With a record heatwave experienced in the Siberian part of the Arctic region, this paper explores the unusual phenomenon and why the Siberian heatwave is an awakening call of distress. The paper also attempts to analyse the various impacts of the prolonged heating in the Arctic region on the world.

<p>A national-level state of emergency has been declared by the Russian President Vladimir Putin in the regions of Norilsk and Taimyr, northern Siberia. The declared state of emergency in these Arctic regions is to bring in the ‘federal resources’ to assist the arduous clean-up efforts following a spill of more than 20,000 tonnes of diesel [&hellip;]</p>

<p>In the age of rapid globalization, associated/subsequent international, interstate and intrastate migrations and increased economic cooperation between global communities, the chances of an infectious disease spreading from one country to another are quicker. From Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) that broke out in 2002 to the present-day ongoing pandemic Covid-19, there are many reasons why the global community needs to be vigilant and responsible. Understanding how the virus began is an important step that can lead to policy changes in stemming such risks.</p>

<p>The city of Wuhan, the sprawling capital of Hubei province in Central China, is now infamous as the epicentre of the outbreak of the deadly coronavirus disease--Covid-19. What was reported in the initial days of December 2019, as an ‘outbreak of pneumonia of unknown cause’, restricted to the city of Wuhan, soon turned out to be a horrifying global calamity, spiralling out of control and spreading all across the globe. As China emerges successful in reducing the number of Covid-19 cases in their country, this article attempts to analyse whether there is a possibility that China could lead the way in the global efforts to contain the deadly Covid-19. This article also attempts to analyse whether other nations could benefit from cooperating with China or would it pave the way for China’s global supremacy.</p>

<p>There is a general agreement in the academic as well as policy circles, as early as in 1998, that with the advancement of Internet, its allied technologies and wide-range of applications, there will be a change to the “various facets of our society in very fundamental ways as we move into our 21 st century” (Castells 1998). Perhaps, one of the most significant and noticeable of all the changes brought about by the Internet, could be the emergence of a digital economy. The emergence of a digital economy in the contemporary world is “evidenced by the growth of Internet-based businesses for the delivery of goods and services on a global scale” (Sui and Rejeski 2002). The aim of this article is to discern the potential ecological impacts associated with the emergence of digital economy in our contemporary society.</p>

<p>During winter, the atmosphere surrounding the Arctic region astonishingly becomes a storehouse of large concentrations of pollutants. This polluted air mass, almost as large as the African continent, covers the whole of the atmospheric region above the Arctic as well as extend down over Eurasia and North America (Shaw 1995). This ‘accumulation of visibility-reducing aerosols’ in the Arctic is known as the Arctic haze. The term was first used in 1956 by J. Murray Mitchell, a US Air Force officer stationed in Alaska, to describe “the haze encountered during the Ptarmigan (bird) reconnaissance flights” (Raatz 1983).</p>

Wet markets operate in most Asian countries including India. China reported its wet markets as the epicentre of the Covid-19 outbreak in Wuhan and also more recently in Beijing. These wet markets, a traditional part of popular local culture in Asian countries, are increasingly becoming a cause of concern for the international community and health practitioners across the globe. This article attempts to understand how global authorities and their Asian partners are looking to regulate these infamous wet markets to significantly lower the risk of viral and other pathogenic load from these unhygienic wet markets.