LIKE WE TELL THE KIDS, GO BEFORE YOU LEAVE
No toilet for returning SpaceX crew, stuck using diapers


This photo provided by NASA, Astronauts, from left, Mark Vande Hei, Shane Kimbrough, Akihiko Hoshide and Megan McArthur, pose with chile peppers grown aboard the International Space Station on Friday, Nov. 5, 2021. (NASA via AP)

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — The astronauts who will depart the International Space Station as early as this weekend will be stuck using diapers on the way home because of their capsule’s broken toilet.

NASA astronaut Megan McArthur described the situation Friday as “suboptimal” but manageable.

“Spaceflight is full of lots of little challenges,” she said during a news conference from orbit. “This is just one more that we’ll encounter and take care of in our mission. So we’re not too worried about it.”

The trip home can take up to 20 hours.

Mission managers could decide later Friday whether to bring McArthur and her three crewmates back in their SpaceX capsule before launching their replacements. That launch already has been delayed more than a week by bad weather and an undisclosed medical issue involving one of the crew.

French astronaut Thomas Pesquet told reporters that the past six months have been intense up there. The astronauts conducted a series of spacewalks to upgrade the station’s power grid, endured inadvertent thruster firings by docked Russian vehicles that sent the station into brief spins, and hosted a private Russian film crew — a space station first.

They also had to deal with the toilet leak, pulling up panels in their SpaceX capsule and discovering pools of urine. The problem was first noted during SpaceX’s private flight in September, when a tube came unglued and spilled urine beneath the floorboards. SpaceX fixed the toilet on the capsule awaiting liftoff, but deemed the one in orbit unusable.

Engineers determined that the capsule had not been structurally compromised by the urine and was safe for the ride back.

On the culinary side, the astronauts grew the first chile peppers in space — “a nice moral boost,” according to McArthur. They got to sample their harvest in the past week, adding pieces of the green and red peppers to tacos.

“They have a nice spiciness to them, a little bit of a lingering burn,” she said. “Some found that more troublesome than others.”

Also returning with McArthur and Pesquet: NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough and Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide. SpaceX launched them to the space station on April 23. Their capsule is certified for a maximum 210 days in space, and with Friday marking their 196th day aloft, NASA is eager to get them back as soon as possible.

One American and two Russians will remain on the space station following their departure. While it would be better if their replacements arrived first — in order to share tips on living in space — Kimbrough said the remaining NASA astronaut will fill in the newcomers.

___

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

'Europe is back at the epicenter' of COVID-19, WHO warns. 

'Enough idiocy,' Italian official tells anti-vaxxers.

PETER WEBER

4:14 AM

The World Health Organization warned Thursday about rising COVID-19 cases and deaths in Europe. In the past week alone, the Europe region saw 1.8 million new COVID-19 cases and 24,000 deaths, or 59 percent of global cases and nearly half the world's coronavirus deaths. "If we stay on this trajectory, we could see another half a million COVID-19 deaths in Europe and Central Asia by the first of February next year," warned WHO Europe chief Dr. Hans Kluge.

"We are at another critical point of pandemic resurgence,"  Kluge said. "Europe is back at the epicenter of the pandemic — where we were one year ago." Kluge and other public health officials attributed the looming fourth coronavirus wave to low vaccination rates in some areas, the Delta variant's contagiousness, and a relaxation of public mitigation efforts like masking. Kluge said if 95 percent of Europeans just wore masks in public, 188,000 lives could be saved in the next three months. 

Eight of the 53 countries in the WHO's European region have vaccinated more than 70 percent of their population, but two have immunized less than 10 percent. The worst outbreaks are in Russia, Ukraine, and elsewhere in low-vaccination Central and Eastern Europe. Germany, with 67 percent of its population fully vaccinated, recorded a pandemic-high 33,949 new COVID cases on Wednesday. 

Spain, with about 80 percent of its population fully vaccinated, is one of the few European countries not seeing a rise in infections. But Italy saw a 16.6 percent increase in cases over the past week, despite 72 percent of its population fully immunized, a national health pass, and stringent new rules requiring workers to be vaccinated or test negative for COVID-19. One outbreak, in the northeastern city of Trieste, is directly tied to a large anti-vaccination protest there two weeks ago, The New York Times reports.

"The situation in Trieste is particularly worrisome," said Dr. Fabio Barbone, the epidemiologist working to contain the outbreak in Trieste's region, Friuli-Venezia Giulia. Regional president Massimiliano Fedriga had some more direct words for the anti-vaxxers flocking to Trieste: "It is the moment to say with clarity: Enough idiocy."

Cases have declined sharply in the U.S. over the past six weeks. But Dr. Mike Ryan, a WHO official in Europe, warned that Europe's experience is a "warning shot for the world." And Dr. Eric Topol, a medical researcher at California's Scripps Research Institute, agrees.  

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New York City reaches deal with unions on COVID-19 vaccine mandate


New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio ordered all city employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19 or go on unpaid leave.

 File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo

Nov. 5 (UPI) -- New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said Friday he's now reached agreements with at least 15 unions representing municipal employees regarding the city's COVID-19 vaccine mandate.

