stories of more than passing significance
The right to a healthy swim What’s more fun than a sea swim on a Bank Holiday? But if you think it’s good for your health, think again. According to those doughty campaigners Surfers Against Sewage and Top of the Poops, our coastal waters have suffered an avalanche of sewage discharges, and it’s getting worse. Yet we guess the problem isn’t confined to the waters of one little country! If you can help, try these organisations below
https//www.sas.org.uk https://top-of-the-poops.org/
The right to clean air So, you get out of the water-and you still can’t get clean! Because according to Shivali Best of the Mail , 97% of UK addresses breach the limit for at least one toxic pollutant. Once again, we doubt the problem is unique to these islands:
Hidden dangers of climate change Can sudden changes in environment such as climate or deforestation spark new waves of pandemic disease? According to the authors of this study in Nature, the danger is a very real one. Some authors, such as Professor Harper think this has brought down mighty civilisations in the past. Are you sure it won’t happen again?
Climate Change will boost viral outbreaks
Over the next 50 years, climate change could drive more than 15,000 new cases of mammals transmitting viruses to other mammals, according to a study published in Nature. The research predicts that many of these transmissions will happen when species end up together in cooler locales as temperatures rise. And it projects that this will occur in species-rich ecosystems at high elevations, particularly in areas of Africa and Asia, and in areas that are densely populated by humans, including Africa’s Sahel region, India and Indonesia. “This work provides us with more incontrovertible evidence that the coming decades will not only be hotter, but sicker,” says disease ecologist and co-author Gregory Albery.Nature | 5 min read
Reference: Nature paper
Harper, Kyle: The Fate of Rome Princeton 2019
Heart Warming kittens An old friend ,and regular contributor to the creative side of this blog, has sent us this picture of some kittens who have recently become members of his family. How could we resist?
Well, that’s quite a reading list for you on a day of leisure, so we’ll leave it there. Enjoy
#cats #climate change #pandemic #global warming #pollution #virus #sewage #bank holiday
Learning, Science and Society 