Updates: polution; hunting; animal slaughter; climate change

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Death of Six Lions

On Saturday evening, the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) and the Big Life Foundation (BLF) confirmed that herdsmen killed six lions

The incident happened after a group of nine subadult lions broke into a livestock enclosure near Mbirikani in the southern county of Kajiado, which is close to the Amboseli National Park on Friday night, killing 12 goats and a dog. BLF rangers responded immediately, pushing the lions away from the homestead.

"Big Life staff were able to push three lions out of the premises during the night, and they moved away from the town to safety, but the other six remained inside the compound overnight," the Foundation said, adding that the crowd later built, and tensions spilled over as dozens of people broke through the compound fence, spearing all six lions.

"Many members of the crowd were armed with spears, and any intervention by the KWS, the Kenya Police Service, or Big Life would have risked escalation of an extremely volatile situation, and almost certainly resulted in human injury or death," the foundation said.

"We are committed to the well-being of human beings and animals with the Amboseli National Ecosystem, and such incidents are a big setback to our efforts aimed at facilitating co-existence between humans and wildlife," Big Life Foundation said.

The killing came barely three days after Amboseli National Park's oldest and most popular lion, Loonkito, 19, was killed by herdsmen after raiding a home preying on livestock.

The KWS said officers have intensified discussions with the local community to address the current conflict, which resulted in the killing of six lions.

"Unfortunately, this is not an isolated incident as over the last week, four other lions have been killed, resulting in a total of ten lions killed in the Amboseli ecosystem," the KWS said in a statement on Saturday evening.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Ken ... -0015.html

Best to move tribesmen away from areas surrounding the park, those lovely animals have had their natural habitat destroyed by human intervention for far too long

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Climate change strengthens storms

Tropical cyclones are ranked according to wind intensity, rising from tropical depression (under 63 kilometers per hour or 39 miles per hour), through tropical storms (63-117 kph) to major hurricanes (above that)

Climatologists and weather experts have debunked the myth that climate change makes cyclones and harsh storms occur more often. Instead, they stated that they make them more destructive and harsher.

They are called cyclones, hurricanes, or typhoons depending on the region they impact but are all violent tropical storms - that can generate energy 10 times as much as the Hiroshima atomic bomb.

Emmanuel Cloppet, of the French weather office Meteo France, told AFP: "A cyclone is a low-pressure system that forms in the tropics in an area hot enough for it to develop," adding: "It is characterized by rain/storm clouds that start rotating and generate intense rains and winds, and a storm surge created by the wind".

These huge weather phenomena are considered the more dangerous the more distance they are able to travel.

Tropical cyclones are ranked according to wind intensity, rising from tropical depression (under 63 kilometers per hour or 39 miles per hour), through tropical storms (63-117 kph) to major hurricanes (above that).

The most famous and used scale for measuring their intensity and potential to destruct is the five-level Saffir-Simpson wind scale.

According to World Weather Attribution (WWA), which is a group of climate scientists and specialists, "the overall number of tropical cyclones per year has not changed globally but climate change has increased the occurrence of the most intense and destructive storms".

The WWA functions to show reliable links between global heating and some weather phenomena.

Categories 3 to 5 on the Saffir-Simpson scale, which are regarded as the most violent and destructive have been occurring more frequently, and the anthropogenic climate crisis influences them in three ways: by warming the air and oceans and by triggering a rise in sea levels.

"Climate change therefore creates the conditions in which more powerful storms can form, intensify rapidly and persist to reach land, while carrying more water," the WWA said.

In its publication "Reporting Extreme Weather and Climate Change", the WWA state that "tropical cyclones are the most extreme rainfall events on the planet," explaining that since the atmosphere is becoming warmer, it can hold more water meaning that's why it pours harshly when it rains.

"A rise in air temperature of three degrees Celsius (5.4 degrees Fahrenheit) can potentially produce a 20-percent increase in the quantity of rain generated by a cyclonic event," said Cloppet, who clarified that this is the reason why flash floods and mudslides occur and become fatal.

One example was Cyclone Freddy, which killed hundreds in Malawi and Mozambique this year.

NASA has considered that Freddy holds the record for the highest accumulated cyclone energy (ACE) in the southern hemisphere. According to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), Freddy was first detected off Australia's northern coast on February 6, then "crossed the entire South Indian Ocean."

https://english.almayadeen.net/news/env ... them:-rese

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Lakes drying up

More than half of world's largest lakes, reservoirs drying up: Study. This places humanity's future water security at risk, with climate change and unsustainable consumption being the main culprits

More than half of the world's greatest lakes and reservoirs are disappearing, threatening humanity's future water security, with climate change and unsustainable usage to blame, a new study revealed.

"Lakes are in trouble globally, and it has implications far and wide," Balaji Rajagopalan, a professor at the University of Colorado Boulder and co-author of the paper, which appeared in Science, said as quoted by AFP.