His announcement comes one day after he reached a deal with nine unions challenging the order requiring all city workers to be fully vaccinated by Oct. 31. The mayor's office said about 9,000 municipal workers were put on leave without pay after missing the deadline Monday.

Some 92% of workers are now fully vaccinated and about 12,000 unvaccinated workers were allowed to continue working with weekly negative tests while the city evaluates their religious or medical exemption requests.

"BREAKING NEWS: we're up to agreements with 15 unions and counting!" de Blasio tweeted Friday. "Mandates work, vaccines work and on behalf of all New Yorkers, I want to thank all the working people standing up and protecting themselves and the city they love."

Under the agreements, applications for an exemption for a religious or medical reason will be reviewed by the city. Those seeking religious exemptions must be members of a recognized religion and must have a letter from a clergy member. Their religion must have a documented opposition to vaccines.

The new agreement gives the union members more time to apply for the exemption and ability to work while awaiting a ruling. Unvaccinated union members also will be able to keep their health benefits while on unpaid leave through June.

COVID-19 Alpha variant detected in dogs, cats in England


Researchers in England detected the Alpha, or U.K., variant of COVID-19 in dogs and cats of people who had been diagnosed with the coronavirus, according to a new study.

 File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo

Nov. 5 (UPI) -- Two cats and one dog tested positive for the Alpha variant of COVID-19, first identified in England in September and commonly referred to as the "U.K. variant," according to a study published Friday by the Veterinary Record.

In addition, two other cats and one dog had evidence of antibodies against the virus two to six weeks after they developed heart disease, the researchers said.
COVID-19 is known to cause heart complications in those who develop severe symptoms.

Many owners of the pets in the study had developed respiratory symptoms several weeks before their pets became ill and tested positive for COVID-19, according to the researchers.

"Our study reports the first cases of cats and dogs affected by the COVID-19 alpha variant," study co-author Luca Ferasin said in a press release.

It also "highlights, more than ever, the risk that companion animals can become infected with [COVID-19]," said Ferasin, a veterinarian at the Ralph Veterinary Referral Center in Marlow, England.

The Alpha variant may be more contagious than the strain of the virus first identified in Wuhan, China, and it may cause more serious illness, according to the World Health Organization.

Early in the pandemic, reports in Hong Kong indicated two dogs had been infected with COVID-19.

The animals were quarantined, despite there being no evidence suggesting that domesticated animals can transmit the virus to humans.

A study published earlier this year, however, reported cases of human-to-cat transmission

The animals in this study were evaluated for COVID-19 because their owners had tested positive for the virus, the researchers said.

In addition, they also showed signs of rapid-onset heart disease, including severe myocarditis, or inflammation of the heart muscle, a known complication of the virus.

Although this "is a well-recognized complication in people affected by COVID-19, [it] has never described in pets before," Ferasin said.

"However, COVID-19 infection in pets remains a relatively rare condition and, based on our observations, it seems that the transmission occurs from humans to pets, rather than vice versa," he said.

Minnesota police called to break up bald eagle street fight

Nov. 5 (UPI) -- A Minnesota police officer was summoned to break up an unusual street fight when two bald eagles were found "stuck together" in the middle of a road.

The city of Plymouth said in a Facebook post that Officer Mitch Martinson responded to a neighborhood on "a report of two bald eagles stuck together on a Plymouth roadway."

Martinson said being called to break up a street fight between two eagles was a first for him.

"We do have de-escalation tactics, but I've never applied them to eagles or other animals," Martinson told WCCO-TV.

The officer consulted with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and the Raptor Center, which told him the eagles were likely in a dispute over territory.

Martinson said he was attempting to cover the birds' heads to calm them down when they decided to flee the scene.

"The eagles started going at it again and the next thing you knew, they were flying away," Martinson said.

Inside and outside climate talks, youths urge faster action

By SETH BORENSTEIN and FRANK JORDANS

1 of 17

Climate activists march through the streets of Glasgow, Scotland, Friday, Nov. 5, 2021 which is the host city of the COP26 U.N. Climate Summit. The protest was taking place as leaders and activists from around the world were gathering in Scotland's biggest city for the U.N. climate summit, to lay out their vision for addressing the common challenge of global warming. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)


Supporters of Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg shout as she goes on the stage of a demonstration in Glasgow, Scotland, Friday, Nov. 5, 2021 which is the host city of the COP26 U.N. Climate Summit. The protest was taking place as leaders and activists from around the world were gathering in Scotland's biggest city for the U.N. climate summit, to lay out their vision for addressing the common challenge of global warming. (AP Photo/Jon Super)


Indigenous people from Brazil speak from the stage during a demonstration in Glasgow, Scotland, Friday, Nov. Amazon tribal leader and climate activists Kreta Kaingang speaks during a demonstration in , 2021 which is the host city of the COP26 U.N. Climate Summit. The protest was taking place as leaders and activists from around the world were gathering in Scotland's biggest city for the U.N. climate summit, to lay out their vision for addressing the common challenge of global warming. (AP Photo/Jon Super)

GLASGOW, Scotland (AP) — Young people both inside and outside of the United Nations climate talks are telling world leaders to hurry up and get it done, that concrete measures to avoid catastrophic warming can’t wait.

