arteries carry oxygenated blood from the heart to the extremities, and veins return blood to be replenished with oxygen, oceans provide life-sustaining circulation to the planet. Propelled mainly by prevailing winds and differences in water density, which changes with the temperature and salinity of the seawater, ocean currents are critical in cooling, warming, and watering the planet's terrestrial surfaces-and in transferring heat from the Equator to the Poles.

The engine running the conveyor belt is the density-driven thermohaline circulation ("thermo" for heat and "haline" for salt). Warm, salty water flows from the tropical Atlantic north toward the Pole in surface currents like the Gulf Stream. This saline water loses heat to the air as it is carried to the far reaches of the North Atlantic. The coldness and high salinity together make the water more dense, and it sinks deep into the ocean. Surface water moves in to replace it. The deep, cold water flows into the South Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans, eventually mixing again with warm water and rising back to the surface.

Changes in water temperature and salinity, depending on how drastic they are, might have considerable effects on the ocean conveyor belt. Ocean temperatures are rising in all ocean basins and at much deeper depths than previously thought, say scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Arguably, the largest oceanic change ever measured in the era of modern instruments is in the declining salinity of the subpolar seas bordering the North Atlantic.

Robert Gagosian, president and director of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, believes that oceans hold the key to potential dramatic shifts in the Earth's climate. He warns that too much change in ocean temperature and salinity could disrupt the North Atlantic thermohaline circulation enough to slow down or possibly halt the conveyor belt-causing drastic climate changes in time spans as short as a decade.

The future breakdown of the thermohaline circulation remains a disturbing, if remote, possibility. But the link between changing atmospheric chemistry and the changing oceans is indisputable, says Nicholas Bates, a principal investigator for the Bermuda Atlantic Time-series Study station, which monitors the temperature, chemical composition, and salinity of deep-ocean water in the Sargasso Sea southeast of the Bermuda Triangle.

Oceans are important sinks, or absorption centers, for carbon dioxide, and take up about a third of human-generated CO2. Data from the Bermuda monitoring programs show that CO2 levels at the ocean surface are rising at about the same rate as atmospheric CO2. But it is in the deeper levels where Bates has observed even greater change. In the waters between 820 and 1,476 feet (250 and 450 meters) deep, CO2 levels are rising at nearly twice the rate as in the surface waters. "It's not a belief system; it's an observable scientific fact," Bates says. "And it shouldn't be doing that unless something fundamental has changed in this part of the ocean."

While scientists like Bates monitor changes in the oceans, others evaluate CO2 levels in the atmosphere. In Vestmannaeyjar, Iceland, a lighthouse attendant opens a large silver suitcase that looks like something out of a James Bond movie, telescopes out an attached 15-foot (4.5-meter) rod, and flips a switch, activating a computer that controls several motors, valves, and stopcocks. Two two-and-a-half liter (about 26 quarts) flasks in the suitcase fill with ambient air. In North Africa, an Algerian monk at Assekrem does the same. Around the world, collectors like these are monitoring the cocoon of gases that compose our atmosphere and permit life as we know it to persist.

When the weekly collection is done, all the flasks are sent to Boulder, Colorado. There, Pieter Tans, a Dutch-born atmospheric scientist with NOAA's Climate Monitoring and Diagnostics Laboratory, oversees a slew of sensitive instruments that test the air in the flasks for its chemical composition. In this way Tans helps assess the state of the world's atmosphere.

By all accounts it has changed significantly in the past 150 years.

Walking through the various labs filled with cylinders of standardized gas mixtures, absolute manometers, and gas chromatographs, Tans offers up a short history of atmospheric monitoring. In the late 1950s a researcher named Charles Keeling began measuring CO2 in the atmosphere above Hawaii's 13,679-foot (4,169-meter) Mauna Loa. The first thing that caught Keeling's eye was how CO2 level rose and fell seasonally. That made sense since, during spring and summer, plants take in CO2 during photosynthesis and produce oxygen in the atmosphere. In the fall and winter, when plants decay, they release greater quantities of CO2 through respiration and decay. Keeling's vacillating seasonal curve became famous as a visual representation of the Earth "breathing."

Something else about the way the Earth was breathing attracted Keeling's attention. He watched as CO2 level not only fluctuated seasonally, but also rose year after year. Carbon dioxide level has climbed from about 315 parts per million (ppm) from Keeling's first readings in 1958 to more than 375 ppm today. A primary source for this rise is indisputable: humans' prodigious burning of carbon-laden fossil fuels for their factories, homes, and cars.

Tans shows me a graph depicting levels of three key greenhouse gases-CO2, methane, and nitrous oxide-from the year 1000 to the present. The three gases together help keep Earth, which would otherwise be an inhospitably cold orbiting rock, temperate by orchestrating an intricate dance between the radiation of heat from Earth back to space (cooling the planet) and the absorption of radiation in the atmosphere (trapping it near the surface and thus warming the planet).

Tans and most other scientists believe that greenhouse gases are at the root of our changing climate. "These gases are a climate-change driver," says Tans, poking his graph definitively with his index finger. The three lines on the graph follow almost identical patterns: basically flat until the mid-1800s, then all three move upward in a trend that turns even more sharply upward after 1950. "This is what we did," says Tans, pointing to the parallel spikes. "We have very significantly changed the atmospheric concentration of these gases. We know their radiative properties," he says. "It is inconceivable to me that the increase would not have a significant effect on climate."

Exactly how large that effect might be on the planet's health and respiratory system will continue to be a subject of great scientific and political debate-especially if the lines on the graph continue their upward trajectory.

Eugene Brower, an Inupiat Eskimo and president of the Barrow Whaling Captains' Association, doesn't need fancy parts-per-million measurements of CO2 concentrations or long-term sea-level gauges to tell him that his world is changing.

"It's happening as we speak," the 56-year-old Brower says as we drive around his home in Barrow, Alaska-the United States' northernmost city-on a late August day. In his fire chief's truck, Brower takes me to his family's traditional ice cellars, painstakingly dug into the permafrost, and points out how his stores of muktuk-whale skin and blubber recently began spoiling in the fall because melting water drips down to his food stores. Our next stop is the old Bureau of Indian Affairs school building. The once impenetrable permafrost that kept the foundation solid has bucked and heaved so much that walking through the school is almost like walking down the halls of an amusement park fun house. We head to the eroding beach and gaze out over open water. "Normally by now the ice would be coming in," Brower says, scrunching up his eyes and scanning the blue horizon.

We continue our tour. Barrow looks like a coastal community under siege. The ramshackle conglomeration of weather-beaten houses along the seaside gravel road stands protected from fall storm surges by miles-long berms of gravel and mud that block views of migrating gray whales. Yellow bulldozers and graders patrol the coast like sentries.

The Inupiat language has words that describe many kinds of ice. Piqaluyak is salt-free multiyear sea ice. Ivuniq is a pressure ridge. Sarri is the word for pack ice, tuvaqtaq is bottom-fast ice, and shore-fast ice is tuvaq. For Brower, these words are the currency of hunters who must know and follow ice patterns to track bearded seals, walruses, and bowhead whales.

There are no words, though, to describe how much, and how fast, the ice is changing. Researchers long ago predicted that the most visible impacts from a globally warmer world would occur first at high latitudes: rising air and sea temperatures, earlier snowmelt, later ice freeze-up, reductions in sea ice, thawing permafrost, more erosion, increases in storm intensity. Now all those impacts have been documented in Alaska. "The changes observed here provide an early warning system for the rest of the planet," says Amanda Lynch, an Australian researcher who is the principal investigator on a project that works with Barrow's residents to help them incorporate scientific data into management decisions for the city's threatened infrastructure.

Before leaving the Arctic, I drive to Point Barrow alone. There, at the tip of Alaska, roughshod hunting shacks dot the spit of land that marks the dividing line between the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas. Next to one shack someone has planted three eight-foot (2.4-meter) sticks of white driftwood in the sand, then crisscrossed their tops with whale baleen, a horny substance that whales of the same name use to filter life-sustaining plankton out of seawater. The baleen, curiously, looks like palm fronds.

So there, on the North Slope of Alaska, stand three makeshift palm trees. Perhaps they are no more than an elaborate Inupiat joke, but these Arctic palms seem an enigmatic metaphor for the Earth's future.

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"If we don't have it, we don't need it," pronounces Daniel Fagre as we throw on our backpacks. We're armed with crampons, ice axes, rope, GPS receivers, and bear spray to ward off grizzlies, and we're trudging toward Sperry Glacier in Glacier National Park, Montana.

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Food waste is the world's dumbest problem

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By william

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What is the problem?

Natural pandemics and new scientifically engineered pathogens could potentially kill millions or even billions of people. Future progress in synthetic biology is likely to increase the risk and severity of pandemics from engineered pathogens. These risks could be substantially reduced through regulating potentially dangerous research, improving early detection systems and developing better international emergency response plans.

Why is this problem pressing?

What is our recommendation based on?

Learn more about the problem of pandemic preparedness in our two detailed podcast with experts in the field - Howie Lempel, Dr Beth Cameron and Prof Tom Inglesby.

We think this problem is pressing because it is a focus area of The Open Philanthropy Project. Read their report on biosecurity.

The threat from engineered pathogens is also prioritised by the Global Priorities Project. Read about it in their policy brief on Unprecedented Technological Risks.

Why is it pressing?

Historically, natural pandemics have been responsible for huge numbers of deaths. For example, the 1918-20 "Spanish" flu epidemic killed 50-100 million people (3-5% of the world's population at the time and more than all the casualties of World War I).

