Author: Rajiv Bahl

• There’s a new malaria vaccine now available to combat the viral disease.
• This is the second malaria vaccine available, but this vaccine is expected to be less costly.
• This new vaccine requires three doses with a booster 12 months later.

A new malaria vaccine has been approved and recommended for use by the World Health Organization (WHO).

Scientists at the University of Oxford have studied and developed a new vaccine to help prevent malaria — only the second vaccine ever approved for this illness.

Hanging over the side of the boat, Nahi El Bar Jiyed scoops up a jug of sea water, then carefully pours it into a large syringe. While the sample may seem ordinary, to the biologist it’s a trove of secrets: the DNA of every living creature swimming below.

He presses the water sample through a filter about the size of his hand, which captures the DNA fragments, then repeats the process several more times. Meters away, a sea turtle emerges for a breath then retreats to the seagrass meadow below.

“Without disturbing the environment, we can take a sample that tells us exactly what was at this site,” Jiyed says.

Over the past decade, the use of environmental DNA – known as “eDNA” – to monitor biodiversity has surged. As animals move through their environment, they shed fragments of genetic material: skin cells, waste products and other body fluids. By extracting these minute traces of DNA from samples of water, soil or air, scientists can determine the presence and diversity of species with unprecedented accuracy, providing a snapshot of the intricacies of an ecosystem.

“Knowledge is the basis of all management. If you don’t know a place, you can’t protect it,” Jiyed says. “It’s the first step.” His efforts are part of a Unesco initiative to collect eDNA across 22 marine world heritage sites, including Mauritania’s Banc d’Arguin national park, where he works.

The park is nestled along the country’s north coast, where Saharan sand dips into emerald waters. Fishing boats propelled only by sail glide past low-lying islands. The penetrating silence is misleading: this place is home to endangered dolphins and sea turtles and is a vital stopover for millions of migratory birds. Due to its remarkable biodiversity, the park was granted world heritage status by Unesco in 1989.

It’s a “true biogeographic crossroads”, which marks the meeting of tropical and temperate organisms, says the park director, Ebaye Sidina. “We know that we have an enormous number of species, and the DNA analysis will finally lift the veil and show that this diversity is there and must be preserved,” he says.The eDNA technology not only allows scientists to assess biodiversity, but to detect invasive species, track endangered or elusive animals and to monitor wastewater for diseases and pathogens. It has even uncovered the existence of species previously thought to be extinct. At Banc d’Arguin, scientists are eager to see if there’s any indication of the smalltooth sawfish, which Sidina said hasn’t been seen in decades.

Used over time, eDNA can provide insights into how the climate crisis is affecting populations, such as by shifting their geographic range.

“Several fish species are already moving 25km every decade, either to deeper waters or further from the equator,” says Fanny Douvere, the head of the world heritage marine programme at Unesco. “We want to make sure that in another 30 to 40 years, the boundaries of these marine world heritage sites will still be relevant.”

Analysis of eDNA offers several advantages over traditional surveys, particularly when assessing the effects of climate changes on an ecosystem. Whereas traditional surveys can take years to complete, eDNA analysis can yield results within months, says Ward Appeltans, the head of the ocean biodiversity information system at Unesco and science coordinator of the eDNA expeditions initiative.

“The ocean’s status is changing so rapidly,” he says. “We want to know what its status is now, not five years ago.”

The ability to detect immediate changes is also crucial for tracking invasive species, such as lionfish, which can quickly overtake native fish populations. Moreover, eDNA sampling offers a noninvasive alternative to harmful standard survey methods, such as bottom trawling and the capturing, tranquilising and tagging of animals.

“eDNA will also pick up things that you maybe wouldn’t have seen because they were hiding or only show up at certain times of day,” says Luke Thompson, a researcher at Mississippi State University and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Miami, Florida. Traditional marine and aerial surveys also tend to be far more expensive, as they require boats, helicopters, planes and crew.

However, eDNA technology does present its own challenges. Ocean currents can prevent species in the sample region from being detected, or cause others in far-off areas to appear present. Some animals shed more DNA than others, which can paint an inaccurate picture of population ratios.

“But the main limitation is the lack of consensus about standardising methods and markers,” says Louis Bernatchez, the editor-in-chief of the scientific journal Environmental DNA.

In order to match collected DNA to the corresponding species, scientists run the genetic sequences through a reference database. However, a unified global database does not exist, and there’s no consensus regarding which genetic markers to use. As it is, less than 1% of all animals have had their genomes sequenced.

