Tech & Science Daily: Deadly Pakistan floods link to climate crisis

Flood-affected people try to salvage belongings (Fareed Khan/AP)
AP
Rachelle Abbott16 September 2022

Experts say the “fingerprint” of climate change is on Pakistan’s devastating floods after analysis found a link with extreme rainfall.

Large areas of Pakistan suffered record-breaking monsoons earlier this summer that caused the Indus River to burst its banks over thousands of square miles, and led to urban flash floods and landslides.

More than 1,500 people have died and 33 million people have been affected, while homes, roads, health centres and schools have been destroyed or damaged, livestock killed, cropland ruined and there have been outbreaks of disease.

Scientists working together for the World Weather Attribution research collective say intense rain has become heavier in the South Asian region as heavy industry fuels global warming.

New drug therapy for severe eczema ‘highly effective’ for young children

In an international study, published in The Lancet, a new drug called dupilumab has shown to improve the severity of the skin condition eczema, within two weeks in patients aged between six months and six years old.

Based on the findings, doctors believe the treatment may be approved for children under the age of six in the UK soon, as it’s already licensed here for adults and children aged six to 18.

Making a global change

The Sungai Watch charity in Bali has now installed 150 barriers and collected over 650 tons of plastics from the island’s rivers, mangroves and coastline.

Tech & Science Daily spoke to Gary Bencheghib co-founder of the charity, based in south Bali in Canggu, Indonesia.

Using upcycling and simple technology the team designed barriers from nets, floating booms and cages to collect waste. They’ve even had help from the Indonesian army.

And the rest

As Billy Bragg sang: “I saw two shooting stars last night, I wished on them but they were only satellites.” The mysterious fireball zooming over Scotland, that sparked 800 reports to the UK Meteor Network, is now believed to have been humdrum space junk.

The world’s largest airline club, Star Alliance, wants about half of its 26 million members to use biometrics technology by 2025. This apparently results from passenger demand for contactless travel after Covid-19.

A 380-million-year-old preserved heart has been found inside a dinosaur fish, called the Gogo. Researchers from Curtin University in Perth say the specimen reveals a critical moment of evolution, and a link to how the organ pumps blood for vertebrate mammals.

The winner of the Royal Observatory Greenwich’s Astronomy photographer of the year is a rare image of a piece of Comet Leonard’s gas tail being disconnected and carried away by the solar wind. The image by Austrian photographer Gerald Rhemann was taken in Namibia on Christmas Day.

And, a disabled dog has become a TikTok and Instagram sensation after racking up hundreds of millions of views because she loves ditching her wheelchair to run around on two front legs.

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