A serious outbreak of an engineered pathogen could result in even larger numbers of deaths. Engineered pathogens could be designed to have long incubation periods, to be highly lethal and highly infectious. If released, this could cause a global catastrophe.

Engineered pathogens are likely be much more difficult to control than other large threats like nuclear weapons, because the technology to produce or distribute them will likely require fewer resources and will be harder to monitor. However, less is invested in reducing the risks from engineered pathogens than the risks from nuclear weapons.

There are promising paths to reducing the risks through regulating potentially dangerous research, improving early detection systems and developing better international emergency response plans.

What are the major arguments against it being pressing?

The US government spends around $5 billion annually on programs related to biosecurity. This suggests that the area is more crowded than other pressing problems like risks from artificial intelligence and factory farming. However, less than 10% of this spending goes to programs focused exclusively on biosecurity (most programs include other goals such as scientific research and general disaster preparedness). Even less is spent specifically on risks from future engineered pathogens.

Key judgement calls made to prioritise this problem

It is feasible that in the next few decades we will develop highly lethal, highly infectious pathogens with long incubation periods.

The risks of outbreaks can be substantially reduced through regulation and better response plans.

What can you do about this problem?

What's most needed to contribute to this problem?
Reducing the chance of outbreaks

Research to identify the largest biosecurity risks.

Improved monitoring, regulation and prevention of potentially dangerous research in synthetic biology (e.g. establishing new scientific norms and cultures of responsibility and safety).

Stricter containment in facilities conducting dangerous research.

Preventing the results of dangerous research from reaching malicious actors (e.g. preventing people from mail-ordering potentially harmful viruses).

Improving our capability to deal with outbreaks if they occur

Increasing the time available to respond to outbreaks by improving forecasting and early detection of outbreaks (for example by increasing the connections between disease surveillance systems).

Improving the tools to respond to outbreaks, for example with better and quickly available vaccines or treatments (e.g. developing broad-spectrum flu vaccines), and improved international emergency response or quarantine plans.

What skill sets and resources are most needed?

People with experience in the following areas:

Public health, especially regarding emerging diseases

Research and development in bioengineering and life sciences

Emergency response

Political advocacy

Anti-terrorism

Non-proliferation

Working within a regulatory bureaucracy.

Who is working on this problem?

According to this list of organisations collated by the Open Philanthropy Project, the main organisations are:

The US government - primarily the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health

The Skoll Global Threats Fund

The Gates Foundation.

The Open Philanthropy Project is also expecting to invest $10-15 million per year in this area.

We've compiled a list of dozens of potential PhD supervisors and relevant organisations to apply to. See also the think tanks we're aware of that work most directly on biosecurity.

What can you concretely do to help?

Work as a grantmaker at a foundation focused on these issues, such as the Open Philanthropy Project or Gates Foundation.

Work for the US government, at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health.

Work at synthetic biology labs to gain expertise in the area and to promote a culture of safety.

Work as a Science and Technology Analyst in the intelligence community and raise awareness of the problem.

Work at one of the think tanks that works on biosecurity.

If you have a public platform, for example as an academic, journalist or politician, promote and advocate for improving biosecurity.

Do a PhD in a relevant area of biology with the goal of becoming a biosecurity expert in the future.

Donate to top organisations in the field, such as the ones below, and those highlighted by the Open Philanthropy Project.

Some especially recommended organisations

We think the following are some of the best places to work within this area, due to their potential for impact and career capital. The first three have received large grants from the Open Philanthropy Project.

Further reading

Want to help ensure we have no catastrophic pandemics in the 21st century? We want to help.

We've helped dozens of people formulate their plans, and put them in touch with academic mentors. If you want to work on pandemic preparedness, apply for our free coaching service.
Apply for coaching
Or join our newsletter and get notified when we release new problem profiles.

Sources

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Why preparing the world for a pandemic may be the most important thing you can do

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Natural pandemics and new scientifically engineered pathogens could potentially kill millions or even billions of people. Future progress in synthetic biology is likely to increase the risk and severity of pandemics from engineered pathogens. These risks could be substantially reduced through regulating potentially dangerous research, improving early detection systems and developing better international emergency response plans.

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international relations and national security

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How seven years of war turned Syria's cities into 'hell on Earth' | CNN

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Satellite photos reveal how seven years of war in Syria have transformed its ancient cities into scenes of apocalyptic devastation.

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robot backflip!

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Future of A.I and robotics by Boston Dynamics...

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Sarah Murray: A playful solution to the housing crisis

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Frustrated by her lack of self-determination in the housing market, Sarah Murray created a computer game that allows home buyers to design a house and have it delivered to them in modular components that can be assembled on-site.

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Mayo Clinic Minute: Easing the itch of mosquito bites

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by Darcie

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Future of A.I and robotics by Boston Dynamics...

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Terrorism in Saudi Arabia has formerly been attributed to Islamic extremists. Their targets included foreign civilians- Westerners affiliated with its oil-based economy-as well as Saudi Arabian civilians and security forces. Anti-Western attacks have occurred in Saudi Arabia dating back to 1995. Saudi Arabia itself has been accused of funding terrorism in other countries, including Syria.

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www.wbrcouncil.org/Departments/Mosquito.

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By Davin so is the robot fight

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#DO NOT STEAL WHILE I IS GETTING VIDEO!

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OCEAN POLLUTION: This Whale Had A Message From The Deep

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by william

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chapter 5the housing problem
at one time a home was defined as a place where a family resided

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so did the definition of home. a home is now considered a place where one or more people live

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a private place to which they have legal right and where strangers may be excluded. it is the place where people keep their belongings and where they feel safe from the outside world. for housing to be considered a home

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Chapter 5The Housing Problem At one time a home was defined as a place where a family resided, but as American society changed, so did the definition of home. A home is now considered a place where one or more people live, a private place to which they have legal right and where strangers may be excluded.

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Rainfall totals raise concerns of river flooding

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Police say it's worst case of animal abuse they've seen

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A Gaston County man has been arrested on animal cruelty charges after his dog was found to be malnourished and suffering from open wounds.

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ROBOTS OF THE FUTURE! ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE 2018

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ROBOTS OF THE FUTURE! ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE 2018

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ROBOTS OF THE FUTURE! ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE 2018

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Zhong Nanshan, the president of the China Medical Association, warned in 2012 that air pollution could become China's biggest health threat. Measurements by Beijing municipal government in January 2013 showed that highest recorded level of PM2.5 (particulate matter smaller than 2.5 micrometers in size), was at nearly 1,000 μg per cubic meter.

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Geography Lesson: What is a Volcano? | Twig

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=no-WTGgJ740

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Updated November 28, 2018 16:39:15

Some of Australia's most devastating bushfires have fuelled their own fury by creating thunderstorm clouds capable of producing dry lightning, violent winds, black hail and even a fire tornado.

And now firefighters in central Queensland are bracing for potential firestorm conditions as 80 blazes rage across the state.

But what is a firestorm and why does it present such a challenge for firefighters and forecasters?

How do fires create their own weather?

Fire fuelled thunderstorm clouds are called flammagenitus, but they are commonly known by the name pyrocumulonimbus.

Pyrocumulonimbus clouds form when the intense heat from a fire causes air to rapidly rise in the smoke plume.

The rising, turbulent air draws in cooler air, which helps to cool the plume.

When the plume rises high enough, low atmospheric pressure will cause its air to cool even further and the moisture in the plume air will condense and form into cloud.

In an unstable atmosphere, pyrocumulonimbus clouds will form.

Just how dangerous can these firestorms be?

Pyrocumulonimbus clouds present a huge challenge for firefighters and forecasters by triggering dangerous and unpredictable changes in fire behaviour, as experienced during the Canberra bushfires in 2003, the Black Saturday fires in Victoria in 2009 and the Waroona-Yarloop blazes in Western Australia in 2016.

"The prediction of fire weather in terms of wind is critical and when you've got a highly variable wind environment as you do with a thunderstorm, if you have that in the fire environment, those winds become very, very difficult to predict," Bureau of Meteorology spokesman Neil Bennett said.

"The other issue that you have is if it does get to the state where a thunderstorm can form, you are then going to have lightning, [which] can then set off fires in areas where there were none before - it can be an ignition point.

"And then the other problem that we have is that the embers can be swept up and deposited a long way away, so spotting can occur a long way away from the thunderstorm and from the original fire front.

"So you've got a number of real problems if one of these systems develops. It can create major headaches for the authorities if they're trying to fight the fire."

Dry lightning - sparks, but no rain relief

Melbourne University Associate Professor Kevin Tolhurst, who specialises in fire ecology and management, said lightning had been known to spark new fires several kilometres away.

"We've certainly seen a number of instances in the past where new fires have started 20 or 30 kilometres downwind of the main fire from lightning that's been created by the pyrocumulonimbus cloud that was created by the fire itself.

"So the fire is creating this electrical storm that's igniting new fires," he said.

Mr Bennett said this phenomenon was referred to as "dry lightning" because it was rarely accompanied by rainfall.

"Typically in these sorts of environments, you have very dry air in the lower part of the atmosphere because for a fire to really take hold, you need low humidity," he said.

"So if you do get rain that forms out of these [weather systems], and it's not unheard of, it's possible that it would just evaporate before it hits the ground."

Intense, unpredictable winds as damaging as the fire itself

Pyrocumulonimbus clouds can generate intense updrafts that draw in so much air that strong winds develop, coming from all directions towards the plume.