Ashley Lashley, a 22-year-old from Barbardos who is on her country’s climate negotiation team in Glasgow, thought about how to communicate the need for urgency during a session on carbon trading. As she listened to other delegates debate the intricate and intractable topic that has baffled negotiators for more than six years, a phrase popped into her head: ’“blah-blah-blah.”

That’s the expression prominent teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg has started repeating to express her thoughts on the pace of government actions to curb global warming. The Thunberg-inspired Fridays for Future movement held a demonstration outside the conference venue to pressure the negotiators inside, drawing tens of thousands of participants.

And inside, the session Lashley attended droned on. She worries her fellow negotiators too easily become bogged down in minutiae and lose sight of the big picture: keeping emissions from exceeding 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit), which could wipe out some island nations and other vulnerable spots.

“Can’t you guys just wrap it up,” Lashley, one of the few young people sitting in on negotiations, recalled thinking on Friday.

Umuhoza Grace Ineza, 25, a negotiator for Rwanda, said she watches some sessions crawling along and hears other negotiators say “Ooh, let’s try this way, that way, and then we can come up with a decision next session.” Ineza says she wants to ask them if they understand how urgent limiting climate change is for the next generation.

“In my mind, it’s like do these people have children?” she said.

University of Michigan graduate student observers AJ Convertino and Evan Gonzalez said watching the sessions on the inside made them both more impatient but also more optimistic because they see the right things being said and done, if still way too slowly.

Friday was the day the U.N. conference said it was dedicating to youth. But the schedule didn’t reflect that, at times: a news conference where officials talked about youth had a panel with no members under 30, and the lunchtime events featured former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, 73, and 77-year-old John Kerry, the U.S. climate envoy.

“When I arrived at COP26, I could only see white middle-aged men in suits,” Magali Cho Lin Wing, 17, a member of the UNICEF U.K. Youth Advisory Board, said at a press event. “And I thought, ‘Hold on is this a climate conference or some corporate event? Is this what you came for? To swap business cards?’”

And except on rare occasions, young people say they are not being listened to.

“It’s our future. Our future is being negotiated, and we don’t have a seat at the table,” said 20-year-old Boston College student Julia Horchos, who is inside the conference, but hasn’t gotten into negotiating sessions.

Still, they know it’s important to be at least near the room where it all happens.

“It’s my life,” Horchos said. “Its definitely my responsibility to step up.”

Greenpeace International Executive Director Jennifer Morgan gave the conference participants and activists under 30 credit.

“Youth have brought critical urgency to the talks,” Greenpeace International Executive Director Jennifer Morgan said. “They have emphasized what is at stake for young people if the gap to 1.5 C is not closed.”

Outside the negotiations, the worry about the future was the same, but the way it was expressed was different. During the Fridays for Future demonstration in Glasgow’s Kelvingrove Park, mostly young activists carried banners with slogans such as “I have to clear up my mess, why don’t you clear up yours?” and “Stop climate crimes.”

Speaking at the Fridays rally outside the conference venue, Greta Thunberg branded the U.N. climate talks in Glasgow so far “a failure,” accusing leaders of actively creating loopholes in the rules and giving misleading pictures of their countries’ emissions

“World leaders are obviously scared of the truth, yet no matter how hard they try, they cannot escape it,” the 18-year-old Swedish activist said. “They cannot ignore the scientific consensus, and above all they cannot ignore us - the people, including their own children.”

The Fridays For Future protest was part of a series of demonstrations being staged around the world Friday and Saturday, to coincide with the talks.

Some at the rally accused negotiators of “greenwashing” their country’s failure to curb greenhouse gas emissions by trumpeting policies that sound good but won’t do enough to prevent dangerous temperature rises in the coming decades.

Brianna Fruean, a 23-year-old activist who grew up in Samoa, a low-lying Pacific island nation that is particularly vulnerable to rising sea levels and cyclones, said: “My biggest fear is losing my country.”

“I’ve seen the floods go into our homes, and I’ve scooped out the mud,” she said.

Fruean was given the stage at the beginning of the conference, known as COP26, where she told leaders about the effects of climate change already being felt in her country.

“I feel like I’m being seen,” she said. “I will know if I’ve been heard by the end of COP.”

Natalia Gomez, 24, of Costa Rica, has been in on negotiating sessions and cheered on the outside protest from afar. Outside, youths are making important points, getting attention and putting pressure on leaders, she said. Inside, youths are helping try to get things done. She keeps asking herself which one is more important.

“I don’t know,” Gomez said.

___

Follow AP’s climate coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/climate. Follow Seth Borenstein on Twitter: @borenbears.

___

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Young activists, students seize focus at COP26 climate summit in Scotland

Young activists participate in a student march against climate change on Friday on the sidelines of the U.N. Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, Scotland. Photo by Robert Perry/EPA-EFE

Nov. 5 (UPI) -- After a week of speeches, meetings and agreements, the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Scotland is focusing Friday on activists and non-government leaders.

The events in Glasgow on Friday were to include a student march, civilian presentations and Swedish climate proponent Greta Thunberg.

Thunberg joined thousands of activists in a march to capture the attention of the world leaders who are attending the COP26 summit, as well as those who aren't.

