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By Alice PHILIPSON Agence France-Presse HA LONG, Vietnam, May 26, 2023 (AFP) — Squinting in the bright light of a hot summer morning, Vu Thi Thinh perches on the edge of her small wooden boat and plucks a polystyrene block from the calm waters of Vietnam’s Ha Long Bay. It’s not yet 9 am, but a mound of styrofoam buoys, plastic bottles and beer cans sit behind her. They are the most visible sign […]
BANGKOK, Thailand (AFP) — About 2.4 million people in Thailand have sought hospital treatment for medical problems linked to air pollution since the start of the year, health officials said, as toxic smog chokes parts of the country. Bangkok and the northern city of Chiang Mai were among the most polluted cities in the world on Thursday morning, according to air quality monitoring firm IQAir. The poor air quality has seen 2.4 million people seek […]
Chiang Mai, Thailand | AFP | Thailand’s Chiang Mai was ranked the world’s most polluted city on Friday, with authorities urging people to work from home to avoid the hazardous air. Smoke from forest fires and farmers burning crop stubble has blanketed the popular tourist destination in recent weeks. Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha held video talks with the leaders of neighbouring Myanmar and Laos to discuss the problem, which affects large areas of southeast Asia […]
NAKHON NAYOK, Thailand (AFP) — Hundreds of Thai firefighters and soldiers battled a forest blaze less than 100 kilometers (60 miles) from Bangkok on Friday as the kingdom grapples with air pollution that has made more than 1.7 million people ill already this year. The fire has affected at least 800,000 square meters (200 acres) of forest across three hills in Nakhon Nayok province, to the northeast of the Thai capital, with two districts declared […]
BANGKOK, Thailand (AFP) — Nearly 200,000 people in Thailand have been admitted to hospital because of air pollution this week, officials have said, with Bangkok shrouded in a harmful haze. The Thai capital, home to an estimated 11 million people and one of the world’s most popular tourist destinations, has been blanketed for days by an unpleasant yellow-grey mix of vehicle fumes, industrial emissions and smoke from agricultural burning. More than 1.3 million people have […]
by Lucie AUBOURG Agence France-Presse SKOKIE, United States (AFP) — At LanzaTech’s lab in the Chicago suburbs, a beige liquid bubbles away in dozens of glass vats. The concoction includes billions of hungry bacteria, specialized to feed on polluted air — the first step in a recycling system that converts greenhouse gases into usable products. Thanks to licensing agreements, LanzaTech’s novel microorganisms are already being put to commercial use by three Chinese factories, converting waste […]
Copenhagen, Denmark (AFP) Fine particle air pollution led to 238,000 premature deaths in the European Union in 2020, the bloc’s environmental watchdog said Thursday, a slight rise from the previous year. Across the 27-nation bloc that year, “exposure to concentrations of fine particulate matter above the 2021 World Health Organization guideline level resulted in 238,000 premature deaths,” the European Environment Agency said in a new report. That was slightly more than those recorded in 2019 in […]
New Delhi, India | AFP | Primary schools in India’s capital New Delhi will shut to protect children from the toxic smog choking the megacity of 20 million people, authorities said Friday. Smoke from farmers burning crop stubble, vehicle exhaust and factory emissions combine every winter to blanket the capital in a deadly grey haze. On Friday, levels of the most dangerous PM2.5 particles — so tiny they can enter the bloodstream — were almost […]
New Delhi, India | AFP | Smog in New Delhi hit “hazardous” levels on Thursday as smoke from thousands of crop fires in northern India combined with other pollutants to create a noxious grey cocktail enveloping the megacity. Levels of the most dangerous particles — PM2.5, so tiny they can enter the bloodstream — were 588 per cubic metre early on Thursday morning, according to monitoring firm IQAir. That is almost 40 times the daily […]
Niagara Falls, United States | AFP | by Daxia ROJAS In the US border town of Niagara Falls, residents accustomed to the soothing roar of the famous waterfalls recently discovered a much less pleasant sound: the “haunting hum” of bitcoin mining farms. “I get four hours of sleep, maybe, because of that constant noise,” said Elizabeth Lundy, an 80-year-old retired hairdresser. “I can hear the noise even through the storm windows.” On a sunny […]
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AFP) — Pollution is linked to more than 10 percent of cancer cases in Europe, a report by the European Environment Agency said Tuesday. Most of these cases are preventable, it said. “Exposure to air pollution, carcinogenic chemicals, radon, UV (ultraviolet) radiation and second-hand smoke together may contribute over 10 percent of the cancer burden in Europe,” the agency said in a statement. But EEA expert Gerardo Sanchez said “all environmental and occupational […]
by Ricky OMBENI Agence France-Presse BUKAVU, DR Congo (AFP) – Among rolling hills around the southern tip of majestic Lake Kivu, huge layers of plastic waste ride the water and block the turbines of the largest hydroelectric plant in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. The Ruzizi dam is polluted by thousands of bottles, cans and other objects thrown into the lake, which stretches 90 kilometres (56 miles) along the border between DR Congo and Rwanda. […]
