An expert monitoring a fast-moving glacier on the Italian side of the Mont Blanc massif says a small section has picked up speed and could break off in the coming days.  Fabrizio Troilo, a glaciologist with the Safe Mountain Foundation, said Monday that the piece — measuring some 27,000 cubic meters (953,390 cubic feet) — is moving at 60 centimeters (23.6 inches) a day.   That is about twice as fast as a massive 250,000-cubic-meter (8,827,683-cubic feet) chunk that also risks breaking off from the Planpincieux glacier.   Troilo said the smaller piece “could collapse in the next days or week,” but that such collapses are annual events and would have no impact on the rest of the valley.   Experts say the increased melting rate has been linked to climate change.   …

Thailand’s prime minister urged residents of Bangkok to wear face masks on Monday after smog covered parts of the capital in what some fear is a harbinger of more pollution to come.Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha warned in a statement on his Facebook page that the concentration of tiny dust particles called PM2.5 in the air had reached unsafe levels and said he has ordered government agencies to expedite anti-pollution measures. He also asked the construction and manufacturing sectors to reduce activities that release pollutants.Smog levels are expected to stay high for the next two or three days.The head of the country’s Pollution Control Department, Pralong Damrongthai, said the visibly dirty air was not caused by smoke originating from forest fires in Indonesia. Since last month, haze blown by monsoon winds from fires in Indonesia has affected nearby countries including the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia and parts of southern Thailand, raising concerns …

Gabon is one of the greenest countries in the world, with 88 percent of its land covered by forest. A historic agreement between Gabon and Norway is seeking to ensure it stays that way. Through the U.N.-backed Central African Forest Initiative (CAFI), Norway will pay Gabon up to $150 million over 10 years in exchange for Gabon reducing its carbon emissions and to give value to the forests’ role in absorbing carbon dioxide. In an interview with Voice of America, Lee White, Gabon’s Minister of Forests, said the agreement is groundbreaking because it is making it nearly as valuable for countries to preserve forests as to chop them down. “In all of the deals we’ve seen over the years, forest carbon has been worth $5 a ton. And in this one, subject to meeting best practice, they’ve gone to $10. So overnight we doubled the price of forest carbon. It gives a lot …

Health experts say Nigeria is seeing increasing cases of heart disease. Low awareness, lack of adequate medical facilities and expertise are major factors worsening the situation in the country. But a non profit is collaborating with the World Heart Federation to provide proper education and treatment for underprivileged patients.Participants chat at an awareness and fundraising event to mark World Heart Day in Abuja, the Nigerian capital.The program is organized by the non-profit, Global Development and Charity Support Foundation in collaboration with the World Heart Federation.Head of the non profit, Samuel Asomugha says apart from educating locals on the early signs of heart disease, his organization is making funds available to treat patients.”When you have a healthy heart, then you can lead a healthy life, then a lot of these health and heart related mortalities can be avoided,” he said.The non-profit targets about 1,000 patients for treatment.A 2018 WHO country profile …

Hundreds of thousands of people joined teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg for a march in Montreal Friday, part of a second wave of global protests demanding action on climate change.Thunberg responded to critics, including U.S. President Donald Trump, saying she doesn’t “understand why grown-ups would choose to mock children and teenagers for just communicating and acting on the science when they could do something good instead.”Without mentioning Trump by name, Thunberg said, “We’ve become too loud for people to handle so people want to silence us.”She called on world leaders to do more for the environment, following a meeting earlier Friday with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.”My message to all the politicians around the world is the same,” she said. “Just listen and act on the current best available science.””He (Trudeau) is of course obviously not doing enough, but this is just a huge problem, this is a system that …

U.S. health officials said Friday that their investigation into an outbreak of severe vaping-related illnesses was increasingly focused on products that contain the marijuana compound THC.    Most of the 800 people who got sick vaped THC, the ingredient in marijuana that causes a high, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But officials said they didn’t know whether the THC was the problem or some other substance added to the vaping liquid, such as thickeners.    “The outbreak currently is pointing to a greater concern around THC-containing products,” said the CDC’s Dr. Anne Schuchat.    So far, investigators have not identified a particular e-cigarette, vaping device, liquid or ingredient behind the outbreak. But officials say patients have mentioned the name Dank Vapes most frequently. Many of the people who got sick in Illinois and Wisconsin said they used prefilled THC cartridges sold in Dank Vapes packaging. No single store or distributor …