"It really caught our attention that 25 percent of the world's population is living in a lake basin that is on a declining trend," he continued, meaning that some two billion people are impacted by the findings.

Lakes, unlike rivers, have received little scientific study, despite their crucial role in water security, according to Rajagopalan.

But high-profile environmental disasters in large water bodies like the Caspian Sea and the Aral Sea mirrored a wider crisis.

To investigate the subject thoroughly, the team, which comprised experts from the United States, France, and Saudi Arabia, examined Earth's largest 1,972 lakes and reservoirs using satellite images from 1992 to 2020.

They concentrated on bigger bodies of freshwater due to the greater precision of satellites at a wider scale, as well as their value to humans and animals.

To assess how lake capacity changed over nearly 30 years, they combined photos from Landsat, the longest-running Earth observation program, with water surface height measured by satellite altimeters.

The results: water storage in 53 percent of lakes and reservoirs decreased at a rate of around 22 gigatonnes per year.

During the whole study period, 603 cubic kilometers (145 cubic miles) of water was lost, which is 17 times the amount of water in Lake Mead, the biggest reservoir in the United States.

The researchers utilized statistical models including climatic and hydrologic patterns to break out natural and human-driven elements to determine what drove the trends.

For natural lakes, much of the net loss was blamed on climate warming, as well as human water consumption.

Increased temperatures from climate change drive evaporation but can also lessen precipitation in some places.

"The climate signal pervades all factors," said Rajagopalan.
Lakes losing volumes worldwide

One shocking aspect was that lakes in both wet and dry regions of the world are losing volume, indicating the "dry gets drier, wet gets wetter" paradigm that is frequently used to summarize how climate change affects regions doesn't always hold.

Losses were discovered in humid tropical Amazonian lakes, as well as Arctic lakes, indicating a trend that is more widespread than projected.

Storage loss in drying reservoirs has been blamed on accumulating sedimentation.

Despite the fact that most worldwide lakes were shrinking, roughly a quarter showed large gains in water storage.

The Tibetan Plateau was one of them, "where glacier retreat and permafrost thawing partially drove alpine lake expansion," as per the report.

Hilary Dugan, a scientist who studies freshwater systems at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and who wasn't involved in the study, said as quoted by AFP that the research advanced scientific understanding of lake volume variability, which is of "huge importance."

It is "unique in that it focuses on specific lakes, and reports the amount of water as a volume," she said.

But she added, "It's important to keep in mind that many water supplies are from small lakes and reservoirs," and future research should consider these too.

Freshwater lakes and reservoirs retain 87% of the world's liquid freshwater, emphasizing the importance of developing innovative solutions for sustainable consumption and climate mitigation.

"If a good chunk of freshwater lakes are drying, then you're going to see the impact come to you one way or the other, if not now in the not-too-distant future," said Rajagopalan.

"So it behooves all of us to be good stewards," she concluded.

https://english.almayadeen.net/news/env ... -drying-up:

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Drilling Not Authorized

On Wednesday, the Brazilian Institute of the Environment (IBAMA) denied the environmental license requested by the State-owned company Petrobras to explore crude oil fields at the mouth of the Amazon River

The license was the only authorization that Petrobras lacked to begin drilling in the "Equatorial Margin", a marine basin at the Atlantic Ocean in which large hydrocarbon deposits would exist.

"Petrobras had every opportunity to amend critical aspects of its project, which still presents worrying inconsistencies related to the socio-environmental consequences of the oil operation in the new exploratory frontier," said IBAMA President Rodrigo Agostinho.

His decision was accompanied by a technical report showing the need to carry out an Environmental Assessment of the Sedimentary Area, which would make it possible to identify the areas affected by the exploitation of crude oil and gas. This assessment, however, has never been performed.

Agostinho explained that the mouth of the Amazon is considered a region of "extreme socio-environmental sensitivity" because it is home to environmental reserves, indigenous territories, mangroves, coral reefs, and endangered marine species, such as gray dolphins and manatees.

The Brazilian Equatorial Margin is a deep-water region of the Atlantic where Guyana and Suriname have already discovered reserves with up to 13 billion barrels of crude.

Environment Minister Marina Silva said that instead of seeking new exploration frontiers, Petrobras should start thinking about an energy transition, especially at a time when climate change has become a global priority.

This position marks a clear difference in public policy between President Lula da Silva and the administration of Jair Bolsonaro, who defended the granting of oil exploitation permits in environmentally sensitive areas.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Pet ... -0016.html

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New York sinking due to skyscrapers

According to the researchers, the city’s structures, including the famous Empire State Building and Chrysler Building, weigh a total of 1.68 trillion lbs - roughly equivalent to the weight of 140 million elephants

Research published in the Earth’s Future journal suggests that New York City is partially sinking as a result of the extraordinary weight of its famous skyscrapers, worsening the flooding threat from the rising seas.

