We now have a chance to stop the most deadly infectious disease — if we act
by Atwal Gawande in The New York Times…In a place with one of the highest TB rates on Earth, I saw that the disease could be stopped with the new tools available. And still more are coming. Clinical trials of five TB vaccines with promising early results are now underway. After decades without major advances, we now have a steady stream of innovations. But they won’t matter unless the world commits to deploying them.
Selling American bombs
by Tim Barker and Dylan Saba in Phenomenal world.com…An interview with Sarah Harrison on the mechanics of US foreign military sales
W.H.O. declares global emergency over new Mpox outbreak
by Apoorva Mandavilli in The New York Times….The epidemic is concentrated in the Democratic Republic of Congo, but the virus has now appeared in a dozen other African countries.
A global foresight report on planetary health and human wellbeing
by UNEP in Navigating New Horizons…As the leading global authority on the environment, the United Nations Environment Programme
(UNEP) plays a critical role in keeping the environment under review and finding solutions that inspire,
inform and enable nations and peoples to improve their quality of life without compromising that of future generations.
Report of the Roundtable on the Human Future 2024
from the Roundtable on the Human Future 2024…The Roundtable on the Human Future was an online gathering of the world’s most influential
thought-leaders on what is to be done about the human predicament. Recognising that a wide
diversity of opinion and advice exists globally, which is confusing to governments and citizens alike,
it sought common understandings of the nature of the crisis and the solutions it demands.
Operating theaters, bowling alleys and home cinemas: Not happy with safe rooms, the super-rich are building luxury fortresses
by Simon Usborne on CNN.com…At the richer end of the spectrum, billionaires are increasingly paranoid about threats to their health, whether from bioterror attacks, viral pandemics or old-fashioned heart failures and accidents. Covid gave a big boost to this part of SAFE’s business, which Corbi’s wife Naomi, a registered nurse, now heads up.
Chartbook 307 To live or not to live with polycrisis: The USA, Mexico and the need for a regional policy in Central America and the Caribbean.
by Adam Tooze in Chartbook…What is needed is not more border controls and militarized policing, but a pooling of governmental resources amongst the stronger players in the region including USA, Mexico the richer Caribbean states and Colombia, not to oppose, but to facilitate, support and invest in the extraordinary human energy, grit and determination that is the counterpart to those remittance flows.
About 400 million people worldwide have had Long Covid, researchers say
by Pam Belluck in The New York Times…The condition has put significant strain on patients and society — at a global economic cost of about $1 trillion a year, a new report estimates.
The ‘perfect storm’ of climate risks that is sinking your net worth
by Andrew Behar in Impactalpha…If we don’t all wake up – as a nation – to climate risk, homeowners will soon literally and financially be underwater.
Animal apocalypse: Deadly bird flu infects hundreds of species pole-to-pole
by Sharon Guynup in Mongabay…The threat posed by H5N1 extends far beyond the frozen South. Few people realize that the world is currently gripped in another serious pandemic — or, to be exact, a panzootic, the animal equivalent. This virus has now infected more than 500 bird and mammal species.
‘Polycrisis’ threatens planetary health; UN calls for innovative solutions
by Sean Mowbray in Mongabay…Environmental, technological and social challenges are colliding to create a global polycrisis. This confluence of issues is in turn placing increased pressure on the already existing environmental challenges of rapid climate change, rampant pollution and biodiversity loss — ultimately threatening planetary health and human well-being.
Americans’ struggle with mental health
by Ellen Barry in The New York Times…We explore why rates of anxiety and depression are higher than they were before the pandemic.
The wide boundary impacts of AI with Daniel Schmachtenberger
by Nate Hagens in The Great Simplification…Artificial intelligence has been advancing at a break-neck pace. Accompanying this is an almost frenzied optimism that AI will fix our most pressing global problems, particularly when it comes to the hype surrounding climate solutions.
The harms of promoting the lab leak hypothesis for SARS-CoV-2 origins without evidence
by James Alwine, et al in The Journal of Virology…Many questions about the origins of SARS-CoV-2 remain unanswered and may never be fully resolved. We cannot currently disprove the lab leak hypothesis. Nevertheless, the lines of evidence needed to validate one hypothesis over another are not epistemically comparable (16). Validating the zoonotic origin is a scientific question that relies on history, epidemiology, and genomic analysis, that when taken together, support a natural spillover as the probable origin.
Are journalists reporting the global polycrisis?
by Gabi Mocatta in Earth Journalism …This study clearly
establishes that
the term ‘global polycrisis’
is not widely recognized,
or used by journalists.
NEOM is a city of the future. The land is the cost.
by K.O. in Atmos…NEOM has been hailed as the future of the climate-resilient, smart city. But, for local communities, its construction threatens displacement and exploitation.