“People aren’t sufficiently working together,” Bernatchez says. “It’s a big problem.” Unesco, for its part, plans to upload all data from its eDNA initiative to its open science marine species database.

Despite the drawbacks, scientists around the globe continue to apply the technology in innovative ways. In the Arctic, DNA from polar bear tracks is being used to monitor population size and movement patterns – information that could inform conservation efforts and help mitigate human-bear interactions.

Across North America and Europe, eDNA samples from flowers have revealed animals and insects previously unknown to be pollinators. And in the field of forensics, scientists have found that DNA extracted from the blood of mosquitoes at crime scenes can accurately identify victims and suspects.

“There’s a countless diversity of molecules that are waiting to tell us what’s going on and what they’re doing out there,” says Thompson. “It’s a great way to think about it.”

According to the report, water use has been increasing globally by roughly 1% per year over the last 40 years “and is expected to grow at a similar rate through to 2050, driven by a combination of population growth, socio-economic development and changing consumption patterns.

Connor said that actual increase in demand is happening in developing countries and emerging economies where it is driven by industrial growth and especially the rapid increase in the population of cities. It is in these urban areas “that you’re having a real big increase in demand,” he said.

With agriculture using 70% of all water globally, Connor said, irrigation for crops has to be more efficient — as it is in some countries that now use drip irrigation, which saves water. “That allows water to be available to cities,” he said.

As a result of climate change, the report said, “seasonal water scarcity will increase in regions where it is currently abundant — such as Central Africa, East Asia and parts of South America — and worsen in regions where water is already in short supply, such as the Middle East and the Sahara in Africa.”

On average, “10% of the global population lives in countries with high or critical water stress” — and up to 3.5 billion people live under conditions of water stress at least one month a year, said the report issued by UNESCO, the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

Since 2000, floods in the tropics have quadrupled while floods in the north mid-latitudes have increased 2.5-fold, the report said. Trends in droughts are more difficult to establish, it said, “although an increase in intensity or frequency of droughts and ‘heat extremes’ can be expected in most regions as a direct result of climate change.”

As for water pollution, Connor said, the biggest source of pollution is untreated wastewater.

“Globally, 80% of wastewater is released to the environment without any treatment,” he said, “and in many developing countries it’s pretty much 99%.”

These and other issues including protecting aquatic ecosystems, improving management of water resources, increasing water reuse and promoting cooperation across borders on water use will be discussed during the three-day U.N. Water Conference co-chaired by King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands and Tajikistan’s President Emomali Rahmon opening Wednesday.

A facility described as “the world’s largest floating offshore wind farm” was officially opened by Crown Prince Haakon of Norway on Wednesday, marking the culmination of a major renewable energy project years in the making.

Located around 140 kilometers (86.9 miles) off the coast of Norway in depths ranging from 260 to 300 meters, Hywind Tampen uses 11 turbines. The wind farm produced its first power in Nov. 2022 and became fully operational this month.

While wind is a renewable energy source, Hywind Tampen helps power operations at oil and gas fields, the idea being that it will cut these sites’ carbon dioxide emissions in the process.

“Hywind Tampen has a system capacity of 88 MW and is expected to cover about 35 per cent of the annual need for electricity on the five platforms Snorre A and B and Gullfaks A, B and C,” Norwegian energy firm Equinor said.

Floating offshore wind turbines are different from fixed-bottom offshore wind turbines, which are rooted to the seabed. One advantage of floating turbines is that they can be installed in far deeper waters than fixed-bottom ones.

In recent years a range of companies and major economies like the U.S. have laid out goals to ramp up floating wind installations.

Equinor, a major player in the fossil fuel industry, describes the turbines at Hywind Tampen as being “mounted on floating concrete structures with a common anchoring system.”

Alongside Equinor, partners in the Hywind Tampen project include Vår Energi, INPEX Idemitsu, Petoro, Wintershall Dea and OMV.

The project off Norway’s coast marks Equinor’s latest move in the floating wind sector. Back in 2017, it started operations at Hywind Scotland, a five-turbine, 30 MW facility it calls the planet’s first floating wind farm.

“With Hywind Tampen, we have shown that we can plan, build and commission a large, floating offshore wind farm in the North Sea,” Equinor’s Siri Kindem, who heads up the firm’s renewables business in Norway, said in a statement.

“We will use the experience and learning from this project to become even better,” she added. “We will build bigger, reduce costs and build a new industry on the shoulders of the oil and gas industry.”