The water level around NYC is increasing by approximately 1-2mm each year on average, with some areas of the city sinking at double this rate, according to researchers, who added that the impact of sea level rise is being accelerated by the sinking.

The water that surrounds New York City has risen by about 9 inches or 22 cm since 1950, and major flooding events could happen up to four times more than now by the end of the century because of rise in sea levels and climate-change-strengthened hurricanes combined.

Climatologists and weather experts have already debunked the myth that climate change makes cyclones and harsh storms occur more often. Instead, they stated that they make them more destructive and harsher.

“A deeply concentrated population of 8.4 million people faces varying degrees of hazard from inundation in New York City,” researchers stated, adding that other coastal cities around the world will be as affected as the climate crisis worsens. “The combination of tectonic and anthropogenic subsidence, sea level rise, and increasing hurricane intensity imply an accelerating problem along coastal and riverfront areas,” they clarified.

According to the researchers, the city’s structures, including the famous Empire State Building and Chrysler Building, weigh a total of 1.68 trillion lbs - roughly equivalent to the weight of 140 million elephants.

Even though many of the largest buildings are placed upon solid bedrock, there is a mixture of other sands and clays that have been built over, which add to the sinking effect already naturally occurring along much of the US east coast as the land reacts to the retreat of huge glaciers after the end of the last ice age.

Tom Parsons, a geophysicist at the US Geological Survey, who managed and led the research said, “It’s not something to panic about immediately but there’s this ongoing process that increases the risk of inundation from flooding".

“The softer the soil, the more compression there is from the buildings. It wasn’t a mistake to build such large buildings in New York but we’ve just got to keep in mind every time you build something there you push down the ground a little bit more.”

When New York was hit by Hurricane Sandy in 2012, parts of the subway were flooded which caused massive damage and power blackouts. Then, in 2021, Hurricane Ida caused several people to die in its floods and scientists claim both hurricanes were strengthened by the effects of global warming.

Parsons believes that other coastal cities alongside New York “have to get planning for this. If you get repeated exposure to seawater, you can corrode steel and destabilize buildings, which you clearly don’t want. Flooding also kills people, too, which is probably the greatest concern.”

https://english.almayadeen.net/news/env ... raising-se

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Half world's species declining

Researchers warn that the global biodiversity loss caused by human industry is far more serious than previously imagined

Over half of all animal species on the planet's surface are experiencing declines in their population sizes, new research revealed.

The paper, which was released on Tuesday, analyzes variations in population densities of more than 70,000 animal species from throughout the world over time, making it the most extensive study of its type to date.

The findings, according to the researchers from Queen's University Belfast, constitute a "drastic warning", since global biodiversity loss due to the human industry is far more frightening than previously assumed.

They discovered that 48% of the species on Earth are now experiencing population decline, while fewer than 3% are experiencing population growth.

The extent to which species become extinct has historically been quantified by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's (IUCN) danger conservation categories, which discovered that 28% of life on Earth is now threatened with extinction.

The latest study, on the other hand, employed a global-scale examination of a different metric of extinction danger, which is "population trends".

The researchers discovered that the size of the extinction problem is far greater than indicated by the usual danger category-based approach.

They also discovered that 33% of species now classified as "safe" under the IUCN conservation categories are in reality on the verge of extinction.

Meanwhile, the lack of species with expanding numbers indicates that other species are not developing to fill the place of extinct species in the environment, according to the findings.

“This new study method and global-scale analysis provide a clearer picture about the true extent of global erosion of biodiversity that the traditional approach cannot offer,” Dr. Daniel Pincheira-Donoso, senior lecturer in evolutionary biology and macroecology at Queen’s University Belfast, said.

“Our work is a drastic alert about the current magnitude of this crisis that has already devastating impacts on the stability of nature as a whole, and on human health and wellbeing,” Pincheira-Donoso added.

Catherine Finn, a Ph.D. student at Queen’s University Belfast and a leading author on the research, said, “Almost half of animals on Earth for which assessments are available are currently declining."

“To make matters worse, many of the animal species that are thought to be non-threatened from extinction, are in fact progressively declining,” Finn added.

Global biodiversity loss is seen as one of humanity's most critical issues in the future decades, impacting ecosystem functioning, food supply, disease transmission, and global economic stability.

https://english.almayadeen.net/news/env ... ide:-study

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UK special forces covert operations

A report by Action on Armed Violence, a UK-based research charity, details the various secretive actions of UK special forces in 19 countries around the world/ that have been noted in media leaks

British special forces including the Special Air Service (SAS) have operated in at least 19 different countries over the last 12 years, a report by Action on Armed Violence revealed.

The UK special forces have been active in Sudan, Syria, Ukraine, and Russia, among other nations around the globe, as their secret operations are not publicly disclosed by the government's ministers

The group collected a list of the special forces' operations by examining media leaks that detail some of their activities.

