It “guarantees a climate 4-5 Celsius (7-9 Fahrenheit) higher than pre-industrial times, and sea levels that are 10 to 60 meters (30-200 feet) high than today.”
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Climate change can sush earth to a permanent “Hothouse” state. Hurricane Harvey pictured from the International Space Station in this NASA handout photo | Photo: Reuters FILE | Source: teleSUR.
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7 August 2018 (teleSUR)* – A group of scientists has warned the world’s governments about the increasing threat of greenhouse gases and said if changes are not made the planet will enter a permanent “hothouse” state.
The Head of the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), Filippo Grandi, on 7 August 2018urged government representatives and business leaders from the Asia-Pacific region to offer more support and protection for over 700,000 Rohingya refugees who have fled violence and discrimination in Myanmar’s Rakhine State over the past year.
UNICEF/Brian Sokol | Rohingya refugees endure a heavy rain in Balukhali camp in Cox’s Bazar District, Bangladesh, on 4 May 2018. UNCHR chief Filippo Grandi has appealed to regional Governments to offer more support to Bangladesh in addressing the ongoing refugee crisis.
Some 117,000 Venezuelans have claimed asylum already this year — more than for the whole of 2017 — the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) on 7 August said, after welcoming a decision by the Brazilian Supreme Federal Court to reverse the closure of the country’s border with its northern neighbour.
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UNHCR/Reynesson Damasceno Venezuelans wait outside the Federal Police office in the Brazilian border city of Pacaraima. In August 2018, Brazilian Federal courts temporarily halted, then resumed, admission of Venezuelans seeking asylum or special permits to stay in the country.
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“UNHCR welcomes last night’s decision of the Court to overturn a decision by a Federal Judge in Roraima border state, to suspend admission of Venezuelans to the country and close the border,” said the agency’s spokesperson William Spindler.
7 August 2018 – Governments are being urged to ensure that the rights of indigenous peoples are recognized, whether they are living on their traditional lands or forced to move elsewhere.
SGP-GEF-UNDP Peru/Enrique Castro-Mendívil | Indigenous men and women of Nuñoa in Puno, Peru, spin and weave garments based on the fiber of the alpacas.
The appeal has been made by a group of independent experts, appointed by the UN Human Rights Council, who are calling on States to act now to protect these communities during migration.
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Globally, there are approximately 370 million indigenous people, meaning those who are descendants of the original inhabitants of a geographical region or country, according to UN estimates.
7 August 2018 (UN Women)* – At a time of unprecedented human mobility, indigenous women are on the move too, often fleeing violence, environmental disasters and land encroachments that have eaten into their sources of food, water and way of life.
Photo: UN Women/Ryan Brown
The positive economic spin-offs of migration don’t always reach them. Theirs is a move also for justice, as they mobilize to make their voices heard, demand punishment for perpetrators and reparations to restore their dignity.
SANLIURFA, Turkey, 6 August 2018 (UNFPA)* – Refugee women and girls face extraordinary hardships. They endure grave risks and often brutal violence, and many are thrust into poverty. But they can also face another, more intimate, hardship, one that is seldom discussed – the effects of exile on their sexual and reproductive health.
7 August 2018 (UN Environment)* — Air pollution kills nearly 7 million people every year around the world. The situation could worsen in the coming years in Latin America and the Caribbean, where transport – a rapidly growing sector – is the main source of greenhouse emissions.
The region’s vehicle fleet is expanding faster than any other in the world and could triple over the next 25 years. This would result in a collapse of the cities’ road infrastructures and in a proportional increase of pollutants.
To avoid this dramatic scenario, several countries in the region are implementing innovative laws and projects to promote electric mobility and introducing clean vehicles into their public transport.
Nairobi (IOM)* – IOM, the UN Migration Agency, and its partners launched, on 6 August, a Regional Migrant Response Plan (RMRP) for the Horn of Africa and Yemen through which they are appealing to the international community for USD 45 million. The plan details support to migrants on the move in the Horn of Africa and Yemen from 2018 to 2020.
Ethiopian migrants in Obock, Djibouti, walk to a shaded area to await smugglers to bring them to Yemen. Photo: Olivia Headon/IOM 2018
6 August 2018 — If Bilal Bashir, a Palestinian fisherman and lifeguard living on the coast of the Gaza Strip, does not get work over the summer months, he risks being sent to debtors’ prison.
UNDP | A young man working as a lifeguard helps a child out of the water on a Gaza beach.
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That’s the harsh reality facing many in the enclave, which is blockaded by Israel, as unemployment rates reach as high as 60 per cent, but the UN Development Programme’s (UNDP) Assistance to the Palestinian People initiative, is creating jobs as part of an overall effort to relieve the intense pressure on workers and their families during the summer period.
6 August 2018 – Over a year after cholera broke out in Yemen, killing more than 2,000 people, the disease is back and spreading fast in the Houthi-held port city of Hudaydah; a target of continued air strikes by the Saudi-led coalition to regain control of the city.
UNICEF/Sadeq Al-Wesabi | On 7 May 2018 in Aden, Yemen, a boy is vaccinated against cholera. UNICEF and WHO, in partnership with Yemen’s Ministry of Health, began another oral vaccination campaign the following August.
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To mitigate the risks, on Saturday, the Ministry of Health and the UN launched a week-long cholera oral vaccination campaign, targeting the most vulnerable 500,000 women, children and men in and around the city.
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Other mitigating measures implemented by humanitarian organisations include the continued provision of safe drinking water and sanitation facilities.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 