"When you have a large bushfire burning a lot of fuel at once, the rapid rising heat draws in air around it, so when you have a very large fire with a big convection column or smoke plume, the air gets drawn in," Associate Professor Tolhurst said.

"What we saw for example on Black Saturday in Victoria in 2009, was there were over 200 areas where trees had been snapped off or pulled out of the ground because the winds were so strong.

"And for those sorts of damages to occur would require winds of around 120 or 140 kilometres per hour.

"If the winds are getting up to 120-140 kilometres per hour, you can see actual physical damage to buildings whether or not the fire even gets to them ... so roofs lifted off and windows broken."

Fire-induced winds could cause a blaze to spread faster or cause nearby fires, which may have been sparked by spotting or lightning strikes, to change direction unexpectedly as they are drawn into the main fire.

It gets worse - firenadoes and black hail

In 2003 the world's first-known fire tornado or " firenado" was observed in Australia, when it carved a path of destruction during the Canberra bushfires in which four lives were lost and almost 500 homes destroyed.

"A fire tornado is where the air is not only rising but it also starts to spin," Associate Professor Tolhurst said.

" In even relatively small fires you'll see what we call fire whirls, which are like mini tornadoes, and they will move across the ground and they may throw embers and spread the fire, and that can be quite scary if you see them but they don't last very long and they're only a few metres across.

" A fire tornado is usually hundreds of metres across and will persist for much longer.

"The Canberra fire tornado, for example, basically went up to the top of the troposphere, so it was more than 10,000 metres high and it was 200-300 metres wide ... and it travelled for more than 20 kilometres across the ground damaging trees and houses as it went."

Firestorms also have the potential to produce what is known as "black hail".

"In the convection column you've got about 40 per cent moisture, but there's also a lot of ash and soot in the smoke column as well, it's part of the reason the smoke column is so dense you can't see through it," Associate Professor Tolhurst said.

"So in the process of the water vapour condensing, as it rises further it goes from a liquid into a solid - an ice particle.

"And those ice particles can then aggregate into a hail stone and the hail stones will incorporate the soot and the ash that's in the column as well, so you can get dirty hail stones."

Topics: weather, disasters-and-accidents, fires, bushfire, perth-6000, wa, bundaberg-4670, deepwater-4674, brisbane-4000, oyster-creek-4674, rules-beach-4674, baffle-creek-4674, agnes-water-4677, gladstone-4680, rockhampton-4700, dalrymple-heights-4757, mackay-4740, qld

First posted November 28, 2018 16:13:39

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When a bushfire creates a storm, firenadoes and dry lightning are just the start of the nightmare

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Updated November 28, 2018 16:39:15 Some of Australia's most devastating bushfires have fuelled their own fury by creating thunderstorm clouds capable of producing dry lightning, violent winds, black hail and even a fire tornado. And now firefighters in central Queensland are bracing for potential firestorm conditions as 80 blazes rage across the state.

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There are literally millions of different insects and bugs in the world, and while most are not rally that dangerous to us, some can kill you. The list below of 27 most dangerous bugs in the world will try to show you which bugs you want to avoid at all cost.

1. Termites

While termites are not really dangerous to humans in a basic way, the damage they cause is huge, either to buildings and homes or crops. So they made the list.

2. Deer Tick

The deer tick is the major reason for infecting people with lyme disease, we're talking about thousands of people every year. Lyme disease starts with a small rash around the tick bite and developed into headaches and heart problems. Later on the infected body will have stiff joints and a lot of pain, however few people have died from this disease but the pain and suffering it cause is extreme, no wonder it made this list of most dangerous bugs.

3. Black Widow

Everyone knows the Black Widow spider and how dangerous it is. When the spider bites you need to get medical attention ASAP or you could actually die from the venom. However, if you receive a toxin as soon as possible, the bite will end with nothing more than mediocre pain.

4. Cockroaches

These creepy little guys that are known to be able to live through a nuclear attack ( no kidding, they can survive for months without food or water ). They can carry many harmful diseases for humans and you should be carful not to touch or let it crawl on you.

5. Army Ants

Now we're getting serious, before you laugh at us, know that army ants are really dangerous bugs. Unlike other ant types, these are predators that actively seek prey and food, they build small colonies everywhere they go and prey on insects and other small species. Fun fact - The army ants can actually consume half a million animals each day if the entire colony goes on the hunt. Talk about a dangerous bug right?

6. Yellow Jackets

You do not want to piss off this bug. While you might think it's just a little bee, know that the German Yellow Jacket found in North America is an aggressive bug that can sting you multiple times and cause a lot of pain. They will even go to mark their provokers and pursue them to attack. Watch out from this one.

7. Lice

Lice are not the most dangerous bugs in the world, but they can definitely transfer diseases if they are found on your body or head. Lice feed on the skin of your body and if you're infected you will probably have around 15 different species of lice on your head. Think about that.

8. Parasitic Worms

These little worms can cause a lot of pain. The worms are known to be part of a eukaryotic parasite that feeds on the blood of its host. Most of the time they will sit inside your stomach and cause you vomiting, nausea and other unpleasant issues.

9. The Black Spitting Thick Tail Scorpion

Just by its name you already know not to mess with it right? Not typically a bug, but most dangerous for sure. One of the most dangerous types of scorpions, usually found in South Africa in desserts and best recognise because of their thick tails that can spit venom. If you are hit with hit, it will cause extreme pain, paralysis and even death, so beware of this bug at all cost.

10. Puss Caterpillars

Don't be fooled by the lovable appearance of this bug, it may look like a cuddle kitten you want to pet so bad, but if your skin touches the spikes of the fur, a powerful venom will be released that will cause you pain, numbness and even chest pain and difficulty breathing. So watch out.

11. Human Bot Flies

These human bot flies are usually transmitted via mosquitos or ticks. When a mosquito carrying the larvae of the human bot flies with it and lands on a human skin, it will just leave it there before flying away, after a few days the larvae will grow into an infection under your skin if not treated immediately. The human bot flies usually carry with them life threatening parasites with their larvae, don't let them on you.

12. Bed bugs - The worst bugs in the world

What hasn't been said about these bugs already? Everyone knows them, and hate them. While the bites of the bed bugs won't cause any serious injury or be life threatening, they usually cause a psychological damage and are just so irritating.

13. House centipedes

House Centipedes can be found in almost every house. You've seen one right? Their venom claws are a killer and when they bite you, it will hurt really bad causing the area to swell drastically that will last for days.

14. Assassin bugs

Usually found in the poor areas of the Americas, these parasites can infect humans with Chagas disease among others and is recommended to stay away from it as possible

15. Bullet Ants

These ants got their name for a reason. It has been said that when a bullet ant bites you, it feels like you have been shot by a gun - Yes, that painful, and it can last for up to a full day after, so you better watch out from this dangerous bug like you would from a loaded gun.

16. Dorylus Ants

Similar to the army ants we mentioned before, these bugs move in colonies and can easily take down a small animals when they attack it together. Not so dangerous to human though, but their bite is pretty painful.

17. The Brazilian Wandering Spider

In 2010 this spider was considered the most venomous spider in the world and had the strongest toxin. Can be found in tropical areas around South and Central America. The spider is defensive so it won't attack out of the blue unless feeling threatened.

18. Africanized Honey bee

You might known them as killer bees, and their name lives up to the hype. They will invade other types of bee hives and kill their queen only to set up shop inside with their own queen. They can kill humans if they attack one with large numbers as their toxin is strong. Never mess with an angry bee

19. Rat Fleas

As the name implies, the rat fleas can usually be found on rodents and can transfer life threatening diseases to humans. They can host tapeworms and transmit dangerous diseases with their eggs.

20. Fire Ants

It's easy to spot a fire ant because of its red brownish color. When they bite it will hurt, they release formed acid on the host that could cause pain and in severe cases even death.

21. Anopheles Mosquito

This little bug is responsible for so many deaths by transmitting the malaria disease. Epidemics and these mosquitos go hand in hand, watch out from this one.

22. Tsetse fly

Have you heard of sleeping sickness? Well, this fly causes it. Sometimes referred to as tiktik flies, these bugs can feed on the blood of animals and the chemical they carry called trypanosome is dangerous to humans as well.

23. Brown Recluse

This is the second spider that made our list of the most dangerous bugs in the world, unlike the black widow, this spider doesn't release toxins but its bite can destroy tissues which will take months to heal. And oh yeah, it's painful AF.

24. The asian hornet ( Giant Japanese )

Could be the deadliest of all the bugs on this list, the Asian hornet is not an aggressive bee, but if provoked it will attack and its venom will attack your nervous system and can kill you with just one sting. If you're in the Japan area, look out from bees.

25. Fleas

Although not really a dangerous bug on its own, but fleas are known to transmit many diseases from one animal to another and to humans as well. So it can be dangerous as a side effect.

26. Tarantula spider

Another spider to make the list, while its venom is not really deadly, a tarantula bite will hurt like hell. Tarantulas can live to be 30 years old and reach a size of a pizza slice. Which is big enough to scare us.

27. Arizona Bark Scorpions

The Arizona Bark Scorpion is the most deadliest scorpion in North America. You can find this fellow in Southwest America and Southern Utah. If you get bitten by this scorpion you will vomit, experience extreme pain and numbness. Although dying from its bite is unlikely, elderly and young children are more at risk.