The report revealed the role of the SAS, Special Boat Service, and Special Reconnaissance Regiments in espionage and high-risk missions ordered by British prime ministers and defense secretaries in areas that the country is not at war with.

The main activity highlighted was centered in Syria, as the report showed multiple events in which forces were deployed to aid militant groups against the country's legitimate government since 2012, as well as bombing missions in 2013 which the UK parliament eventually voted against.

In 2018, Matt Tonroe, a member of the SAS, was killed via an improvised explosive device in Syria and was officially reported as a soldier of the Parachute regiment in an attempt to disguise special forces activities in the area.

Only later was it revealed that Tonroe died after a grenade carried by a US soldier detonated in the vicinity.

Earlier, the Pentagon leaks showed that while the US and France had 14 and 15 members respectively present in Ukraine, 50 UK special force members were there although Britain is not formally party to the conflict, which is evidence of the covert operations undertaken by the UK, US, and France to aid Kiev in its war with Moscow.

The UK secret services benefit from a legal loophole — as the House of Commons has to approve the deployment of UK regular troops while special forces can commence operation without approval — that allows for a lack of oversite over their activities, Action on Armed Violence reported.

In 2015, an attack on a beach hotel in Tunisia killed 38 people, including 30 British nationals. At the time, Prime Minister David Cameron gave the SAS a "carte blanche" to kill or capture Islamist leaders in the MENA region.

"The extensive deployment of Britain’s Special Forces in numerous countries over the past decade raises serious concerns about transparency and democratic oversight," Iain Overton, the executive director of the research charity.

Overton highlighted "the lack of parliamentary approval and retrospective reviews for these missions," which is "deeply troubling".

A public inquiry was launched earlier in March to investigate allegations that the SAS killed 54 civilians in Afghanistan between 2010 and 2011. The issue involves night raids in which men were repeatedly shot after getting separated from their families with SAS forces claiming that they had weapons in their possession.

The UK government concealed the involvement of special forces in the evacuation of British diplomats from Khartoum, Sudan, where reports made to the public only discuss the involvement of members of the Parachute regiment, the Royal Marine, and the Royal Armed Forces.

The report also discloses the involvement of SAS soldiers who were sent to "protect" British athletes at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.

The full list of countries also includes Algeria, Estonia, France, Oman, Iraq, Kenya, Libya, Mali, Cyprus, Pakistan, Somalia, and Yemen. It was sent to the Ministry of Defense, although the Ministry routinely says it does not comment on the activity of special forces.

An MoD spokesperson said, “It is the longstanding policy of successive governments not to comment on UK Special Forces.”

https://english.almayadeen.net/news/pol ... -19-countr

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Zoo apologises for Kiwi mistreatment

A US zoo has apologised for mistreating a kiwi, after footage of visitors patting the nocturnal bird under bright lights caused outrage in New Zealand

Zoo Miami said it was "deeply sorry" about the incident, which occurred during a paid animal encounter between the kiwi and zoo guests.

The kiwi encounter has since been removed from the zoo's offerings.

Pāora was hatched in Zoo Miami in 2019 as part of a breeding programme aimed at ensuring the kiwi species' survival.

Considered a national icon in New Zealand, the flightless kiwi bird is symbolic of the country's unique natural heritage and the basis for the nickname applied to its people.

In videos which went viral on social media on Tuesday, Pāora looked visibly agitated as guests patted it under the lights, trying to retreat into darkness at times.

The uproar in New Zealand was swift and widespread, prompting an online petition and comments from Prime Minister Chris Hipkins who thanked the zoo for taking public concerns seriously.

"They've acknowledged what they were doing wasn't appropriate, or wasn't right, or wasn't fair, to the kiwi," Mr Hipkins told a press conference.

A zoo spokesman told broadcaster Radio NZ that the paid visitor encounter had been "not well conceived", adding "we were wrong".

"We give you our word that the public will never handle Pāora again," said communications director Ron Magill.

Pāora is usually kept out of public view, according to Zoo Miami, which says plans are "under way" to build a special habitat that will provide him the shelter he needs, while also teaching guests "about the amazing kiwi without any direct contact".

Kiwis are beloved by all cultures in New Zealand and considered a Māori cultural treasure - it is incredibly rare for them to be kept in captivity.

New Zealand's Department of Conservation said it would discuss Tuesday's incident involving Pāora with the US Association of Zoos and Aquariums to "address some of the housing and handling concerns raised".

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-65694168

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1,500+ activists arrested

This comes as 7,000 people gathered to join the protests held against Dutch fossil fuel subsidies

Around 1,500 individuals were detained on Saturday during a protest by the Extinction Rebellion climate organization in The Hague, according to Dutch police.

During the afternoon, activists blocked a section of a highway during a protest against Dutch fossil fuel subsidies.

