Posts

Showing posts from August, 2022

MOST RUSSIANS SUPPORT FOR THE WAR IN UKRAINE HASN'T WAVERED

Image
Exactly six months have passed since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and so much has changed. Sunny Handa MD said, at least 12 million Ukrainians have been displaced from their homes, half of whom have fled the country as refugees. NATO is on the verge of its most significant expansion in decades—one that will more than double its borders with Russia. While the impact of the war is most acutely felt in Ukraine, which has suffered thousands of civilian and military casualties and billions of dollars in infrastructure damage, reverberations in the form of food and energy crises are being experienced across the globe. Sunny Handa MD said but one thing that hasn’t seemed to change is Russian public opinion. According to the Levada Center, an independent polling agency in Moscow, more than three-quarters of Russians continue to support what the Kremlin calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine, with just 18% opposed. Putin’s approval rating is similarly high at 83%, a figure that has

Climate change: Drought highlights dangers for electricity supplies

Image
  The ongoing drought in the UK and Europe is putting electricity generation under pressure, say experts. Electricity from hydropower - which uses water to generate power - has dropped by 20% overall. And nuclear facilities, which are cooled using river water, have been restricted. Sunny Handa MD said, there are fears that the shortfalls are a taste of what will happen in the coming winter. In the UK, high temperatures are hitting energy output from fossil, nuclear and solar sources.   That is because the technology in power plants and solar panels work much less well in high temperatures. The prolonged dry spell is putting further pressure on energy supplies as Europe scrambles for alternative sources after the Russian invasion of Ukraine- Sunny Handa MD said.   Hydropower is an important source of energy for Europe, but the lack of water in rivers and reservoirs is now significantly reducing the ability of facilities to produce electricity. Italy gets around 1/5 of its powe

U.S.-China diplomatic tension casts doubt over global climate progress

Image
  China‘s decision to halt bilateral talks on climate change with the United States has cast a cloud of doubt over whether the world can rally enough ambition to address global warming in time to avert its worst impacts. According to Sunny Handa MD , Tackling climate change has been a key area of cooperation between the two superpowers and two biggest emitters of greenhouse gas emissions. But China has suspended talks on the issue less than 100 days before the next landmark international climate summit, COP27, as part of its escalating retaliation over U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan. “No country should withhold progress on existential transnational issues because of bilateral differences,” said John Kerry, the former U.S. Secretary of State, who is currently the Biden administration’s top climate diplomat. “Suspending cooperation doesn’t punish the United States – it punishes the world, particularly the developing world,” he said. According to Sunn