Pollution

Delhi covered with blanket of toxic air two days after Diwali festival

Fireworks during the festival and farmers setting fires for harvesting contributed to severe air pollution, measuring 456 on a scale of 500 on New Delhi's Air Quality Index.

‘If plastic were a country, it would be fifth highest emitter in the world’

A material whose use has rapidly grown in the past century, plastic is a massive contributor to greenhouse gas emissions and ecological pollution, WWF warns.

Singapore using advanced system to turn sewage water into drinking water

Recycled wastewater in the resource-starved city-state can now meet 40 percent of Singapore's water demand, also helping reduce maritime pollution

CO2 levels hit 50% higher than pre-industrial times

Annual peak of global heat-trapping carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere reaches another dangerous milestone – 50% higher than when the industrial age began, scientists say.

China generated over half of the world's coal-fired power in 2020

Despite considerable investment in renewable energy sources, China generates 53 percent of the world’s total coal-fired power in 2020, according to a study.

Covid-19 science round-up: New York variant harbours three tricky mutations

Pre-peer review report suggests the E484K or S477N mutations combined with D253G can reduce efficacy of certain antibodies. An overview of some of the latest science on the novel coronavirus:

Noise pollution is harming sea life, needs to be prioritised: scientists

With rumbling ships, hammering oil drills and booming seismic survey blasts, humans have drastically altered the underwater soundscape, researchers' have repored.

Indian farmers step up illegal fires as Delhi air crisis worsens

Delhi, one of the world’s most polluted cities, enjoyed some respite up until September in part thanks to a virus lockdown.

Study says 14 million tonnes of microplastics on world's sea floor

The scientists, who published their findings in peer-reviewed journal Frontiers in Marine Science, said areas with more floating rubbish generally had more microplastic fragments on the sea floor.

The dangers of laundry: microplastics from synthetics polluting water, soil

A team from the University of California, Santa Barbara, has published an article in PLOS ONE warning of how laundering clothes made from synthetic fibres may contribute to microplastics in water and increasingly, soil.

As people stay home, Earth turns wilder and cleaner

Researchers are tracking dramatic drops in traditional air pollutants, such as nitrogen dioxide, smog and tiny particles as most people remain indoors amid coronavirus lockdowns across the world.

Air quality picking up in quarantined countries

Images by the US space agency Nasa are clear, in February the concentration of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) fell dramatically in Wuhan, China, the epicentre of the Covid-19 pandemic, passing from an indicator that was red/orange to blue.