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Smitha Verma
Smitha Verma is the Head of Editorial at LetMeBreathe. A journalist with two decades of experience in writing and reporting on diverse subjects ranging from youth to politics and gender to cinema, she has worked with major print publications such as Telegraph, Hindustan Times, Financial Express and The New Indian Express, to name a few.
Latest Written Stories
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As 2023 inches to a close, it would be a good time to have a relook at what the year was like when it comes to the climate crisis, key moments shaping the biggest crisis of our times and what we achieved and what needs to be done.  It was a year shaped by heatwaves […]
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When Ignacia de la Rosa speaks people listen. Even when they don’t understand her. A leader of the San Antero community in the Cispatá region of Colombia, she has been working for several years on a ‘blue carbon’ project aimed at conserving and restoring coastal mangrove forests in Colombia’s Sinú River basin. “It gives us […]
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When Licypriya Kangujam, the 12-year-old climate activist from India, stormed the stage at the 28th Conference Of Parties in Dubai on Monday, holding a sign  “End fossil fuel, save our planet and our future”, it was a clear message that any outcome this year can’t be devoid of strong wordings on fossil fuels.  Predictably, when […]
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On Monday evening as the new text on global stocktake (GST) was decoded, it became evident that once again the Global South has been hit hard. It singles out coal and goes soft on other fossil fuels — oil and gas — which is likely to be heavily contested by developing countries, especially India. Though […]
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Addressing the opening session of the world leaders at the COP28 Summit in Dubai, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Friday, said that India is one of the few economies in the world that is on the way to accomplishing the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). India has set targets to bring emission intensity down by 45 […]
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In a world where the urgency of climate action is undeniable, a new initiative has taken shape that puts the focus on ‘just transition’ in the Global South. ClimateWorks Foundation and the IKEA Foundation have joined hands to place the voices and well-being of workers and communities in the Global South at the forefront of […]
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Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health (PMNCH) is the world’s largest alliance for women’s, children’s and adolescents’ health and well-being. Established in 2005 and hosted by the World Health Organization (WHO), PMNCH provides a prominent platform for its adolescent and youth constituency to amplify the voices of the 1.8 billion adolescents and young people […]
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If there’s one common aspect that’s binding most parts of the UK and several states in northern India, then it’s heatwaves. While Ireland and the UK are experiencing one of the worst marine heatwave alerts ever recorded, in India casualties are on the rise due to rising temperatures. It’s not surprising to see this phenomena […]
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Cyclone Biparjoy live: The Arabian Sea is witnessing Cyclone Biparjoy. The cyclone has been moving northwards at a speed of five kilometres per hour, and is centered southwest of Gujarat’s Porbandar. India and Pakistan have braced themselves for the first severe cyclone, Biparjoy, this year expected to hit their coastal regions later this week. The […]
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Global plastic production now amounts to some 400 million tonnes per year, as per United Nations Environment Programme. Yet only an estimated 12% of the plastics produced have been incinerated and only an estimated 9% have been recycled. About 8% of the world’s oil goes into plastic production and it’s going to rise to 20% […]
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A 2019 study, led by Dr Thava Palanisami and other researchers at the University of Newcastle, Australia, and commissioned by the World Wildlife Fund for Nature, reported that humans are gobbling upto 5 grams of microplastics in their weekly diets — or about as much as the weight of an ATM card. Recognised globally by […]
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In April an international team of researchers published the study that Arctic ice algae is heavily contaminated with microplastics that seep into the food web. The research team collected samples of the algae and the surrounding water from ice floes during an expedition with the research vessel Polarstern in the summer of 2021.The team consisting […]
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