Health

Chevron to pay $18 billion to Ecuador

To Reuters : ” An Ecuadorean appeals court on Tuesday upheld a ruling that Chevron Corp should pay $18 billion in damages to plaintiffs who accused the U.S. oil giant of polluting the Amazon jungle and damaging their health. “ ” A judge ordered Chevron to pay $8.6 billion in environmental damages last February, but …

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World Community Grid : GO Fight Against Malaria

After three months of crunching numbers for the World Community Grid on solar panels, better water, aids and cancer, I am joining their new project due to combat malaria. Here is why you should join the fight : “ Malaria is one of the three deadliest infectious diseases on earth and is caused by parasites …

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China’s cancer villages

To the Guardian : ” Nationwide, cancer rates have surged since the 1990s to become the nation’s biggest killer. In 2007, the disease was responsible for one in five deaths, up 80% since the start of economic reforms 30 years earlier. ” While the government insists it is cleaning up pollution far faster than other …

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Nigeria, the world capital of oil pollution

To Climate Progress : “ Wednesday, Shell claimed responsibility for two oil spills dating to 2008 (which) are estimated to exceed the 11 million gallons spilled in the Exxon Valdez disaster. ”  (over 40 million liters) ” As a 2010 article by  the Guardian’s environment editor explained: With 606 oilfields, the Niger delta supplies 40% …

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Lifestyle tip : ditch the sodas, drink tea

Not so long ago, I hated tea and saw it like a drink for elders or respected Englishmen (or my parents…). But with time I evolved, mostly thanks to my discovery of green tea with mint in Morocco. Now there is hardly a day where I don’t drink a pint of tea. Darjeeling and Earl …

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The developing world needs clean cookstoves

What do you get when Hillary Clinton and Julia Roberts work together? An article on clean cookstoves : “Some 3 billion people live in homes where food is cooked on stoves or over fires burning fuels like wood, dung, charcoal, or  waste.” ” According to the World Health Organization, smoke from dirty stoves and fires …

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A look at deaths per TWh by energy source

With all the agitation around the Fukushima catastrophe, I thought it would be interesting to put some facts and figures on the dangerosity of  energy sources, including oil, coal, natural gas, some renewable energy sources and nuclear… The global death rate for coal is 161 per TWh (15 in the United States), 36 for oil, …

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5 reasons why climate change threatens health

According to new research from the American Medical Association and the American Public Health Association (APHA) released last week, climate change would pose serious threats to human health. Among these threats are bad air, longer allergy seasons, the spread of infectious diseases, extreme risks associated to extreme weathers and last but not least increased heat …

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Coal costs the United States $500 billion each year

It made the headlights last week on practically all environmental websites. The hidden costs – the negative externalities if you prefer – of coal are of 500 billion Dollars per year for the United States alone. Yes, you read it right : burning coal costs the country half a trillion dollar on health costs, premature …

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Biodiversity loss is harming medical science

To the UNEP : ” For millennia, medical practitioners have harnessed substances from nature for treatments and cures: aspirin from the willow and, more recently, Taxol – the groundbreaking anti-cancer drug – from the bark of the Pacific yew. Some of the biggest breakthroughs may be yet to come. But this can happen only if …

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