'Unseen' News and Views
(UN News)* — Malnutrition, disease, floods, droughts and displacement in Niger have put nearly three million people, more than half of them children, in need of humanitarian assistance, UNICEF on 19 February 2020 said, calling for increased attention to their plight.
19 February 2020 (UN News)* — The world’s survival depends on children being able to flourish, but no country is doing enough to give them a sustainable future, dozens of highly respected international health experts on 19 February 2020.
In a UN-backed report assessing the capacity of 180 countries to ensure that their youngsters can survive and thrive, the authors highlight numerous “immediate” threats to their health, environment and opportunities.
March to May is the main cropping season for many countries in Eastern Africa (most of Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, southern South Sudan, southern Ethiopia and southern Somalia).
The swarms of locusts, which have now spread to eight countries (Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia, Djibouti, Uganda, Tanzania, Sudan and Eritrea), have been laying eggs along their migratory paths. The eggs are expected to hatch between March and April, posing serious risks to the upcoming cropping season.
As climate and commercial threats intensify, WHO-UNICEF-Lancet Commission presses for radical rethink on child health
Credits: PAHO/WHO/Fernando Revilla
No single country is adequately protecting children’s health, their environment and their futures, finds a landmark report released today [19 February 2020] by a Commission of over 40 child and adolescent health experts from around the world.
Measures Proposed for the Sperm Whale and the Nut-Cracking Chimpanzee at UN Wildlife Conference
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Nut-cracking skills enable Chimpanzees to survive dry seasons in their western habitats © Tetsuro Matsuzawa Primate Research Institute, Kyoto
– When UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres addressed the 193-member General Assembly last December, he focused on the smoldering climate crisis– pointing out that the last five years have been the hottest ever recorded.
Ice caps are melting, he said, In Greenland alone, 179 billion tonnes of ice melted in July. Permafrost in the Arctic is thawing 70 years ahead of projections. Antarctica is melting three times as fast as a decade ago.
“Ocean levels are rising quicker than expected, putting some of our biggest and most economically important cities at risk.
– In an annual ritual early in the year, most major economic organizations have released forecasts for the global economy in 2020. Incredibly, almost as a reminder of where financial power resides in this day and age, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) released its forecasts at the World Economic Forum’s 50th annual meeting in Davos.
Anis Chowdhury
Although the IMF revised its global economic growth prognosis slightly downwards from its October 2019 forecast, it still offers the most optimistic prospect of 3.3% growth in 2020.
The World Bank’s forecast of 2.5% – identical to the United Nations (UN) estimate – is the lowest, with the OECD’s at 2.9%.
(UN News)* — Many animals – including birds, fish and mammals – migrate along set routes in search of food or breeding grounds. How best to protect them in a rapidly changing world is the focus of a major UN wildlife meeting which opened in Gandhinagar, India, on Monday [17 February 2020].
Gandhinagar, 18 February 2020 (CMS)* – a short film titled „You, come home when I am big“ depicting the hazardous first moments in the lives of turtle hatchlings has been produced to coincide with the CMS COP13.
A short film titled „You, come home when I am big“ depicts the hazardous first moments in the lives of turtle hatchlings
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 