"Nearly four million people in India's northeastern state of Assam and neighbouring Nepal have been displaced by heavy flooding from monsoon rains, with dozens missing as deaths rose to at least 189, government officials said on Sunday."
Weighing in at little more than a couple of pats of butter, the remarkable grey plover undergoes an epic migration of thousands of miles. A new volume captures the wonder of this tiny shorebird, as well as worries over its rapidly declining numbers and possible extinction. Melody Kemp reviews “Flight Lines” in this month’s BookShelf.
"The [Chinese] government has moved slowly to permanently stop the sale and consumption of wild animals in the wake of the coronavirus epidemic, raising fears the practice may continue."
"Large territories of rivers, streams and tundra lands are covered by more than 20 thousands tons of diesel oil from a reservoir owned by company Nornickel. The catastrophe was reported to the authorities only two days after the spill and nobody really knows how to clean up."
"India and Bangladesh evacuated around half a million people out of the way of the most powerful storm in a decade ahead of its landfall on Wednesday amid fears of heavy damage to houses and crops and disruption of road, rail and power links."
"Spring wildfires across Siberia have Russian authorities on alert for a potentially devastating summer season of blazes after an unusually warm and dry winter in one of the world’s climate-change hot spots."
To better grasp how COVID-19 is linked to the persistent problem of polluted air, our latest BookShelf review recommends going back to a prescient text, “Choked: Life and Breath in the Age of Air Pollution.” While the volume predates the pandemic, it makes painfully clear why, during this crisis, healthy air matters more than ever.
"At least 13 people have been killed by a massive gas leak at a chemical plant in southern India, with hundreds of others taken to hospital."
"The country is home to most of the world’s wild tigers, and wildlife authorities announced steps to protect them."
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