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 billion. The year 2024 was marked by extreme temperature events in Asia that caused thousands of deaths, severe droughts in Africa affecting over 25 …
RIYADH: Arid Saudi Arabia could need more than $53 billion in water sector investment supported by private funds as demand grows, officials said Sunday. The world's largest oil exporter, whose petroleum revenues fell 51 percent last year on declining crude prices, is pushing to diversify its economy through greater private …
The effects of climate change, which we are already witnessing, are the consequence of rising concentrations of greenhouse gases (GHGs). At the moment, absolute emissions are still rising, caused by our overwhelmingly fossil fuel-based energy system (our “brown infrastructure”). From 1990 to 2013, G20 energy-related CO2 emissions – the most …
Baghdad: Record-shattering temperatures this summer have scorched countries from Morocco to Saudi Arabia and beyond, as climate experts warn that the severe weather could be a harbinger of worse to come. UN officials and climate scientists predict that, in coming decades, the region's mushrooming populations will face extreme water scarcity, …
Germany and Saudi Arabia have announced plans to ratify the Paris Agreement by the end of the year. Speaking at the annual Petersberg Climate Dialogue in Berlin, German chancellor Angela Merkel said she hoped German states could quickly agree on the country's new climate plan, which is currently under consideration …
As global air pollution levels rise, Nigeria appears to be the country most affected by the phenomenon. New data from the World Health Organization (WHO) shows four of Nigeria’s cities are among the world’s 20 worst-ranked cities for air quality. Onitsha, a densely-populated commercial hub in the east of Nigeria …
Outdoor air pollution worldwide has increased by eight percent in the past five years, according to the new data released by World Health Organisation (WHO). Based on the data gathered by WHO, billions of people around the world are now exposed to dangerous air and more than 3,000 cities are …
A fire broke out at a chemical plant in Eastern Saudi Arabia on Saturday at 11:40 am. Jubail United Petrochemical Co., a chemical plant in Al-Jubail KSA, was struck by a fire that claimed 12 lives and left 11 others injured. In a statement released by the Saudi Press Agency, …
SANAA – Heavy storms have claimed the lives of at least 42 people over the past week in Saudi Arabia and Yemen, officials in the two neighboring states said Thursday. Twenty-four people were killed in northern Yemen, while 18 lives were lost in Saudi Arabia in flooding caused by heavy …
This study aimed to determine the epidemiological characteristics of imported malaria infections in Al-Ahsa, Eastern province of Saudi Arabia, based on a retrospective analysis of central laboratory records over the last ten-year period from 2005 to 2015. Records showing details of all positive slides for malaria blood films over a …
An effective vaccine to protect against the Mers virus is a step closer, a report in the journal Science suggests. European scientists genetically modified a version of the smallpox vaccine to display Mers virus protein on its surface. The vaccine was able to protect camels - the animal reservoir for …
Saudi Arabia stood accused on Tuesday of trying to wreck the Paris climate summit in order to protect its future as one of the world’s largest oil producers. As the talks entered the home stretch, developing country negotiators and campaigners became increasingly vocal in their complaints that the kingdom was …
The world’s leading oil producers are preparing for the possibility of oil prices halving to $20 a barrel after a second day of financial market turmoil saw a fresh slide in crude, the lowest iron ore prices in a decade, and losses on global stock markets. Benchmark Brent crude briefly …
French diplomacy is fighting 23 years of entrenched positions in international climate talks as backroom negotiations continue with the aim of pushing through a draft agreement by Wednesday. In public, negotiators in Paris were staking out their positions on Tuesday, with the EU and 79 African, Caribbean and Pacific countries …
At least one person died as unrelenting rainfall battered the Arabian Peninsula. Schools were shut in the Saudi Arabian capital Riyadh and Qatar on 25 November as rain continued to fall. Qatar's meteorology department recorded nearly 66mm (2.6in) of rainfall during the day at Doha's Hamad international airport – nearly …
Stockholm: Saudi Arabia, whose oil-fueled economy could suffer from global efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, today submitted a climate action pledge to the United Nations. Though thin on commitments, the Saudi pledge was symbolically important because the desert kingdom has been seen as reluctant to join the fight against …
High levels of air pollution engulfed the entire country Tuesday evening as a strong southeasterly wind flow caused a dust transport to Israel from Saudi Arabia and Jordan. With the dust levels expected to remain high through Wednesday, the Environmental Protection Ministry advised all sensitive population members, including those with …
JEDDAH: Six people were killed in heavy floods that hit the northern regions of the country on Tuesday, according to reports. Among the dead were a mother and her two children, who drowned in Shuaib Valley, 10 km west of Tareef. Maj. Fahad Al-Asmar, Northern Border Civil Defense spokesman, was …
ABU DHABI // Scientists say that there is significant disagreement about how climate change will affect the Gulf region, after one published study raised fears about high temperatures and humidity at the end of the century. Effects on particular regions of the world are especially difficult to forecast, specialists say, …
A human body may be able to adapt to extremes of dry-bulb temperature (commonly referred to as simply temperature) through perspiration and associated evaporative cooling provided that the wet-bulb temperature (a combined measure of temperature and humidity or degree of ‘mugginess’) remains below a threshold of 35 °C. (ref. 1). …
The provisioning of potable water was a microcosm of the Ottoman state's incomplete projects of technopolitical modernization on the Arab frontier. Water questions sat at the intersection between international pressures surrounding cholera, drought, Wahhabi and Bedouin disorder, and the inability of the state to impose its will on the semi-autonomous …
