Earthweek: Diary of a Changing World
Week ending Friday, March 10, 2023
High Seas Treaty
After almost two decades of drafting and debating, U.N. member states agreed on a treaty to protect the ocean’s international waters.
It is key to enforcing the 30 by 30 pledge agreed to at the U.N. biodiversity conference in December to place 30% of Earth’s land and seas under protection by 2030.
New protected areas will limit how much fishing can be conducted, where commercial shipping can sail and where minerals are extracted from the seabed 590 feet (200 meters) or more beneath the surface.
The main obstacle that delayed the accord was how the ocean’s resources would be shared, such as the plants and animals that could lead to new drugs and food.
Earthquakes
The southern Philippine island of Mindanao was rocked by two powerful earthquakes, the first measuring magnitude 6.0 as it caused damage in Davao del Norte province.
• Tremors were also felt in central Italy, and in India’s Odisha state and Jammu and Kashmir territory.
Pacific Flip
The United Nations weather agency says the unusually prolonged La Niña ocean cooling in the Pacific is coming to an end. It predicts that after three years of cooler ocean temperatures, a new El Niño warming may soon begin.
“La Niña’s cooling effect put a temporary brake on rising global temperatures, even though the past eightyear period was the warmest on record,” said World Meteorological Organization chief Petteri Taalas. “If we do now enter an El Niño phase, this is likely to fuel another spike in global temperatures.”
His agency predicts there is a 55% chance El Niño will return between June and August.
Nuked Canines
Scientists collecting DNA samples from feral dogs that roam the exclusion zone around the meltdownplagued Chernobyl nuclear power plant say radiation from the 1986 disaster has caused “distinct genetic changes” to the canines.
The Dogs of Chernobyl Research Initiative initially provided the descendants of former pets with veterinary exams, vaccinations and neutering or spaying.
But its staff also took DNA samples, which will later be used to examine how Chernobyl’s radiation altered the dogs physically, and their lineage.
Plastic Disease
The first disease linked exclusively to exposure to plastics has been identified by experts from the United Kingdom and Australia, who have called it plasticosis. Writing in the Journal of Hazardous Materials, they say the disease affects seabirds who have ingested plastic debris, inflaming their digestive systems and breaking down their ability to fight infections and parasites, along with harming their ability to digest food.
The study authors say it is possible the new disease is also affecting other species, including humans.
Unhealthful Air
A new study finds that almost no place on Earth has air clean enough that the World Health Organization says is safe to breathe.
Researchers found that about 99.82% of Earth’s land area is exposed to unhealthful levels of tiny particles in the air, which have been linked to lung cancer and heart disease.
Air pollution kills 6.7 million people a year, according to WHO estimates.
Tropical Cyclones
Central and southern Vanuatu was struck by high winds and downpours from Catagory-3 Cyclone Kevin only two days after the archipelago had been raked by equally strong Cyclone Judy.
• After weeks of crossing the entire Indian Ocean, lashing Madagascar and spending days drenching Mozambique, Cyclone Freddy spun back out over the Mozambique Channel, strengthened and took aim once again on Mozambique.
Freddy has already been the longest-lived tropical cyclone in history. It also generated the greatest “accumulated cyclone energy” — a measure of a cyclone’s total strength over time.