collapse of the old society

Seawater intrusion into the delta, where the Indus River meets the Arabian Sea in the south of the country, has triggered the collapse of farming and fishing communities.

more than 1.2 million people have been displaced from the overall Indus delta region in the last two decades

The downstream flow of water into the delta has decreased by 80% since the 1950s as a result of irrigation canals, hydropower dams and the impacts of climate change on glacial and snow melt, according to a 2018 study

British colonial rulers were the first to alter the course of the Indus River with canals and dams, followed more recently by dozens of hydropower projects.

Earlier this year, several military-led canal projects on the Indus River were halted when farmers in the low-lying riverine areas of Sindh province protested.

See summary: The Lancet Countdown on health and plastics

A water contamination scandal has gripped a leafy corner of southern Belgium, causing anxious residents to queue up for blood tests to confirm potential exposure to so-called forever chemicals.

More than 80 percent of Tuvalu’s population has applied for Australia’s landmark climate visa, official figures showed Wednesday, as rising seas threaten the low-lying Pacific nation. With only 280 spots available this year, thousands are expected to miss out.

(Full disclosure: I disagree with about half this article, but I still found it thought provoking.)

I know this is a little outside the normal scope of this community. However, I think it’s undeniable that a contributing factor to the ideas and behavior of contemporary tech oligarchs is their love of older sci-fi and fantasy literature. Seeing the authoritarian and sometimes even straightforwardly fascist ideals hidden in those works can be helpful in understanding how these people think.

It’s probably the most depressing conspiracy theory there is, not because the impacts are so much graver than some cranks who believe the Earth to be flat, but because vaccination is the most concrete proof of how much we rely on one another’s care and rationality. That’s true beyond disease – we also need each other for democracy, science, culture, civic life and everything – but in no other area can you see that, count it and put it on a graph.

2025 marks 10 years since the adoption of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), 17 goals and 169 targets to ensure human well-being, economic prosperity and environmental protection simultaneously.