With England trapped in what it calls a vicious circle of junk-food consumption, the authors of a government-commissioned review into the nation’s food industry have put sugar and salt in their crosshairs. Poor diet contributes to about 64,000 deaths in England each year, the review found, with Type 2 diabetes projected to cost the National Health Service $20 billion a year by around 2035. Childhood obesity levels in Britain are at a critical level, says the Food Foundation.
You are here
Results for Climate change
Tuesday 13 July 2021
New York, USA
New York Times reporting: California’s Death Valley reached 130 degrees Farenheit (54.44 Celcius) and matched a previous record set less than a year ago, in August 2020 — it might be the highest temperature ever recorded on earth, barring a disputed 134-degree reading from 1913. The scorching temperatures from the West’s third heat wave of the summer, compounding already dry conditions from a drought deepened by climate change, fuelled quick-spreading wildfires and fears of power outages over the weekend. The sweltering conditions reached into places that rarely see triple digits.
Monday 29 March 2021
Premium content
Nuku'alofa, Tonga
An online portal containing the government’s work on climate change was launched at a workshop last Friday, 26 March.
Premium content
Friday 26 March 2021
Premium content
Nuku'alofa, Tonga
A government department at a workshop with journalists yesterday, has requested to partner with the media to promote government messages. The department seems to be faced with the challenge of not getting their key messages across to the public.
Premium content
Friday 12 March 2021
Nuku'alofa,Tonga
In the Pacific Islands, evidence of climate change is all around us, but when dozens of images showing its impact across the Pacific come together in one room, it is sobering and challenging to the viewer. Photographs submitted by amateur photographers of all ages capture the immediacy of of the harmful effects of climate change, in a competition organised by the UK Government, on display in Nuku'alofa.
Monday 1 February 2021
Premium content
Nuku'alofa, Tonga
Local food crop farming is on the rise in Tonga thanks to the UN’s International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) supported projects which helps to increase food security amid CoViD-19, climate change, and natural disasters.
Premium content
Monday 16 November 2020
Oxford, United Kingdom
The last time the world faced challenges as serious as those facing us now was in the period immediately following World War II. At that time there was an extraordinary burst of international institutional creativity, led by the United States. The late 1940s saw the creation of the IMF, the World Bank, the Marshall Plan, the United Nations, which the WHO joined in 1948, and the GATT, now the WTO. If countries in Asia want a multilateral system to survive, they need to promote, use and improve it. The G20 Summit in Riyadh on 20–21 November will provide an opportunity to push forward this agenda. By David Vines / East Asia Forum.
Saturday 17 October 2020
Stockholm, Sweden
The announcement of this year’s Nobel Prize laureates should remind us of the many contributions basic science has made to contemporary life. With COVID-19 ravaging much of humanity, and the world anxiously awaiting a breakthrough that can end the pandemic, we can no longer take science for granted. And the global science community, for its part, has risen to the occasion in unprecedented ways, not only to develop vaccines, therapies, and diagnostics, but also to improve our understanding of the virus and the best strategies to protect ourselves. By Lars Heikensten, Marcia McNutt, and Johan Rockström.
Tuesday 7 July 2020
Geneva, Switzerland
The world has been planning for the future in the mistaken belief that it will resemble the past. But as COVID-19 coincides with cyclones in South Asia and the Pacific and vast locust swarms in East Africa, the need to prepare for a world of unexpected shocks has become clearer than ever. Epidemics, floods, storms, droughts, and wildfires are all expected to become more frequent and severe, affecting hundreds of millions of people each year. By Jagan Chapagain and Andrew Steer
Saturday 4 July 2020
Premium content
Nuku'alofa, Tonga
Tonga is one of the world’s most exposed countries to climate change and natural disasters, according to an International Monetary Fund and World Bank assessment report of Tonga’s Climate Change Policy.
