Archive for July 27th, 2015

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27/07/2015

Radically New Context for Water and Food Security – Report

Human Wrongs Watch

16 July 2015, Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI)* – Water resources are scarce in relation to a booming demand, and their availability varies significantly. Global warming means changes in precipitation patterns with prolonged periods of extremes. Droughts that last for years represent society’s new normal.

Food Waste

Source: SIWI

Together with continuous demographic change and shifts in food habits, a radically new context for water and food security and human dignity has evolved. Unexpected and unwanted paradoxes have to be recognized and managed.

We live in a richer, fatter world. Supported by official statistics and results from frontline research, the report Water, Food Security and Human Dignity shows that the increase in global food supply was about 30 per cent higher than population growth during recent decades.

Undernourishment has been reduced drastically. On the other hand, overweight and obesity increased far more rapidly as compared to the reduction of undernourishment.

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Posted in Africa, Asia, Latin America & Caribbean, Market Lords, Middle East, Mother Earth, Others-USA-Europe-etc., The Peoples | Leave a Comment »

27/07/2015

The Need for a New Economic System – PART II: Entropy and Economics

Human Wrongs Watch

By John Scales Avery*

Introduction

Part I (Limits to Growth) of this series of articles documented the world’s urgent need for a reformed economic system. Here are a few more links that underline the pressing need for change.

**Global energy potential. Comparison of renewable and conventional planetary energy reserves and sources. While renewables display their power potential in terawatts (TW) with the corresponding annual amount of energy, conventional sources display their total recoverable energy reserves in terawatt-years (TW-yr). | Author: Rfassbind | Wikimedia Commons

**Global energy potential. Comparison of renewable and conventional planetary energy reserves and sources. While renewables display their power potential in terawatts (TW) with the corresponding annual amount of energy, conventional sources display their total recoverable energy reserves in terawatt-years (TW-yr). | Author: Rfassbind | Wikimedia Commons

We urgently need to shift quickly from fossil fuels to renewable energy if we are to avoid a tipping point after which human efforts to avoid catastrophic climate change will be futile because feedback loops will have taken over.

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Posted in Africa, Asia, Latin America & Caribbean, Market Lords, Middle East, Mother Earth, Others-USA-Europe-etc., The Peoples | 1 Comment »

27/07/2015

Severe Funding Crisis May Force UN to Delay Start of School Year for Half a Million Students in Middle East

Human Wrongs Watch

Facing its most severe financial crisis ever, the United Nations agency tasked with assisting Palestine refugees throughout the Middle East has on 26 July 2015 convened an emergency session to weigh the growing risk that it may be forced to delay the start of the academic year in some 700 schools for half a million students across the region.

According to a new report from the World Bank, UNRWA students in the occupied Palestinian territory and Jordan perform better than their peers in public schools despite their socioeconomic disadvantages. Photo: UNRWA Archives/Shareef Sarhan

In a press release announcing an emergency meeting of its Advisory Commission, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) said that it may be forced to take drastic measures unless the deficit of $101 million can be fully funded before the school year is due to start.

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Posted in Middle East, Others-USA-Europe-etc., The Peoples, War Lords | Leave a Comment »

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