"Reducing nitrous oxide emissions from U.S. chemical plants could reduce greenhouse gas emissions at little cost. Similar plants in China offer a “far bigger prize.”"
"When Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers headed to the country’s first “international climate change conference” earlier this year in the eastern city of Jalalabad, few foreign guests turned up."
"Climate change and contaminated water have combined to create an epidemic of kidney disease."
A major intergovernmental gathering later this year will address plastic pollution, including in oceans. But an overview from our Issue Backgrounder notes that the likelihood of solving the problem may be small. One reason? Petrochemical industry lobbying. Another? The shifting world market for plastic waste. And there are more concerns, such as the effectiveness of incineration and chemical recycling techniques. More, including questions to ask, in Backgrounder.
"India's annual monsoon rains covered the entire country on Tuesday, six days ahead of the usual time of arrival, the state-run weather department said, although rain totals are still 7% below average so far this season."
"The putrid smell of burning garbage wafts for miles from the landfill on the outskirts of Jammu in a potentially toxic miasma fed by the plastics, industrial, medical and other waste generated by a city of some 740,000 people. But a handful of waste pickers ignore both the fumes and suffocating heat to sort through the rubbish, seeking anything they can sell to earn at best the equivalent of $4 a day."
"Too hot, too dry, too wet; as extreme weather threatens food security, the race is on to get new seed varieties in the ground"
“Pitfall: The Race to Mine the World’s Most Vulnerable Places,” a new work by investigative journalist Christopher Pollon, offers a sweeping global view of how the mining industry profits, despite causing vast environmental losses and failing to acknowledge Indigenous ownership or rights to the land it mines. BookShelf’s Melody Kemp lauds Pollon’s searing observations and investigations. Read her review.
"A group of the world’s last wild horses have returned to their native Kazakhstan after an absence of about 200 years. ... The wild horses, known as Przewalski’s horses, once roamed the vast steppe grasslands of central Asia, where horses are believed to have been first domesticated about 5,500 years ago."
