S20 in 2025 is hosted by the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf)
#S20SouthAfrica #ASSAf_Official
S20 in 2025 is hosted by the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf)
#S20SouthAfrica #ASSAf_Official
Source: https://sentientmedia.org/four-potential-climate-solutions/
In an unexpected but no-less-depressing development, NASA has announced that 2024 was the hottest year on record. This wasn’t an anomaly, as every one of the past 10 years has been one of the 10 hottest years in the planet’s history. Climate change is a serious problem in need of a serious solution — but what counts as a viable climate solution, and what doesn’t?
Source: https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-02-climate-contribute-mental-disorders.html
A growing number of people feel anxious about the consequences of changing climate conditions. We are bombarded with news about floods, melting glaciers and long-term drought. Can fears about the future of the climate lead to the development of symptoms of mental disorders?
Source: https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2025/02/climate-change-is-worsening-diabetes-worldwide/
Headed for a routine doctor visit last year, Asha Sonawane, 63, collapsed after stepping outside her house in Bhadole village of India’s Maharashtra state as temperatures soared past 40 degrees Celsius (104 F). Her daughter Alka rushed to her with lime water and an energy drink, which relieved her a bit. But her legs hurt and she felt weak.
Dehydration in extreme heat had exacerbated Sonawane’s diabetes mellitus – a chronic medical condition in which blood glucose levels are too high – her doctor later explained.
He prescribed a few medicines and told her not to go outside for the rest of the summer.
Source: https://thesun.my/opinion-news/humanity-at-breaking-point-CF13611164
Few would deny that the world is in poor shape. All those pronouncements about ending poverty and stopping world hunger remain pipe dreams. Instead, we see more conflicts, driven mostly by greed and lust – greed for oil and lust for power. All those talks about fighting for human rights are nothing but broken promises.
Humanity is trampled mercilessly in the power grab. Hypocrite is the right word. Even the rampant killing of other fellow beings is open for all to see on social media.
The root cause of such massacre is the hate feeling that has spread like cancer among our proclaimed civilised society.
Source: https://www.niehs.nih.gov/research/programs/climatechange/health_impacts
Climate change impacts human health in both direct and indirect ways. Extreme heat waves, rising sea level, changes in precipitation resulting in flooding and droughts, and intense hurricanes can directly cause injury, illness, and even death. The effects of climate change can also indirectly affect health through alterations to the environment. For example, worsening air pollution levels can have negative impacts on respiratory and cardiovascular conditions. Changes in temperature and rainfall can alter the survival, distribution, and behavior of insects and other species that can lead to changes in infectious diseases. Increases in precipitation, storm surge, and sea temperature can lead to more water-related illnesses. Climate change can also affect food safety, exposing people to contaminated foods that can result in foodborne illnesses. In addition, climate change can affect mental health and well-being.
Uganda, a country heavily reliant on agriculture, is feeling the undeniable effects of climate change.
From unpredictable rainfall patterns to escalating deforestation, the environmental shifts are having far-reaching impacts on the livelihoods of millions.
Despite the government’s efforts to curb these issues, the resilience of Ugandans is continually tested by the compounded challenges of a rapidly changing climate. The time for action is now, as individuals, communities, and leaders push for solutions to mitigate and adapt to the climate crisis.
We’ve all read the stories and seen the images: The life-threatening heat waves. The wildfires of unprecedented ferocity. The record-breaking storms washing away entire neighborhoods. The melting glaciers, the rising sea levels, the coastal flooding.
As California wildfires stretch into the colder months and hurricane survivors sort through the ruins left by floodwaters, let’s talk about an underreported victim of climate change: the emotional well-being of young people.
California wildfires threaten cardiovascular health and highlight the urgent need for robust public health preparedness and response to climate change. As California authorities search for the causes of the Los Angeles County wildfires, many scientists agree that successive extreme weather events associated with climate change set up the dangerously dry conditions that led to the catastrophe.
After decades of drought, California experienced two years of extremely heavy rainfall in 2022 and 2023 that allowed vegetation to flourish. This was followed by record-breaking heat and dry conditions in late 2024 that resulted in an abundance of tinder-dry grass and shrubs by the time the first LA fires sparked on Jan. 7.
Source: https://now.tufts.edu/2025/01/21/changing-course-climate-change
With the debut of Climate Action, a tireless advocate for reducing carbon emissions offers students ‘an alternative to a feeling of immobility’
Climate change is often measured in scientific data that underscore the dire consequences of unchecked carbon emissions: rising temperatures, intenstifying high tides and storms, droughts, wildfires, warming oceans, and polar ice caps. But what if climate change was also measured by the choices we can make, collectively and individually, that reduce our reliance on fossil fuels?
Source: https://scotscoop.com/stormy-weather-stormy-minds/
The rain pounds against the roof and the windows, surrounding the house. It’s only midday but it’s dark outside, and the wind howls. Anna Romanovsky, a Carlmont sophomore, lays curled on her bed, huddled under a blanket, not wanting to go outside.
She watches the storm through the window, sipping hot chocolate with the TV playing in the background. Separated from her friends by walls of water, Romanovsky can do nothing but wait for the storm to end.
“I feel like during the winter, the mood is just so depressing, and I just feel unmotivated and cold all the time,” Romanovsky said. “I’m way more happy when it’s sunny outside, but when it’s gloomy outside, it kind of brings everything down because I feel like the day is not going to be that good.”
Changing moods is only one of the potential symptoms of mental health illnesses brought on by the weather.