Powering the oil and gas industry

The use of a floating wind farm to help power the fossil fuel industry is likely to spark significant debate at a time when discussions about climate change and the environment are at the front and center of many people’s minds.

This is because fossil fuels’ effect on the environment is considerable. The United Nations says that, since the 19th century, “human activities have been the main driver of climate change, primarily due to burning fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas.”

“Burning fossil fuels generates greenhouse gas emissions that act like a blanket wrapped around the Earth, trapping the sun’s heat and raising temperatures,” it adds.

The stakes are high. Speaking at the COP27 climate change summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, last year, the U.N. Secretary General issued a stark warning to attendees.

“We are in the fight of our lives, and we are losing,” Antonio Guterres said.

“Greenhouse gas emissions keep growing, global temperatures keep rising, and our planet is fast approaching tipping points that will make climate chaos irreversible.”

LONDON -- A lion has been spotted in Chad's Sena Oura National Park for the first time in almost two decades.

A team of conservationists from the Chadian government and the New York City-based nonprofit Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) released an image on Thursday showing what they described as "a beautiful lioness, in her prime and clearly in great health." The photo was taken on Feb. 22 by a camera trap in Chad's Sena Oura National Park, where lions haven't been seen since 2004, according to the WCS.

t was unclear from the image whether the lioness was alone. Unlike other big cat species, lions -- especially females -- typically live in family units called "prides."

"Our team believes there are more lions out there," WCS spokesperson Stephen Sautner told ABC News.Overall, lions are classified as "vulnerable" on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List. Lions in West and Central Africa are considered "critically endangered," with populations declining by about 66% since the early 1990s. They are genetically distinct from the more robust lion populations in East and Southern Africa, according to the WCS.

Lions are technically considered extinct in Chad's Sena Oura National Park, a protected area of about 182,000 acres that's adjacent to Cameroon's much larger Bouba N'djida National Park, where the big cats "are now increasing and appear to be recolonizing parts of their former range including Sena Oura," according to the WCS.

"The region saw a period of ruthless, organized poaching more than a decade ago, but has since benefitted from a very strong commitment to conservation by the governments of both Cameroon and Chad," the WCS said in a press release. "This has produced better protection of the national parks and wildlife populations are now starting to recover."

The study was published in the journal PLOS Global Public Health this week, just ahead of International Women's Day. It adds to a growing body of research showing that advances in women's rights benefit everyone.

"This International Women's Day, let's not forget that the evidence demonstrates that enhancing women's representation across multiple sectors contributes to wealthier and, hence, healthier societies for all," lead author Cat Pinho-Gomes, a research fellow at The George Institute for Global Health and Imperial College London, said in a release.

Researchers estimated gender equality in 156 countries using a "modified global gender gap index," which is based on an index developed by the World Economic Forum (WEF) between 2010 and 2021. They believe this is the first study to examine the link between that index and the gender gap in life expectancy.

"Globally, greater gender equality is associated with longer [life expectancy] for both women and men and a widening of the gender gap in [life expectancy]," they conclude.

Overall, in 2021, each 10% increase in the modified gender gap index was associated with a 3.6-year increase in women's life expectancy and a 2.9-year increase for men. That amounts to an eight-month wider gender gap.

There was considerable variation across geographical regions, with the gap much narrower among high-income countries.

That suggests that gender equality may initially widen the gender gap in life expectancy, researchers say, "as the benefits of greater gender equality mainly benefit women's lives and health." But the ripple effect would eventually benefit men's longevity too.

"As countries progress along the continuum of gender equality, the benefits of increased participation of women in society extend to men, thus leading to a larger increase in men's [life expectancy] and a narrowing of the gender gap in [life expectancy]," they write.

Equality in education has the strongest link to longevity

"Many of the factors that determine how long you will live — like working and living conditions, exposure to pollution, access to health care, education, income, and social support — are layered with gender differences around the world," Pinho-Gomes explains.

The World Economic Forum's global gender gap index focuses on four dimensions: health, economic opportunities, education and political leadership.

The researchers homed in on the political, economic and educational aspects of gender equality, and found that the latter had the strongest association with increased life expectancy.

Pinho-Gomes says that underscores the importance of investing in education, especially in low- and middle-income countries where resources and opportunities for girls remain limited.

The study notes that while more than two-thirds of countries reached gender parity in primary education enrollment in 2020, significant disparities persist in parts of Africa, the Middle East and South Asia.