The marchers, organized by Fridays for Future Scotland, demonstrated from Kelvingrove Park to George Square in the middle of Glasgow's city center.

Thunberg, activist Vanessa Nakate and other young demonstrators were expected to speak along with local trade unionists.

Thunberg, 18, has been critical of the U.N. conference, mainly because she says it lacks real and significant action to mitigate climate change. She said leaders have celebrated future strategies, but aren't making tough decisions on what needs to be done now.



"This is no longer a climate conference. This is a Global North greenwash festival," Thunberg tweeted Thursday. "A two-week celebration of business as usual and blah blah blah."

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's office frowned on young people leaving school Friday to take part in the march. Johnson has been hosting the summit since it began on Sunday.

"We do understand why young people feel so strongly about climate change, and we want to see them use that passion and turn it into action," a spokesman from Johnson's office said, according to The Independent.

Climate activist Greta Thunberg labels COP26 a 'failure' as youth demand action


Climate activist Greta Thunberg speaks at a Fridays for Future march during the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26), in Glasgow, Scotland, on November 5, 2021. 

© Yves Herman, Reuters  

Text by: NEWS WIRES|
Video by: Nicholas RUSHWORTH

Issued on: 05/11/2021 - 

Swedish campaigner Greta Thunberg on Friday branded the UN climate summit in Glasgow a “failure” during a mass protest in the Scottish city demanding swifter action from leaders to address the emergency.

Thunberg said pledges from some nations made during COP26 to accelerate their emissions cuts amounted to little more than “a two-week long celebration of business as usual and blah, blah, blah”.

“It is not a secret that COP26 is a failure,” she told the thousands of people at the protest.

“This is no longer a climate conference. This is now a global greenwashing festival.”

Delegates from nearly 200 countries are in Glasgow to hammer out how to meet the Paris Agreement goals of limiting temperature rises to between 1.5 and 2 degrees Celsius.

The first week of talks saw countries announce plans to phase out coal use and to end foreign fossil fuel funding, but there were few details on how they plan the mass decarbonisation scientists say is needed.

The promises followed a major assessment that showed global CO2 emissions are set to rebound in 2021 to pre-pandemic levels.

“They cannot ignore the scientific consensus and they cannot ignore us,” said Thunberg.

“Our leaders are not leading. This is what leadership looks like,” she said gesturing to the crowd.

Two days of demonstrations are planned by activist groups to highlight the disconnect between the glacial pace of emissions reductions and the climate emergency already swamping countries across the world.

Some progress

Onlookers to Friday’s march lined the streets and hung out of windows to watch the stream of protesters, who held banners reading “No Planet B” and “Climate Action Now”.

“I’m here because the world leaders are deciding the fate of our future and the present of people that have already been impacted by climate crisis,” said 18-year-old Valentina Ruas.

“We won’t accept anything that isn’t real climate policy centred on climate justice.”

Students were out in force, with some schools allowing pupils to skip lessons to see the march and one young green warrior holding a placard that read: “Climate change is worse than homework”.

Experts say a commitment made during the high-level leaders’ summit at the start of COP26 by more than 100 nations to cut methane emissions by at least 30 percent this decade will have a real short-term impact on global heating.

But environmental groups pointed out that governments, particularly wealthy polluters, have a habit of failing to live up to their promises.

Vanessa Nakate told the crowd that people in her native Uganda were “being erased” by climate change.

“People are dying, children are dropping out of school, farms are being destroyed,” she said.

“Another world is necessary. Another world is possible.”

‘Take responsibility’

Countries came into COP26 with national climate plans that, when brought together, put Earth on course to warm 2.7C this century, according to the UN.

With just 1.1C of warming so far, communities across the world are already facing ever more intense fire and drought, displacement and economic ruin wrought by the Earth’s heating climate.

“Scientists have done what they need to do, they’ve told us about the problem. Young people have done what they need to do by calling attention to this issue,” said Natalie Tariro Chido Mangondo, a Zimbabwean climate and gender advocate.

“And it’s just up to our leaders to get their act together.”

Campaigners say they expect up to 50,000 demonstrators in the Scottish city on Saturday as part of a global round of climate protests.

A spokesman from Police Scotland said there were “fewer than 20 arrests made” as of Friday night, mainly for public disorder offences.

(AFP)

From Kenya to COP26, the teen battling 'global disaster'


Rahmina Paulette says she feels that her voice 'is starting to be heard by many people' 

Paul ELLIS AFP

Issued on: 05/11/2021 - 

Glasgow (AFP) – For teenage climate campaigner Rahmina Paulette, the journey to becoming an environmental activist began with a cancelled boat ride.

The young Kenyan was then around 11 years old and had been looking forward to the trip on Lake Victoria with her mother, but found the way blocked by a vast green carpet of invasive water hyacinth choking the bay near her native Kisumu.

"I went back home so sad" Rahmina told AFP at the COP26 conference in Glasgow.

She started researching the invasive weed.

"I found that actually it can be used. And it can be used for something purposeful," she said.

Her first step was to set up a business selling water hyacinth furniture, table coasters and bags.

But Rahmina, who is now 15, did not stop there.

