Due to climate change, the world’s oceans are getting warmer, rising higher, losing oxygen and becoming more acidic at an ever-faster pace and melting even more ice and snow, a grim international science assessment concludes.But that’s nothing compared to what Wednesday’s special United Nations-affiliated oceans and ice report says is coming if global warming doesn’t slow down: three feet of sea rise by the end of the century, many fewer fish, weakening ocean currents, even less snow and ice, stronger and wetter hurricanes and nastier El Nino weather systems.“The oceans and the icy parts of the world are in big trouble and that means we’re all in big trouble too,” said one of the report’s lead authors, Michael Oppenheimer, professor of geosciences and international affairs at Princeton University. “The changes are accelerating.”Even if warming is limited to just another couple of tenths of a degree, the world’s warm water coral …

Tempers flared on Tuesday as more than 2 million residents of Zimbabwe’s capital and surrounding towns found themselves without water after authorities shut down the main treatment plant, raising new fears about disease after a cholera outbreak while the economy crumbles even more.Officials in Harare have struggled to raise foreign currency to import water treatment chemicals; about $2.7 million is needed per month. Meanwhile, water levels in polluted reservoirs are dropping because of drought.For residents who have seen shortages of everything from medicines to bread to petrol in recent months, the latest indignity brought weariness and disgust.”The toilets at school are just too filthy, people continue using them yet there is no water,” said 12-year-old Dylan Kaitano, who was among many uniformed school children waiting in line at wells, some shoving in impatience. “I didn’t go to school today because I have to be here.”Everyone living in Harare is affected, …

Americans’ diets are a little less sweet and a little crunchier but there’s still too much sugar, white bread and artery-clogging fat, a study suggests.Overall, the authors estimated there was a modest improvement over 16 years on the government’s healthy eating index, from estimated scores of 56 to 58. That’s hardly cause for celebration – 100 is the top score.Diets are still too heavy on foods that can contribute to heart disease, diabetes, obesity and other prevalent U.S. health problems, said co-author Fang Fang Zhang, a nutrition researcher at Tufts University near Boston.The study was published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The results are from an analysis of U.S. government health surveys from 1999 to 2016 involving nearly 44,000 adults.”Despite observed improvements,” the authors wrote, “important dietary challenges” remain. Among them: Getting Americans to cut down on snack foods, hot dogs, fatty beef, butter and other foods …

A public health official says the number of vaping-related illnesses in the U.S. could soon climb much higher.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention official said Tuesday she believes “hundreds more” cases have been reported to health authorities since last week. The CDC then put the tally at 530 confirmed and probable cases of the serious lung illness. Nine deaths have been reported.The agency has been updating its count on Thursdays.CDC’s Anne Schuchat made the comment during her testimony before a congressional subcommittee. The panel is holding the first hearing on the vaping illness, which resembles an inhalation injury. Health officials have not yet identified a common electronic cigarette or ingredient in the outbreak, although many cases involve vaping THC from marijuana. …

The World Health Organization is expressing concern about Tanzanian authorities’ reluctance to share detailed information about suspected cases of Ebola, and is calling for full transparency.Two weeks ago, the World Health Organization received what it calls unofficial reports regarding the death of a person in the Tanzanian capital Dar es Salaam.  The person was suspected of having contracted the deadly Ebola virus.   Since then, WHO says it was told by unofficial sources that a 27-year old man suspected of carrying the virus was admitted to a hospital.  However, it says it has received no information regarding laboratory tests and results either proving or disproving the presence of the deadly virus.During a press conference on September 14, the Tanzanian authorities announced there was no Ebola outbreak in the country.  WHO spokeswoman Fadela Chaib says that despite repeated requests, WHO has not received further details of any of the suspected Ebola case …

Plastic pollution continues in Lake Malawi despite a recent ban on the use of plastics. Conservationists say the plastic is putting a strain on aquatic life in the lake. Studies have warned that the fish stock in the lake could be depleted by 2050 unless the pollution stops. Lameck Masina reports from Lakeside district of Mangochi. …

World leaders who are gathering in New York for the United Nations General Assembly this week first met for a Climate Action Summit aimed at discussing ways to reduce carbon emissions. Saqib Ul Islam reports from the meeting where President Donald Trump briefly joined leaders from some 60 countries, despite his skepticism of climate science.  …