If you enjoyed this list of the most dangerous insects, you're gonna love these 24 Angriest Looking Animals

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There are literally millions of different insects and bugs in the world, and while most are not rally that dangerous to us, some can kill you. The list below of 27 most dangerous bugs in the world will try to show you which bugs you want to avoid at all cost.

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Top 11 Deadliest Natural Disasters in History

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Here are the world’s most deadliest natural disasters, including earthquakes, cyclones and floods.

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An assortment of American nuclear intercontinental ballistic missiles at the National Museum of the United States Air Force. Clockwise from top left: PGM-17 Thor, LGM-25C Titan II, HGM-25A Titan I, Thor-Agena, LGM-30G Minuteman III, LGM-118 Peacekeeper, LGM-30A/B/F Minuteman I or II, PGM-19 Jupiter

A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions ( thermonuclear bomb), producing a nuclear explosion. Both bomb types release large quantities of energy from relatively small amounts of matter.

The first test of a fission ("atomic") bomb released an amount of energy approximately equal to 20,000 tons of TNT (84 TJ). The first thermonuclear ("hydrogen") bomb test released energy approximately equal to 10 million tons of TNT (42 PJ). Nuclear bombs have had yields between 10 tons TNT (the W54) and 50 megatons for the Tsar Bomba (see TNT equivalent). A thermonuclear weapon weighing as little as 600 pounds (270 kg) can release energy equal to more than 1.2 megatonnes of TNT (5.0 PJ).

A nuclear device no larger than a conventional bomb can devastate an entire city by blast, fire, and radiation. Since they are weapons of mass destruction, the proliferation of nuclear weapons is a focus of international relations policy. Nuclear weapons have been deployed twice in war, by the United States against the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 during World War II.

Testing and deployment

Nuclear weapons have only twice been used in warfare, both times by the United States against Japan at the end of World War II. On August 6, 1945, the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) detonated a uranium gun-type fission bomb nicknamed " Little Boy" over the Japanese city of Hiroshima; three days later, on August 9, the USAAF detonated a plutonium implosion-type fission bomb nicknamed " Fat Man" over the Japanese city of Nagasaki. These bombings caused injuries that resulted in the deaths of approximately 200,000 civilians and military personnel. The ethics of these bombings and their role in Japan's surrender are to this day, still subjects of debate.

Since the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, nuclear weapons have been detonated over 2,000 times for testing and demonstration. Only a few nations possess such weapons or are suspected of seeking them. The only countries known to have detonated nuclear weapons-and acknowledge possessing them-are (chronologically by date of first test) the United States, the Soviet Union (succeeded as a nuclear power by Russia), the United Kingdom, France, China, India, Pakistan, and North Korea. Israel is believed to possess nuclear weapons, though, in a policy of deliberate ambiguity, it does not acknowledge having them. Germany, Italy, Turkey, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Belarus are nuclear weapons sharing states. South Africa is the only country to have independently developed and then renounced and dismantled its nuclear weapons.

The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons aims to reduce the spread of nuclear weapons, but there are different views of its effectiveness.

The Trinity test of the Manhattan Project was the first detonation of a nuclear weapon, which led J. Robert Oppenheimer to recall verses from the Hindu scripture Bhagavad Gita: "If the radiance of a thousand suns were to burst at once into the sky, that would be like the splendor of the mighty one "... "I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds".

Robert Oppenheimer, principal leader of the Manhattan Project, often referred to as the "father of the atomic bomb".

There are two basic types of nuclear weapons: those that derive the majority of their energy from nuclear fission reactions alone, and those that use fission reactions to begin nuclear fusion reactions that produce a large amount of the total energy output.

Fission weapons

All existing nuclear weapons derive some of their explosive energy from nuclear fission reactions. Weapons whose explosive output is exclusively from fission reactions are commonly referred to as atomic bombs or atom bombs (abbreviated as A-bombs). This has long been noted as something of a misnomer, as their energy comes from the nucleus of the atom, just as it does with fusion weapons.

In fission weapons, a mass of fissile material ( enriched uranium or plutonium) is forced into supercriticality-allowing an exponential growth of nuclear chain reactions-either by shooting one piece of sub-critical material into another (the "gun" method) or by compression of a sub-critical sphere or cylinder of fissile material using chemically fueled explosive lenses. The latter approach, the "implosion" method, is more sophisticated and more efficient (smaller, less massive, and requiring less of the expensive fissile fuel) than the former.

A major challenge in all nuclear weapon designs is to ensure that a significant fraction of the fuel is consumed before the weapon destroys itself. The amount of energy released by fission bombs can range from the equivalent of just under a ton to upwards of 500,000 tons (500 kilotons) of TNT (4.2 to 2.1×10 ⁶ GJ).

All fission reactions generate fission products, the remains of the split atomic nuclei. Many fission products are either highly radioactive (but short-lived) or moderately radioactive (but long-lived), and as such, they are a serious form of radioactive contamination. Fission products are the principal radioactive component of nuclear fallout. Another source of radioactivity is the burst of free neutrons produced by the weapon. When they collide with other nuclei in the surrounding material, the neutrons transmute those nuclei into other isotopes, altering their stability and making them radioactive.

The most commonly used fissile materials for nuclear weapons applications have been uranium-235 and plutonium-239. Less commonly used has been uranium-233. Neptunium-237 and some isotopes of americium may be usable for nuclear explosives as well, but it is not clear that this has ever been implemented, and their plausible use in nuclear weapons is a matter of dispute.

Fusion weapons

The other basic type of nuclear weapon produces a large proportion of its energy in nuclear fusion reactions. Such fusion weapons are generally referred to as thermonuclear weapons or more colloquially as hydrogen bombs (abbreviated as H-bombs), as they rely on fusion reactions between isotopes of hydrogen ( deuterium and tritium). All such weapons derive a significant portion of their energy from fission reactions used to "trigger" fusion reactions, and fusion reactions can themselves trigger additional fission reactions.

Only six countries-the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, China, France, and India-have conducted thermonuclear weapon tests. Whether India has detonated a "true" multi-staged thermonuclear weapon is controversial. North Korea claims to have tested a fusion weapon as of January 2016, though this claim is disputed. Thermonuclear weapons are considered much more difficult to successfully design and execute than primitive fission weapons. Almost all of the nuclear weapons deployed today use the thermonuclear design because it is more efficient.

Thermonuclear bombs work by using the energy of a fission bomb to compress and heat fusion fuel. In the Teller-Ulam design, which accounts for all multi-megaton yield hydrogen bombs, this is accomplished by placing a fission bomb and fusion fuel ( tritium, deuterium, or lithium deuteride) in proximity within a special, radiation-reflecting container. When the fission bomb is detonated, gamma rays and X-rays emitted first compress the fusion fuel, then heat it to thermonuclear temperatures. The ensuing fusion reaction creates enormous numbers of high-speed neutrons, which can then induce fission in materials not normally prone to it, such as depleted uranium. Each of these components is known as a "stage", with the fission bomb as the "primary" and the fusion capsule as the "secondary". In large, megaton-range hydrogen bombs, about half of the yield comes from the final fissioning of depleted uranium.

Virtually all thermonuclear weapons deployed today use the "two-stage" design described to the right, but it is possible to add additional fusion stages-each stage igniting a larger amount of fusion fuel in the next stage. This technique can be used to construct thermonuclear weapons of arbitrarily large yield. This is in contrast to fission bombs, which are limited in their explosive power due to criticality danger (premature nuclear chain reaction caused by too-large amounts of pre-assembled fissile fuel). The largest nuclear weapon ever detonated, the Tsar Bomba of the USSR, which released an energy equivalent of over 50 megatons of TNT (210 PJ), was a three-stage weapon. Most thermonuclear weapons are considerably smaller than this, due to practical constraints from missile warhead space and weight requirements. In the early 1950s the Livermore Laboratory in the United States had plans for the testing of two massive bombs, Gnomon and Sundial, 1 gigaton of TNT and 10 gigatons of TNT respectively.

Other types

There are other types of nuclear weapons as well. For example, a boosted fission weapon is a fission bomb that increases its explosive yield through a small number of fusion reactions, but it is not a fusion bomb. In the boosted bomb, the neutrons produced by the fusion reactions serve primarily to increase the efficiency of the fission bomb. There are two types of boosted fission bomb: internally boosted, in which a deuterium-tritium mixture is injected into the bomb core, and externally boosted, in which concentric shells of lithium-deuteride and depleted uranium are layered on the outside of the fission bomb core. The external method of boosting enabled the USSR to field the first partially thermonuclear weapons, but it is now obsolete because it demands a spherical bomb geometry, which was adequate during the 1950s arms race when bomber aircraft were the only available delivery vehicles.

In connection with the Strategic Defense Initiative, research into the nuclear pumped laser was conducted under the DOD program Project Excalibur but this did not result in a working weapon. The concept involves the tapping of the energy of an exploding nuclear bomb to power a single-shot laser that is directed at a distant target.

During the Starfish Prime high-altitude nuclear test in 1962, an unexpected effect was produced which is called a nuclear electromagnetic pulse. This is an intense flash of electromagnetic energy produced by a rain of high-energy electrons which in turn are produced by a nuclear bomb's gamma rays. This flash of energy can permanently destroy or disrupt electronic equipment if insufficiently shielded. It has been proposed to use this effect to disable an enemy's military and civilian infrastructure as an adjunct to other nuclear or conventional military operations. By itself it could as well be useful to terrorists for crippling a nation's economic electronics-based infrastructure. Because the effect is most effectively produced by high altitude nuclear detonations (by military weapons delivered by air, though ground bursts also produce EMP effects over a localized area), it can produce damage to electronics over a wide, even continental, geographical area.