An elected official in central Illinois has resigned as president of a local nonprofit after a social media post about teen climate activist Greta Thunberg.The Peoria Journal Star reports that Jay Hall wondered on Facebook if the 16-year-old Swede had “Mongoloidism.” He acknowledged it was an inappropriate reference to Down syndrome.   Hall has resigned as president of a local AMBUCS group in Pekin, an organization that helps people with mobility problems. He says he wasn’t trying to insult Thunberg. He believes she’s being manipulated by climate change activists.AMBUCS says it has accepted Hall’s resignation over “inappropriate comments.” Hall also is an elected member of the Tazewell County Board.     …

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi told the annual gathering of world leaders at the United Nations on Friday that India was launching a campaign to stamp out the use of single-use plastics.”Even as I am addressing you today, a very large campaign is being started across the entire country to make India free of single-use plastic,” Modi, who wants to scrap such plastics by 2022, told the 193-member U.N. General Assembly.Officials told Reuters last month that India is set to impose a nationwide ban on plastic bags, cups and straws on Oct. 2.  …

Health experts warn we are due for a cataclysmic pandemic — they just don’t know when it will happen.The warning was delivered this week to world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly by a special global health monitoring group that said the next pandemic could traverse the world in 36 hours, killing up to 80 million and causing devastating economic loss.The group, the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board, operates independently of the World Health Organization and the World Bank, the entities that created it last year with a mandate to issue an annual assessment. The first report was grim.A health worker vaccinates a child against malaria in Ndhiwa, Homabay County, western Kenya, Sept. 13, 2019, during the launch of a malaria vaccination campaign in the country.Lack of medical care a threatDespite remarkable gains in medicine, politics and social issues keep those in rich countries as well as poor ones from desperately …

This week, world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly heard warnings about massive loss of life and diseases that could circle the global in just three days. VOA’s Carol Pearson reports that a special global preparedness monitoring group issued a report that says inaction will have grim consequences. The report said prevention heavily depends on political and social action as well as good medical care.   …

The epidemic of severe lung illness related to e-cigarettes continues to grow, federal officials say, as they try to pinpoint the exact cause.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said as of Thursday there were 805 cases of confirmed or suspected vaping-related lung illnesses in 46 states and the Virgin Islands — up more than 200 since last week. Twelve deaths are reported.Many of the victims say they used vaping products containing THC, the compound in marijuana that causes the high. But others say they only vaped nicotine.The CDC is urging everyone to stop using e-cigarettes, but several states are not waiting for federal officials to take stronger action.Massachusetts this week became the first state to temporarily ban all retail and online sales of e-cigarettes. The ban is set to last for four months.Other states have stopped the sale of flavored vaping products, saying the fruit and candy flavors appeal …

The rate of suicide among active duty service members has increased significantly over the past five years, according to a Pentagon report released on Thursday.The report comes after three U.S. sailors assigned to the aircraft carrier George H.W. Bush died by apparent suicide last week, incidents the Navy has said are separate and unrelated.The Pentagon’s first annual suicide report said that the rate of suicide deaths among active duty service members was 24.8 per 100,000 service members, up from just under 20 per 100,000 in 2013. In 2018, 541 service members died by suicide, the report said, adding that the most common method of suicide was with firearms.”We are not going in the right direction,” Elizabeth Van Winkle, director of the office of force resiliency, told reporters.During the briefing, the Pentagon took the unusual step of advising reporters on how to cover suicides, such as not calling it a “growing …

Hundreds more Americans have been reported to have a vaping-related breathing illness, and the death toll has risen to 12, health officials said Thursday.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said 805 confirmed and probable cases have been reported, up 52% from the 530 reported a week ago. At this point, illnesses have occurred in almost every state.The confirmed deaths include two in California, two in Kansas, and one each in Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri and Oregon. The Mississippi death was announced by officials in that state Thursday.Over the summer, health officials in a few states began noticing reports of people developing severe breathing illnesses, with the lungs apparently reacting to a caustic substance. The only common factor in the illnesses was that the patients had all recently vaped.As a national investigation started and broadened, reports have increased dramatically.It’s not clear how many of the 275 added …