She launched a campaign called Let Lake Victoria Breathe Again, working for the restoration of the lake's ecosystems, with online petitions and offline marches.

"I personally am being affected by climate change," she said.

"I know what people are facing, especially the people from the most affected places."

Intense rains last year swelled many of Kenya's biggest lakes to levels not seen in at least half a century, some by several metres or more this year alone, following months of extreme rainfall scientists have linked to a changing climate.

The phenomenon is causing immense flooding, driving thousands from their homes.
'Uproot the system'

In lake-side Kisumu, where Rahmina grew up, people have seen dramatic changes in the environment.

Her grandmother recalled a vast expanse of clear blue.

"You could even see the fish," said Rahmina.

Now the murky water is frequently blanketed with the water hyacinth infestation and suffers from pollution and harmful algae blooms that can be toxic to fish.

"Right now, if you can go back to Lake Victoria, you'll see many plastics, many waste and you'll see dead fish," she said.

"If we don't act, the future generation won't be able to enjoy what you are enjoying right now, or even what our ancestors used to enjoy, it will become a global disaster," she said.

Rahmina said she feels that her voice "is starting to be heard by many people", helped by the online platform she has as a model, after she won an Africa beauty pageant.

She plans to study climate policy and international relations.

"My ambition is to create a sustainable future. My other ambition is to make the world a better place," she said.

Rahmina, who will be out protesting on Friday, said she has come to Glasgow to persuade world leaders to work with young climate activists.

"We will either work with them, or uproot the system," she said.

© 2021 AFP

'Decisions have to be taken now': Young activists take the stage at COP26

Issued on: 05/11/2021 

Thousands of young people marched through the streets of Glasgow Friday to protest a lack of climate action with a clear message to negotiators at the COP26 summit: "If not now, when?" Young climate activist Belle Valiulis talks to FRANCE 24's Hervé Amoric.

COP26 youth demonstrations: Activists protest against lack of action by world leaders

Issued on: 05/11/2021 - 
Video by: Robert PARSONS

Thousands of young campaigners marched through the streets of Glasgow on Friday to demand that world leaders at the UN climate conference safeguard their future against climate change. Inside the COP26 conference venue in Glasgow, Scotland, civil society leaders were taking over discussions at the end of a week of government speeches and pledges, which included promises to phase out coal, slash emissions of the potent greenhouse gas methane and reduce deforestation. FRANCE 24's Chief Foreign Editor Robert Parsons gives his perspective.

 INDIA'S GRETA THUNBERG? 

WHO IS VINISHA UMASHANKAR, THE ENVIRONMENTALIST WHO SPOKE AT COP26

In her speech Vinisha Umashankar, who hails from Tamil Nadu, said that she is more than just a girl from India and she was a 'girl from Earth.'(Image: Youtube)

The young innovator from Tamil Nadu turned heads at Glasgow with her moving speech, but her journey is just as inspiring.

NEWS18.COM

NEW DELHI
LAST UPDATED:NOVEMBER 05, 2021

She has designed a solar-powered ironing cart to replace charcoal-filled appliance. She is a finalist for the prestigious Earthshot environmental prize. She called for action and not just anger at the global platform COP26. And she is just 15. Meet Vinisha Umashankar - a young environmentalist, pegged to be India’s Greta Thunberg.

“We have every reason to be angry. But I have no time for anger. I want to act. I am not just a girl from India. I am a girl from Earth and I am proud to be so. I am also a student, innovator, environmentalist and entrepreneur, but most importantly, I’m an optimist," she said at the COP26, after being invited by Prince William to speak at the global conference on climate change, billed as the world’s last chance at reducing global temperatures.

But who is Vinisha Umashankar? Here’s a closer look at the environmentalist’s work and life so far

A native of the rural town Tiruvannamalai in Tamil Nadu, Vinisha describes herself as a ‘Chief Innovation Officer’ on her Linkedin page. The environmentalist started her journey when she was just 12 - by working on the ‘Solar Ironing Cart’. The idea came to her as she would accompany her mother to deliver clothes to an old couple for ironing, the Hindu reports. Seeing how they ironed with charcoal-filled cast-iron boxes with difficulty in the heat, she then began work to make their life, and the environment, cleaner.

“It made me think about the amount of charcoal burnt every day and the damage it does to the environment," Umashankar said, NPR reports. Producing and burning charcoal emits particulate matter, which pollutes the air, as well as greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, which contribute to climate change.

The Solar-powered Iron-Max

She designed a cart with solar panels to power a steam iron over the course of six months in 2019. She poured over college-level physics textbooks to learn how solar panels work. Then she pitched her idea to the Indian government’s National Innovation Foundation. Engineers then assisted her in creating a full-scale working prototype and filing for a patent.

The result was Iron-Max, a blue-painted cart in the shape of an iron box, with solar panels installed on its roof. It’s attached to a bicycle, allowing vendors to move around the neighbourhood collecting clothes to press. Five hours of direct sunlight is sufficient to run the iron for six hours. The energy can be stored in a battery and used to power a device on cloudy days. The cart also has a coin-operated cellphone and a cellphone charging point where people can pay to recharge their phones, which helps vendors supplement their earnings.