Girls' access to education has long-term implications for their well-being and that of their community, including in areas like family planning and poverty reduction. And, Pinho-Gomes says, it's not only important in developing countries.

"Even high-income countries — where substantial progress has been made to address gender inequalities in recent years — investing in gender equality may still benefit life expectancy, particularly for men," she says.

Advances in politics and the workforce are needed too

The study also highlights some of the economic challenges women face, namely the gender pay gap and their lower rates of participation in the workforce.

It says "unleashing the full potential of half the world's population" will require changing social norms and implementing "gender-sensitive policies" like adequate parental leave and flexible hours.

Those policy reforms are easier said than done, the study acknowledges. Even when women are represented in large numbers in political institutions, it says, they often face glass ceilings and other challenges that limit their power to make change.

Pinho-Gomes says the weaker association between gender equality in the political domain and the life expectancy gender gap "raises concerns about how gender equality is being implemented by political systems worldwide."

United Nations data show that women around the world are underrepresented at all levels of decision-making, from executive to local government positions. At the current rate, gender equality in the highest positions of power will not be reached for another 130 years, it says.

Just 31 countries have female heads of state and/or government as of January 2023 — and that was before the resignation announcements of prominent women leaders like New Zealand's Jacinda Ardern and Scotland's Nicola Sturgeon.

"As we've seen from the recent resignations of high-profile female politicians, women still experience significant challenges in this field, including discrimination, balancing private, family and political life, gaining support from political parties, and securing campaign funding," Pinho-Gomes says.

The findings can help set policy priorities at a crucial time

While the authors say their study is strong — especially because of the reliability of the WEF data and the large number of countries included — they also acknowledge several limitations.

For one, data were not available for all of the countries in the world, so the associations observed in some regions might look different if all of their neighbors were included. The index they used is not exhaustive, so including additional indicators of gender inequality could potentially yield different results.

They also say it's possible that the associations they observed between gender equality and life expectancy could be explained by other factors, like socioeconomic development and sociocultural norms.

That said, they believe their findings could help policymakers worldwide set priorities in public health and other areas.And the issue has taken on a new urgency: The WEF estimates that the time it will take to close the global gender gap increased by an entire generation — from 99.5 years to 135.6 years — as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, which, in the words of the researchers, had "a gendered impact across multiple domains of life."

Stanford Natural Capital Project

NASA and Boeing said Monday the aircraft produced through the agency’s Sustainable Flight Demonstrator project has been designated by the U.S. Air Force as the X-66A.

The new X-plane seeks to inform a potential new generation of more sustainable single-aisle aircraft – the workhorse of passenger airlines around the world. Working with NASA, Boeing will build, test, and fly a full-scale demonstrator aircraft with extra-long, thin wings stabilized by diagonal struts, known as a Transonic Truss-Braced Wing concept.

“At NASA, our eyes are not just focused on stars but also fixated on the sky. The Sustainable Flight Demonstrator builds on NASA’s world-leading efforts in aeronautics as well climate,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “The X-66A will help shape the future of aviation, a new era where aircraft are greener, cleaner, and quieter, and create new possibilities for the flying public and American industry alike.”

The X-66A is the first X-plane specifically focused on helping the United States achieve the goal of net-zero aviation greenhouse gas emissions, which was articulated in the White House’s U.S. Aviation Climate Action Plan.

“To reach our goal of net zero aviation emissions by 2050, we need transformative aircraft concepts like the ones we’re flying on the X-66A,” said Bob Pearce, associate administrator for NASA’s Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate, who announced the designation at the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Aviation Forum in San Diego. “With this experimental aircraft, we’re aiming high to demonstrate the kinds of energy-saving, emissions-reducing technologies the aviation industry needs.”

NASA and Boeing sought the X-plane designation shortly after the agency announced the Sustainable Flight Demonstrator project award earlier this year. The Air Force confers X-plane status for development programs that set out to create revolutionary experimental aircraft configurations. The designation is for research aircraft. With few exceptions, X-planes are intended to test designs and technologies that can be adopted into other aircraft designs, not serve as prototypes for full production.

“We’re incredibly proud of this designation, because it means that the X-66A will be the next in a long line of experimental aircraft used to validate breakthrough designs that have transformed aviation,” said Todd Citron, Boeing chief technology officer. “With the learnings gained from design, construction, and flight-testing, we’ll have an opportunity to shape the future of flight and contribute to the decarbonization of aerospace.”

