Thick smog is blanketing New Delhi after Diwali celebrations with fireworks sent air pollution levels soaring. Revelers burst firecrackers late into Monday night, filling the air with smoke and fine particles. By Tuesday morning, air quality in several neighborhoods ranked as severe. Last week, India's top court eased a ban on firecrackers, allowing limited use of "green firecrackers" that emit fewer pollutants. Pollution spikes due to firecrackers are common after Diwali, which coincides with cooler weather and crop residue fires. New Delhi and its metropolitan region — home to more than 30 million people — routinely ranks among the world's most polluted cities during winter.
The United Nations weather agency said carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere reached record highs last year, intensifying climate change and extreme weather. The World Meteorological Organization said CO2 growth rates have tripled since the 1960s, reaching levels that existed 800,000 years ago. The report, released Wednesday, highlights emissions from coal, oil, and gas, along with wildfires, as major contributors. Despite flat fossil fuel emissions last year, CO2 levels continue to rise. The agency has urged policymakers to reduce emissions, warning that the world is heading into a dangerous state. Other greenhouse gases like methane and nitrous oxide have also hit record levels.
The Bay Area Air District has extended an air quality advisory through Wednesday due to wildfire smoke from Canada.
Smoke from Canadian wildfires has carried another day of poor air quality south of the border to the American Midwest. Conditions in parts of Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan were rated "very unhealthy" on Tuesday. The smell of smoke hung over the Minneapolis-St. Paul area on Tuesday morning. The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency issued an alert for almost the entire state into Wednesday. Canada is having another bad wildfire season, and more than 27,000 people in three provinces have been forced to evacuate. The smoke is even reaching Europe, where it is causing hazy skies but isn't expected to affect surface-air quality,
Air quality officials have issued the first Spare the Air alert of the year for ozone in the Bay Area for Friday, when triple-digit inland tem…
Most of the world has dirty air, with just 17% of global cities meeting WHO air pollution guidelines, a report Tuesday found. The report, from the air quality monitoring database IQAir, looked at data from 138 countries and found that India is home to the greatest number of polluted cities, and Los Angeles ranked as the most polluted city in the United States. Air pollution is a major killer, with studies estimating it kills 9 million people worldwide a year and sickens millions more.
A new study finds that climate change is already causing all sorts of problems on Earth, but soon it will be making a mess in orbit around the planet too. MIT researchers calculate that as global warming continues it may reduce the available space for satellites in low Earth orbit by anywhere from one-third to 82% by the end of the century. That's because climate change makes the upper atmosphere cooler and less dense. Dead satellites and debris won't fall to Earth as much, which is nature's way of cleaning up what humanity launches. So space will become more littered.
The regional body that regulates and monitors air quality in the Bay Area has a new name and a redesigned logo.
Bimbo Bakeries USA Inc. will pay a $162,000 fine to settle two violations issued by the Bay Area Air Quality Management District at its South …