Research has been done into the possibility of pure fusion bombs: nuclear weapons that consist of fusion reactions without requiring a fission bomb to initiate them. Such a device might provide a simpler path to thermonuclear weapons than one that required the development of fission weapons first, and pure fusion weapons would create significantly less nuclear fallout than other thermonuclear weapons because they would not disperse fission products. In 1998, the United States Department of Energy divulged that the United States had, "...made a substantial investment" in the past to develop pure fusion weapons, but that, "The U.S. does not have and is not developing a pure fusion weapon", and that, "No credible design for a pure fusion weapon resulted from the DOE investment".

Nuclear isomers provide a possible pathway to fissionless fusion bombs. These are naturally occurring isotopes ( being a prominent example) which exist in an elevated energy state. Mechanisms to release this energy as bursts of gamma radiation (as in the hafnium controversy) have been proposed as possible triggers for conventional thermonuclear reactions.

Antimatter, which consists of particles resembling ordinary matter particles in most of their properties but having opposite electric charge, has been considered as a trigger mechanism for nuclear weapons. A major obstacle is the difficulty of producing antimatter in large enough quantities, and there is no evidence that it is feasible beyond the military domain. However, the U.S. Air Force funded studies of the physics of antimatter in the Cold War, and began considering its possible use in weapons, not just as a trigger, but as the explosive itself. A fourth generation nuclear weapon design is related to, and relies upon, the same principle as antimatter-catalyzed nuclear pulse propulsion.

Most variation in nuclear weapon design is for the purpose of achieving different yields for different situations, and in manipulating design elements to attempt to minimize weapon size, radiation hardness or requirements for special materials, especially fissile fuel or tritium.

Tactical nuclear weapons

Some nuclear weapons are designed for special purposes; most of these are for non-strategic (decisively war-winning) purposes and are referred to as tactical nuclear weapons.

The neutron bomb purportedly conceived by Sam Cohen is a thermonuclear weapon that yields a relatively small explosion but a relatively large amount of neutron radiation. Such a weapon could, according to tacticians, be used to cause massive biological casualties while leaving inanimate infrastructure mostly intact and creating minimal fallout. Because high energy neutrons are capable of penetrating dense matter, such as tank armor, neutron warheads were procured in the 1980s (though not deployed in Europe) for use as tactical payloads for US Army artillery shells (200 mm W79 and 155 mm W82) and short range missile forces. Soviet authorities announced similar intentions for neutron warhead deployment in Europe; indeed, they claimed to have originally invented the neutron bomb, but their deployment on USSR tactical nuclear forces is unverifiable.

A type of nuclear explosive most suitable for use by ground special forces was the Special Atomic Demolition Munition, or SADM, sometimes popularly known as a suitcase nuke. This is a nuclear bomb that is man-portable, or at least truck-portable, and though of a relatively small yield (one or two kilotons) is sufficient to destroy important tactical targets such as bridges, dams, tunnels, important military or commercial installations, etc. either behind enemy lines or pre-emptively on friendly territory soon to be overtaken by invading enemy forces. These weapons require plutonium fuel and are particularly "dirty". They also demand especially stringent security precautions in their storage and deployment.

Small "tactical" nuclear weapons were deployed for use as antiaircraft weapons. Examples include the USAF AIR-2 Genie, the AIM-26 Falcon and US Army Nike Hercules. Missile interceptors such as the Sprint and the Spartan also used small nuclear warheads (optimized to produce neutron or X-ray flux) but were for use against enemy strategic warheads.

Other small, or tactical, nuclear weapons were deployed by naval forces for use primarily as antisubmarine weapons. These included nuclear depth bombs or nuclear armed torpedoes. Nuclear mines for use on land or at sea are also possibilities.

Weapons delivery

The first nuclear weapons were gravity bombs, such as this "Fat Man" weapon dropped on Nagasaki, Japan. They were large and could only be delivered by heavy bomber aircraft

A demilitarized, commercial launch of the Russian Strategic Rocket Forces R-36 ICBM; also known by the NATO reporting name: SS-18 Satan. Upon its first fielding in the late 1960s, the SS-18 remains the single highest throw weight missile delivery system ever built.

The simplest method for delivering a nuclear weapon is a gravity bomb dropped from aircraft; this was the method used by the United States against Japan. This method places few restrictions on the size of the weapon. It does, however, limit attack range, response time to an impending attack, and the number of weapons that a country can field at the same time. With miniaturization, nuclear bombs can be delivered by both strategic bombers and tactical fighter-bombers. This method is the primary means of nuclear weapons delivery; the majority of U.S. nuclear warheads, for example, are free-fall gravity bombs, namely the B61, which is being improved upon to this day.

Montage of an inert test of a United States Trident SLBM (submarine launched ballistic missile), from submerged to the terminal, or re-entry phase, of the multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles

Preferable from a strategic point of view is a nuclear weapon mounted on a missile, which can use a ballistic trajectory to deliver the warhead over the horizon. Although even short-range missiles allow for a faster and less vulnerable attack, the development of long-range intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) and submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs) has given some nations the ability to plausibly deliver missiles anywhere on the globe with a high likelihood of success.

More advanced systems, such as multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles (MIRVs), can launch multiple warheads at different targets from one missile, reducing the chance of a successful missile defense. Today, missiles are most common among systems designed for delivery of nuclear weapons. Making a warhead small enough to fit onto a missile, though, can be difficult.

Tactical weapons have involved the most variety of delivery types, including not only gravity bombs and missiles but also artillery shells, land mines, and nuclear depth charges and torpedoes for anti-submarine warfare. An atomic mortar has been tested by the United States. Small, two-man portable tactical weapons (somewhat misleadingly referred to as suitcase bombs), such as the Special Atomic Demolition Munition, have been developed, although the difficulty of combining sufficient yield with portability limits their military utility.

Nuclear strategy

The now decommissioned United States' Peacekeeper missile was an ICBM developed to replace the Minuteman missile in the late 1980s. Each missile, like the heavier lift Russian SS-18 Satan, could contain up to ten nuclear warheads (shown in red), each of which could be aimed at a different target. A factor in the development of MIRVs was to make complete missile defense difficult for an enemy country.

Weapons designed to threaten large populations or to deter attacks are known as strategic weapons. Nuclear weapons for use on a battlefield in military situations are called tactical weapons.

Critics of nuclear war strategy often suggest that a nuclear war between two nations would result in mutual annihilation. From this point of view, the significance of nuclear weapons is to deter war because any nuclear war would escalate out of mutual distrust and fear, resulting in mutually assured destruction. This threat of national, if not global, destruction has been a strong motivation for anti-nuclear weapons activism.

Critics from the peace movement and within the military establishment have questioned the usefulness of such weapons in the current military climate. According to an advisory opinion issued by the International Court of Justice in 1996, the use of (or threat of use of) such weapons would generally be contrary to the rules of international law applicable in armed conflict, but the court did not reach an opinion as to whether or not the threat or use would be lawful in specific extreme circumstances such as if the survival of the state were at stake.

Ballistic missile submarines have been of great strategic importance for the United States, Russia, and other nuclear powers since they entered service in the Cold War, as they can hide from reconnaissance satellites and fire their nuclear weapons with virtual impunity.

Another deterrence position is that nuclear proliferation can be desirable. In this case, it is argued that, unlike conventional weapons, nuclear weapons deter all-out war between states, and they succeeded in doing this during the Cold War between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Gen. Pierre Marie Gallois of France, an adviser to Charles de Gaulle, argued in books like The Balance of Terror: Strategy for the Nuclear Age (1961) that mere possession of a nuclear arsenal was enough to ensure deterrence, and thus concluded that the spread of nuclear weapons could increase international stability. Some prominent neo-realist scholars, such as Kenneth Waltz and John Mearsheimer, have argued, along the lines of Gallois, that some forms of nuclear proliferation would decrease the likelihood of total war, especially in troubled regions of the world where there exists a single nuclear-weapon state. Aside from the public opinion that opposes proliferation in any form, there are two schools of thought on the matter: those, like Mearsheimer, who favored selective proliferation, and Waltz, who was somewhat more non- interventionist. Interest in proliferation and the stability-instability paradox that it generates continues to this day, with ongoing debate about indigenous Japanese and South Korean nuclear deterrent against North Korea.

The threat of potentially suicidal terrorists possessing nuclear weapons (a form of nuclear terrorism) complicates the decision process. The prospect of mutually assured destruction might not deter an enemy who expects to die in the confrontation. Further, if the initial act is from a stateless terrorist instead of a sovereign nation, there might not be a nation or specific target to retaliate against. It has been argued, especially after the September 11, 2001, attacks, that this complication calls for a new nuclear strategy, one that is distinct from that which gave relative stability during the Cold War. Since 1996, the United States has had a policy of allowing the targeting of its nuclear weapons at terrorists armed with weapons of mass destruction.

A Minuteman III ICBM test launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base, United States. MIRVed land-based ICBMs are considered destabilizing because they tend to put a premium on striking first.

Robert Gallucci argues that although traditional deterrence is not an effective approach toward terrorist groups bent on causing a nuclear catastrophe, Gallucci believes that "the United States should instead consider a policy of expanded deterrence, which focuses not solely on the would-be nuclear terrorists but on those states that may deliberately transfer or inadvertently leak nuclear weapons and materials to them. By threatening retaliation against those states, the United States may be able to deter that which it cannot physically prevent.".