The flu forecast is cloudy and it’s too soon to know if the U.S. is in for a third miserable season in a row, but health officials said Thursday not to delay vaccination.While the vaccine didn’t offer much protection the past two years, specialists have fine-tuned the recipe in hopes it will better counter a nasty strain this time around.“Getting vaccinated is going to be the best way to prevent whatever happens,” Dr. Daniel Jernigan, flu chief at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told the Associated Press.Last year’s flu brought double trouble: A new strain started a second wave of illnesses just as the first was winding down, making for one of the longest influenza seasons on record. The year before that marked flu’s highest death toll in recent decades.So far, it doesn’t look like the flu season is getting an early start, Jernigan said. The CDC urges …

McDonald’s is finally taking a nibble of the plant-based burger.In a very limited test in Canada, McDonald’s said Thursday that it’s introducing the PLT, or the plant, lettuce and tomato burger. It will be available for 12 weeks in 28 restaurants in Southwestern Ontario by the end of the month.The limited test is rolling out about six months after rival Burger King began testing the plant-based Impossible burger, which no surprise, is a rival to Beyond Meat. It’s now selling those burgers nationwide.Meat alternatives are being introduced across the fast food sector. KFC last month said it’s testing plant-based chicken nuggets and boneless wings at an Atlanta restaurant in partnership with Beyond Meat.Before the opening bell Thursday, shares of Beyond Meat Inc. soared 11%. …

It’s been a bad year for dengue fever, a painful, debilitating virus that is surging in the Philippines, Bangladesh, Vietnam and other nations.  There is no cure for dengue, which is spread by mosquitos. However, scientists are enlisting a bacteria in the fight against dengue because they think will make it harder for mosquitos to spread the often deadly dengue virus. VOA’s Jim Randle has our story.   …

The nation’s largest e-cigarette maker will stop advertising its devices in the U.S. and replace its chief executive as mysterious breathing illnesses and an explosion in teen vaping have triggered efforts to crack down on the largely unregulated industry.Juul Labs and other e-cigarette makers are fighting to survive as they face backlash from two public health debacles. Federal and state officials have seized on the recent outbreak of lung illnesses — including nine reported deaths — to push through restrictions designed to curb underage vaping.No major e-cigarette brand has been tied to the ailments, including Juul, which said it won’t fight a Trump administration proposal for a sweeping ban on e-cigarette flavors that can appeal to teens.Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont, left, speaks as New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo listens during a press conference, Sept. 25, 2019, in Hartford, Conn.Governors in Michigan and New York moved to outlaw vaping flavors this …

The attorneys general from 17 U.S. states have filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration over rule changes that weakened the Endangered Species Act.Led by California, Maryland, and Massachusetts, the coalition of states filed the suit Wednesday in a federal court in San Francisco.  It follows a lawsuit filed last month by seven environmental and animal rights groups.California Attorney General Xavier Becerra responds to a lawmakers question during during his confirmation hearing, Jan. 10, 2017.”As we face the unprecedented threat of a climate emergency, now is the time to strengthen our planet’s biodiversity, not to destroy it,”  California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said in a statement. “The only thing we want to see extinct are the beastly policies of the Trump administration putting our ecosystems in critical danger.”The changes introduced by the Trump administration include requiring consideration of economic cost when deciding whether to save a species from extinction. The …

A United Nations special report warns much of humanity is threatened by global warming’s devastating impact on oceans and frozen regions of Earth.The report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concludes that climate change is accelerating ocean warming, rising sea levels, melting ice sheets and glaciers and causing other related environmental problems.   The report, released Wednesday, further warns if global warming does not slow down sea levels will rise by nearly a meter by the end of the century. Such an occurrence would result in fewer fish, less snow and ice and more powerful hurricanes and El Nino systems.The report looks at the impact of human-driven climate change on glaciers, tundra, and on our oceans.”It documents the ways in which the ocean has been acting as a sponge, absorbing carbon dioxide and heat to regulate the temperature. But it can’t keep up,” said IPCC Vice-Chair Ko Barrett “Taken …