Police said they used water cannons to disperse demonstrators who were blocking a key route in the city and detained "a total of 1,579 people... 40 of whom will be prosecuted" for damage and other crimes.

Among the demonstrators were many Dutch celebrities, notably Carice van Houten, widely known for her role as Melisandre in the blockbuster TV series Game of Thrones. Van Houten shared a video on Instagram of herself getting soaked by a water cannon while wearing a red poncho.

Houten was reportedly arrested and later released, as per ANP. The news agency did not specify if she was among those who would face charges.

Anticipating the water cannon, some activists wore swimsuits or carried umbrellas as they sat in protest across the A12 motorway, holding banners and signs.

This is the third demonstration organized by Extinction Rebellion on the same section of the highway in the Hague, near the parliament and main government buildings.

The protest witnessed the largest number of people arrested at such a rally, according to the Dutch news agency ANP.

“We’re going to stay here until they drag us away,” said postgraduate student Anne Kerevers, 31. Climate change is an unfolding crisis and we know the cause and it’s still being subsidized by our government and it needs to stop,” she said as quoted by AFP.

Police claimed they consistently “given activists the opportunity to end their action and leave” prior to utilizing the water cannon and arresting activists.

“We’ve been coming back every month, or every two months, and every time the number (of protesters) has doubled,” said Aaron Pereira, a spokesperson for Extinction Rebellion.

“There is broad popular support for real climate action and people are waking up to the fact that the government is actively going against this by subsidizing the fossil fuel industry," Pereira added.

The environmental movement organization XR has gained fame for its direct action protests against the climate crisis. However, in January, the organization stated that it will abandon disruptive methods, and instead, it plans to mobilize massive numbers in response to what it regards as government inaction on global warming.

https://english.almayadeen.net/news/env ... -the-hague

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Flesh-eating seaweed

The massive swath of seaweed creeping across the Atlantic Ocean toward Florida may carry deadly flesh-eating bacteria

The 5,000-mile wide blob of murky seaweed slithering menacingly across the Atlantic before dumping itself along the US coastline might have been a suspenseful story.

However, after the massive clumps of the 13 million ton morass labeled the Great Atlantic sargassum belt are washing up on Florida beaches, scientists warn of a real-life threat posed by the heaps of rotting algae, notably high concentrations of the flesh-eating Vibrio bacteria hiding in the vegetation.

The troubling finding by marine biologists at Florida Atlantic University (FAU) adds a perilous new dimension to the brown seaweed invasion, which is already threatening to ruin the state's lucrative summer travel season as coats of decaying goop emit a strong odor resembling that of rotten eggs.

What is even more concerning, according to the experts, is how ocean pollution contributes to the growth of the bacteria, which, if ingested, can lead to illness and even death. As a result of the debris interaction with the bacteria and algae in the samples studied from the Atlantic's Caribbean and Sargasso Sea, a "perfect pathogen storm [with] implications for both marine life and public health" was created.

Tracy Mincer, assistant professor of biology at FAU’s Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute and Harriet L Wilkes Honors College, said their lab work proved that "these Vibrio are extremely aggressive and can seek out and stick to plastic within minutes."

According to him, the seaweed belt that stretches from the Gulf of Mexico to the coast of Africa serves as the ideal breeding habitat for "omnivorous" strains of bacteria that prey on both plant and animal life, as well as accompanying "microbial flora" that may contain pathogens with high pathogenic potential.

"We really want to make the public aware of these associated risks. In particular, caution should be exercised regarding the harvest and processing of sargassum biomass until the risks are explored more thoroughly," Mincer said.

Many people are concerned about this, including municipal workers tasked with cleaning up washed-up seaweed off Florida's beaches to make them more appealing to tourists, as well as groups of volunteers who care about the environment and fill garbage bags with the debris that has washed ashore.

According to the founder of the non-profit Clean Miami Beach, Sophie Ringel, it has been "very alarming in the first place to see it on the beaches, and alarming to see all the plastic that is entangled in it. And now even more than that, there’s harmful bacteria too. That’s so scary."

In order to avoid direct contact with the items they remove, recruits will take precautions like wearing thick gloves, using hand sanitizer, and using long-handled grabbers for the beach cleaning on Saturday to commemorate World Ocean Day.

Ringel added that they will be paying more attention and ensuring that after the cleanup, everybody cleans their hands and does not touch their faces. However, she wondered, "What happens if we ingest it or come in contact with it? Is it transferable? And when it rains, does it end up in our drinking water?"

Sargassum should be avoided, according to Florida's Department of Health, which also cautions that Vibrio vulnificus infections "can be severe for people who have weakened immune systems, such as those with chronic liver disease."

The Florida legislature has allocated $5 million to help local governments with cleanup operations, according to the state's Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), which also claims to be collaborating with towns, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission, and other agencies to monitor the seaweed belt.

