Spearheaded by Sri Lanka, United Nations member states endorsed a proposed roadmap for action on nitrogen challenges called the Colombo Declaration on Sustainable Nitrogen Management
Colombo, 24 October 2019 (UN Environment)* – At a time when the world grapples with the menace of air pollution killing 7 million people prematurely every year, Sri Lanka, with support from the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), convened a two-day event at which member states came together to adopt what is being called the “Colombo Declaration” with an ambition to halve nitrogen waste by 2030.
28 October 2019 (UN News)* —Pervasive deteriorating facts on the ground in Israeli-Palestinian conflict, “are pushing us every further” from achieving a viable two-State solution, the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process told the Security Council on Monday [28 October 2019].
UN Photo/Loey Felipe | Nickolay Mladenov, UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, addresses the Security Council via video-link.
With the spotlight on Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Special Envoy Nicolay Mlandenov detailed “new dangerous flashpoints” emerging in the region, under rapidly shifting developments in the Middle East as a whole, which have snowballed into a growing threat to international peace and security.
28 October 2019 (World Meteorological Organization)* — The world’s highest peaks, ranging from the Andes to the Alps and the Third Pole to the tropics, are being hit hard by climate change, and the impacts of this are cascading down to some of Earth’s most densely populated areas.
Courageous insight on a vital issue that European politicians and the UN fear to evoke.
Anthony Judge
Deadly silence
It is curious to note how systematically international authorities and political leadership have avoided any discussion of future migration from Africa — beyond the immediate future.
This includes the careful crafting by statistical agencies — typically in the habit of offering estimates on other matters through to 2050, or even to the end of the century.
This peculiar situation is reviewed in detail in a separate document.
As the candidates needed 45 percent of the vote to avoid a second round, the 47 percent obtained by the Fernandez-Fernandez ticket has been enough to give them the win.
Argentina’s presidential candidate Alberto Fernandez and his running mate, former President Cristina Fernandez, greet supporters during a closing campaign rally in Mar del Plata, Argentina, on October 24, 2019. | Photo: Reuters (posted here fromteleSUR).
27 October 2019 (teleSUR)* — With almost 90 percent of votes counted, Argentinian opposition progressive ticket Alberto Fernandez and Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner have won over right-wing incumbent President Mauricio Macri with 47,75 over 40,76 percent respectively in Sunday’s general elections.
22 October 2019 (UN Environment)* — The environmental interest in nitrogen (N2), an essential component of the air we breathe, focuses on the conversion of N2 into other chemically reactive forms. Some are vital for life itself and some cause costly and dangerous nitrogen pollution.
Photo by Lynn Betts/ Wikimedia Commons.
“Altogether, humans are producing a cocktail of reactive nitrogen that threatens health, climate and ecosystems, making nitrogen one of the most important pollution issues facing humanity,” the 2018-2019 Frontiers report warns.
“Yet the scale of the problem remains largely unknown and unacknowledged outside scientific circles.”
28 October 2019 (UNHCR)* — In the mid-1970s, Marta Duque’s father sent her from her home in the Colombian city of Pamplona, tucked into a far eastern range of the Andes, to the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, to work as a live-in maid. She was 12 years old.
STOCKHOLM/ROME, Oct 24 2019 (IPS)*– On October 11, the Norwegian Nobel Prize Committee announced that this year´s Peace Prize is awarded to Ethiopia´s prime minister Abiy Ahmed: “For his efforts to achieve peace and international cooperation, and in particular for his decisive initiative to resolve the border conflict with neighbouring Eritrea.”1 Let us hope that Abiy remains a worthy Peace Prize winner and that warfare and human suffering on the Horn of Africa will finally come to an end.
26 October 2019 (Wall Street International)* — Several Democratic contenders for the 2020 presidential nomination have come out in favor of reparations for Native Americans and African Americans in one form or another. These candidates spoke of the need for the United States government to reckon with and make up for centuries of stolen labor and legal oppression.
25 October 2019 (UN Environment)* — Environmental crime has become the world’s fourth-largest crime sector, growing at 2–3 times the rate of the global economy. INTERPOL and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) estimate that natural resources worth up to US$258 billion are being stolen by criminal syndicates, depriving countries of their resources, revenues and development opportunities.
Photo by Twitter @WildlifeSummit (posted here from UN Environment).
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 