However, this is not Vinisha’s sole innovation. She has also designed a smart ceiling fan, which operates by itself using motion sensors. She bagged an award for the design in 2019.

Her Parents and School Life

The Class 10 student’s father S Umashankar works as a business consultant, and her mother U. Sangeetha works as school teacher. “She (Vinisha) is class topper and her time management between studies and extracurricular activities is excellent. Her mother teaches science in our school,” SKP Vanitha International School Principal Prathiba Shyam told the Hindu.

According to Vinisha, she is interested in science experiments, stargazing, microscopy, gymnastics, cycling, swimming and gardening. “I had won many elocution, debate, quiz, essay-writing, singing, drawing and yoga competitions at the school, district, state and national levels," the innovator says.

Awards and Recognition

Vinisha has received the Children’s Climate Prize in 2020 by the Children’s Climate Foundation in Sweden, for her solar cart. Her first national award for innovation was with the Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam IGNITE Award in 2019, and the environmentalist is also the youngest recipient of the Dr. Pradeep P. Thevannoor Innovation Award in the same year for her innovation ‘the Smart Ceiling Fan’. The award was given by the SCMS School of Engineering and Technology, Kerala in association with the Kerala Startup Mission and Kalam Technical University (KTU).

Vinisha was also the recipient of the Earth Day Network Rising Star in 2021, awarded by the Earth Day Network in US.

Now, she is among the fifteen finalists on the shortlist for Prince William’s Earthshot environmental prize to reward innovative solutions to the planet’s biggest problems.

UPDATED

New Delhi wakes up to blanket of toxic smog and worst pollution all year after defying firework ban

In India, toxic air kills more than a million people annually but the government has been accused of not doing enough to curb pollution - instead prioritising economic growth.

Megan Baynes
News reporter @megbaynes
Friday 5 November 2021 
Image:Residents of New Delhi woke up to the most polluted air of the year so far

The morning after Diwali celebrations residents of New Delhi woke up to a blanket of toxic smog, breathing in the most polluted air of the year so far.

The city has the worst air quality of all the world's capitals, but Friday's reading was the highest of 2021, as people paid the price for defying the fireworks ban.
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The Air Quality Index (AQI) surged to 451 out of 500 - the maximum recorded this year.

Image:Morning haze and smog envelops the skyline after Diwali fireworks were let off despite a ban

It indicates "severe" conditions that will affect healthy people and seriously impact those with pre-existing conditions.

The AQI measures the concentration of poisonous particulate matter PM2.5 in a cubic metre of air.

In Delhi, the PM2.5 reading on Friday averaged 706 micrograms. The World Health Organisation deems anything above an annual average of five micrograms unsafe.

By comparison, London measured 50 PM2.5 on the AQI on Friday morning.

In India, toxic air kills more than a million people annually.

"The firecracker ban didn't seem to be successful in Delhi, which led to hazardous pollution levels adding on top of existing perennial sources," Sunil Dahiya, analyst at the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) said.

The government imposes a ban on fireworks every year, but these are rarely enforced.

Stubble fires - where farmers in Delhi's neighbouring states of Punjab and Haryana burn fields to prepare for the next crop - also account for 35% of New Delhi's PM2.5 levels.

Ambrish Mithal, a doctor at the Max HealthCare hospital in New Delhi, vented his frustration on Twitter, and said: "It's terrible for those with allergies and asthma. We will continue to squabble over reasons and are doomed to suffer."

An Indian paramilitary soldier walks near India Gate which is shrouded in smog

The government has been accused of not doing enough to curb pollution, instead prioritising economic growth.

On Monday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi told the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow that India would achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2070 - two decades after the date set by other countries.

 
In October, intermittent rain and winds led to to a rare drop in pollution, with residents breathing the cleanest air in four years before conditions quickly deteriorated.

Pollution levels often surge in winter months, as lower temperatures and a drop in wind speed traps pollutants in the air for longer.

India's Pledge at COP26 on Point. But Need of the Hour is Focus on Rapid Relief from Toxic Air


A day ahead of Diwali 2021, the average air quality in the national capital had slid into the 'very poor' category. (File picture)

India has in the recent past taken several quick measures to prevent air pollution, including the replacement of solid fuels with gas for cooking.

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LAST UPDATED:NOVEMBER 05, 2021

Environment experts have lauded India for doing more than most countries, including China, and reducing emissions. According to them, the country’s pledge at COP26 to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2070 is “real climate action". The promises made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to tackle climate change at the 26th international climate conference in Glasgow included achieving carbon neutrality by 2070.

While the experts said that by making the pledge, India has put the ball in the court of developed nations to fulfil the promise $1 trillion of climate finance, the move does not bring relief from the immediate problem of toxic air that the people, especially those in the national capital, are having to breath in.

Also Read: Data From 5 Years Shows AQI Shot up to Toxic Levels Each Diwali, Delhiites Learnt No Lessons

The Air Quality Index deteriorates to a new low each year around the months of October-December as stubble burning from neighbouring states intensifies and people violate norms and burst firecrackers to celebrate the festival of Diwali. This year, too, despite a Supreme Court order, several appeals by the Delhi government and other efforts in place to keep a check on bursting of firecrackers during Diwali, several areas in the city reported violations as people burst crackers all through Thursday.