Jon Moore, a DEP spokesman, told The Guardian that this is "not a new phenomenon and many local governments, particularly in South Florida, are experienced in managing it on their beaches and already have management plans and the necessary authorizations in place to respond."

Crews with heavy machinery remove most sargassum on Miami Beach, and two more on Key Biscayne, after surveyors check for turtle nests to make sure that the beaches of the popular tourist place stay clean and attractive and to remove the threat of infection or respiratory distress from hydrogen sulfide.

Tom Morgan, chief of operations for Miami-Dade County’s parks, recreation, and open spaces, said their beach maintenance crews "are instructed to wear gloves if they’re removing anything from the water’s edge and the sargassum related to plastics, or any other type of debris, pieces of wood or anything like that."

The County anticipates spending $6 million on seaweed removal this year, although it is illegal and undesirable to remove sargassum from the water before it washes ashore.

Crabs, shrimp, and other marine invertebrates depend on it for their survival, and they in turn give gulls, terns, and other seabirds like plovers a bountiful floating "buffet" of food. Unfortunately, the sargassum belt's toxicity can also be dangerous.

As per Ringel, the plastic they find in the seaweed on a daily basis is shocking, and the animals out in the ocean try to get nutrition from it and automatically ingest the plastic.

One encouraging development is that the amount of sargassum in the Atlantic unexpectedly declined by approximately 15% in May, and is anticipated to fall in the Gulf of Mexico this month, according to researchers at the University of South Florida (USF), who have followed it using satellite photography.

Overall, though, scientists have seen significant increases in sargassum during the past ten years and anticipate that trend to continue.

https://english.almayadeen.net/news/env ... da-beaches

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Rich nations owe $192 trillion

Countries that release the least emission would receive approximately $6 trillion annually for committing their economies to decarbonizing quicker than required

A joint research from the University of Leeds and the University of Barcelona has discovered that wealthy nations owe almost $200 trillion to developing and least developed countries - those bearing the brunt of the climate crisis - as a result of being responsible for excessive levels of carbon dioxide emissions.

Published on Monday in the journal Nature Sustainability, the study drew out the first plan to hold countries liable, requesting a compensation fund of $192 trillion by 2050, as reported by Forbes.

Climate scientists stated that global carbon budgets (which measure how much carbon can be released to achieve a certain climate target) calculate the equal “fair share” of the total carbon budget for 168 countries, based on their population size.

When each nation's fair share was calculated, researchers found some countries to be within their allocation, but mainly industrialized countries in the Global North were found already significantly surpassing their allocation.

The Global North, representing the US, Europe, Canada, and Australia, was found responsible for compensating $170 trillion, while the rest of the $192 trillion figure was due from high-emitting countries in the global South like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Countries that release the least emission would receive approximately $6 trillion annually for committing to decarbonizing their economies quicker than required, according to the researchers.

Compensation for an 'unfair burden'

The study stated that the US was liable for paying a whopping $80 trillion.

Other nations have done a better job at maintaining low levels of carbon emissions, such as India, which could be entitled to receive $57 trillion in compensation, as per an estimate in the study.

“It is a matter of climate justice that if we are asking nations to rapidly decarbonize their economies, even though they hold no responsibility for the excess emissions that are destabilizing the climate, then they should be compensated for this unfair burden,” said Andrew Fanning, one of the researchers of the study.

Referring to a potential solution, the Global Project stated last year that it would take a cut of almost 1.4 billion tons of carbon dioxide each year from global emissions to reach zero emissions by 2050.

Scientists have been calling for that solution in recent years as society is starting to become more aware of the effects of CO2 emissions.

During her visit to New York for the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina told AFP, "They don't act. They can talk but they don't act," adding, "The rich countries, the developed countries, this is their responsibility. They should come forward. But we are not getting that much response from them. That is the tragedy. I know the rich countries, they want to become more rich and rich. They don't bother for others."

Even Pakistani Minister for Climate Change Sherry Rehman called on rich nations to compensate for the damage they've caused as part of the climate crisis back in September.

The biggest nation emitting CO2 is China, which has vowed to reduce emissions to net zero by 2060, followed by the US which has a long-term plan of reaching net zero by 2050.

Since the US revealed a $370 billion "buy American" subsidy package for tax credits and renewable energy subsidies known as the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) last year, the manufacturing of green technologies became more necessary.

https://english.almayadeen.net/news/env ... ate-crisis:

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Red air quality alert for Washington

The Maryland government has been forced to issue a red quality alert for much of the state, including all of its Washington suburbs, on Wednesday owing to severe pollution generated by wildfires in Canada

Plumes of smoke are heading across the Northeastern US from southeastern Canada's Nova Scotia Province as a result of scorching wildfires, and air quality alerts are on in several cities.

