Author: Dmedia

Paris, France — G7 environment ministers committed on Tuesday to ramp up the production and deployment of battery storage technology, an essential component for increasing renewable energy and combating climate change.   Here is how and why batteries play a vital role in the energy transition:    Growing demand Batteries have been central to the rise of electric vehicles (EVs) but are also critical to wind and solar power because of the intermittent nature of these energy sources.   Surplus electricity must be stored in batteries to stabilize distribution regardless of peaks in demand, or breaks in supply at night or during low winds.    Battery deployment in the energy sector last year increased more than 130 percent from 2022, according to a report released last week by the International Energy…

SHANGHAI — The first scientist to publish a sequence of the COVID-19 virus in China staged a sit-in protest outside his lab after authorities locked him out of the facility — a sign of the Beijing's continuing pressure on scientists conducting research on the coronavirus. Zhang Yongzhen wrote in an online post Monday that he and his team had been suddenly notified they were being evicted from their lab, the latest in a series of setbacks, demotions and ousters since the virologist published the sequence in January 2020 without state approval. When Zhang tried to go to the lab over the weekend, guards barred him from entering. In protest, he sat outside on flattened cardboard in drizzling rain, pictures from the scene posted online show. News of the protest spread widely…

geneva — Countries trying to negotiate a new global agreement on combating future pandemics began bridging their differences Monday, but they're racing against time to seal a deal.  The 194 nations in the World Health Organization are back at its Geneva headquarters for one last round of negotiations, after a two-year effort to secure a landmark accord on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response overran last month's deadline.   Issued with a new, slimmed-down draft text that kicks some of the tougher topics down the road, countries began going through its 37 articles in turn.   However, the handful of articles opened Monday were still being negotiated as the day's session was ending, with side discussion groups trying to come up with solutions.   "It's going as was to be expected. Most…

Not only is climate change responsible for sea level rise and extreme weather events, but a new peer-reviewed study signals it may also impact global timekeeping. VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias has the details. ...

...

...

Methane leaking from fossil fuel production is among the top contributors to climate change. Now a leading environmental scientist is hoping to provide more accurate and consistent findings of methane emissions with the launch of a technologically advanced satellite. VOA’s Julie Taboh has more. Arash Arabasadi contributed to this report. Camera: Adam Greenbaum ...

COTONOU, Benin — Benin, Liberia and Sierra Leone launched large-scale malaria vaccine programs on Thursday under an Africa-focused initiative that hopes to save tens of thousands of children's lives per year across Africa. The three West African countries are the latest to participate after successful rollouts of routine malaria immunization for children in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ghana, Kenya and Malawi, the global vaccine alliance GAVI said in a statement. The World Health Organization-approved vaccine is meant to work alongside existing tools such as bed nets to combat malaria, which in Africa kills nearly half a million children under the age of 5 each year. "This introduction ... will help save lives and offer relief to families, communities and hard-pressed health systems," said Aurelia Nguyen, GAVI chief program officer. Benin has 215,900…

MIGORI, Kenya — As the coffin bearing the body of Rosebella Awuor was lowered into the grave, heart-wrenching sobs from mourners filled the air. Her sister Winnie Akinyi, the guardian to Awuor's orphaned son, fell to the ground, wailing.  It was the latest of five deaths in this family attributed to malaria. The disease is common in Kenya, and it is preventable and curable, but poverty makes it deadly for those who can't afford treatment.  In the family's compound in the western county of Migori, three other graves are visible, that of Awuor's husband and their other two children who died from malaria before age 2.  Awuor, 31, fell ill in December and lost her five-month pregnancy before succumbing to malaria. Her 11-year-old son is the family's only survivor.  Malaria is…

Paris, France — World wine production dropped 10 percent last year, the biggest fall in more than six decades, because of "extreme" climate changes, the body that monitors the trade said Thursday.   "Extreme environmental conditions" including droughts, fires and other problems with climate were mostly to blame for the drastic fall, said the International Organization of Vine and Wine, or OIV, that covers nearly 50 wine-producing countries.   Australia and Italy suffered the worst, with 26 and 23 percent drops. Spain lost more than a fifth of its production. Harvests in Chile and South Africa were down by more than 10 percent.  The OIV said the global grape harvest was the worst since 1961, and worse even than its early estimates in November.  In further bad news for winemakers, customers drank 3…

...

April 25 marks the global observance of World Malaria Day. Pakistan saw the world’s largest increase in malaria cases in 2022 following that year’s catastrophic flooding, according to the latest World Health Organization data. Experts say climate change was a factor. VOA's Nazr Ul Islam's visited a hospital in Islamabad and filed this report narrated by Bezhan Hamdard. Camera: Nazr Ul Islam ...

new york — Russia blocked a U.N. Security Council resolution Wednesday reaffirming the need to prevent a nuclear arms race in outer space. The measure was proposed jointly by the United States, a nuclear power, and Japan, the only nation ever to be attacked with nuclear bombs. “We have only begun to understand the catastrophic ramifications of a nuclear explosion in space,” said U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield. “How it could destroy thousands of satellites operated by countries and companies around the world — and wipe out the vital communications, scientific, meteorological, agricultural, commercial and national security services we all depend on.” The failed text recalled the responsibility of states to comply with the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, which is the basic framework on international space law. It says outer space is…

...