On Friday morning, Delhiites woke up to a thick blanket of smog and a worrying AQI of 617. People from several parts of the city and its suburbs complained of itchy throat and watery eyes. The city’s overall air quality index was 451 at 8 am and entered the “severe" category, according to the Ministry of Earth Sciences’ air quality forecast agency System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research (SAFAR). At around 3am, the air quality at Janpath in Delhi was in ‘hazardous’ category with PM2.5 at 655.07.

Modi, The Economist said in a piece on Friday, highlighted at Glasgow that while poor countries bear a mere fraction of the blame for creating the world’s climate mess, some, such as India, have done better at keeping environmental commitments than many rich countries.

As per the report, India, with 18% of the world’s population, is estimated to have caused just 3% of accumulated CO2 emissions. Yet even as Indian leaders repeatedly—and sometimes justifiably—take the moral high ground on climate change’s long-term challenges, their people continue to suffer and die from its immediate, home-grown causes, it says.

The Economist further points out that the problem is not faced by Delhi alone. “In winter the Himalayas trap the combined exhaust of the 600m people who populate the sprawling Indo-Gangetic Plain. From diesel pumps for irrigation to cremation pyres and from coal-fired power plants to gas-guzzling suvs, the smoke combines in a toxic stew that can hang for weeks in the season’s typically windless conditions. Big provincial cities such as Lucknow and Patna are just as sooty as Delhi. So are many rural areas,” it says.

Climate change activist and director general of Centre for Science and Environment Sunita Narain has said that India has laid out its roadmap, and targets of non-fossil fuel, renewable energy (RE) and reduction of carbon intensity are all pathways to get one billion tonnes carbon emission reduction by 2030.

“RE target of 50 per cent, non-fossil fuel 500 GW; carbon intensity of 45 per cent are all pathways to get to 1 billion tonnes carbon emission reduction by 2030. India has laid out its roadmap; this is more than OECD and certainly what China has done. India enhanced NDC (Nationally Determined Contribution) is a challenge to the world to step up," she said in a tweet.

Along with this ready roadmap, India has taken several other quick measures to prevent air pollution, including the replacement of solid fuels with gas for cooking.

It has also ramped up its solar and wind power capacity and, backed by Modi, tightened the vehicle-emissions rules. With a goal to cut pollution in 122 cities by up to 30% in the next five years, the central government in 2019 also launched a National Clean Air Programme.

Delhi wakes to post-Diwali smog


At various hotspots, levels of harmful PM 2.5 particles topped 400 on average on the air quality index 

Prakash SINGH AFP
Issued on: 05/11/2021 - 

New Delhi (AFP) – New Delhi woke up to a thick blanket of toxic smog on Friday after an overnight barrage of firecrackers for the Hindu festival of Diwali in the Indian megacity, despite a ban on selling them.

At various hotspots, levels of harmful PM 2.5 particles topped 400 on average on the air quality index.

The figure is more than 15 times higher than the safe daily limit set by the World Health Organization.

India's top court has banned the sale of firecrackers in Delhi and the local government urged people to celebrate Diwali without them.

But many of the capital's roughly 20 million residents still got hold of them, setting them off all over the city until the early hours of the morning for the annual Festival of Lights.


People make their way along a street amid smoggy conditions in New Delhi

 Prakash SINGH AFP

Firecracker smoke combines with industrial and vehicle emissions and farm fires to create a putrid grey-yellow soup that envelops Delhi and other Indian cities in winter.

Sandeep, a Delhi resident, told AFP on Friday he did not think the government was doing enough to counter the pollution challenge.

"I think a great deal (more) needs to be done," he said while on a morning walk at Delhi's Lodhi Gardens.

A 2020 report by Swiss organisation IQAir found 22 of the world's 30 most polluted cities were in India, with Delhi ranked the most polluted capital globally.

The same year, the Lancet said 1.67 million deaths were attributable to air pollution in India in 2019, including almost 17,500 in the capital.

© 2021 AFP

Beijing shuts roads, playgrounds amid heavy smog after coal spike

Issued on: 05/11/2021 - 

Schools in Beijing -- which will host the Winter Olympics in February -- were ordered to stop physical education classes and outdoor activities due to the smog

 JADE GAO AFP

Beijing (AFP) – Highways and school playgrounds in Beijing were closed Friday due to heavy pollution, as China ramps up coal production and faces scrutiny of its environmental record at make-or-break international climate talks

World leaders have gathered in Scotland this week for COP26 negotiations billed as one of the last chances to avert catastrophic climate change, though Chinese President Xi Jinping made a written address instead of attending in person.

China -- the world's largest emitter of the greenhouse gases responsible for climate change -- has ramped up coal output after supply chains in recent months were roiled by an energy crunch owing to strict emissions targets and record prices for the fossil fuel.

A thick haze of smog blanketed swathes of northern China on Friday, with visibility in some areas reduced to less than 200 metres (yards), according to the country's weather forecaster.

Authorities in Beijing blamed the pollution on "unfavourable weather conditions and regional pollution spread" as schools in the capital -- which will host the Winter Olympics in February -- were ordered to stop physical education classes and outdoor activities.

