Moored off Yemens Red Sea coast, the FSO Safer is a supertanker in advanced state of decay that will soon break apart or explode if the world does not act, warns. A massive spill from the Safer would destroy pristine reefs, coastal mangroves and other sea life across the Red Sea, expose millions of people to highly polluted air, and cut off food, fuel and other life-saving supplies to Yemen, where 17 million people already need food aid.
Pollution and Waste
International tourism is headed back to pre-pandemic levels, with so far in 2023 than in the same period last year. Tourism is a huge industry. Unsurprisingly, tourism is a big contributor to the . Eight out of 10 tourists visit coastal areas, adding to the that enter the ocean every year. A joint 2021 report from and the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) highlighted the need for coordinated actions, policies and infrastructures to drive the industry toward circularity.
A zero-waste approach entails responsible production, consumption and disposal of products in a closed, circular system. This means that resources are reused or recovered as much as possible and that we minimize the pollution to air, land or water. The International Day of Zero Waste aims to promote sustainable consumption and production patterns, support the societal shift towards circularity and raise awareness about how zero-waste initiatives contribute to the advancement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
The 2023 's World Environment Day campaign #BeatPlasticPollution calls for症lobal solutions to combat plastic pollution. Our planet is choking on plastic. It's time for change. Nations commit to develop a legally binding agreement.
An amendment to the London Protocol removed sewage sludge from the list of permissible wastes, which may be considered for dumping at sea the amendment was adopted at the in October.
Theres lots of talk about how some countries emit significantly more greenhouse gases than others. But where do these numbers come from? Countries estimate these emissions by using a bottom-up approach - combining data on certain polluting activities with the emissions typically produced by those activities. But greenhouse gas levels are still too high. Global emissions need to fall almost 50% by 2030 if we want to avoid over 1.5 degrees of warming. Learn more in .
On September 7, the UN marked the third International Day of Clean Air for Blue Skies. However, the skies are far from clear of air pollution. Only a month ago, the World Health Organization () warned that practically all the air we breathe is polluted, and that its killing around seven million people every year.
Conor Lennon from UN News spoke to Martina Otto and Nathan Borgford-Parnell from the , which is hosted by the UN Environment Programme (). They discussed the evolving science surrounding the issue, the extent to which air pollution is improving if at all and why international collaboration is essential, if the number of annual deaths is to be addressed.
Music: Ketsa, Within the Earth
Audio Credit: UN News/ Conor Lennon
Photo Credit: Unsplash/Malcolm Lightbody
99% of our world is exposed to polluted air causing an estimated 7 million premature deaths every year. This International Day of Clean Air for blue skies, calls on governments, corporations, civil society, and individuals to take action to reduce air pollution and bring a transformative change for the air we share. .
Plastics are here to stay. They are easy and inexpensive to make and have been a significant driver for development. But plastic waste has become an omnipresent threat - with public health, livelihoods and the environment all suffering. Plastic can take hundreds of thousands of years to decompose. The World Bank is committed to tackling plastic pollution, recognizing it as a key element in alleviating extreme poverty. Today the supports efforts in more than 50 countries around the globe and at every stage of the plastic lifecycle.
Moored off Yemens Red Sea coast, the FSO Safer is an aging supertanker in advanced state of decay that will soon break apart or explode if the world does not act. The 51勛圖 is ready to implement an emergency operation to prevent this disaster. But the work to transfer the oil to a safe vessel is already delayed because of insufficient funding. To bridge the funding gap and start the emergency operation, the 51勛圖 is asking for contributions from members of the public.
175 nations endorsed a historic resolution at the in Nairobi to End Plastic Pollution and forge an international legally binding agreement by 2024. Plastic production has risen exponentially in the last decades and now amounts to some a figure set to double by 2040. The resolution addresses the full lifecycle of plastic, including its production, design, and disposal.
Only three per cent of Latin Americas e-waste is reported as collected through formal channels and treated in an environmentally sound manner, according to the .
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will send experts and sophisticated monitoring equipment to help Peru assess and limit the environmental damage from a major oil spill in its coastal waters.
Discarded plastic in the ocean has garnered a lot of media attention, but terrestrial microplastic pollution is much higher than marine microplastic pollution.
brings us the murky truth about plastic in the ocean: Every minute, one garbage truck of plastic is dumped into our ocean. Join 113,637 other people and take the Clean Sean Pledge.