accelerating | Common News Update

Apr12020 by adminNo Comments

Spread of COVID-19 on USS Roosevelt is ‘ongoing and accelerating,’ captain says

Business

March 31 (UPI) -- The captain of the USS Theodore Roosevelt is pleading with the U.S. Navy for more resources to help contain a coronavirus outbreak aboard the ship and avoid possible deaths. The aircraft carrier docked in Guam last week so its crew of 5,000 sailors could be tested for the novel coronavirus. At the time, 23 members of its crew had tested positive for the virus. On Wednesday, Acting Secretary of the Navy Thomas Modly told reporters that three crew had tested positive for the virus. Now more than 100 sailors are infected, and according to Capt. Brett Crozier, in a four-page letter first reported by the San Francisco Chronicle, the situation is rapidly deteriorating. According to Crozier, only a small contingent of soldiers have been off-boarded, and most remain aboard the...

Mar232020 by adminNo Comments

Coronavirus: Pandemic is ‘accelerating’, WHO warns as cases pass 300,000

World

The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that the coronavirus disease pandemic is "accelerating", with more than 300,000 cases now confirmed.It took 67 days from the first reported of Covid-19 to reach 100,000 cases, 11 days for the second 100,000, and just four days for the third 100,000.But WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said it was still possible to "change the trajectory".He urged countries to adopt rigorous testing and contact-tracing strategies."What matters most is what we do. You can't win a football game by defending. You have to attack as well," he told a joint news conference with Fifa president Gianni Infantino to launch a "kick out coronavirus" campaign featuring footballers. ...

Mar122020 by adminNo Comments

Greenland and Antarctica ice loss accelerating

Science

Media playback is unsupported on your device Earth's great ice sheets, Greenland and Antarctica, are now losing mass six times faster than they were in the 1990s thanks to warming conditions.A comprehensive review of satellite data acquired at both poles is unequivocal in its assessment of accelerating trends, say scientists.Between them, Greenland and Antarctica lost 6.4 trillion tonnes of ice in the period from 1992 to 2017.This was sufficient to push up global sea-levels up by 17.8mm."That's not a good news story," said Prof Andrew Shepherd from the University of Leeds in the UK."Today, the ice sheets contribute about a third of all sea-level rise, whereas in the 1990s, their contribution was actually pretty small at about 5%. This has impo...

Jan262020 by adminNo Comments

China coronavirus spread is accelerating, Xi Jinping warns

Health

Media playback is unsupported on your device The spread of a deadly new virus is accelerating, Chinese President Xi Jinping warned, after holding a special government meeting on the Lunar New Year public holiday.The country is facing a "grave situation" Mr Xi told senior officials. The coronavirus has killed at least 56 people and infected almost 2,000 since its discovery in the city of Wuhan.The US has announced that staff at the Wuhan consulate will be evacuated on a special flight on Tuesday. The State Department said that private Americans most at risk will also be able to board the flight to San Francisco.Meanwhile, UK-based researchers have warned of a real possibility that China will not be able to contain the virus. Travel restrictions...

Dec102019 by adminNo Comments

Climate change: Greenland ice melt ‘is accelerating’

Science

Media playback is unsupported on your device Greenland is losing ice seven times faster than it was in the 1990s. The assessment comes from an international team of polar scientists who've reviewed all the satellite observations over a 26-year period. They say Greenland's contribution to sea-level rise is currently tracking what had been regarded as a pessimistic projection of the future.It means an additional 7cm of ocean rise could now be expected by the end of the century from Greenland alone.This threatens to put many millions more people in low-lying coastal regions at risk of flooding. It's estimated roughly a billion live today less than 10m above current high-tide lines, including 250 million below 1m. "Storms, if they happen against a...