80% of Nigeria affected by floods disaster

CLICK HERE - WWF - Living Planet Report 2018: Aiming Higher

"There cannot be a healthy, happy and prosperous future for people" without biodiversity, the report warns.

nbcnews.com - by Rachel Elbaum - October 30, 2018

The population of the planet's vertebrates has dropped an average of 60 percent since 1970, according to a report by the WWF conservation organization.

The most striking decline in vertebrate population was in the tropics in South and Central America, with an 89 percent loss compared to 1970. Freshwater species have also significantly fallen — down 83 percent in that period.

The Living Planet Index, provided by the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) and included in the WWF Living Planet 2018 report, tracked the population of mammals, birds, fish, reptiles and amphibians around the world between 1970 and 2014, the latest year for which data was available.

CLICK HERE - REPORT - WHO - Air pollution and child health: prescribing clean air

usatoday.com - by Doyle Rice - October 30, 2018

Nearly 2 billion children – about 93 percent of the world’s children under the age of 15 – breathe toxic, putrid air that’s so polluted it puts their health and well-being at serious risk, a new report said. 

Many of the children die: The United Nations' World Health Organization (WHO) estimates 600,000 children died in 2016 from lower respiratory infections caused by dirty air . . . 

 . . . Air pollution can affect children's cognitive ability and can also trigger asthma as well as cancer. Children who have been exposed to high levels of air pollution may be at greater risk for chronic illnesses such as cardiovascular disease later in life . . . 

 . . . The report said that overall, about 7 million people around the world die each year because of air pollution. In fact, one-third of the deaths from stroke, lung cancer and heart disease stem from polluted air, the WHO said.

Honduran migrants taking part in a caravan heading to the US, walk alongside the road in Huixtla, Chiapas state, Mexico, on 24 October. Photograph: Johan Ordonez/AFP/Getty Images

CLICK HERE - STUDY - World Food Programme - FOOD SECURITY AND EMIGRATION - Why people flee and the impact on family members left behind in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras (24 page .PDF report)

While violence and poverty have been cited as the reasons for the exodus, experts say the big picture is that changing climate is forcing farmers off their land – and it’s likely to get worse

theguardian.com - by Oliver Milman, Emily Holden, and David Agren - October 30, 2018

Thousands of Central American migrants trudging through Mexico towards the US have regularly been described as either fleeing gang violence or extreme poverty.

But another crucial driving factor behind the migrant caravan has been harder to grasp: climate change.

Malnourished boys in a malnutrition treatment centre in Sana’a, Yemen. Photograph: Khaled Abdullah/Reuters

UN warns that famine could overwhelm country in next three months, with 13 million people at risk of starvation

theguardian.com - by Hannah Summers - October 15, 2018

Yemen could be facing the worst famine in 100 years if airstrikes by the Saudi-led coalition are not halted, the UN has warned.

If war continues, famine could engulf the country in the next three months, with 12 to 13 million civilians at risk of starvation, according to Lise Grande, the agency’s humanitarian coordinator for Yemen.

(CLICK HERE - READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

ALSO SEE RELATED ARTICLES WITHIN THE LINKS BELOW . . .

CLICK HERE - Video - BBC interview with Lise Grande of the UN - Yemen could be 'worst famine in 100 years'

CLICK HERE - REPORT - Global Warming of 1.5°C, an IPCC special report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels and related global greenhouse gas emission pathways, in the context of strengthening the global response to the threat of climate change, sustainable development, and efforts to eradicate poverty

Urgent changes needed to cut risk of extreme heat, drought, floods and poverty, says IPCC

the guardian.com - by Jonathan Watts - October 8, 2018

The world’s leading climate scientists have warned there is only a dozen years for global warming to be kept to a maximum of 1.5C, beyond which even half a degree will significantly worsen the risks of drought, floods, extreme heat and poverty for hundreds of millions of people.

The authors of the landmark report by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released on Monday say urgent and unprecedented changes are needed to reach the target, which they say is affordable and feasible although it lies at the most ambitious end of the Paris agreement pledge to keep temperatures between 1.5C and 2C.

                    A massive earthquake triggered a tsunami in Indonesia on September 28, 2018.

                                              Here is an expanding list of news and information resources.

CLICK HERE - AHA Centre - Indonesia, Central Sulawesi, M 7.4 Earthquake and Tsunami - Updates

CLICK HERE - reliefweb - Indonesia: Earthquakes - Sep 2018

CLICK HERE - Humanitarian Response - Indonesia

CLICK HERE - Indonesian soldiers ordered to fire on looters - October 3, 2018

CLICK HERE - AFP - Time running out for survivors as Indonesia toll tops 1,400 - October 3, 2018

CLICK HERE - READ COMPLETE ARTICLE - YEMEN: Surge in suspected cholera cases in Hodeidah

reliefweb.int - Save the Children - October 1, 2018

Save the Children’s health centres report 170 per cent spike in suspected cases.