...

Before the creation of engines, the ocean was full of low-emission vessels — they were called sailboats. Now a next-generation zero-emissions laboratory vessel called the Energy Observer recently docked in New York City to show off what this team hopes is the next generation of earth-friendly boats. Elena Wolf has the story, narrated by Anna Rice. Videographer: Max Avloshenko  ...

cologne, germany — For the past year, five fit, academically superior men and women have been spun in centrifuges, submerged for hours, deprived temporarily of oxygen, taught to camp in the snow, and schooled in physiology, anatomy, astronomy, meteorology, robotics, and Russian. On Monday, the five Europeans and an Australian graduated from basic training with a new title: astronaut. At a ceremony in Cologne, Germany, ESA added the five newcomers to its astronaut corps eligible for missions to the International Space Station, bringing the total to 11. ESA has negotiated with NASA for three places on future Artemis moon missions, although those places will likely go to the more senior astronauts, according to ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher. The agency is also supplying the service module for the Orion crew capsule.…

Experts say one of the health care challenges in Africa is a shortage of training and education for workers. To help, a U.S. charity called Mission to Heal is training local workers who serve patients in remote locations. Juma Majanga reports from Ngurunit village in northern Kenya. Videographer: Jimmy Makhulo ...

...

...

...

WASHINGTON — A ancient giant snake in India might have been longer than a school bus and weighed a ton, researchers reported Thursday. Fossils found near a coal mine revealed a snake that stretched an estimated 11 meters to 15 meters. It's comparable to the largest known snake at about 13 meters that once lived in what is now Colombia. The largest living snake today is Asia's reticulated python at 10 meters. The newly discovered behemoth lived 47 million years ago in western India's swampy evergreen forests. It could have weighed up to 1,000 kilograms, researchers said in the journal Scientific Reports. They gave it the name Vasuki indicus after "the mythical snake king Vasuki, who wraps around the neck of the Hindu deity Shiva," said Debajit Datta, a study co-author…

Sydney — Australian researchers have built an electrical generator that consumes carbon dioxide, generates electricity and admits no exhausts.  They say the technology could create a new industrial-scale carbon capture method.   Scientists say too much carbon dioxide, or CO2, in the atmosphere is main driver of warming temperatures.   Researchers at the University of Queensland have created a generator that consumes carbon dioxide and produces electricity. The carbon-negative “nano-generator” has been built by the university’s Dow Centre for Sustainable Engineering Innovation. The prototype device uses what is known as a poly amine gel to absorb carbon dioxide to create an electrical current.   The design team acknowledges the technology needs further development and refinement but believes it could help to significantly curb global CO2 emissions. Zhuyuan Wang from the University of Queensland told…

SEATTLE — Saturday marks marijuana culture’s high holiday, 4/20, when college students gather — at 4:20 p.m. — in clouds of smoke on campus quads and pot shops in legal-weed states thank their customers with discounts. This year’s edition provides an occasion for activists to reflect on how far their movement has come, with recreational pot now allowed in nearly half the states and the nation’s capital. Many states have instituted “social equity” measures to help communities of color, harmed the most by the drug war, reap financial benefits from legalization. And the White House has shown an openness to marijuana reform. Here’s a look at 4/20's history: WHY 4/20?   The origins of the date, and the term “420” generally, were long murky. Some claimed it referred to a police…

Osaka, Japan — Wider access to abortion in Japan has largely remained elusive a year after the historic approval of medical abortion pills. In April last year, lawmakers approved the use of the two-step abortion pill — MeFeego Pack — for pregnancies up to nine weeks. Before that, women in the East Asian nation could only receive a surgical abortion in private clinics by designated surgeons that often charge as much as $370. Financial strain aside, women were often required to provide proof of spousal consent to receive an abortion, making it nearly impossible for them to make the decision on their own. Reports showed that even for single women, doctors still asked for permission of a male partner before agreeing to perform such surgeries. Despite the approval of the abortion…

WASHINGTON — One woman miscarried in the lobby restroom of a Texas emergency room as front desk staff refused to check her in. Another woman learned that her fetus had no heartbeat at a Florida hospital, the day after a security guard turned her away from the facility. And in North Carolina, a woman gave birth in a car after an emergency room couldn’t offer an ultrasound. The baby later died. Complaints that pregnant women were turned away from U.S. emergency rooms spiked in 2022 after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, federal documents obtained by The Associated Press reveal. The cases raise alarms about the state of emergency pregnancy care in the U.S., especially in states that enacted strict abortion laws and sparked confusion around the treatment doctors…

Geneva — In the wake of a recent outbreak of avian influenza detected in dairy cows and goats in the United States, the World Health Organization is calling on governments to increase their surveillance and to “remain vigilant” regarding the possible spread of this deadly disease to their countries. Dr. Wenqing Zhang, head of the WHO’s global influenza program, said Friday that investigations are underway to determine the extent and severity of the H5N1 bird flu found in 29 herds in eight U.S. states since March. “While WHO and its partners are closely monitoring, reviewing, assessing and updating the risk associated with H5N1 and other avian influenza viruses, we call on countries to remain vigilant, rapidly report human infections if any, rapidly share sequences and other data, and reinforce biosecurity measures…

...