'Unseen' News and Views
The Occupy movement is one example of citizen-led disruption. Credit: Judith Scherr/IPS.
The world’s first systematic review of how well countries uphold fundamental civic freedoms – to protest, organise and speak out – reveals a significant deterioration in the protection of these constitutional rights in the US.
7 November 2016 – The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has warned that in order to adapt agriculture to a changing climate, new approaches to irrigation will need to be developed and implemented worldwide.
Photo: FAO/Giulio Napolitano
These new approaches are being discussed as part of the 2nd World Irrigation Forum which opened yesterday in Chiang Mai, Thailand, and brings together stakeholders from around the world to rethink water management in the context of continued population and economic growth as well as the growing threats of climate change.
7 November 2016 – TRANSCEND Media Service – Civilians have constantly suffered during wars, by direct violence or starvation or both. It has always been thus, in past centuries and now.
Whether from the air or from the ground, they have been on the receiving end of abusing armies in city sieges, from impoverishing scorched earth, of Roman ballistas, the artillery of arrows and of cannon, and of bombs via airships, aeroplanes and missiles.
Although the use in common parlance of the term ‘collateral damage’ is relatively new – since the mid 1980’s – its basis as applied to aerial bombardment of civilians in particular, dates back to Greek mythology and to religion.
Zeus, the mythical king of the gods, used thunderbolts from the sky to spread fear and destruction.
In a biblical way, God’s aerial bombardment of rain caused The Flood which wiped out humanity, save for Noah and family. Fire and brimstone destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.
– Journalist Stella Paul was midway through an interview about toilets when she found herself, and the women she was speaking to, under attack from four angry men.
Paul interviews Dalit women in Hamirpur – a district in Northern India. All of these women have been abandoned by their husbands who fled to escape drought. Credit: Stella Paul / IPS.
“This man, he comes and he just grabs this woman by her hair and he starts dragging her on the ground and kicking her at the same time,” Paul told IPS.
To achieve the vision of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development of peace, prosperity and dignity for all on a healthy planet, it is essential to recognize the shared duty of care towards the environment in peacetime and during war, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on 6 November said.
A young internally displaced Iraqi girl stands on a dusty path at the edge of Debaga camp, near Mosul in northern Iraq. Smoke from oil fires can be seen in the background. Photo: UNHCR/Ivor Prickett
“Poor governance of the environment and natural resources can contribute to the outbreak of conflict. It can fuel and finance existing conflicts and it can increase the risk of relapse,” explained Ban in his message to mark the International Day for Preventing the Exploitation of the Environment in War and Armed Conflict.
Three days after the entry into force of the landmark Paris Agreement, the Marrakesh Conference, which begins Monday, 7 November, in Morocco, will give United Nations Member States and the world the opportunity to maintain momentum on climate action and continue strengthening the global response to the threat of climate change.
A view of the Middelgruden offshore wind farm. The wind farm was developed off the Danish coast in 2000 and consists of 20 turbines. UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe
“Our challenge is to sustain the momentum that has propelled the Agreement into force,” Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told reporters at UN Headquarters in New York the past Friday, where he convened a meeting with civil society representatives from all over the world and thanked them for the “vision, courage, persistence and leadership [that] made this day happen.”
In Costa Rica, seven percent of the electricity generated now comes from wind power, thanks to wind farms like this one in the mountains of La Paz y Casamata, 50 km from San José. The decarbonisation of energy sources is a commitment that most Latin American countries have assumed. Credit: Diego Arguedas Ortiz/IPS
Approved on Dec. 12, 2015 at the 21st Conference of the Parties (COP21) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Paris, the historic agreement to curb the rise in global temperatures merely laid the foundations of the global architecture, and what lies ahead is the painstaking task of defining the fine print.
– On the eve of the entry into force of the Paris Agreement on Nov. 4, the United Nations sounded new climate alarm, urging the world to ‘dramatically’ step up its efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions by some 25 per cent more.
World must urgently increase action and ambition to cut another 25 per cent off 2030 emissions. Credit: UNEP
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), in its Emissions Gap report 2016, warned that the world must urgently act to cut a further 25 per cent from predicted 2030 emissions “to meet the stronger, and safer, target of 1.5 degrees Celsius” global temperature rise.
“The world is still heading for temperature rise of 2.9 to 3.4 this century, even with the pledges made last December by States Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), according to UNEP.
– The Paris Climate Change Agreement Enters into force on Friday 4 November, just days before the UN’s 22nd climate change conference begins in Marrakech, Morocco.
The Paris Climate Agreement will bring together countries to combat rising global temperatures. Credit: Cam McGrath/IPS
“It’s a historic milestone for the whole world, especially for international cooperation, it’s unprecedented, however the hard work starts (now),” Yeb Sano, former chief climate change negotiator of the Philippines told IPS.
The swift entry into force of the agreement, which was reached in December 2015, means that the Conference of the Parties (COP) in Marrakech will now be able to focus on implementation, President of the UN General Assembly, Peter Thomson told IPS.
Nicaragua’s new canal is meant to rival the Panama canal but has also sparked protests as it will displace tens of thousands of people. Credit: Carlos Herrera/IPS
Around 3,000 kilometers away, in a much smaller nation in the middle of Central America, another election will take place just a couple of days earlier. Although Nicaragua’s presidential election lacks the fame of the Clinton-Trump race, it is every bit as controversial.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 