Archive for July 23rd, 2021

23/07/2021

Crunch Time: Plants Are Making a Comeback

Human Wrongs Watch

22 July 2021 (UNEP)* — For the last half-century, money and meat have been a package deal: Across the globe, as wealth increases, so does consumption of animal-based foods. And by 2050, the demand for animal-based foods could increase by as much as 70 per cent.

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Unsplash/Scott Warman / 21 Jul 2021
23/07/2021

The Face of Resilience in Afghanistan

Human Wrongs Watch

Improved wheat cultivation is helping to make food insecurity one less worry for Afghan farmers

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With funding from Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF), FAO supported Khialy Gul (pictured above) and 37 200 smallholder farmers across Afghanistan with emergency wheat cultivation packages and cash transfers so they could meet their food and other basic needs. ©FAO/Farshad Usyan

22 July 2021 (FAO)* — Beads of sweat run down through the wrinkles of Khialy Gul’s forehead. He is harvesting his wheat field today in Nawju village in the Nangarhar province of eastern Afghanistan.

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23/07/2021

Whither the Washington Consensus?

Human Wrongs Watch

By Francine S. R. Mestrum*

Supposedly increased social protections may just be new words for old policies.

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Children in India’s slums | Image from Wall Street International.
22 July 2021 (Wall Street International)*John Williamson passed away on 21 April 2021. He was the economist who neatly outlined and named the ‘Washington Consensus’, the policies the World Bank, the IMF, the US Federal Reserve Board and the US Treasury agreed to impose on debt-ridden countries of Latin America.

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23/07/2021

Six Things You Can Do to Bring Back Mangroves

Human Wrongs Watch

23 July 2021 (UNEP)* — Don’t be fooled by their modest appearance: mangroves are important players in some of the greatest challenges facing the world today. They provide a defense between land and sea, absorb carbon, contribute to economic and food security, and are home to some of the most rare and colourful species.

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Photo credit: Tracey Jennings/Ocean Image Bank / 23 Jul 2021

23/07/2021

Oil, Acid, Plastic: Inside the Shipping Disaster Gripping Sri Lanka

Human Wrongs Watch

22 July 2021 (UNEP)* — It’s visible in satellite images from just off Sri Lanka’s coast: a thin grey film that snakes three kilometres out to sea before disappearing into the waves.

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Wikipedia.org/Isuruhetti / 22 Jul 2021

This, experts say, is fuel oil leaking from the X-Press Pearl, a Singapore-flagged cargo ship that caught fire and sank off Sri Lanka’s western coast last month.

The slick is a visceral reminder of what observers say is a slow-motion environmental disaster – one of the worst in the country’s history – and of the mammoth effort that will be needed to clean it up.

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23/07/2021

Water-Related Hazards Dominate List of 10 Most Destructive Disasters – World Meteorological Organization