Graham Allison makes a similar case, arguing that the key to expanded deterrence is coming up with ways of tracing nuclear material to the country that forged the fissile material. "After a nuclear bomb detonates, nuclear forensics cops would collect debris samples and send them to a laboratory for radiological analysis. By identifying unique attributes of the fissile material, including its impurities and contaminants, one could trace the path back to its origin." The process is analogous to identifying a criminal by fingerprints. "The goal would be twofold: first, to deter leaders of nuclear states from selling weapons to terrorists by holding them accountable for any use of their weapons; second, to give leaders every incentive to tightly secure their nuclear weapons and materials."

According to the Pentagon's June 2019 " Doctrine for Joint Nuclear Operations" of the Joint Chiefs of Staffs website Publication, "Integration of nuclear weapons employment with conventional and special operations forces is essential to the success of any mission or operation."

Governance, control, and law

Because they are weapons of mass destruction, the proliferation and possible use of nuclear weapons are important issues in international relations and diplomacy. In most countries, the use of nuclear force can only be authorized by the head of government or head of state. Despite controls and regulations governing nuclear weapons, there is an inherent danger of "accidents, mistakes, false alarms, blackmail, theft, and sabotage".

In the late 1940s, lack of mutual trust prevented the United States and the Soviet Union from making progress on arms control agreements. The Russell-Einstein Manifesto was issued in London on July 9, 1955, by Bertrand Russell in the midst of the Cold War. It highlighted the dangers posed by nuclear weapons and called for world leaders to seek peaceful resolutions to international conflict. The signatories included eleven pre-eminent intellectuals and scientists, including Albert Einstein, who signed it just days before his death on April 18, 1955. A few days after the release, philanthropist Cyrus S. Eaton offered to sponsor a conference-called for in the manifesto-in Pugwash, Nova Scotia, Eaton's birthplace. This conference was to be the first of the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs, held in July 1957.

UN vote on adoption of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons on July 7, 2017

In 1957, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) was established under the mandate of the United Nations to encourage development of peaceful applications of nuclear technology, provide international safeguards against its misuse, and facilitate the application of safety measures in its use. In 1996, many nations signed the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, which prohibits all testing of nuclear weapons. A testing ban imposes a significant hindrance to nuclear arms development by any complying country. The Treaty requires the ratification by 44 specific states before it can go into force; as of 2012, the ratification of eight of these states is still required.

Additional treaties and agreements have governed nuclear weapons stockpiles between the countries with the two largest stockpiles, the United States and the Soviet Union, and later between the United States and Russia. These include treaties such as SALT II (never ratified), START I (expired), INF, START II (never in effect), SORT, and New START, as well as non-binding agreements such as SALT I and the Presidential Nuclear Initiatives of 1991. Even when they did not enter into force, these agreements helped limit and later reduce the numbers and types of nuclear weapons between the United States and the Soviet Union/Russia.

Nuclear weapons have also been opposed by agreements between countries. Many nations have been declared Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zones, areas where nuclear weapons production and deployment are prohibited, through the use of treaties. The Treaty of Tlatelolco (1967) prohibited any production or deployment of nuclear weapons in Latin America and the Caribbean, and the Treaty of Pelindaba (1964) prohibits nuclear weapons in many African countries. As recently as 2006 a Central Asian Nuclear Weapon Free Zone was established among the former Soviet republics of Central Asia prohibiting nuclear weapons.

Large stockpile with global range (dark blue), smaller stockpile with global range (medium blue), small stockpile with regional range (light blue).

In 1996, the International Court of Justice, the highest court of the United Nations, issued an Advisory Opinion concerned with the " Legality of the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons". The court ruled that the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons would violate various articles of international law, including the Geneva Conventions, the Hague Conventions, the UN Charter, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Given the unique, destructive characteristics of nuclear weapons, the International Committee of the Red Cross calls on States to ensure that these weapons are never used, irrespective of whether they consider them lawful or not.

Additionally, there have been other, specific actions meant to discourage countries from developing nuclear arms. In the wake of the tests by India and Pakistan in 1998, economic sanctions were (temporarily) levied against both countries, though neither were signatories with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. One of the stated casus belli for the initiation of the 2003 Iraq War was an accusation by the United States that Iraq was actively pursuing nuclear arms (though this was soon discovered not to be the case as the program had been discontinued). In 1981, Israel had bombed a nuclear reactor being constructed in Osirak, Iraq, in what it called an attempt to halt Iraq's previous nuclear arms ambitions; in 2007, Israel bombed another reactor being constructed in Syria.

In 2013, Mark Diesendorf said that governments of France, India, North Korea, Pakistan, UK, and South Africa have used nuclear power or research reactors to assist nuclear weapons development or to contribute to their supplies of nuclear explosives from military reactors.

In 2017, 122 countries mainly in the Global South voted in favor of adopting the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which eventually entered into force in 2021.

The Doomsday Clock measures the likelihood of a human-made global catastrophe and is published annually by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. The two years with the highest likelihood had previously been 1953, when the Clock was set to two minutes until midnight after the U.S. and the Soviet Union began testing hydrogen bombs, and 2018, following the failure of world leaders to address tensions relating to nuclear weapons and climate change issues. In 2023, following the escalation of nuclear threats during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the doomsday clock was set to 90 seconds, the highest likelihood of global catastrophe since the existence of the Doomsday Clock.

Disarmament

The USSR and United States nuclear weapon stockpiles throughout the Cold War until 2015, with a precipitous drop in total numbers following the end of the Cold War in 1991.

Nuclear disarmament refers to both the act of reducing or eliminating nuclear weapons and to the end state of a nuclear-free world, in which nuclear weapons are eliminated.

Only one country-South Africa-has ever fully renounced nuclear weapons they had independently developed. The former Soviet republics of Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Ukraine returned Soviet nuclear arms stationed in their countries to Russia after the collapse of the USSR.

Proponents of nuclear disarmament say that it would lessen the probability of nuclear war, especially accidentally. Critics of nuclear disarmament say that it would undermine the present nuclear peace and deterrence and would lead to increased global instability. Various American elder statesmen, who were in office during the Cold War period, have been advocating the elimination of nuclear weapons. These officials include Henry Kissinger, George Shultz, Sam Nunn, and William Perry. In January 2010, Lawrence M. Krauss stated that "no issue carries more importance to the long-term health and security of humanity than the effort to reduce, and perhaps one day, rid the world of nuclear weapons".

Ukrainian workers use equipment provided by the U.S. Defense Threat Reduction Agency to dismantle a Soviet-era missile silo. After the end of the Cold War, Ukraine and the other non-Russian, post-Soviet republics relinquished Soviet nuclear stockpiles to Russia.

In January 1986, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev publicly proposed a three-stage program for abolishing the world's nuclear weapons by the end of the 20th century. In the years after the end of the Cold War, there have been numerous campaigns to urge the abolition of nuclear weapons, such as that organized by the Global Zero movement, and the goal of a "world without nuclear weapons" was advocated by United States President Barack Obama in an April 2009 speech in Prague. A CNN poll from April 2010 indicated that the American public was nearly evenly split on the issue.

Some analysts have argued that nuclear weapons have made the world relatively safer, with peace through deterrence and through the stability-instability paradox, including in south Asia. Kenneth Waltz has argued that nuclear weapons have helped keep an uneasy peace, and further nuclear weapon proliferation might even help avoid the large scale conventional wars that were so common before their invention at the end of World War II. But former Secretary Henry Kissinger says there is a new danger, which cannot be addressed by deterrence: "The classical notion of deterrence was that there was some consequences before which aggressors and evildoers would recoil. In a world of suicide bombers, that calculation doesn't operate in any comparable way". George Shultz has said, "If you think of the people who are doing suicide attacks, and people like that get a nuclear weapon, they are almost by definition not deterrable".

As of early 2019, more than 90% of world's 13,865 nuclear weapons were owned by Russia and the United States.

United Nations

The UN Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA) is a department of the United Nations Secretariat established in January 1998 as part of the United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan's plan to reform the UN as presented in his report to the General Assembly in July 1997.

Its goal is to promote nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation and the strengthening of the disarmament regimes in respect to other weapons of mass destruction, chemical and biological weapons. It also promotes disarmament efforts in the area of conventional weapons, especially land mines and small arms, which are often the weapons of choice in contemporary conflicts.

Controversy

Notable nuclear weapons accidents

August 21, 1945: While conducting experiments on a plutonium-gallium core at Los Alamos National Laboratory, physicist Harry Daghlian received a lethal dose of radiation when an error caused it to enter prompt criticality. He died 25 days later, on September 15, 1945, from radiation poisoning.

May 21, 1946: While conducting further experiments on the same core at Los Alamos National Laboratory, physicist Louis Slotin accidentally caused the core to become briefly supercritical. He received a lethal dose of gamma and neutron radiation, and died nine days later on May 30, 1946. After the death of Daghlian and Slotin, the mass became known as the "demon core". It was ultimately used to construct a bomb for use on the Nevada Test Range.

February 13, 1950: a Convair B-36B crashed in northern British Columbia after jettisoning a Mark IV atomic bomb. This was the first such nuclear weapon loss in history. The accident was designated a "Broken Arrow"-an accident involving a nuclear weapon, but which does not present a risk of war. Experts believe that up to 50 nuclear weapons were lost during the Cold War.

