Environment

New Delhi, Oct 5 (PTI) Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday launched a mega anti-air pollution campaign, saying polluted air can be life threatening in view of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Under the campaign "Yudh Pradushan ke Virudh", separate plans have been prepared for each of the 13 pollution hotspots in the city, Kejriwal said during a digital press conference.

"Polluted air can be life threatening in view of the COVID-19 pandemic. Both affect lungs," he said.

New Delhi, Sep 30 (PTI) The national capital's air quality was recorded in the 'moderate' category on Wednesday morning, while a government forecasting agency said it is likely to turn 'poor' by Friday.

Delhi recorded an air quality index (AQI) of 160 at 10:30 am, which falls in the moderate category. The 24-hour average AQI on Tuesday was 177.

An AQI between 0 and 50 is considered 'good', 51 and 100 'satisfactory', 101 and 200 'moderate', 201 and 300 'poor', 301 and 400 'very poor', and 401 and 500 'severe'.

Hobart (Australia), Sep 23 (AP/PTI) More pilot whales were found stranded on an Australian coast Wednesday, raising the estimated total to almost 500 in the largest mass stranding ever recorded in the country.

Authorities had already been working to rescue survivors among an estimated 270 whales found Monday on a beach and two sand bars near the remote west coast town of Strahan on the island state of Tasmania.

16 Sep 2020; MEMO: Egypt is building two highways across the pyramids plateau outside Cairo, reviving and expanding a project that was suspended in the 1990s after an international outcry.

The Great Pyramids, Egypt’s top tourist destination, are the sole survivor of the seven wonders of the ancient world and the plateau is a UNESCO world heritage site.

Brasilia (Brazil), Sep 14 (AP/PTI) A vast swath of a vital wetlands is burning in Brazil, sweeping across several national parks and obscuring the sun behind dense smoke.

Preliminary figures from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, based on satellite images, indicate that nearly 5,800 square miles (1.5 million hectares) have burned in the Pantanal region since the start of August an expanse comparable to the area consumed by the historic blazes now afflicting California. It's also well beyond the previous fire season record from 2005.

Kanpur: Are electric vehicles really the future? Yes, it appears so. Even the report of the Bloomberg New Energy Finance approves it if we carefully read the trends in this sphere. It shows a long term contemplated chart.

It will hit 10% of the global electric passenger vehicles' sales up to the year 2025 with that number rising to 28% in the year 2030 and 58% in the year 2040, the report said.

According to another study, currently, the EVs make up 3% of the global car sales.

13 Sep 2020; MEMO: The floods in Sudan have killed 102 people, injured 46 more and affected over 550,000 people in 17 of the country’s 18 states, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has reported.

Salem (US), Sep 13 (AP/PTI) Wildfire smoke that posed a health hazard to millions choked the West Coast on Saturday as firefighters battled deadly blazes that obliterated some towns and displaced tens of thousands of people, the latest in a series of calamities this year.

New Delhi, Sep 12 (PTI) The National Green Tribunal has directed the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) to conduct environmental audit and recover fine from Amazon and Flipkart for violation of environmental norms.

The green panel observed that the statutory regulators were not taking coercive measures, including invoking of "polluter pays" principle for enforcing the statutory norms against the e-commerce firms.

08 Sep 2020; MEMO: Fires have broken out in a number of agricultural areas in western Syria, Russia Today (RT) reported yesterday.

A video showing the fires went viral on social media.

Fires have been raging in recent days across a number of large agricultural lands across Syria’s western parts. The fires were intensified in the Slunfeh forest, which extends along the Latakia portal city to the Masyaf Mountains in Homs.