Ripples In A Teacup

That New Delhi is the most polluted capital in the world is well-known. Delhi is much more polluted than Beijing ever was. In the middle of November, Delhi’s air quality index (AQI) was around 1,700. At the worst point of Beijing’s pollution crisis, the highest the AQI reached was 1,300. The maximum AQI deemed healthy by the World Health Organization is 50. The toxic smog engulfing Delhi was visible from space as satellite images captured the Indian national capital’s “severe” air pollution crisis continuing for two consecutive days . Schools had to shut down . The Indian government cannot deal with this issue the way the Chinese government did. Closing down factories en masse and stopping other pollution causing activities with a single diktak isn’t easy in democratic India. Also, the state government of Delhi is constantly at loggerheads with the Indian federal government and co-operation and coordination between Centre and State is something that is definitely missing. Each blam...

  Sometime in April, Riyadh was selected as the host of Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) Finals from 2024-2026. The 2024 season-ending Finals took place in Riyadh between November 2-9 and featured the Top 8 singles players and doubles teams. The Women’s Tennis Association apparently selected Riyadh following a comprehensive evaluation process over several months. The agreement between the WTA and the Saudi Tennis Federation offered a record prize money of $15.25 million at the WTA Finals in 2024 with further increases in 2025 and 2026. The partnership will also support broader investment in the future development and growth of women’s tennis, including the WTA’s plans to grow the global fanbase for women’s tennis through increased investment in marketing, digital and fan engagement. The decision to award the WTA Finals to Saudi Arabia, has sparked a significant debate in the tennis world, especially among female tennis players. Players, former legends, and human rights organiz...

Photographs of Sunita Williams, taken on September 24, show her to be in poor shape . She looks noticeably gaunt, with "sunken" cheeks and her facial structure looks pronounced and emaciated. It is cler that Sunita has lost a considerable amount of weight suggesting significant physical deterioration. Images of Sunita taken in October reveal an even thinner frame. What makes this all the more worrying is that Sunita will not be returning to earth for some more months. Sunita and Barry Wilmore went to the International Space Station for a 10-day mission on June 5, 2024. However, the Boeing Starliner spacecraft that was intended to return them to Earth, was deemed unsafe for use and their stay on the ISS had to be extended . Barry and Sunita have now been on the ISS for over six months. Their return is now scheduled for February 2025, when they will be aboard SpaceX’s Crew-9 Dragon capsule. NASA has publicly stated that Williams is in 'good health'. It is unclear if ...

  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 ...

  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 ...

  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...

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 ...