World leaders involved in some of the most high profile geopolitical issues are among those set to speak on the first day of the U.N. General Assembly in New York.After opening remarks from U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, those gathered for the annual meeting will hear from a group that includes U.S. President Donald Trump, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Korean President Moon Jae-in and French President Emmanuel Macron.The addresses come a day after Swedish teen activist Greta Thunberg scolded world leaders at a U.N. summit calling for climate action, saying people are suffering and dying from the effects of global warming and that all the leaders have are empty words. “We are in [the] beginning of a mass extinction and all you can talk about is money,” said Thunberg, who ignited a youth movement with her Friday school strikes for climate action.She said the science has been clear for 30 years, …

The United Nations unveiled plans to plant urban forests over an area four times the size of Hong Kong, seeking to make Africa and Asia’s rapidly growing cities greener.The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said the pace of urbanization on both continents was contributing to climate change and planting trees could improve air quality, cut the risk of floods and heatwaves and halt land degradation.It will discuss plans to create up to half a million hectares of new urban forests – more than four times the size of Hong Kong – by 2030 in New York this week.”If you look at the urbanization data, particularly in some parts of Asia and Africa, it is happening now,” said Simone Borelli, an expert on urban forestry with the FAO.”For example, Chinese cities are growing very fast and in 20 years’ time, they may have 20% or 30% more people living there.”Unless …

Mediterranean resort town Cannes, France’s fourth-biggest cruise ship port, will ban the most polluting cruise ships from next year in a bid to boost air quality in the city.The ban will target ships that do not respect a 0.1% cap on sulphur in their fuel and could stop some passengers from disembarking in the city famous for its film festival.”It’s not about being against cruise ships. It’s about being against pollution,” Cannes Mayor David Lisnard told Reuters Television in an interview.FILE – Pedestrians stroll along the beachfront walkway as a cruise liner and luxury boats are moored in the Bay of Cannes, May 14, 2004.Under the European Union’s clean air policy, the cap is already enforced in Baltic, North Sea and Channel ports and it may be extended to the Mediterranean.Cruise ships run on fuel oil which contains about 2,000 times more sulphur oxide than ordinary diesel, according to German …

International donors agreed on Monday to free up more than $500 million in aid to protect tropical rainforests, including the Amazon where wildfires are raging, France’s president said on Monday at a U.N. meeting shunned by Brazil.The Brazilian Amazon is facing its worst spate of forest fires since 2010, prompting a global outcry and worries that destruction of parts of the world’s largest rainforest could hurt demand for Brazil’s exports.Leaders of the Group of Seven wealthy nations in August offered $20 million of emergency aid to help fight Amazon fires, a gesture Brazil at the time criticized as colonialist.French President Emmanuel Macron had called for a wider alliance to protect rainforests worldwide using the United Nations General Assembly as a platform to garner support.France, Chile and Colombia met on the sidelines of the annual gathering of world leaders on Monday, despite the absence of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, a climate …

Young people around the world have been organizing protests to demand action on climate change. Millions walked out of their schools and workplaces last Friday as part of demonstrations leading up to the Youth Climate Summit at United Nations headquarters in New York.  Swedish teenage activist Greta Thunberg helped inspire the protests, staging weekly demonstrations for the past year calling on world leaders to bolster efforts to combat climate change. Saqib Ul Islam has more in this report from New York. …

Malawi is trying to find ways to contain overfishing in its largest body of water, Lake Malawi. The third largest lake in Africa has long been the economic hub for thousands of fishing communities along the lakefront areas. However, locals say unsustainable fishing practices and climate change have led to dwindling catches, forcing some fishermen to look for alternatives. Lameck Masina reports from the town of Mangochi. …

Hundreds of mourners gathered Sunday to commemorate the loss of yet another European glacier.Dressed in mourning clothes, they hiked for hours in the Glarus Alps in eastern Switzerland to reach the remnants of the Pizol glacier at 2,600 meters above sea level.The glacier has lost more than 80% of its volume since 2006.“I have climbed up here countless times,” Matthias Huss, a glaciologist at ETH Zurich university, told the mourners. “It is like the dying of a good friend.”Last month, About 100 people, including Iceland’s Prime Minister Katrin Jakobsdottir, held a similar ceremony for 700-year-old Okjokull, the first Icelandic glacier lost to climate change.“We can’t save the Pizol glacier anymore. … Let’s do everything we can, so that we can show our children and grandchildren a glacier here in Switzerland a hundred years from now,” Huss told the gathering.His call came just two days after millions around the world went …