2024 Disasters in Numbers
<p>In 2024, the Emergency Events Database (EM-DAT) recorded 393 natural hazard-related disasters. These events caused 16,753 fatalities and affected 167.2 million people. Economic losses totaled US$241.95
Global
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Science spoof
SCIENTISTS are not saints. Neither are they modest, nor do they believe in the con cept of loving one's fellow-folk. That, unfortunately, is the impression that one is likely to get after
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The mind's decay
A new study throws light on many hidden corners of the rapidly degenerating mind
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IN FOCUS
The war of whales goes on. With the whaling season about to begin in the north Atlantic and the north Pacific, leading conservation groups recently urged US President Bill Clinton to take
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Falling frontiers
Forests help maintain the environmental conditions that make life possible, from regional hydrologic cycles to global climate. Frontier forests, large, ecologically intact and relatively
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UNITED NATIONS
The UN has urged governments to promote sales of technology to control pollution, in a series of studies commissioned by the UN Development Programme (UNDP). One of the studies underlines the
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Time to wake up
The demand for water and energy is likely to increase at a geometrical rate in the coming years. What are the policy options for a better management of these resources?
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Catch constraints
The global fish catch now appears to have reached the upper limits of sustainability. More than one billion people, mostly in developing countries, depend on fish as a primary source of animal
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Woody Warfare
World forestry talks end without a consensus on a global convention on forests
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Destruction unlimited
• Only one-fifth of the world's original forests still qualify as frontier forests (large, intact natural forests). • Three countries - Russia, Canada and Brazil - house more than 70 per
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The bent of mind
Public understanding of science and technology lags well behind public interest in these fields in most industrialised countries, according to two new studies disclosed at the recently held