Archive for May, 2020

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23/05/2020

Science Points to Causes of COVID-19

Human Wrongs Watch

22 May 2020 (UN Environment)* — Coronaviruses are transmitted between animals and humans. Many are relatively harmless – causing no more than a common cold. Others result in diseases that are new and unfamiliar, like the COVID-19 pandemic, and before that, outbreaks of diseases like Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome or SARS (2002); Avian Influenza or bird flu (2004); H1N1 or Swine  Flu (2009); Middle East Respiratory Syndrome or MERS (2012); Ebola (2014– 2015); Zika virus (2015–2016); and West Nile virus (2019).
michael-longmire-1327090-unsplash
Photo by Unsplash/ Michael Longmire

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23/05/2020

Enhancing Food Diversity in the Midst of a Climate Crisis

22 May 2020 (FAO)* — Throughout history 6 000 – 7 000 plant species have been cultivated for food. Yet today 40 percent of our daily calories come from just three crops: rice, wheat and maize.
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In Zimbabwe, introducing lost varieties of different crops and creating diversity has ensured more varied and nutritious diets. ©CTDT/ Tinashe Sithole

Humans depend on little more than 30 plant species, many of which are struggling in the face of today’s environmental changes.

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22/05/2020

Urgent Action Is Needed to Safeguard the Biodiversity of World’s Forests amid Alarming Rates of Deforestation and Degradation

Human Wrongs Watch

22 May 2020, Rome/Nairobi (FAO and UNEP)* – Urgent action is needed to safeguard the biodiversity of the world’s forests amid alarming rates of deforestation and degradation, according to the latest edition of The State of the World’s Forests released today [22 May 2020].

Photo: ©Ricky Martin/CIFORFishing in a forest lake at Gede Pangrango in Indonesia.

Published on the International Day for Biological Diversity (22 May), the report shows that the conservation of the world’s biodiversity is utterly dependent on the way in which we interact with and use the world’s forests.

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22/05/2020

Migrant Children Forcibly Returned from United States to Mexico and Central America Are Facing Danger and Discrimination Aggravated by COVID-19

Human Wrongs Watch

(UN News)* — Migrant children forcibly returned from the United States to Mexico and Central America are facing danger and discrimination aggravated by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

© UNICEF/Balam-ha Carrillo | A boy plays in a UNICEF-supported shelter in Tijuana, Mexico, where migrant children from Mexico and Central America are provided psychosocial support. (June 2019)
Returnees perceived to have the virus have been the target of violence and discrimination, while their reintegration is fraught with “major protection risks”, the agency reported on Thursday [21 May 2020].
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“For children on the move across the region, COVID-19 is making a bad situation even worse. Discrimination and attacks are now added to existing threats like gang violence that drove these children to leave in the first place”, said UNICEF chief Henrietta Fore.

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22/05/2020

Coronavirus Threatens Indigenous Venezuelans Seeking Safety in Brazil

Human Wrongs Watch

By Victoria Hugueney in Brasília and Felipe Irnaldo in Manaus, Brazil*

COVID-19 has hit the Brazilian Amazon particularly hard, exposing highly vulnerable native people from Venezuela to the potentially deadly disease. |  Español   |  Français   |  عربي

5ec393961a0Venezuelan indigenous Warao refugees and migrants are relocated to a safe space in Manaus, Brazil, amid the COVID-19 pandemic.© UNHCR/Felipe Irnaldo

Orlando Martínez had barely heard of COVID-19 when 26 members of his Warao ethnic group came down with tell-tale symptoms of the illness.

20 May 2020 (UNHCR)* — “At first they got a fever and couldn’t eat. Then, they got headaches and chest pains. Then, they started coughing and couldn’t walk,” recalled Orlando, a 43-year-old Warao community leader who fled hunger, violence and insecurity in Venezuela in 2017, along with some 18 other families from the indigenous group.

“They were very, very sick,” he said.

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22/05/2020

UN Migrants and Refugees Agencies Urge European States to Disembark Rescued Migrants and Refugees on Board the Captain Morgan Vessels

Human Wrongs Watch

Geneva, 21 May 2020 (IOM)* – The International Organization for Migration (IOM), and the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), are calling on Malta and other European States to speed efforts to bring some 160 rescued migrants and refugees, who remain at sea on board two Captain Morgan vessels, on to dry land and to safety.

mediterranean_sea_mohammed_muse_iomA separate group of 21 people, mostly families, women and children, were already evacuated and disembarked in Malta several days ago. It is important to disembark the remaining people as soon as possible, as they have been on board the vessel for some two weeks – the standard quarantine period for COVID-19 – without any clarity on disembarkation. It is unacceptable to leave people at sea longer than necessary, especially under difficult and unsuitable conditions.

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22/05/2020

Cyclone Amphan  – ‘We Didn’t Expect Devastation of Such a Scale’

By Stella Paul*

HYDERBAD, India, May 21 2020 (IPS)* – Amid the social distancing measures posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, coastal communities in Bangladesh and India face a double threat as the record-breaking Cyclone Amphan made landfall yesterday (May 20).

Jessore district in Bangladesh was one the coastal districts evacuated of nearly 2.4 million people and over half a million livestock ahead of Cyclone Amphan making landfall. Credit: Stella Paul

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22/05/2020

Cyclone Amphan’s Trail of Destruction in Bangladesh and India

21 May 2020 (UN News)* — UN humanitarians and partners are working hard to assist the people of Bangladesh and India suffering from the impact of Cyclone Amphan, which made landfall on Wednesday [20 May 2020], wreaking havoc, causing high tidal surges, flooding and embankments to collapse. 
WB State Inter Agency Group on Disaster Management. Cyclone Amphan made landfall in eastern India on Wednesday afternoon local time.
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“It is believed that around 10 million people in Bangladesh are impacted by the cyclone, with half a million families potentially having lost their homes”, UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric told reporters during a regular virtual briefing on Thursday, from New York.

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22/05/2020

My Earth Journey

Human Wrongs Watch

By Prof. Vandana Shiva | Jivad – TRANSCEND Media Service*

A message for International Day for Biological Diversity, 22 May 2020

We are Earth.
We are Biodiversity.
We are Jiva.
We are Conscious.
We are Alive.
We are Free.

We are members of one interconnected Earth Family : of sovereign, autonomous, self organised, interdependent, intelligent beings.

We are Biodiversity : interconnected to other beings through food and water, through breath and air, through life, and intelligence.

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21/05/2020

Biodiversity Loss Is a Loss for Humanity

Tiger in Kanha National Park, India
Tiger in Kanha National Park, India. The unrestricted exploitation of wildlife has led to the disappearance of many animal species at an alarming rate, destroying Earth’s biological diversity and upsetting the ecological balance. UN Photo/John Isaac
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Biological diversity resources are the pillars upon which we build civilizations. Fish provide 20 per cent of animal protein to about 3 billion people.
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Over 80 per cent of the human diet is provided by plants. As many as 80 per cent of people living in rural areas in developing countries rely on traditional plant‐based medicines for basic healthcare.

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