Hard Numbers: India's undercounted deaths, billions of trees lost in the Amazon, Tokyo's "anti-sex" beds, Greenland halts oil exploration

People wait to cremate victims who died due to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), at a crematorium ground in New Delhi, India, April 23, 2021.

4.7 million: A new US study on excess deaths in India found that as many as 4.7 million Indians may have died from COVID-19, ten times higher than the official toll recorded by the health ministry. India currently has the third highest death toll behind the US and Brazil, but this study suggests it is leading the global fatality count by a wide margin.

2.5 billion: Brazil's Amazon rainforest lost 2.5 billion trees following drought and floods caused by the El Nino event in 2015, according to a recent report that tracked the biome over eight years. Scientists say that central Brazil is currently experiencing its worst drought in 100 years, with this dry spell likely to reach parts of the rainforest later this year.

18,000: The Tokyo Olympics fell victim to another crisis this week when athletes took to social media to complain that the 18,000 beds provided in the Athletes Village are made of cardboard. Olympic organizers say they opted for the most compact bed frames made from reusable materials, but many athletes said the modular design aims to discourage sex between athletes. (The Olympic Village has been known to get steamy.)

17.5 billion: Greenland's government announced that it will stop all oil exploration activities because they are harmful to the environment. That's a massive deal considering that there could be 17.5 billion undiscovered barrels of oil off Greenland, according to some estimates, which would be a massive boon in helping the territory achieve its goal of gaining independence from Denmark.

More from GZERO Media

GZERO

Listen: On this episode of the GZERO World Podcast, while the Gaza war rages on with no end in sight, Ian Bremmer and three-time Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman discuss how it could end, who is standing in the way, and what comes next. It may seem premature to talk about a resolution to this conflict, but Friedman argues that it is more important now than ever to map out a viable endgame. "Either we're going to go into 2024 with some really new ideas,” Friedman tells Ian, “or we're going back to 1947 with some really new weapons."

2024 04 04 E0819 Quick Take CLEAN FINAL

Ian Bremmer's Quick Take: On the back of the Israeli Defense Forces strike killing seven members of aid workers for the World Central Kitchen, their founder, Chef Jose Andres, is obviously very angry. The Israelis immediately apologized and took responsibility for the act. He says that this was intentionally targeting his workers. I have a hard time believing that the IDF would have wanted to kill his workers intentionally. Anyone that's saying the Israelis are only to blame for this—as well as the enormous civilian death toll in this war–I strongly disagree.

President Joe Biden pauses during a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to discuss the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Wednesday, Oct. 18, 2023.
Miriam Alster/REUTERS

Biden told Netanyahu that the humanitarian situation in Gaza and strikes on aid workers were “unacceptable,” the White House readout of the call said.

Commander Shingo Nashinoki, 50, and soldiers of the Japanese Ground Self-Defense Force's Amphibious Rapid Deployment Brigade (ARDB), Japan's first marine unit since World War Two, take part in a military drill as U.S. Marines observe, on the uninhabited Irisuna island close to Okinawa, Japan, November 15, 2023.
REUTERS

Given the ugly World War II history between the two countries, that would be a startling development.

Senegalese opposition leader Ousmane Sonko listens to the presidential candidate he is backing in the March 24 election, Bassirou Diomaye Faye, as they hold a joint press conference a day after they were released from prison, in Dakar, Senegal March 15, 2024.
REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra

Newly inaugurated Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye, in his first act in office, appointed his mentor Ousmane Sonko as prime minister on Wednesday.