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News update
Glaciers melting at increasing speed: UN
UNITED NATIONS: Mountain glaciers around the world are melting at an unprecedented rate, according to new UN — backed report that will reinforce pressure on governments to take stronger action on global warming.
The glaciers melted from 2000 to 2005 at 1.6 times the average loss rate of the 1990s and three times that of the 1980s, with much of the accelerated change attributable to human-induced climate change, the report said.
“This is the most authoritative, comprehensive and up-to-date information on glaciers world-wide and as such underlines the rapid changes occurring on the planet as a result of climate change,” UN Environment Programme (UNEP) Executive Director Achim Steiner said Tuesday, noting their importance as sources for many rivers upon which people depend for drinking water, agriculture and industrial purposes.
These findings should strengthen the resolve of governments to act now to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and put in place the medium to longer term strategies necessary to avert dangerous climate change,” he added.
According to the figures, the 2000-2005 period saw an average thickness loss for a set of reference glaciers of 0.6 metre water equivalent, confirming the trend in accelerated ice loss during the past two and a half decades and bringing the average reduction since 1980 of the 30 reference glaciers of nine mountain ranges to about 9.6-metres water equivalent. On average, one metre water equivalent corresponds to 1.1 metre ice thickness.
Comprehensive data for the year 2006 are not yet available, but as it was one of the warmest years in many years in many parts of the world, it is expected that the downward trend will continue. — APP
Large waist may predict poor lung function
ISLAMABAD: In a study of normal-weight, overweight and obese adults, it has been found that waist circumference is consistently negatively associated with lung function across all weight categories.
Waist circumference is a better predictor of lung impairment than body mass index (BMI) -- a measure of weight in relation to height used to determine how thin or fat a person is.
Obesity is associated with a wide range of health problems including respiratory dysfunction. Previous studies have found that obesity is associated with asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and BMI is an important predictor.
Researchers from the University of Ottawa determined the predictive value of waist circumference and BMI for lung function in 1,674 normal-weight, overweight, or obese adults, NDTV reported.
They found that waist circumference was negatively associated with several standard measures of lung function and the associations were unchanged by gender, age or BMI category (normal-weight, overweight and obese).
On average, a 1-cm increase in waist circumference was associated with a 13-mL reduction in forced vital capacity -- a measure of the total lung volume of air that can be exhaled -- and an 11-mL reduction in forced expiratory volume in 1 second -- the maximum volume of air expired in one second.
In contrast, a negative association between BMI and lung function was observed only in adults who were overweight or obese.
The above results show that waist circumference as a measure of abdominal fat has a somewhat more consistent predictability for lung function.—APP
Oldest living person dies at 114
NEW YORK: The 114-year-old daughter of freed slaves has died, just four days after assuming the title of world's oldest living person, according to officials Monday at the nursing home where she resided.
Emma Faust Tillman, 114, of the northeastern US state of Connecticut, died at the Riverside Health and Rehabilitation Centre just days after succeeding Emiliano Mercado del Toro of Puerto Rico as the world's oldest inhabitant.
Mercado del Toro died at home last Wednesday at the age 115. Tillman, a one-time maid, was born on November 22, 1892 in Gibsonville, North Carolina.
Longevity apparently ran in Tillman's family. Her four siblings also hit the century mark: Her brother Eugene died at 108 and her three sisters lived to age 105, 102 and 102, according to Guinness.— AFP
A woman carries her child as she walks past a platform at a railway station in Xiamen in south China's Fujian province, January 30. The country's railway system is expecting more than 150 million passengers around the Lunar New Year's Day, which falls on February 18 this year. —Reuters
A vendor walks her bicycle loaded with peach blossoms she hawks in downtown Hanoi on January 31 as Vietnamese prepare to celebrate the lunar new year or Tet. By tradition, Vietnamese decorate their homes on this occasion with peach blossoms or orange trees.—AFP
China's Xu Mengtao soars through the air during the women's freestyle skiing at the Asian Winter Games in Jilin, northeastern China's Jilin province, January 31.—Reuters|
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