May 22, 1957: a 42,000-pound (19,000 kg) Mark-17 hydrogen bomb accidentally fell from a bomber near Albuquerque, New Mexico. The detonation of the device's conventional explosives destroyed it on impact and formed a crater 25 feet (7.6 m) in diameter on land owned by the University of New Mexico. According to a researcher at the Natural Resources Defense Council, it was one of the most powerful bombs made to date.

June 7, 1960: the 1960 Fort Dix IM-99 accident destroyed a Boeing CIM-10 Bomarc nuclear missile and shelter and contaminated the BOMARC Missile Accident Site in New Jersey.

January 24, 1961: the 1961 Goldsboro B-52 crash occurred near Goldsboro, North Carolina. A Boeing B-52 Stratofortress carrying two Mark 39 nuclear bombs broke up in mid-air, dropping its nuclear payload in the process.

1965 Philippine Sea A-4 crash, where a Skyhawk attack aircraft with a nuclear weapon fell into the sea. The pilot, the aircraft, and the B43 nuclear bomb were never recovered. It was not until 1989 that the Pentagon revealed the loss of the one-megaton bomb.

January 17, 1966: the 1966 Palomares B-52 crash occurred when a B-52G bomber of the USAF collided with a KC-135 tanker during mid-air refuelling off the coast of Spain. The KC-135 was completely destroyed when its fuel load ignited, killing all four crew members. The B-52G broke apart, killing three of the seven crew members aboard. Of the four Mk28 type hydrogen bombs the B-52G carried, three were found on land near Almería, Spain. The non-nuclear explosives in two of the weapons detonated upon impact with the ground, resulting in the contamination of a 2-square-kilometer (490-acre) (0.78 square mile) area by radioactive plutonium. The fourth, which fell into the Mediterranean Sea, was recovered intact after a 2-month-long search.

January 21, 1968: the 1968 Thule Air Base B-52 crash involved a United States Air Force (USAF) B-52 bomber. The aircraft was carrying four hydrogen bombs when a cabin fire forced the crew to abandon the aircraft. Six crew members ejected safely, but one who did not have an ejection seat was killed while trying to bail out. The bomber crashed onto sea ice in Greenland, causing the nuclear payload to rupture and disperse, which resulted in widespread radioactive contamination. One of the bombs remains lost.

September 18-19, 1980: the Damascus Accident occurred in Damascus, Arkansas, where a Titan Missile equipped with a nuclear warhead exploded. The accident was caused by a maintenance man who dropped a socket from a socket wrench down an 80-foot (24 m) shaft, puncturing a fuel tank on the rocket. Leaking fuel resulted in a hypergolic fuel explosion, jettisoning the W-53 warhead beyond the launch site.

Nuclear testing and fallout

This view of downtown Las Vegas shows a mushroom cloud in the background. Scenes such as this were typical during the 1950s. From 1951 to 1962 the government conducted 100 atmospheric tests at the nearby Nevada Test Site.

Over 500 atmospheric nuclear weapons tests were conducted at various sites around the world from 1945 to 1980. Radioactive fallout from nuclear weapons testing was first drawn to public attention in 1954 when the Castle Bravo hydrogen bomb test at the Pacific Proving Grounds contaminated the crew and catch of the Japanese fishing boat Lucky Dragon. One of the fishermen died in Japan seven months later, and the fear of contaminated tuna led to a temporary boycotting of the popular staple in Japan. The incident caused widespread concern around the world, especially regarding the effects of nuclear fallout and atmospheric nuclear testing, and "provided a decisive impetus for the emergence of the anti-nuclear weapons movement in many countries".

As public awareness and concern mounted over the possible health hazards associated with exposure to the nuclear fallout, various studies were done to assess the extent of the hazard. A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/ National Cancer Institute study claims that fallout from atmospheric nuclear tests would lead to perhaps 11,000 excess deaths among people alive during atmospheric testing in the United States from all forms of cancer, including leukemia, from 1951 to well into the 21st century. As of March 2009, the U.S. is the only nation that compensates nuclear test victims. Since the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act of 1990, more than $1.38 billion in compensation has been approved. The money is going to people who took part in the tests, notably at the Nevada Test Site, and to others exposed to the radiation.

In addition, leakage of byproducts of nuclear weapon production into groundwater has been an ongoing issue, particularly at the Hanford site.

Effects of nuclear explosions

Effects of nuclear explosions on human health

Some scientists estimate that a nuclear war with 100 Hiroshima-size nuclear explosions on cities could cost the lives of tens of millions of people from long-term climatic effects alone. The climatology hypothesis is that if each city firestorms, a great deal of soot could be thrown up into the atmosphere which could blanket the earth, cutting out sunlight for years on end, causing the disruption of food chains, in what is termed a nuclear winter.

People near the Hiroshima explosion and who managed to survive the explosion subsequently suffered a variety of horrible medical effects. Some of these effects are still present to this day:

Initial stage-the first 1-9 weeks, in which are the greatest number of deaths, with 90% due to thermal injury or blast effects and 10% due to super-lethal radiation exposure.

Intermediate stage-from 10 to 12 weeks. The deaths in this period are from ionizing radiation in the median lethal range - LD50

Late period-lasting from 13 to 20 weeks. This period has some improvement in survivors' condition.

Delayed period-from 20+ weeks. Characterized by numerous complications, mostly related to healing of thermal and mechanical injuries, and if the individual was exposed to a few hundred to a thousand millisieverts of radiation, it is coupled with infertility, sub-fertility and blood disorders. Furthermore, ionizing radiation above a dose of around 50-100 millisievert exposure has been shown to statistically begin increasing one's chance of dying of cancer sometime in their lifetime over the normal unexposed rate of ~25%, in the long term, a heightened rate of cancer, proportional to the dose received, would begin to be observed after ~5+ years, with lesser problems such as eye cataracts and other more minor effects in other organs and tissue also being observed over the long term.

Fallout exposure-depending on if further afield individuals shelter in place or evacuate perpendicular to the direction of the wind, and therefore avoid contact with the fallout plume, and stay there for the days and weeks after the nuclear explosion, their exposure to fallout, and therefore their total dose, will vary. With those who do shelter in place, and or evacuate, experiencing a total dose that would be negligible in comparison to someone who just went about their life as normal.

Staying indoors until after the most hazardous fallout isotope, I-131 decays away to 0.1% of its initial quantity after ten half-lifes-which is represented by 80 days in I-131s case, would make the difference between likely contracting Thyroid cancer or escaping completely from this substance depending on the actions of the individual.

Effects of nuclear war

Nuclear war could yield unprecedented human death tolls and habitat destruction. Detonating large numbers of nuclear weapons would have an immediate, short term and long-term effects on the climate, potentially causing cold weather known as a " nuclear winter". In 1982, Brian Martin estimated that a US-Soviet nuclear exchange might kill 400-450 million directly, mostly in the United States, Europe and Russia, and maybe several hundred million more through follow-up consequences in those same areas. Many scholars have posited that a global thermonuclear war with Cold War-era stockpiles, or even with the current smaller stockpiles, may lead to the extinction of the human race. The International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War believe that nuclear war could indirectly contribute to human extinction via secondary effects, including environmental consequences, societal breakdown, and economic collapse. It has been estimated that a relatively small-scale nuclear exchange between India and Pakistan involving 100 Hiroshima yield (15 kilotons) weapons, could cause a nuclear winter and kill more than a billion people.

According to a peer-reviewed study published in the journal Nature Food in August 2022, a full-scale nuclear war between the U.S. and Russia would directly kill 360 million people and more than 5 billion people would die from starvation. More than 2 billion people could die from a smaller-scale nuclear war between India and Pakistan.

Public opposition

Peace movements emerged in Japan and in 1954 they converged to form a unified " Japan Council against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs." Japanese opposition to nuclear weapons tests in the Pacific Ocean was widespread, and "an estimated 35 million signatures were collected on petitions calling for bans on nuclear weapons".

In the United Kingdom, the first Aldermaston March organised by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament(CND) took place at Easter 1958, when, according to the CND, several thousand people marched for four days from Trafalgar Square, London, to the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment close to Aldermaston in Berkshire, England, to demonstrate their opposition to nuclear weapons. The Aldermaston marches continued into the late 1960s when tens of thousands of people took part in the four-day marches.

In 1959, a letter in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists was the start of a successful campaign to stop the Atomic Energy Commission dumping radioactive waste in the sea 19 kilometres from Boston. In 1962, Linus Pauling won the Nobel Peace Prize for his work to stop the atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons, and the "Ban the Bomb" movement spread.

In 1963, many countries ratified the Partial Test Ban Treaty prohibiting atmospheric nuclear testing. Radioactive fallout became less of an issue and the anti-nuclear weapons movement went into decline for some years. A resurgence of interest occurred amid European and American fears of nuclear war in the 1980s.

Costs and technology spin-offs

According to an audit by the Brookings Institution, between 1940 and 1996, the U.S. spent $10.9 trillion in present-day terms on nuclear weapons programs. 57% of which was spent on building nuclear weapons delivery systems. 6.3% of the total, $681 billion in present-day terms, was spent on environmental remediation and nuclear waste management, for example cleaning up the Hanford site, and 7% of the total, $763 billion was spent on making nuclear weapons themselves.

Non-weapons uses

Peaceful nuclear explosions are nuclear explosions conducted for non-military purposes, such as activities related to economic development including the creation of canals. During the 1960s and 1970s, both the United States and the Soviet Union conducted a number of PNEs. Six of the explosions by the Soviet Union are considered to have been of an applied nature, not just tests.

