By Baher Kamal & The Like
RRice / shutterstock | Image from The Conversation.
We developed a new prediction system we call PROCAST (PRO abilistic fore CAST), and used it to predict the natural variability of the climate system. This refers to how the climate varies naturally from warm to cool phases that last a few years at a time, and is separate from the long-term trend of anthropogenic global warming. PROCAST predicts a warm phase for the next few years.
20 August, 2018 (UN Women)* – Aleeza Hafeez from Sailkot, one of Pakistan’s most industrialized areas, has her own income for the first time. Knowing her own rights and an enabling environment at the workplace made it possible for her to work and grow as a professional. The project has changed family dynamics too. Now, Hafeez’s father includes her when making family decisions, a role previously reserved for male members.
Aleeza Hafeez Photo: Baidarie/Gohar Zama
“My father, for as long as I can remember, was working day and night for us, but still his income was not sufficient to make our ends meet.
My siblings are all younger than me. I wanted to help my father in meeting our household needs.
As I started looking for jobs, I was unsure that I would get one, because I had no work experience.
But as they say, ‘When there is a will, there is a way.’
Princes and lords may flourish, or may fade;
A breath can make them, as a breath has made;
But a bold peasantry, their country’s pride,
When once destroyed, can never be supplied
— Oliver Goldsmith, The Deserted Village
A Nepali farmer |
20 Aug 2018 – Small farmers are the key to ending poverty and hunger and promoting sustainable development.
20 August 2018 – With conflict raging in northwest Syria, the United Nations health agency has appealed for $11 million to provide life-saving care to parts of Aleppo, Hama, Idleb and Lattakia governorates.
Tokyo/Geneva, (ICRC)* – Speaking on 20 August 2018 at a meeting of parties to the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) in Tokyo, Japan, Dr Helen Durham, Head of Law and Policy for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), highlighted ICRC’s concerns with the growing gap between words and actions in the global trade of arms.
Video from ICRC.
“The very purpose of the Treaty is to prioritize humanitarian interests and, in doing so, to reduce human suffering,” said Dr Durham, “Yet we are concerned by the growing gap between States’ absolute commitments to human rights and international humanitarian law – in the Treaty and elsewhere – and how arms are transferred in practice.”
SANLIURFA, Turkey, 17 August 2018 (UNFPA)* – “My husband was very strict,” Gemila*, a 28-year-old Syrian refugee, told UNFPA. “He wanted to crush people.”
Gemila had been married off, despite her protests, at age 17. A few years into her tumultuous marriage, the conflict in Syria forced their family to flee to Iraq.
Eventually, the couple decided to separate. Gemila’s husband promised to give her custody of their son in exchange for all of her savings – but then he disappeared with both.
Cox’s Bazar, 17 August 2018 (IOM)* – A major environmental project to provide around 250,000 families with liquid petroleum gas (LPG) stoves and gas cylinders has been launched by UN agencies and the government in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, to help prevent further deforestation linked to the Rohingya refugee crisis.
UN agencies and Bangladesh government launch alternative fuel project in Cox’s Bazar to help reduce deforestation linked to Rohingya crisis. Photos: Patrick Shepherd FAO/IOM
International Orangutan Day on 19 August coincides with the start of the International Primatological Society Congress in Nairobi, Kenya, and is a much-needed reminder that orangutans’ survival hangs in the balance.
16 August 2018 (UN Environment)* — There are three species of orangutan in the world and they are only found on two islands in Southeast Asia – Sumatra and Borneo. All three species are critically endangered.
Last year saw the amazing discovery of a new species, the Tapanuli orangutan. This is the eighth great ape species known to exist on Earth.
However, the Tapanuli orangutan faces extinction, threatened by plans to build a huge hydroelectric power dam in Batang Toru, North Sumatra.
19 August 2018 (Sputnik)* – In one of his latest tweets, President Donald Trump has announced that the United States has halted the “ridiculous” 230-million-dollar annual payment to Syria.
“Saudi Arabia and other rich countries in the Middle East will start making payments instead of the US,” Trump tweeted, signaling his readiness to develop the country’s military.
