'Unseen' News and Views – By Baher Kamal & The Like
22 May 2021 (WMO)* — New observations show that the increase in Arctic average surface temperature between 1979 and 2019 was three times higher than the global average during this period – higher than previously reported – according to the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP).
22 May 2021 (FAO)* — Humans rely on a shockingly low number of plants for the majority of our daily calories. In fact, of the thousands of fruit and vegetable species cultivated for food, fewer than 200 make up a substantial part of food produced globally.
Thousands of plant species and varieties that fed our ancestors are already extinct, and we are losing more every day. Diversity is our food’s life insurance. ©FAO/Luis Tato
Everyone will lose unless humanity makes ‘peace with the planet’ – UN Chief.
(UN News)* — Humanity is “waging a war on nature”, threatening biodiversity loss, climate disruption and escalating pollution, the UN chief on 21 May 2021 said.
“We will all be losers if we don’t achieve peace with the planet”, Secretary-General António Guterres told a webinar ahead of the International Day for Biological Diversity, commemorated annually on 22 May. “We should all be advocates for nature”, he said.
New international expert panel to address the emergence and spread of zoonotic diseases
Geneva/Paris/Rome/Nairobi, 20 May 2021 (UNEP)* – International organizations have come together to launch a new One Health High-Level Expert Panel to improve understanding of how diseases with the potential to trigger pandemics, emerge and spread.