Malnutrition, displacement and attacks on water supplies could spark a new wave of the disease nationwide.

100,000 severely malnourished children at risk in Hodeidah.

SANAA, October 2 – Suspected cholera cases have almost tripled in Yemen’s coastal Hodeidah region since fighting escalated in June.

Health facilities supported by Save the Children across the governorate recorded a 170 per cent increase in the number of suspected cholera cases, from 497 in June to 1,342 in August.

The spike is in line with national data that also shows a steady increase of suspected cholera cases across Yemen. 30 per cent of all suspected cases are children under five years old, according to the World Health Organization.

A Sept. 7, 2017, satellite image from NOAA shows the eye of Hurricane Irma, left, just north of the island of Hispaniola, with Hurricane Jose, right, in the Atlantic Ocean. Six major hurricanes formed in the Atlantic in 2017, including Harvey, Irma and Maria.  (Photo: AP)

CLICK HERE - STUDY - Dominant effect of relative tropical Atlantic warming on major hurricane occurrence

usatoday.com - by Doyle Rice - September 27, 2018

The catastrophic 2017 hurricane season – which included such monsters as Harvey, Irma and Maria – was fueled in part by unusually warm ocean water, a new study suggests.

And because of human-caused global warming, the study said similar favorable conditions for fierce hurricanes will be present in the years and decades to come . . .

 . . . "We show that the increase in 2017 major hurricanes was not primarily caused by La Niña conditions in the Pacific Ocean, but mainly by pronounced warm sea surface conditions in the tropical North Atlantic," the study said.

New solar flow battery with a 14.1 percent efficiency. Photo: David Tenenbaum, UW-Madison

CLICK HERE - STUDY - Chem - 14.1% Efficient Monolithically Integrated Solar Flow Battery

theverge.com - by Angela Chen - September 27, 2018

Solar energy is becoming more and more popular as prices drop, yet a home powered by the Sun isn’t free from the grid because solar panels don’t store energy for later. Now, researchers have refined a device that can both harvest and store solar energy, and they hope it will one day bring electricity to rural and underdeveloped areas.

The problem of energy storage has led to many creative solutions, like giant batteries. For a paper published today in the journal Chem, scientists trying to improve the solar cells themselves developed an integrated battery that works in three different ways.

(CLICK HERE - READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

WHO/Twitter - A WHO team in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in response to ebola outbreak.

news.un.org - September 25, 2018

A "perfect storm" of active conflict and traumatized communities in Ebola-affected areas of eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) could enable the deadly disease to spread, but there are “no plans” to pull UN workers out of the country despite concerns for their security, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday.

(CLICK HERE - READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

CLICK HERE - CIDRAP - Ebola response faces 'grave obstacles' as count hits 150

See also:

CLICK HERE - Sep 25 WHO media briefing

Protective suits are essential kit for some workers like firefighters and healthcare workers, but staying cool enough to work for long periods is a challenge.

africanews.com - September 19, 2018

A team at California’s Stanford University working on the regulation of body temperature have created a cooling system that could double the amount of time workers can spend wearing protective suits.

The research was prompted by healthcare workers from Sierra Leone who experienced debilitating heat when wearing suits that protected them from the highly infectious Ebola virus . . . 

 . . . the cooling system allowed the students to spend at least double the time being active than without it, and some tripled or quadrupled the time spent being active.

(CLICK HERE - READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

submitted by John Carroll

reliefweb.int - September 21, 2018

A. Situation analysis

Description of the disaster

During Epidemiological Week (EW) 28, the Ministry of Public Health and Epidemiology reported that the Los Pinos Health Center (La Descubierta, municipality) saw an increase in the number of patients with acute diarrhoeal diseases from surrounding communities, which were suspected to be cases of cholera.

In EW 32, the Ministry of Health reported that Vibrio cholerae had been identified in samples collected from residents of La Descubierta municipality in the National Public Health Laboratory. The same report also stated that three confirmed cases of cholera in the municipality had been identified.

Since the outbreak began in EW 28 and up to EW 34, 4 confirmed cases of cholera and 91 suspected cases have been identified in the municipality (please see Figure 1 below), in residents of Los Pinos del Edén, Ángel Feliz, urban area of La Descubierta and Los Bolos.

Purdue researcher Jialiang Tang helped resolve charging issues in sodium-ion batteries that have prevented the technology from advancing to industry testing and use. Credit: Purdue University Marketing and Media

CLICK HERE - STUDY - Ultrasound-assisted synthesis of sodium powder as electrode additive to improve cycling performance of sodium-ion batteries

phys.org - by Kayla Wiles - September 19, 2018

Most of today's batteries are made up of rare lithium mined from the mountains of South America. If the world depletes this source, then battery production could stagnate.

Sodium is a very cheap and earth-abundant alternative to using lithium-ion batteries that is also known to turn purple and combust if exposed to water—even just water in the air.