Pollution is the world's biggest killer

A new study has found that pollution is now the world's biggest killer. One in six deaths worldwide is because of pollution. This is 16 per cent of all global deaths. Most of these deaths were from non-infectious diseases caused by pollution. These include heart disease, lung cancer and stroke. The study was published in the medical journal 'The Lancet'. Researchers said most pollution-related deaths occurred in poorer countries. About 92 per cent of these deaths were in low-income nations, especially countries where there is a lot of economic development, such as India and China. Bangladesh and Somalia were the worst affected countries. Brunei and Sweden had the lowest numbers of pollution-related deaths.

Study co-author Karti Sandilya said: "Pollution, poverty, poor health, and social injustice are deeply intertwined." He added: "Pollution threatens fundamental human rights, such as the right to life, health, wellbeing, and safe work." He said air pollution was the biggest killer. Air pollution led to 6.5 million premature deaths. The second biggest killer was water pollution, which caused 1.8 million deaths. The next largest killer was pollution in the workplace, which was linked to 800,000 worldwide deaths. Scientist Dr Penny Woods said: "Air pollution is reaching crisis point." She said the people who pollution hit the hardest are those with breathing and lung problems, children and the elderly. (Breaking News English)

Earth has lost half its trees because of humans

There is good news and bad news regarding the number of trees on our planet. The good news is that there are seven times more trees on Earth than we thought. Until a few years ago, scientists estimated that the world had around 400 billion trees. However, a new study from Yale University estimates that there are around three trillion trees. That's a three followed by 12 zeroes. That means there are more than 420 trees for every person alive today. Lead researcher Dr Thomas Crowther told the BBC that the new estimate will not change anything. He said: "It's not like we've discovered a load of new trees. It's not good news for the world or bad news that we've produced this new number."

The bad news is that thousands of years ago, the earth had around six trillion trees. Human activity has cut in half the number of trees on the planet. A good example of this is the fact that Europe used to be one giant forest. Now much of it is farmland, fields, cities and towns. Dr Crowther said people are responsible for the loss of three trillion trees over the past several thousand years. Humans are destroying around 15 billion more trees every year because of deforestation and the demand for farmland. The scientists said this figure is "considerably higher" than just a century ago. Dr Crowther warned that: "This study highlights how much more effort is needed if we are to restore healthy forests worldwide." (Breaking News)