Washington — National Geographic scientists say they’ve discovered the world’s largest coral near the remote Solomon Islands in the Pacific Ocean — an undersea mass that is so big, it can be seen from space. The man who found it, Manu San Felix, director of cinematography for National Geographic Society’s Pristine …

The world’s largest coral colony has been discovered near the remote Solomon Islands in the Pacific Ocean – an undersea mass that is so big, it can be seen from space, National Geographic scientists announced Nov. 12, 2024.    …

BAKU, Azerbaijan — When more than two dozen world leaders deliver remarks at the United Nations’ annual climate conference on Wednesday, many have detailed their nations’ firsthand experience with the catastrophic weather that has come with climate change. “Over the past year, catastrophic floods in Spain, Bosnia and Herzegovina as well …

TORONTO, canada — A teenager is in critical condition in a British Columbia children’s hospital, sick with Canada’s first presumptive human case of avian influenza. “This was a healthy teenager prior to this, so no underlying conditions,” said provincial health officer Bonnie Henry in a news conference on Tuesday. “It just …

BAKU, Azerbaijan — World leaders are converging Tuesday at the United Nations annual climate conference in Baku, Azerbaijan although the big names and powerful countries are noticeably absent, unlike past climate talks which had the star power of a soccer World Cup. But 2024’s climate talks are more like the International …

MEXICO CITY — Cassandra Garduño squinted in the sunlight, her pink boots smudged by dirt as she gazed out over her family’s chinampa — one of the islands first built up by the Aztecs with fertile mud from the bottom of a lake that, later drained, would one day become Mexico …

OTTAWA, Ontario — Canada has detected its first presumptive case of H5 bird flu in a person, a teenager in the western province of British Columbia, health officials said Saturday. The teenager likely caught the virus from a bird or animal and was receiving care at a children’s hospital, the province …

Most strokes could be prevented, according to new guidelines aimed at helping people and their doctors do just that.  Stroke was the fourth-leading cause of death in the U.S. in 2023, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and more than half a million Americans have a stroke …

GENEVA — Ahead of next week’s U.N. Climate Change Conference, or COP29, in Baku, Azerbaijan, health experts warn that the climate crisis is also a health crisis and say they must be addressed in tandem to save the planet for future generations. “Human health and planetary health are intertwined,” U.N. Secretary-General …

London — 2024 is likely to be the hottest year ever recorded, with global warming already exceeding the threshold of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, according to scientists, who released the latest data ahead of the COP29 climate summit due to start Monday in Azerbaijan.  Carlo Buontempo, the director of the European …

The COP29 climate summit is due to get under way on Monday in Baku, Azerbaijan — a country whose economy is largely based on selling fossil fuels. Over 12 days, world leaders and thousands of delegates will try to negotiate ways to cut greenhouse gas emissions, amid warnings that efforts …

When a volcanic eruption buried the ancient city of Pompeii, the last desperate moments of its citizens were preserved in stone for centuries. Observers see stories in the plaster casts later made of their bodies, like a mother holding a child and two women embracing as they died. But new …

Federal health officials on Thursday called for more testing of employees on farms with bird flu after a new study showed that some dairy workers had signs of infection, even when they didn’t report feeling sick.  Farmworkers in close contact with infected animals should be tested and offered treatment even …

KINSHASA, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO — The spread of mpox has slowed down slightly across Africa, but the epidemic is not over, the African Union’s health watchdog said Thursday. Fifteen countries across Africa recorded 11,453 mpox cases in the last four weeks, compared with 12,802 in the four weeks prior, the …

CHICAGO — For the second year in a row, Earth will almost certainly be the hottest it’s ever been. And for the first time, the globe this year reached more than 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming compared to the pre-industrial average, the European climate agency Copernicus said Thursday. “It’s this relentless …

An initial 899,000 vaccine doses have been allocated for nine countries across Africa that have been hit hard by the current mpox surge, the WHO and other health organizations said on Wednesday. The WHO declared mpox a global public health emergency for the second time in two years in August …

In labs across the United States, scientists are working on innovative tests using animals and insects to detect cancer earlier. As VOA’s Dora Mekouar reports, recent research suggests bees and dogs can sniff out the disease sooner than machines can. …

London — Two new cases of the mpox variant clade 1b detected in the U.K. are the first locally transmitted cases in Europe and the first outside Africa, the World Health Organization said Tuesday. The U.K. Health Security Agency (UKHSA) confirmed late Monday that the two new cases were household contacts …

Geneva — The World Health Organization on Tuesday listed 17 pathogens that cause widespread disease and death, including HIV, malaria and tuberculosis, for which it said new vaccines were “urgently needed.” The U.N. health agency said that it with its list was providing the first global effort to systematically prioritize endemic …

geneva — World Health Organization member countries resumed negotiations Monday to finalize an agreement on pandemic prevention, with outbreaks of mpox, Marburg and H5N1 stressing the urgency of reaching an agreement without repeating the deadly mistakes of COVID-19. After more than two years of negotiations, there is hope of reaching an …

CALI, Colombia — Wealthy nations appeared to hit a limit with how much they are willing to pay to conserve nature around the world, instead shifting their focus at the two-week U.N. biodiversity summit toward discussions of private money filling the funding gap. At the COP16 negotiations in Cali, Colombia, countries …

Goma, Congo — Some health officials say mpox cases in Congo appear to be “stabilizing” — a possible sign that the main epidemic for which the World Health Organization made a global emergency declaration in August might be on the decline.   In recent weeks, Congo has reported about 200 to …

KARACHI — Unprecedented air pollution levels in Pakistan’s second-largest city of Lahore prompted authorities to take emergency measures on Sunday, including issuing work-from-home mandates and closing primary schools.   The city held the top spot on a real-time list of the world’s most polluted cities on Sunday after recording its highest ever …

orlando, florida — The news rippled through Treasure Island, Florida, almost like a third storm: The mayor planned to move off the barrier island a month after Hurricane Helene flooded tens of thousands of homes along the Gulf Coast and two weeks after Hurricane Milton also ravaged the state.  Mayor Tyler …

RENO, Nevada — Conservationists and a Native American tribe are suing the U.S. to try to block a Nevada lithium mine they say will drive an endangered desert wildflower to extinction, disrupt groundwater flows and threaten cultural resources. The Center for Biological Diversity promised the court battle a week ago when …