For the X-66A, the Air Force provided the designation for an aircraft that validates technologies for a Transonic Truss-Braced Wing configuration that, when combined with other advancements in propulsion systems, materials, and systems architecture, could result in up to 30% less fuel consumption and reduced emissions when compared with today’s best-in-class aircraft.

Due to their heavy usage, single-aisle aircraft today account for nearly half of worldwide aviation emissions. Creating designs and technologies for a more sustainable version of this type of aircraft has the potential for profound impact on emissions.

NASA’s history with the X-plane designation dates to the 1940s, when its predecessor agency, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) jointly created an experimental aircraft program with the Air Force and the U.S. Navy. The X-66A is the latest in a long line of NASA X-planes. Additionally, NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, has provided technical expertise and support for several additional X-planes.

For the Sustainable Flight Demonstrator, NASA has a Funded Space Act Agreement with Boeing through which the agency will invest $425 million over seven years, while the company and its partners will contribute the remainder of the funding, estimated at about $725 million. NASA also will contribute technical expertise and facilities.

The Sustainable Flight Demonstrator project is an activity under NASA’s Integrated Aviation Systems Program and a key element of the agency’s Sustainable Flight National Partnership, which focuses on developing new sustainable aviation technologies.

Bottled water is one of the world’s most popular beverages, and its industry is making the most of it. Since the millennium, the world has advanced significantly towards the goal of safe water for all. In 2020, 74 per cent of humanity had access to safe water. This is 10 per cent more than two decades ago.

But that still leaves two billion people without access to safe drinking water.

Meanwhile, bottled water corporations exploit surface water and aquifers — typically at very low cost — and sell it for 150 to 1,000 times more than the same unit of municipal tap water.

The price is often justified by offering the product as an absolute safe alternative to tap water. But bottled water is not immune to all contamination, considering that it rarely faces the rigorous public health and environmental regulations that public utility tap water does.

In our recently published study, which studied 109 countries, it was concluded that the highly profitable and fast-growing bottled water industry is masking the failure of public systems to supply reliable drinking water for all.

The industry can undermine progress of safe-water projects, mostly in low- and middle-income countries, by distracting development efforts and redirecting attention to a less reliable, less affordable option. Bottled water industry can disrupt SDGs The fast-growing bottled water industry also impacts the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) in many ways.

The latest UN University report revealed that the annual sales of the global bottled water market is expected to double to US$500 billion worldwide this decade. This can increase stress in water-depleted areas while contributing to plastic pollution on land and in the oceans. Growing faster than any other in the food category worldwide, the bottled water market is biggest in the Global South, with the Asia-Pacific, Africa and Latin American and Caribbean regions accounting for 60 per cent of all sales.

No region is on track to achieve universal access to safe water services, which is one of the SDG 2030 targets. In fact, the industry’s greatest impact seems to be its potential to stunt the progress of nations’ goals to provide its residents with equitable access to affordable drinking water.

Impact on vulnerable nations In the Global North, bottled water is often perceived to be healthier and tastier than tap water. It is, therefore, more a luxury good than a necessity. Meanwhile, in the Global South, it is the lack or absence of reliable public water supply and water management infrastructure that drives bottled water markets.

Therefore, in many low- and middle-income countries, particularly in the Asia Pacific, rising consumption of bottled water can be seen as a proxy indicator of decades of governments’ failure to deliver on commitments to safe public water systems.This further widens the global disparity between the billions of people who lack access to reliable water services and the others that enjoy water as a luxury. In 2016, the annual financing required to achieve a safe drinking water supply throughout the world was estimated to cost US$114 billion, which amounts to less than half of today’s roughly US$270 billion global annual bottled water sales.

Regulating the bottled-water industry Last year, the World Health Organization estimated that the current rate of progress needs to quadruple to meet the SDGs 2030 target. But this is a colossal challenge considering the competing financial priorities and the prevailing business-as-usual attitude in the water sector.

As the bottled water market grows, it is more important than ever to strengthen legislation that regulates the industry and its water quality standards. Such legislation can impact bottled water quality control, groundwater exploitation, land use, plastic waste management, carbon emissions, finance and transparency obligations, to mention a few.

Our report argues that, with global progress toward this target so far off-track, expansion of the bottled water market essentially works against making headway, or at least slows it down, adversely affecting investments and long-term public water infrastructure. Some high-level initiatives, like an alliance of Global Investors for Sustainable Development, aim to scale up finance for the SDGs, including water-related ones. Such initiatives offer the bottled water sector an opportunity to become an active player in this process and help accelerate progress toward reliable water supply, particularly in the Global South.