-The Hindu The pandemic also has its hidden victims — over 500 million children forced out of school globally and India accounted for more than half of them. The country is all set to usher in a ‘pandemic generation’, with 375 million children (from newborns to 14-year-olds) likely to suffer long-lasting impacts, ranging from being underweight, stunting and increased child mortality, to losses in education and work productivity, according to the State...

-The Hindu This year can go down as the year when we set the planet on a path towards healing As COVID-19 upends our lives, a more persistent crisis demands urgent action on a global scale. Three environmental crises — climate change; nature loss; and the pollution of air, soil and water — add up to a planetary emergency that will cause far more pain than COVID-19 in the long-term. For years, scientists...

-Down to Earth Air pollution is a transboundary problem, it transcends rural and urban boundaries. But the issue is rarely discussed and action plans are rigid Air pollution in India is generally perceived as a problem of the cities and by the cities. Quite predictably, solutions have been designed for the cities. Initiatives to alleviate poor air remain conspicuously absent in rural areas. Rural Air pollution has usually been ignored by scientists and...

-Down to Earth By 2080, greenhouse gases are expected to raise the risk of extreme wildfire by 50%, according to the study Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and Air pollution caused by human activities had distinct regional impacts on extreme outbreaks of wildfire, according to a new study conducted by the University of California Santa Barbara in the United States. The study examined the weather under various combinations of human influences since 1920, isolating...

-Down to Earth Northern plains region in India and Pakistan most impacted, meeting India’s air quality standard would have reduced loss by 7 per cent Pregnant women in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh exposed to poor-quality air may be at higher risk of stillbirths and miscarriages, according to a study published in the Lancet Planetary Health journal January 6 2020. Some 349,681 pregnancies were lost every year in these three South Asian countries due...