In an official notice, the Maryland Department of Environment explained that “While some reprieve in concentrations is expected during the day Wednesday, additional concentrated smoke plumes due to the diurnally surging nature of the fires in Quebec will push towards Maryland Wednesday evening. This may further add to the daily average load, resulting in some areas of the state attaining Unhealthy, Code Red AQI due to fine particles."

The red alert is the fourth of six levels in the system and will stay in place until Thursday due to the Quebec wildfires continuously causing large amounts of smoke to spread toward the Mid-Atlantic area.

The notice detailed how a "concentrated plume of smoke is working south through Pennsylvania and New York towards the eastern half of Maryland."

Maryland officials estimate the situation to improve slightly by Friday, but the air may remain toxic for certain vulnerable sectors of the population.

Similar advisories were issued by the National Weather Service for Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York, Massachusetts, Delaware, and numerous more states.

The White House said on Wednesday that US President Joe Biden has been briefed and is being kept up to date on the continuing Canadian wildfires, which the government has dispatched over 600 firefighters to assist suppress.

According to White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre during a briefing on Wednesday, "The President has been regularly updated [on the wildfires in Canada] since he directed his team to provide impacted communities whatever support they need."

Jean Pierre elaborated that the Biden administration is in continuous contact with the government of Canada and has deployed more than 600 firefighters, utilizing equipment like water bombers to help extinguish the raging fires.

"We also have been in close touch with state and local leaders including in Michigan, Illinois, and New York. And multiple agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency, CDC, and FEMA are coordinating with state, local, and tribal governments to get timely and accurate information out to communities about local air quality conditions and what steps they can take to protect themselves," Jean-Pierre added

The government is urging individuals in wildfire-affected regions to listen to state and local officials for updates and to take precautions, such as wearing a mask outside, to prevent any health concerns presented by dirty air.

As smoke from the fires continues to permeate the air as it flows east, Jean-Pierre recommended individuals in afflicted areas follow AirNow.gov for real-time information about air quality in their communities.

For weeks, fires have been burning in Canada as the country experiences high temperatures and unusual wildfire smoke, which is currently heading toward the US, even though the Northwestern states are not usually affected.

Studies show that climate change is leading to larger, more intense, and more frequent wildfires, and described the smoke from these fires as hazardous due to its harmful microscopic particles.

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Click Image to Enlarge:

Where wildfire smoke is hitting the hardest

Smoky scenes — so common in California during recent summers — are now paying the eastern United States an unwelcome, improbable and toxic visit

A thick veil of Canadian wildfire smoke is spreading south over much of the Midwest, Ohio Valley, Northeast and Mid-Atlantic, bringing milky-white skies and dangerous air pollution to the most populous corridor of the country. Fine particles contained within the smoke, hazardous to breathe, have prompted air quality alerts for tens of millions of people from South Carolina to New Hampshire.

As of Tuesday evening, New York City had the worst air quality in the world among major cities. Scenes from social media and web cameras showed the sky above Manhattan tinged a reddish-orange hue, drawing comparisons to Mars.

“If you’re a New Yorker with heart or breathing issues, be careful when you’re outdoors,” said the City of New York in a tweet signed by the mayor. “Smoke from wildfires in Canada is impacting our city’s air, so an Air Quality Health Advisory has been issued. Try to limit outdoor activities today to the absolute necessities.”

The haze and smell of smoke from the Canadian wildfires hung heavy over New York, raising concerns about air quality June 6. (Video: Julie Yoon, Joyce Koh/The Washington Post)

On Wednesday morning, hazardous air quality reached Washington, D.C., where the air smelled like smoke and reduced visibility to two miles.

In some places, air quality measurements are the worst on record. Marshall Burke, a professor of environment at Stanford University, tweeted that this event is the “[n]ear worst or worst event” in the past two decades or so, based on smoke particle data.

New Haven, Conn., posted its worst air quality on record Tuesday while EPA measurements showed hazardous smoke pollution enveloping much of New York state and southern New England.

Where are the wildfires causing the smoke?

The source of much of the smoke pouring into the region is Quebec, Canada. Most broke out in the past week. Across Canada, there are 416 active fires, 240 of which the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Center lists as “out of control.”

The wildfires cropped up beneath a well-predicted “heat dome,” or zone of high pressure, which brought sinking air and warm, dry conditions that broke records for the time of year and location.

Wildfire smoke from Canada continued to spread to the U.S. on June 6, creating hazy sunrises. (Video: The Washington Post)

Low pressure swirling counter-clockwise over Nova Scotia, meanwhile, is making for a conveyor belt of northerly winds that is pumping the smoke south over the Great Lakes, Northeast and Mid-Atlantic.

Where is the smoke and where is it worst?

Satellite imagery Wednesday morning showed smoke covering the Northeast and extending into the Carolinas. The thickest extended from lakes Erie and Ontario to southern New York state.

That said, hazardous air quality reached as far west as Minnesota on Tuesday, according to AirNow.gov, and into the Carolinas Wednesday morning.

