The World Economic Forum: Coronavirus: how to keep things in perspective

The first cases of AIDS were described in June 1981 and it took more than two years to identify the virus (HIV) causing the disease. With COVID-19, the first cases of severe pneumonia were reported in China on December 31, 2019 and by January 7 the virus had already been identified. The genome was available on day 10. We already know that it is a new coronavirus from group 2B, of the same family as the SARS, which we have called SARSCoV2. The disease is called COVID-19. It is thought to be related to coronavirus of bats. Genetic analyses have confirmed that it has a recent natural origin (between the end of November and the beginning of December) and that, although viruses live by mutating, its mutation rate may not be very high. [...]

The strong control and isolation measures imposed by China are paying off. For several weeks now, the number of cases diagnosed every day is decreasing. A very detailed epidemiological follow-up is being carried out in other countries; outbreaks are very specific to areas, which can allow them to be controlled more easily.

The disease causes no symptoms or is mild in 81% of cases. Of course, in the remaining 14%, it can cause severe pneumonia and in 5% it can become critical or even fatal. It is still unclear what the death rate may be. Be it could be lower than some estimates so far.

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The World Economic Forum: This is how The Ocean Cleanup's mission to clear the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is going

The world produces 300 million tonnes of plastic a year. There are 5 trillion pieces of plastic in the ocean, and 90% of seabirds have swallowed plastic. [...]

The Ocean Cleanup says it could rid the GPGP of 50% of its waste in five years. Conventional methods of clearing the water, like vessels and nets, would take vast sums of money and thousands of years. [...]

And the project has even more ambitious goals. In what it calls “the largest ocean clean-up in history,” it wants to remove 90% of ocean plastic pollution by 2040.

It's also attempting to stop this pollution at its source: in the world’s rivers. It has developed the “Interceptor,” an autonomous, solar-powered catamaran that works in conjunction with a barrier to scoop plastic out of the water. Capable of extracting 50,000 kilogrammes of plastic a day, two of these craft are already at work, in Jakarta and Malaysia.

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The World Economic Forum: Chart of the day: Is 2019 the beginning of the end for coal in Europe?

Western Europe saw particularly dramatic drops in production – up to 79% in Ireland, according to climate think-tank Sandbag. And there were times of zero or near-zero generation in many countries. The UK, for example, switched off its coal plants for a fortnight in May for the first time.

In absolute terms, Germany saw the biggest drop, as it made substantial cutbacks in both hard coal and its dirtier relative lignite. But it remained responsible for over a third of the coal generation in the EU so far this year, the research shows. [...]

The trend for less coal puts the EU on course to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 1.5% year-on-year. But coal’s phase-out is still fairly slow: just a smattering of plants have been closed so far in 2019, mostly in the UK and Germany. And coal will continue to account for 12% of the EU’s greenhouse gas emissions this year.

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The World Economic Forum: The UN went to one of the world's richest countries to look at poverty – this is what it found

Picture a country where a fifth of the population lives in poverty. People have to choose between eating or heating their homes and children go to school hungry. Homelessness is rising. And basic services are in crisis, leaving many struggling to cope.

This is the damning indictment, delivered by a UN official, not of a developing economy or war-torn nation but of the UK – the world’s fifth biggest economy. [...]

A fundamental overhaul of the benefits system and widespread cutbacks have placed increasing pressure on already stretched and underfunded services including the police and doctors, the report says. The “punitive, mean-spirited and often callous” approach taken by government to supporting society’s most in need has driven further inequalities. [...]

In response, the government pointed to the UN’s own data that the UK comes 15th on the list of the happiest places in the world to live. [...]

It ranked 21st overall, falling near the bottom on many of the key indicators including healthy life expectancy and income inequality.

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The World Economic Forum: This is Leonardo da Vinci's design for a 'smart city' that was centuries ahead of its time

Around 1486 – after a pestilence that killed half the population in Milan – Leonardo turned his thoughts to urban planning problems. Following a typical Renaissance trend, he began to work out an “ideal city” project, which – due to its excessive costs – would remain unfulfilled. Yet given that unsustainable urban models are a key cause of global climate change today, it’s only natural to wonder how Leonardo might have changed the shape of modern cities. [...]

It is not easy to identify a coordinated vision of Leonardo’s ideal city because of his disordered way of working with notes and sketches. But from sources including the Paris manuscript B and the Codex Atlanticus – the largest collection of Leonardo’s papers ever assembled – a series of innovative thoughts can be reconstructed, regarding the foundation of a new city along the Ticino River, designed for the easy transport of goods and clean urban spaces. [...]

Leonardo also thought that the width of the streets ought to match the average height of the adjacent houses: a rule still followed in many contemporary cities across Italy, to allow access to sun and reduce the risk of damage from earthquakes.

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