BBC Health — When did baby Richa finally fall silent?

Social workers direct the question about the three-year-old girl to an extended family living in a mud-and-thatch hut in the bleak landscape of Jamoda in Madhya Pradesh. It is the country’s second biggest state in size and also one of its poorest.

The workers belong to a group that is raising the issue of chronic hunger and malnutrition.

“She died recently. She had measles. The quack gave her an injection, but she did not survive,” says Kolai Bai, grandmother of the dead girl, matter-of-factly. She is now left with six grandchildren.

In these parts, more and more children like Richa are “falling silent” because of diseases associated with malnutrition and hunger. But their deaths remain cold statistics; they largely escape the attention of political parties battling to win the upcoming state elections.

Groups like the Right to Food Campaign insist that malnutrition is chronic in vast swathes of Madhya Pradesh. Some 325 children, they say, have died of diarrhoea, measles and acute respiratory distress - diseases typically associated with severe malnutrition - in just four districts between May and October this year.

More worryingly, they say, the government is in complete denial. …

Many other children are struggling to stay healthy and alive. Eighteen-month-old Sanju Silale (in the photograph) is one of them. The boy has bone for arms and legs and has already lost an eye to measles. He lets out a dull, incessant cry from his mother’s lap.

The mother, Tulsa, says she lost her earlier child, a boy, when he was two years old. “I could not breast feed my boy and he died. These days I cannot breast feed Sanju much because I have very little milk,” Tulsa says. The father, Kamal, is away working on a farm in a neighbouring district because work is scarce in Jamoda.

In the dark recesses of another village hut, one-year-old girl Drupta weighs merely 2.5kg and coughs incessantly in her mother’s arms. “There’s not enough food at home to feed an infant. Parents go out looking for work, leaving the children at home who end up sharing a roti (Indian flatbread) between them,” says a family member. (11/25/08)
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BBC Ocean Science — Man-made pollution is raising ocean acidity at least 10 times faster than previously thought, a study says.

Researchers say carbon dioxide levels are having a marked effect on the health of shellfish such as mussels. They sampled coastal waters off the north-west Pacific coast of the US every half-hour for eight years. The results, published in the journal PNAS, suggest that earlier climate change models may have underestimated the rate of ocean acidification.

Professor Timothy Wootton from the department of ecology and evolution, University of Chicago, in Illinois, says such dramatic results were unexpected as it was thought that the huge ocean systems had the ability to absorb large quantities of CO2.

“It’s been thought pH in the open oceans is well buffered, so it’s surprising to see these fluctuations,” he said.

The findings showed that CO2 had lowered the water pH over time, demonstrating a year-on-year increase in acidity. …

The researchers say they were surprised that the plants and animals in their study are so sensitive to CO2 changes. These organisms live in the harsh inter-tidal zones, they may be submerged under water, exposed to the sun, then lashed by waves and storms.

Professor Wootton says the most troubling finding is the speed of acidification, with the pH level dropping at a much greater rate than was previously thought. “It’s going down 10 to 20 times faster than the previous models predicted,” he says.

The research team are now working together with chemical oceanographers to see how their coastal observations can be matched with large scale observations, to try to explain why the decline in pH levels seems to be happening so quickly.

“We actually know surprisingly little about how ocean acidity is changing over time, we need a broader network of measurements,” said Professor Wootton. (11/25/08)
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BBC Environmental Awareness — An opinion poll in 11 countries has produced what organisers term a “global mandate” for action on climate change. About half of the respondents wanted governments to play a major role in curbing emissions, but only a quarter said their leaders were doing enough.

In developing countries, a majority of people were prepared to make “lifestyle changes” to reduce climate change. …

The survey revealed that 43% of people questioned put climate change ahead of the world’s financial instability as an issue of current concern, even though the surveys ran in the turbulent months of September and October.

“Despite the fact this research took place at a time when the global financial crisis was taking off, climate change was very much in the minds of the general public as an issue of concern,” commented Francis Sullivan, HSBC’s environmental advisor and a former director of conservation with the environment group WWF.

Sizeable majorities in most of the developing countries polled - Brazil, India, Malaysia and Mexico - saying they were willing to make changes.

In China it was just under half, as it was in the industrialised countries taking part - Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the UK and US.

The findings broadly agree with a survey commissioned by the BBC last year, which found that two-thirds of people polled in 21 countries backed urgent action on climate change. (11/25/08)
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