


Nations gather to end fossil fuels Reports Nature Briefing. Jolly well about time time too, we say, when the petty, spiteful quarrels of Iran, Israel and the United States have the rest of us over a barrel.
| At the annual United Nations climate conference (COP30) last year, Colombia stepped up to host a new conference, alongside the Netherlands, to create a roadmap for countries to transition away from fossil fuels that doesn’t require consensus between all of the world’s countries, as the COP process does. At the conference, which just finished in Santa Marta, one of the first orders of business was to launch a panel of scientists that will advise willing countries to shift to clean energy. A separate group of researchers released a report listing 12 high-level actions that nations can take to support a fossil-fuel phaseout. “We’re not trying to replicate the [UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change] here. We’re trying to give some practical policy insights” based on science, says climate-change economist Frank Jotzo, who was part of the editorial team. Nature | 7 min read Reference: Santa Marta Action Repertoire (SMART) Summary |
Cancer progress(1) Our first today is from the indefatigable Nature Briefing
The benefits of vaccinating young women against human papillomavirus (HPV), which can cause cancers of the genitals, head and neck, have been known for at least a decade. Data from the United States published last month now reveal the positive impact of vaccinating men against the virus4.
Researchers compared the rates of cancer among 510,000 boys and men aged between 9 and 26 years old who were vaccinated against HPV, and another 510,000 who were unvaccinated. They found that vaccination was linked to a 46% reduction in the risk of developing cancers of the oesophagus, head, neck, penis and anal tissue. The HPV vaccine is “an absolute winner” for cancer prevention, says Jarad Martin, a radiation oncologist at private health-care provider GenesisCare in Newcastle, Australia.
Cancer Progress (2) From the Mail, which is surprisingly good on things like science and medicine, so we’ll quote them verbatim:
“Tens of thousands of patients could benefit from a new jab on the NHS which ‘rapidly’ treats more than a dozen cancers in just 60 seconds……” an injectable form of immunotherapy called pembrolizumab….effective for 14 different types of cancer”
Big Oil back in the dock?
A few months ago,(LSS 13 1 26) we published a rather plaintive blog in which we wondered if it were possible for some people to get recompense from Oil companies for damage that may have been caused by global warming. Now Alexander Hurst of the Guardian goes much, much further, as you will see if you read this article
Spanish warning from 1976 Only a few months after its birth, prestigious Spanish Newspaper EL PAÍS was already warning of impending climate disaster, in the shape of an article by Alfonso García Pérez.
Cambio climático: crónica de un desastre anunciado | 50 Aniversario | EL PAÍS
Quote of the week:
“Pride deafens; warnings go unheard; and disaster, long signalled, arrives on schedule.”
Xunzi, Self‑Cultivation, in Xunzi: The Complete Text, trans. Eric Hutton (Princeton UP, 2014).
#cancer #epidemiology #health #medicine #climate change #global warming


