Stretches of highways to major cities including Shanghai, Tianjin and Harbin were closed Friday due to poor visibility.

Pollutants detected Friday morning by a monitoring station at the US embassy in Beijing reached levels defined as "very unhealthy" for the general population.

Rapid industrialisation has made China no stranger to air pollution

 JADE GAO AFP

Levels of small particulate matter, or PM 2.5, which penetrate deep into human lungs and cause respiratory illnesses hovered around 220 -- far above the WHO recommended limit of 15.

The smog is likely to persist until at least Saturday evening, according to city officials.

China said earlier this week it had increased daily coal production by more than one million tonnes to ease an energy shortage that had forced factories to close in recent months.

Rapid industrialisation has made China no stranger to air pollution, although severe smog episodes have become less frequent in recent years as authorities have increasingly prioritised environmental protection.

Beijing has pledged to bring emissions of planet-heating carbon dioxide to a peak by 2030 and reduce them to net zero by 2060.

China hit back Wednesday at criticism by Joe Biden, saying "actions speak louder than words" after the US president accused Beijing of not showing leadership to combat climate change.

China generates about 60 percent of its energy from burning coal.

© 2021 AFP

Why China, India, Other Big Coal Users are Missing From COP26 Phase-out Deal


India used 11.6% of global coal consumption in 2020, according to BP's 2021 world energy statistical review. Pictured here is PM Prime Minister Narendra Modi. 

Photo: Reuters

Signatories of the COP26 agreement agreed to phase out coal-fuelled power generation in the 2030s in richer countries

Indonesia, Poland, Vietnam and other nations pledged on Thursday to phase out use of coal-fired power and stop building plants, but their deal at the COP26 climate summit failed to win support from China, India and other top coal consumers.

Britain has said one of its main aims for the United Nations summit is “consigning coal power to history". The deal saw 23 nations making new commitments, a move the president of the COP26, Alok Sharma, said put the end of coal “in sight". summit “in sight".

“Today I think we can say that the end of coal is in sight," Sharma told the Glasgow meeting.

Sharma told a news conference it had been a personal priority as COP26 president to consign coal to history and “I think you can say with confidence that coal is no longer king".

Still, some of the biggest coal-dependent nations were notable in their absence from the pledge to consign the most polluting fossil fuel to history.

China was responsible for about 54.3% of global coal consumption in 2020, while India used 11.6%, according to BP’s 2021 world energy statistical review. The United States, which also did not join the pledge, consumed 6.1%, the review showed.

Greenhouse gas emissions from burning coal are the single biggest contributor to climate change, and weaning the world off coal is considered vital to achieving global climate targets.

Signatories of the COP26 agreement agreed to phase out coal-fuelled power generation in the 2030s in richer countries, and the 2040s for poorer nations. A majority also committed to shun investment in new coal plants at home and abroad.

The line-up and pledges of countries kept changing right up until the deal was announced. The absence of China, India and Australia threw a shadow over the attempt to win global backing.

A U.S. official said President Joe Biden’s plan to decarbonize the power grid by 2035 will lessen coal dependency, as will legislation on infrastructure and social spending that Congress is haggling over.

“I think we’re going to soon have a set of bills which will have $800 billion in clean energy and climate programs that are really going to drive transformation in the United States, and that is what we are focused on," a senior U.S. Department of Energy official told reporters.

U.S. Senator Joe Manchin, a Democrat from the coal-producing state of West Virginia and the founder and partial owner of a coal brokerage, has opposed some climate measures in the legislation.

Some experts said the deal was a step forward. It came alongside an announcement by the Powering Past Coal Alliance, an international campaign, which said it secured 28 new members, including Ukraine, to pledge to quit coal.

Antony Froggatt, deputy director for the environment and society programme at London’s Chatham House think tank, said the announcements were “notable for what is absent as much as what is new".

“It highlights how uneven the transition to cleaner energy is across the globe," he said.

The commitments are not binding, and some signatories have said they will not be able to phase out coal without financial help from other countries.

“We need to have funding to retire coal earlier and to build the new capacity of renewable energy," Indonesian finance minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati told Reuters on Wednesday.

The COP26 summit has so far delivered roughly $20 billion in funding to help countries phase out coal, said Britain, which hopes the summit in Glasgow will produce enough commitments to keep within reach the target of limiting the global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels. That would require the world to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

Britain has largely eliminated coal from power generation, but has yet to decide on proposals for a new coal mine in Cumbria, northwest England, intended to extract coking used for steel production.

The COP26 deal covers coal-fuelled power generation, but not its use in industrial manufacturing.

The COP26 summit has so far yielded deals on coal, deforestation and methane, but a clear picture has yet to emerge on what these voluntary initiatives would add up to in terms of moderating temperature rises.

A Polish government spokesman said the country’s commitment would see it end coal use in the 2040s. Poland had previously agreed to stop mining coal by 2049.

Campaigners called for an earlier end-date and firm policies to make sure Poland delivered. “Poland must set a clear and concrete plan to phase out coal by 2030 at the latest," Joanna Flisowska of Greenpeace Poland said.

Britain said it hoped the coal deal, with its initial signatories, would spur others such as China and India to join.