The United States and the Soviet Union later halted their programs. Definitions and limits are covered in the Peaceful Nuclear Explosions Treaty of 1976. The stalled Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty of 1996 would prohibit all nuclear explosions, regardless of whether they are for peaceful purposes or not.

History of development

In nuclear fission, the nucleus of a fissile atom (in this case, enriched uranium) absorbs a thermal neutron, becomes unstable and splits into two new atoms, releasing some energy and between one and three new neutrons, which can perpetuate the process.

Leo Szilard, pictured in about 1960, invented the electron microscope, nuclear chain reaction and patented the nuclear reactor

Major General Leslie Groves and Robert Oppenheimer at the Trinity test site in 1945

References

Bibliography

Bethe, Hans Albrecht. The Road from Los Alamos. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1991. ISBN 0-671-74012-1

DeVolpi, Alexander, Minkov, Vladimir E., Simonenko, Vadim A., and Stanford, George S. Nuclear Shadowboxing: Contemporary Threats from Cold War Weaponry. Fidlar Doubleday, 2004 (Two volumes, both accessible on Google Book Search) (Content of both volumes is now available in the 2009 trilogy by Alexander DeVolpi: Nuclear Insights: The Cold War Legacy)

Glasstone, Samuel and Dolan, Philip J. The Effects of Nuclear Weapons (third edition). Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1977. Available online (PDF).

NATO Handbook on the Medical Aspects of NBC Defensive Operations (Part I - Nuclear). Departments of the Army, Navy, and Air Force: Washington, D.C., 1996

Hansen, Chuck. U.S. Nuclear Weapons: The Secret History. Arlington, TX: Aerofax, 1988

Hansen, Chuck, "Swords of Armageddon: U.S. nuclear weapons development since 1945" (CD-ROM & download available). PDF. 2,600 pages, Sunnyvale, California, Chucklea Publications, 1995, 2007. ISBN 978-0-9791915-0-3 (2nd Ed.)

Holloway, David. Stalin and the Bomb. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1994. ISBN 0-300-06056-4

The Manhattan Engineer District, "The Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki" (1946)

(in French) Jean-Hugues Oppel, Réveillez le président, Éditions Payot et rivages, 2007 (ISBN 978-2-7436-1630-4). The book is a fiction about the nuclear weapons of France; the book also contains about ten chapters on true historical incidents involving nuclear weapons and strategy.

Smyth, Henry DeWolf. Atomic Energy for Military Purposes. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1945. (Smyth Report - the first declassified report by the US government on nuclear weapons)

The Effects of Nuclear War. Office of Technology Assessment, May 1979.

Rhodes, Richard. Dark Sun: The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1995. ISBN 0-684-82414-0

Rhodes, Richard. The Making of the Atomic Bomb. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1986 ISBN 0-684-81378-5

Shultz, George P. and Goodby, James E. The War that Must Never be Fought, Hoover Press, 2015, ISBN 978-0-8179-1845-3.

Weart, Spencer R. Nuclear Fear: A History of Images. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1988. ISBN 0-674-62836-5

Weart, Spencer R. The Rise of Nuclear Fear. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2012. ISBN 0-674-05233-1

Further reading

Laura Grego and David Wright, "Broken Shield: Missiles designed to destroy incoming nuclear warheads fail frequently in tests and could increase global risk of mass destruction", Scientific American, vol. 320, no. no. 6 (June 2019), pp. 62-67. "Current U.S. missile defense plans are being driven largely by technology, politics and fear. Missile defenses will not allow us to escape our vulnerability to nuclear weapons. Instead large-scale developments will create barriers to taking real steps toward reducing nuclear risks-by blocking further cuts in nuclear arsenals and potentially spurring new deployments." (p. 67.)

Michael T. Klare, "Missile Mania: The death of the INF [Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces] Treaty [of 1987] has escalated the arms race", , vol. 309, no. 6 (September 23, 2019), p. 4.

Moniz, Ernest J., and Sam Nunn, "The Return of Doomsday: The New Nuclear Arms Race - and How Washington and Moscow Can Stop It", Foreign Affairs, vol. 98, no. 5 (September / October 2019), pp. 150-161. Former U.S. Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz and former U.S. Senator Sam Nunn write that "the old [strategic] equilibrium" between the United States and Russia has been "destabilized" by "clashing national interests, insufficient dialogue, eroding arms control structures, advanced missile systems, and new cyberweapons... Unless Washington and Moscow confront these problems now, a major international conflict or nuclear escalation is disturbingly plausible-perhaps even likely." (p. 161.)

Thomas Powers, "The Nuclear Worrier" (review of Daniel Ellsberg, The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner, New York, Bloomsbury, 2017, ISBN 9781608196708, 420 pp.), The New York Review of Books, vol. LXV, no. 1 (January 18, 2018), pp. 13-15.

Eric Schlosser, Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety, Penguin Press, 2013, ISBN 1594202273. The book became the basis for a 2-hour 2017 PBS American Experience episode, likewise titled "Command and Control". Nuclear weapons continue to be equally hazardous to their owners as to their potential targets. Under the 1970 Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, nuclear-weapon states are obliged to work toward the elimination of nuclear weapons.

Tom Stevenson, "A Tiny Sun" (review of Fred Kaplan, The Bomb: Presidents, Generals, and the Secret History of Nuclear War, Simon and Schuster, 2021, 384 pp.; and Keir A. Lieber and Daryl G. Press, The Myth of the Nuclear Revolution: Power Politics in the Atomic Age, Cornell, 2020, 180 pp.), London Review of Books, vol. 44, no. 4 (24 February 2022), pp. 29-32. "Nuclear strategists systematically underestimate the chances of nuclear accident... [T]here have been too many close calls for accidental use to be discounted." (p. 32.)

David Wright and Cameron Tracy, "Over-hyped: Physics dictates that hypersonic weapons cannot live up to the grand promises made on their behalf", Scientific American, vol. 325, no. 2 (August 2021), pp. 64-71. "Failure to fully assess [the potential benefits and costs of hypersonic weapons] is a recipe for wasteful spending and increased global risk." (p. 71.)

External links

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A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions ( thermonuclear bomb), producing a nuclear explosion. Both bomb types release large quantities of energy from relatively small amounts of matter.

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SERU BANGET!!! Lomba Adu Robot Sampai Hancur!!!

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Two flip-flops, 115 drinking cups, 25 plastic bags, and four plastic bottles were among the plastic found in a dead sperm whale that washed ashore in Indonesia.

Officials with the Wakatobi National Park found the dead sperm whale near in the Sulawesi province on a beautiful tropical island of Indonesia, frequented by diving tourists.

The sperm whale measured 31 feet long and is yet another example of recent cases where dead whales wash ashore full of plastic in their stomachs. In total, this sperm whale ingested over 1,000 pieces of plastic. The cause of death cannot be determined due to decay, however, local wildlife experts believe the plastic pieces played a role.

The World Wildlife Fund tweeted a picture of the plastic found within the sperm whale. The text below translates to "5.9 kg of plastic trash found in this poor whale's stomach! Plastic waste, namely: hard plastic (19 pcs, 140 gr), plastic bottles (4 pcs, 150 gr), plastic bags (25 pcs, 260 gr), flip-flops (2 pcs, 270 gr), o-dominated / raffia straps ( 3.26 kg) & plastic cups (115 pcs, 750 gr)."

5,9 kg sampah plastik ditemukan di dlm perut paus malang ini! Sampah plastik yaitu: plastik keras (19 pcs, 140 gr), botol plastik (4 pcs, 150 gr), kantong plastik (25 pcs, 260 gr), sandal jepit (2 pcs, 270 gr), didominasi o/ tali rafia (3,26 kg) & gelas plastik (115 pcs, 750 gr). pic.twitter.com/ZFWZgkbnzu

- WWF-Indonesia (@WWF_ID) November 19, 2018

A 2017 report by the Ocean Conservancy found that five rapidly growing countries in Asia account for 60 percent of the plastic waste ending up in the world's oceans.

These countries, China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam dump more plastic into the oceans than the rest of the world combined. The continual improvement in their economies and better quality of life has resulted in an increased demand for single use consumer products. However, the systems in place to process single-use plastics has not caught up with the demand.

The Ocean Conservancy found that 74 percent of plastic leakage in the Philippines comes from waste that has been collected but poorly managed. As noted above, a big contributor is poorly located dumps that sit adjacent to major waterways which eventually lead to the ocean. Another major contributor is informal waste dumps without proper systems in place to ensure containment of the waste.

As ocean plastic waste swells to unprecedented levels, major projects are being deployed in an attempt to clean up our oceans. The Ocean Cleanup project, founded in 2013 by an 18-year-old Dutch inventor, aims to use a floating buoy system to collect floating trash in ocean gyres. Once gathered in the buoy system, ships will come to collect the trash and transport it to a safe disposal location.

I am a geologist passionate about sharing Earth's intricacies with you. I received my PhD from Duke University where I studied the geology and climate of the Amazon. I am the founder of Science Trends, a leading source of science news and analysis on everything from climate ...

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Yet Another Dead Whale Found With Pounds Of Plastic In Its Stomach

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Two flip-flops, 115 drinking cups, 25 plastic bags, and four plastic bottles were among the plastic found in a dead sperm whale that washed ashore in Indonesia. Officials with the Wakatobi National Park found the dead sperm whale near in the Sulawesi province on a beautiful tropical island of Indonesia, frequented by diving tourists.