“Once the bee disappears from the earth, humans have only four years to live. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more people.” (Albert Einstein, 1949)
Our air knows no boundaries and it is quite exhilarating to see that the shockwaves produced by the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Haʻapai volcano eruption almost 16.800km away were measured by our instruments deployed around Frankfurt (see chart). The shockwave travelled almost 16 hours. Not only that, but it seems that the same shockwave travelled around the globe and reached the same point another 18 hours later!
On Saturday, January 8, the 4th edition of the World Youth Forum in Sharm El-Sheikh started. This six-day event has the mission to bring together youth from around the world and the decision-makers and different influential officials. The forum is a chance for you to engage with top policy-makers in the region and network with promising youth in the region and the world determined to create change in the world we live in today.
“We want to harness the potential of digitization for greater sustainability” – this is how the section on “Sustainability in digitisation” in the coalition agreement between the SPD, Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen and FDP begins. The 17 Global Sustainability Goals of the United Nations (SGD) are to be the guiding principles of government policy, and climate protection is to become a cross-cutting task.
Climate
“Climate change is the greatest threat of the future. Every state must cooperate in combating the causes and mitigating the consequences.” (Klaus Töpfer)
The word climate comes from Greek and essentially means “inclination” or “curvature”. It does not mean the inclination of the Earth’s axis but the curvature and coherence of the Earth itself. The totality of weathers events is called climate. Weather is local, and climate is global. The larger and more complex a system, the slower it changes, and climate is arbitrarily complex. Read more
I grew up in Cairo. A city that shows all the typical traits of an emerging economy when it comes to air quality and health. I grew up in a household of doctors, who spent their lifetime researching the delicate relationship between the air we breathe and our health. Here is a paper co-written by my dad for The Lancet Journal on the “Effect of nitrogen dioxide and sulfur dioxide on airway response of mild asthmatic patients to allergen inhalation” written back in 1998. So imagine you grow up seeing and hearing about the “Black Cloud” of Cairo and the rise of patient visits in my parents’ clinic around the dinner table. Or discussions on best treatment options for patients during the long drives towards the Egyptian Red Sea coast with its windy fresh air. Thus, I always understood the topic of air pollution within a context – the context of bad health indicators, exacerbated symptoms, increased healthcare expenditures and overall reduced life quality. Read more
