'Unseen' News and Views
Nelson Pérez monitors the water temperature in the trays where lettuce grows in a controlled-environment farm in the town of Rio Hato, Panama. Vertical farms are beginning to catch on around the world, as a technique that boosts food security, in the face of the impacts of climate change. Credit: Emilio Godoy/IPS
The water, which contains calcium, phosphorus, magnesium and vitamins, must be kept at a steady 21 degrees Celsius, to obtain the best growth.
BISHKEK, December 2015 (IRIN) – High in Kyrgyzstan’s Tian Shan Mountains, the twin effects of climate change and gold mining have combined to pose a potential environmental and human health disaster. A melting glacier is feeding a rapidly expanding lake, which experts fear could burst its banks and overrun a mine tailings pond, releasing toxic waste into the region’s water system.
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World delegates are now in Paris thrashing out details of a deal to cut emissions to mitigate global warming, which has caused glaciers throughout the world to melt for the past 50 years.
By Mairead Maguire, Nobel Peace Laureate*
7 December 2015 – TRANSCEND Media Service – On 2nd December, 2015 the United Kingdom Parliament voted to bomb Syria and the world watched as British planes, equipped with the latest bombs aptly named ‘Brimstone’ were dropped on Syrian targets.
Mairead Maguire
The excuse given for this madness of fear politics and war hysteria is allegedly to stop Daesh (ISIL).
Daesh is the name of Islamic fighters whose fundamentalist religious and political ideology allows for the killing and murder of opponents, and to date they have tragically murdered many people.
These Islamic fundamentalist fighters do not represent true Islam, the Syrian people, or their duly elected President Assad and his government (70% voted for him) currently trying to hold Syria together.
These DAESH (ISIS) fighters are carrying out criminal acts and must of course be stopped by all legal means. However, you cannot stop fire with fire and bomb an ‘idea.’ For every bomb dropped another ten fighters will be created as every act has its consequence; violence begets more violence.
Leading up to the International Anti-Corruption Day on 9 December, The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the UN Development Programme (UNDP) have launched a campaign to raise awareness about corruption, which calls for people from all walks of life to take action against this crime.
UNODC
The slogan ‘Break the corruption chain’ encourages Governments, the private sector and the general public to tackle this issue by changing their attitudes.
The campaign also highlights that corruption is a cross-cutting crime, impacting many areas. It shows that acting against corruption is imperative to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, which aim to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure prosperity for all.
A wide-ranging social media campaign is being rolled out starting this week.
7 December 2015 (Greenpeace) – When a Greenpeace investigation found that nuclear waste returning to Australia by ship from France has been classified as high-level waste by French authorities, contradicting Australia’s claims over its radioactivity, we knew we had to act.
Credit: Dominic Lorrimer/Greeenpeace
So this weekend, Greenpeace activists and volunteers followed the dodgy waste from port in Wollongong all the way to Lucas Heights in south Sydney.
Find out what went down on Storify.
With Ethiopia battling its worst drought in 30 years due to the El Niño weather pattern, with 8.2 million people already in urgent need of food aid, the United Nations has sent an emergency health team to help support the Government’s response to a crisis that is expected to become even worse over the next eight months.
Dry earth in the desert plains of the Danakil depression in northern Ethiopia. Photo: Siegfried Modola/IRIN
“The food security emergency is coming against a background of multiple ongoing epidemics in the country,” the interim Director of Emergency Risk Management and Humanitarian Response at the UN World Health Organization (WHO), Michelle Gayer, on 4 December 2015 said.
“This creates an additional burden for people’s health as well as the health system as malnutrition, especially in children, predisposes them to more severe infectious disease, which can kill quickly,” she added.
Rome – The world’s soils are rapidly deteriorating due to soil erosion, nutrient depletion, loss of soil organic carbon, soil sealing and other threats, but this trend can be reversed provided countries take the lead in promoting sustainable management practices and the use of appropriate technologies, according to a new UN report released on 4 December 2015*.
To celebrate the power of the volunteerism, UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon has on 5 December 2015 marked the International Volunteer Day by emphasizing that volunteering fosters creativity, “draws strength from our passions and connects us to those who need us most.”
UN Volunteers and members of local organizations clear a busy road as part of activities for International Volunteer Day in Goma, eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). UN Photo/Sylvain Liechti
“Volunteerism is a global phenomenon that transcends boundaries, religions and cultural divides,” said Ban in his message on the Day, adding that volunteers embody the fundamental values of commitment, inclusiveness, civic engagement and a sense of solidarity.
The Secretary-General recalled the volunteering spirit during the Ebola crisis in West Africa, saying: “community volunteers, international volunteers and United Nations Volunteers were crucial to the response.”
“A similar spirit of volunteerism and solidarity has been on display in addressing the current refugee crisis and this year’s devastating earthquake in Nepal,” added the UN chief.
In this Part II of a two-part series, Egyptian-born, Spanish-national, secular journalist Baher Kamal tries to “demystify” some of the most common stereotypes circulating around the Middle East region. Here he explains some of the roots of its drama. Part I focused on: The Over-Written, Under-Reported Middle East (I): Of Arabs and Muslims.
**Map of Sykes–Picot Agreement showing Eastern Turkey in Asia, Syria and Western Persia, and areas of control and influence agreed between the British and the French. Royal Geographical Society, 1910-15. | This artistic work created by the UK Government is in the public domain. | HMSO has declared that the expiry of Crown Copyrights applies worldwide | Wikimedia Commons
– Nearly one hundred years ago, on 6 May 1916, two men, Briton Sir Mark Sykes and French diplomat François Georges-Picot, were entrusted by their respective governments with a rather exceptional task.
In this two-part series, Egyptian-born, Spanish-national, secular journalist Baher Kamal tries to “demystify” some of the most common stereotypes circulating around the Middle East region. Part II tomorrow will focus on: Over-Written, Under-Reported Middle East (II): 99.5 Years of (Imposed) Solitude.
**Map of Arab Region | Arab League
4 December 2015 (IPS)– Of all over-written, under-reported issues and regions, the Middle East is perhaps one of the oldest, outstanding ones.
To start with, it is a common belief – too often heralded by the mainstream media – that the Middle East is formed entirely of Arab countries, and that it is about the so-wrongly called Muslim, Arab World.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 