Premium content
Wednesday 22 April 2020
Paris, France
The COVID-19 crisis comes at a crucial moment: the beginning of the last decade that we have to act on climate change. Governments are about to spend trillions of dollars to soften the blow from COVID-19. We must not let that money go to waste. When one is being buffeted by a storm of this magnitude, the worst thing one can do is lose one’s compass. But we must use that compass to chart a new course toward an economic model that places human and environmental sustainability at its center. By Bertrand Badré
Wednesday 5 February 2020
Potsdam, Germany
Today’s leaders must not bequeath a dangerously destabilized planet to future generations. This is why the Nobel Foundation is hosting its first-ever Nobel Prize Summit, with the theme “Our Planet, Our Future,” in Washington, DC, from April 29 to May 1. The summit – supported by the US National Academy of Sciences, the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, and the Stockholm Resilience Centre/Beijer Institute – will bring together more than 20 Nobel laureates and other experts from around the world to explore the question: What can be achieved in this decade to put the world on a path to a more sustainable, more prosperous future for all of humanity? By Johan Rockström, Lars Heikensten, and Marcia McNutt.
Friday 10 January 2020
Canberra, Australia
Owing to the smoke from nearby wildfires, Canberra this month has had the world’s worst air-quality index, with readings 20 times above the official hazardous threshold. The city also recently experienced its hottest day on record (111°F/44°C). Meanwhile, Delhi had its coldest December day on record. Both are evidence of growing climate volatility, confirming the reality of global warming. By Ramesh Thakur.
Thursday 12 December 2019
Premium content
Madrid, Spain
Tonga's Prime Minister Hon Dr Pohiva Tu’i’onetoa said the time for climate action is now, during the 25th Session of the Conference of the Parties (COP25) currently underway in Spain.
Premium content
Wednesday 11 December 2019
Madrid, Spain
Pacific Islands leaders who are in Madrid, Spain for the UN Climate Conference - COP25 Climate Conference, December 2-13, have voiced their concerns over a drive by their big neighbour Australia, under Prime Minister Scott Morrison, to boost its coal mining industry, Greenpeace Australia reported.
Thursday 14 November 2019
New York, USA
The US president is abandoning America’s future by quitting the Paris climate accord, says Ban Ki-moon former Secretary General of the United Nations and Patrick Verkooijen chief executive of the Global Center on Adaptation. In an article in the New York Times this week, they said it is not too late for Mr Trump to reconsider his decision. Staying in the Paris Agreement is the right thing to do, for America’s sake and for the rest of the world.
Saturday 9 November 2019
Lisbon, Portugal
Identifying promising green projects and directing capital toward them is a major challenge. At the same time, we must not forget those who stand to be harmed the most by climate change, or those who could be left behind in the shift to a low-carbon economy. To ensure a just transition, we must increase support for vulnerable regions and communities. Support for innovation must also include backing for education and training, so that the next generation will have the skills needed to contribute to a low-carbon economy. We should be cultivating the talents and intelligence of our youth, because it is they who will be developing the technologies and creating the jobs needed for the future. - Ambroise Fayolle.
Friday 8 November 2019
Sydney, Australia
The Asian Development Bank's response to Cyclone Gita was the first test of the Pacific Disaster Resilience (PDR) Program set up to help island states such as Tonga get back on their feet after natural calamities, says a new ADB publication.
Tuesday 5 November 2019
Premium content
Wellington, New Zealand
The threat that climate change poses to global health is the theme of an annual conference being held by New Zealand’s Otago Global Health in Wellington, New Zealand this week 6 – 7 November. Pacific research will be the focus of the conference.
Premium content
Monday 14 October 2019
Princeton, USA
“This is all wrong!” These words begin the most powerful four-minute speech I have ever heard. They were spoken by Greta Thunberg, the Swedish teenage climate activist, at the United Nations Climate Action Summit last month, and followed a week of climate strikes and marches attended by an estimated six million people. Can young people really wake the world to the urgency of changing direction? By Peter Singer
