In this Voices from the Global South podcast, Dr James Kairo, one of the lead authors of the ‘Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate,’ a special report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) speaks to IPS from the Africa Climate Risk Conference that was held in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa.
ADDIS ABABA, Oct 15 2019 (IPS)* – “Special reports come to address issues that need deeper understanding and deeper research,” Dr James Kairo, one of the lead authors of the ‘Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate,’ a special report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), told IPS.
The report focused on what would happen to oceans and cryosphere (frozen parts of our world) which include the polar and high mountains if temperatures increase beyond 1°C above pre-industrial levels to 1.5°C, and beyond.
Campaign highlights gross paradox of hunger and food waste
11 October (World Food Programme)* — World Food Day is marked on 16 October 2019 to shine a spotlight on the issue of global hunger. The figures are eye-watering: enough food to feed the world’s 7 billion people while one in nine people goes to bed hungry every night. Equally if not more damning, one-third of the food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted — amounting to about 1.3 billion tons per year.
A smallholder farmer in Masaka, in the south of Malawi. Photo: WFP/Badre Bahaji
Achieving Zero Hunger is not only about addressing hunger, but also nourishing people, while nurturing the planet. This year, World Food Day calls for action across sectors to make healthy and sustainable diets affordable and accessible to everyone. At the same time, it calls on everyone to start thinking about what we eat.*
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16 October 2019 (FAO)* — In recent decades, we have dramatically changed our diets and eating habits as a result of globalization, urbanization and income growth.
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We have moved from seasonal, mainly plant-based and fibre-rich dishes to diets that are high in refined starches, sugar, fats, salt, processed foods, meat and other animal-source products.
15 October 2016, Accra/Abuja (FAO)* – The celebration of the International Day of Rural Women provides the opportunity to celebrate rural women’s important roles in food production and processing, food security and nutrition and reduction of rural poverty.
Rome, 15 October 2019 (IFAD)* – A powerful short film featuring acclaimed poet Maya Angelou was launched today by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) on the International Day of Rural Women to raise awareness of the power and potential of rural women to help fight global hunger.
15 October 2019 (UN Women)* — This year on International Day of Rural Women (15 October), we’re celebrating the vital role that rural women play in climate action with a spotlight on “Rural women and girls building resilience” theme.
Photo: UN Women/Ryan Brown
As the world faces an increasingly critical need to address climate change, the important impact that rural women and girls have on building resilience is undeniable.
STOCKHOLM / ROME, Oct 11 2019 (IPS)* – Politics is a dodgy game, maybe even more so if you represent political views based on a moral approach. When the charismatic Justin Trudeau, son of a cosmopolitan liberal who served as Canada´s Prime Minister for 16 years, in 2015 was elected Prime Minister it was within a global political climate different from what it is today.
Barack Obama was in the White House, Angela Merkel served her third period as German Chancellor, and the UK Government had not yet announced its country’s withdrawal from the EU.
Nevertheless, Russia had three months before Trudeau´s election annexed Crimea, while Viktor Orbán´s Hungarian government the month before initiated the construction of a 4 metres high barrier along its nation´s eastern and southern borders to keep immigrants out.
Stress can produce conflict. For example shortages of food or water can lead to regional wars. But wars only make original problems worse. Today the world is facing a number of severe problems, and solidarity will be needed to minimize the suffering with which we and future generations are threatened.
John Scales Avery
The problems include shortages of fresh water, rising temperatures due to climate change, and food insecurity.
These problems are especially acute in the Middle East, a region that is already torn by bitter conflicts and wars.
In order to successfully minimize suffering, it is vital that peace be achieved in the Middle East. Let us look at some of the problems in detail:
Today it is in the news that 906,000 hectares have burned in the Amazon forests so far in 2019. It is in the news that an even larger –although harder to determine- number of hectares have burned this year in African forests and savannahs.
Prof. Howard Richards
The media often mention that the fires of 2019 continue an ominous trend. There has been worldwide a steadily increasing loss of vegetation to flames that has been accelerating for several decades. The feedback loop is negative. Less vegetation means less rainfall means less vegetation.
It is in the news that millions of people around the world –inspired by a Swedish teenager so honest that looking at a picture of her will cure a headache—have taken to the streets demanding that something must be done.
12 October 2019 (UN News)* — People across the world need to embrace “fundamental change” in order to combat climate change and meet the target of restricting the increase in global temperatures to 1.5 degrees Celsius, Claudio Forner, from UN Climate Change in Bonn, told UN News in an interview that took place following the Climate Action Summit.
He leads up the Ambition Team, which analyses the climate commitments made by countries, regions and cities across the world, which are vital to help slow down global warming.
Barack Obama was in the White House, Angela Merkel served her third period as German Chancellor, and the UK Government had not yet announced its country’s withdrawal from the EU.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 