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Africa is splitting into two – Should we panic?

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  Geologists say that Africa is progressively splitting in two, a process that will eventually take entire nations away from the continent and result in the birth of a new ocean. The slow separation of the continent is linked to a 35-mile-long crack that formed in Ethiopia’s desert after an earthquake in 2005, and will eventually become a completely new sea. The world witnessed dramatic evidence of this back in March 2018 , when an enormous crack opened in the ground in southwestern Kenya. The tear, which appeared suddenly after heavy rains, measured several kilometres in length and swallowed a section of the Nairobi-Narok highway. The Nubian African Plate, the Somalian African Plate, andthe Arabian Plate are separating at varying rates. The Arabian Plate is separating from Africa at a rate of around an inch per year, while the two African plates are separating at a rate of half an inch to 0.2 inch per year. This geological process will inevitably divide the continent, resulting in c
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Global Water Cycle Off Balance For The First Time In Human History

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  A report published by the Global Commission on the Economics of Water says that decades of destructive land use and water mismanagement have collided with the human-caused climate crisis to put “unprecedented stress” on the global water cycle. The global water cycle is off balance “for the firsttime in human history,” fueling a growing water disaster that will wreak havocon economies, food production and lives, according to this report. The water cycle is a global common good (as should be governed as such) since there is interdependence and interconnectedness of communities, countries, and regions across local and transboundary water systems. Some of the key findings of the Report are that: High-population density hotspots such as Northwestern India are particularly vulnerable to challenges associated with water. Poorest 10% of global population obtain over 70% of their annual precipitation from land-based sources. GDP losses from climate change, total water storage, and redu
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RIP Mr. Tata

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Ratan Tata, the former chairman of the diversified Tata Group and one of the leading lights among India’s corporate tycoons, passed away at the age of 86 on Wednesday, October 9, 2024. Born on December 28, 1937, in Navsari, Gujarat, Ratan Tata was the great-grandson of Jamsetji Tata, the founder of the Tata Group . Ratan Tata took over the helm at Tata Group in 1991  when India had just started to liberalise its economy.  Under his leadership, the Tata Group made a string of high-profile acquisitions including that of Tetley Tea, Corus, Jaguar Land Rover, Brunner Mond, General Chemical Industrial Products and Daewoo. All of this took place before I hit my teens and so I don’t remember even reading of them, till today. However, three things about Ratan Tata have impressed the hell out of me. One, his love for pets, especially dogs. In 2018, Ratan Tata decreed that any stray outside the Tata Group's headquarters in downtown Mumbai be allowed shelter. Entry for stray animals at Mumbai
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The Thwaites Glacier in Antarctica is melting at an accelerating rate

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  Scientists using ice-breaking ships and underwater robotshave found the Thwaites Glacier in Antarctica is melting at an acceleratingrate and could be on an irreversible path to collapse, spelling catastrophe forglobal sea level rise. A six-year investigation into the vast Thwaites glacier in Antarctica has concluded with a grim outlook on its future. Often dubbed the “doomsday glacier”, this huge mass of ice is comparable in size to Britain or Florida and its collapse alone would raise sea levels by 65 centimetres. Worse still, this is expected to trigger a more widespread loss of the ice sheet covering West Antarctica, causing a calamitous sea level rise of 3.3 metres and threatening cities like New York, Kolkata and Shanghai. Though the glacier is in anextremely remote and difficult area, the International Thwaites GlacierCollaboration (ITGC), a joint UK-US research programme, has deployed 100scientists there over the past six years, using planes, ships and underwaterrobots to
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How did the world fare when I did my Term 1 exams?

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I just finished the first term of my last year at school. As usual, we had a set of exams before a short break kicked in. I had drastically cut down on my news reading for the last three weeks and couldn’t wait to catch up as soon I got home yesterday after my physics exam. Horrible news from Sweden , a country which I visited once when I was three (I don’t remember a thing) and which I hope to re-visit one day. Apparently Sweden plans to cull 20% of its brown bear population. Licenses have been issued to kill 486 bears. We are told that culling is necessary for sustaining the rest of the bear population and at some level, it does make sense. However, I am very sad to hear this news. The summer of 2024 has been the warmest ever in the Northern Hemisphere, the EU Climate Change monitor has said. This is yet another portent of the disaster we are walking into. In India, thanks to climate change, monsoons have become extremely unpredictable. This year, monsoon rains have continued
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Mpox - A Pandemic Rears Its Head Once Again

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On August 14, 2024, WHO called the latest mpox outbreak an ‘emergency of international concern’. A UNICEF press release states that children are among those at great risk of contracting Mpox in Congo , one of the most affected countries. Mpox, previously known as monkeypox, is a self-limiting viral infection caused by mpox virus (MPXV). At least 99,176 cases and 208 deaths due to mpox have been reported from 116 countries since 2022, according to data from the WHO. This is the second time the infection has received the designation in as many years — the outbreak between July 2022 and May 2023 was also declared as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC). Mpox was discovered in 1958 (in captive monkeys, hence the original misnomer “monkeypox”) and the first human case was identified in 1970. Then for decades it was largely neglected by the scientific and public health communities, regarded as an uncommon infection in remote rural areas in tropical Africa without releva
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The Resumption Of Nuclear Testing - A Scary Possibility

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  A few weeks ago, I read this interesting piece in the NewYork Times about the possibility of the US, Russia and China resuming nuclear testing. "From 1945 to 2017, nuclear nations carried out more than 2,000 explosive tests in the atmosphere, underground and underwater, mostly in remote places. Some of the atmospheric tests were magnitudes more powerful than the bombs dropped on Japan, sickening and displacing thousands." Seven decades after Castle Bravo, the United States’ most devastating nuclear test, the people of Bikini Atoll are yet to  receive fair compensation . The Soviets do not have a better record.  Hundreds of tests were carried out between 1949 and 1989 on the barren steppe near the city of Semey, formerly known as Semipalatinsk, close to the Kazakh-Russian border. The effect of radiation had a devastating impact on the environment and local people's health, and continues to affect lives there today. Scary! Hope this does not come to pass!
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