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Iraq was yet again covered in a thick sheet of orange on Sunday as it suffered the latest in a series of dust storms that have become increasingly common. Dozens were hospitalised with respiratory problems in the centre and the west of the country. A thick layer of orange dust settled across streets and vehicles, seeping into people’s homes in the capital Baghdad.lights…

Desert dust hailing from North Africa has been making its way through Turkey since early April. Moving from west to east, its next target is eastern Turkey. Either in the form of dust storms or fine particles carried in the breeze, the dust will dominate the weather in the region on Tuesday, after making its foray into the country's east on Monday. Authorities urged the public to…

One of the world’s most ambitious plans to restore degraded land needs a more meaningful way to measure its achievements. It’s now 15 years since the African Union gave its blessing to Africa’s Great Green Wall, one of the world’s most ambitious ecological-restoration schemes. The project is intended to combat desertification across the width of Africa, and spans some 8,000 kilometres, from…

The second Global Land Outlook report (GLO2), released on 26 April 2022 by the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) ahead of its 15th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP15) in Abidjan, outlines both ‘stark warnings and practical remedies’ for chronic land degradation. With inputs from more than 20 partner organizations and more than a thousand of the latest…

After decades of extreme overexploitation, almost half of the world’s land is either impoverished or exhausted, according to a report from the United Nations, which called the figure “a wake-up call.” “In a world of profligate consumerism, global supply chains, and a growing population, land resources – our soil, water, and biodiversity – are rapidly being depleted,” said Ibrahim…

It’s often easiest to take for granted the things that are right beneath our feet, and so it goes for one of the most vital yet overlooked foundations for human life: land. Providing us with our homes, our food, our clean water and air, land is the core provider of our well-being, and yet we rarely give it the attention it deserves, despite climate change increasingly encroaching on its health –…