Environmental agencies plastered air quality alerts across an expansive swath of the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic, in effect into Wednesday, cautioning that “sensitive individuals, including those with heart or lung disease, the elderly, and the young should limit strenuous activities and the amount of time active outdoors.”

The alerts cover southeast Michigan, parts of Ohio, northern South Carolina, much of North Carolina, northern Virginia, much of Maryland, Delaware, eastern Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island and western New Hampshire.

During Tuesday, some of the worst air quality was concentrated in western New York into Quebec and Ontario, where code red and purple conditions were prevalent, meaning air quality was hazardous for all populations.

Jase Bernhardt, a professor of meteorology at Hofstra University, determined that the Air Quality Index in Syracuse, N.Y., was the worst since reliable records began in 1999.

Particle pollution in Detroit and New York registered at the highest and second-highest levels, respectively, since 2006, Stanford’s Burke found.

Meanwhile, forecasters at the Weather Service in Burlington, Vt., called the smoke situation “uncharted territory,” having never dealt with it before. “[W]e are learning and adapting as the event unfolds,” they wrote in a discussion.

How long will it last?

With no end in sight to the fires, the question of how long the smoke lingers comes down to wind direction.

Wednesday into Thursday, an even worse round of wildfire smoke could waft south out of Canada on the backside of a north-to-south-moving cold front. Pennsylvania, New York state and the Mid-Atlantic — including major metro areas such as Philadelphia, Newark, New York, Baltimore, Washington and Richmond — are likely to see very poor air quality. Outdoor recreation would probably be hazardous.

Winds will become more northwesterly Friday into Saturday. While that won’t fully clear the smoke, it will bring a reduction in the concentrations of fine particulate matter. Visibilities, sky conditions and air quality will improve somewhat.

How unusual are the fires?

Very unusual. Wildfires are normal to an extent across Canada and the western United States in the summertime, but outbreaks as widespread and numerous as these are virtually unheard of in late May into June. The amount of smoke pouring into the Northeast is thus also exceptional.

While wildfires can be sparked in many different ways, the rapidity with which they spread is proportional to how hot and dry the ambient environment is. There exists a strong link between the frequency and intensity of heat domes and human-caused climate change. A number of high-end heat domes have already fostered wildfire outbreaks across Canada this year, and more appear to be in the offing.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/ ... pollution/

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How bad is the air quality this morning?

The thick smoke continues to hang over major cities in North America, so let's take a look at how bad the air quality is

We are using the Air Quality Index (AQI) which indicates how clean or polluted the air is around you. The index runs from 0-500 and the higher the number, the worse it is for your health.

Anything from 151-200 is designated as "unhealthy". When the number is between 201-300 it's "very unhealthy" and the the risk is increased for everyone. The highest level is "hazardous" and occurs when the AQI is above 301.

These are the AQI levels in a handful of US east coast cities as of 07:30 local time (12:30 BST).

Philadelphia - 369

Washington DC - 235

New York City -222

Buffalo - 131

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Diseases spreading

The Turkish state continues to reduce the Euphrates' water, causing the river to dry up and pollution to increase. Little water and the increasing heat cause disease to spread. Hundreds of people who fall ill due to the pollution of the river water apply to the health centers on the banks of the Euphrates every day

Located on the Euphrates, 30 kilometers west of Kobanê, the residents of the town of Qena use the waters of the Euphrates to drink as well as water their gardens. The Qena Health Center treats 6 to 8 people who are poisoned by river water every day.

Since there is no drinking water network in the district and the water in the wells is too salty to drink, the residents have to take water from the Euphrates River and use it both for drinking and housework. However, in recent years, due to the Turkish state attacks, the amount of Euphrates water has decreased and, as a result, the water has been polluted, increasing the risks to the health of residents.

The director of the Qena Health Center, Dr. Omer Feyad Ehmed told ANHA that most patients who applied to the health center due to water pollution were vomiting and had diarrhoea. Dr. Ehmed said cases of cholera were common last year and urged residents to disinfect the river water with medicines or by boiling it thoroughly until it is clean.

Dr. Ehmed added: "Due to the lack of water and electricity in the region, the residents of the region keep their meals in hot environments. As a result, the cases of poisoning are increasing. Therefore, the food should be eaten immediately and should not be left for too long."

According to reports, the Qena Health Center treats more than 300 cases of poisoning due to pollution every month.

Eladin Kino Eto, spokesperson for the Kobanê canton Health Committee, said that 391 cases of water intoxication were documented last May from the regions around the River, mostly from Sirîn and Qena districts. He also noted that 719 cases of water intoxication were documented last April, and the situation worsened with the arrival of summer.

According to the 1987 agreement signed between Syria and Turkey, Syria's share of the Euphrates water is 500 cubic meters per second, but the Turkish state uses the river water as a weapon against the Syrian people and supplies less than 200 cubic meters of water per second.

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