New York Times reporting: When consumers in the United States and other wealthy nations shed their gas-fueled cars for more environmentally friendly, cleaner ones, like hybrids and electrics, they feel like they are being good citizens, helping to improve air quality and make the planet better. But where do their old cars go and what harm can they cause? Global dumping of substandard, ‘dirty’ cars in developing countries is a huge problem, that threatens health, safety and the environment, contributing significantly to air pollution and hindering efforts to mitigate the effects of climate change.
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Results for pollution
Wednesday 3 November 2021
New York, USA
Friday 15 October 2021
Brussels, Belgium
This year’s worldwide mountain of waste electronic and electrical equipment will total an estimated 57.4 million tonnes – greater than the weight of the Great Wall of China, the world’s heaviest artificial object, said the Waste Electronic and Electrical Equipment Forum (WEEE), on International E-Waste Day, yesterday. By weight discarded big appliances such as stoves and refrigerators constitute the largest component or e-waste. These large appliances contain steel, copper and aluminium.
Friday 16 October 2020
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New York Times: The Great Barrier Reef, one of the Earth’s most precious habitats, lost half of its coral populations in the last quarter-century, a decline that researchers in Australia said would continue unless drastic action is taken to mitigate the effects of climate change. By Maria Cramer.
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Saturday 4 May 2019
Denarau, Fiji
With a dire warning that, “If we do not act now, by 2050, 90% of the region’s coral reefs will be dead, and there will be no commercially exploitable wild fish stocks left,” the President of the Asian Development Bank, Mr Takehiko Nakao, launched an ‘Action Plan for Healthy Oceans and Sustainable Blue Economies for Asia and the Pacific’ yesterday, 3 May in Fiji. By Pesi Fonua.
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Tuesday 14 August 2018
New York, USA
This summer's fires, droughts, and record-high temperatures should serve as a wake-up call. The longer a narrow and ignorant elite condemns Americans and the rest of humanity to wander aimlessly in the political desert, the more likely it is that we will all end up in a wasteland. But instead of a Moses guiding humanity in this new and dangerous wilderness, a gang of science deniers and polluters currently misguides humanity to ever-greater danger. We are all climate refugees now and must chart a path to safety. By Jeffrey D. Sachs.
Monday 31 July 2017
Nuku'alofa, Tonga
Tonga's King Tupou VI urged Tongatapu farmers to be more aware of the environmental impacts from the use of pesticides and chemicals, polluting the underground water supply, when the king opened the Tongatapu Royal Agriculture, Fisheries and Tonga-Made Show on Saturday, July 29 at the Funga-Mana-Mo’ui Grounds in ‘Atele. Photos by Linny Folau and Eleanor Gee
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Saturday 15 July 2017
Oxford, United Kingdom
In recent years, the world has become increasingly preoccupied with the catastrophic potential of global warming and other human-induced environmental changes, and rightly so. But one of the most serious risks has been all but ignored: the threat to human health. ...Determined opponents will question the science and criticize those who claim that human health is being jeopardized by environmental disregard. But to these critics I pose a question of my own: “Are you willing to risk being wrong?" By Shaukat Aziz.
Tuesday 6 June 2017
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Nuku'alofa, Tonga
Important questions over massive environmental damage caused by site works for the Va'epopua 18-holes golf course and its associated commercial developments remain unanswered, in spite of fears that the project is killing the reef and endangering the health and fishing livelihoods of its coastal communities.
Sunday 21 May 2017
Berlin, Germany
If there are any geologists in millions of years, they will easily be able to pinpoint the start of the so-called Anthropocene – the geological age during which humans became the dominant influence on our planet’s environment. Wherever they look, they will find clear evidence of its onset, in the form of plastic waste. Plastic is a key material in the world economy...But plastic already is creating massive global environmental, economic, and social problems.