Close encounters of the fungal kind: An analysis of global heat exposure to deaths, stillbirths, congenital anomalies and obstetric complications
In 2025 climate discourse will recenter on the message that halting global heating requires the phaseout of coal, oil, and gas. This new consensus will shift the politics of climate change and help motivate an urgent sprint to a clean-energy, ecologically integrated economy—the only economy that ensures a livable future.
In his new book, Close Encounters of the Fungal Kind, Richard Fortey “does mycology a great service by transcending the strange with science”, writes biologist Nicholas Money. Money says the book is full of evocative descriptions born from personal experience and that Fortey takes the reader on a guided tour of the world’s mushrooms.
Heat exposure raises the risks of preterm birth, stillbirths, congenital anomalies and obstetric complications. In the largest systematic review of its kind, researchers analysed 198 studies across 66, mostly high-income, countries. For every 1 ℃ increase in heat exposure, there was a 4% increase in the risk of a child being born prematurely — which is one of the leading causes of infant death or long-term disability. During a heatwave, the chance of preterm birth increased by 26%. “Protecting the health of pregnant women and newborns must become a priority in our response to climate change,” said physician-scientist and review co-author Darshnika Lakhoo in a statement.
Jean Pierre Sibomana’s First Battle with Marburg Viral Disease: What Happens When a Doctor is Isolated? (The Guardian | 6 min read)
When intensive-care physician Jean Pierre Sibomana was faced with two young patients displaying signs of haemorrhagic fever, he had to make an incredibly difficult choice: to diagnose Rwanda’s first confirmed outbreak of Marburg virus disease. “I knew… that this diagnosis could have profound political and economic implications,” he writes in a powerful first-hand account of the experience. He did what he had to do: isolated from outsiders, he and his colleagues battled a disease with an expected fatality rate of nearly 90%. There were many deaths of doctors and nurses. “We cared for both patients and colleagues with broken hearts, and we mourned together every day for the souls that were leaving us,” writes Sibomana.
Astronomer Desireé Cotto-Figueora is part of NASA’s Near-Earth Object Surveyor mission, which aims to spot big near-Earth asteroids to identify potential hazards. She started an astronomy club in high school and visited nearby observatories. I don’t think that a high school girl would expect to be on a NASA mission someday.
Clinical psychologist Steven Sultanoff shows how humor can be used to deal with stress. (Scientific American | 4 min read)
The president of the COP 29 said that the Western nations stood in the way of a better deal when he was an ecology and natural resources minister in the Azerbaijan state-owned oil company. “The Chinese were willing to offer more if others did so too (but the others didn’t),” he writes. (The Guardian | 5 min read)
The agreement was pushed through by big players, according to representatives of many of the poorer countries. “Developed nations always throw text at us at the last minute, shove it down our throat, and then, for the sake of multilateralism, we always have to accept it,” says Juan Carlos Monterrey Gómez, Panama’s special representative for climate change. (The Guardian | 6 min read)
“I am half agony, half hope.” The 29th United Nation’s annual climate conference brought to a close with a marathon negotiation.
• An effort led by Saudi Arabia failed in its bid to backtrack from last year’s breakthrough pledge to “transition away from fossil fuels”. The issue was neglected until next year. (Middle East Eye | 1 min read)
• The deal is an increase on the previous climate finance target, set in 2009 at COP15, of $100 billion per year — ostensibly by 2020 but not achieved until two years later. 10 min read from 2021.
