MADRID, Jun 7 2022 (IPS)* – Imagine a patient connected to a vital oxygen device to keep him or her breathing, thus alive. Then, imagine what would happen if this patient unplugged it. This is exactly what humans have been doing with the source of at least 50% of the whole Planet’s oxygen: the oceans.
The ocean produces 50% of the planet’s oxygen, absorbs 30% of carbon dioxide produced by humans, buffering the impacts of global warming, and is the main source of protein for a billion people around the world. Credit: IPS
But oceans do not only provide half of all the oxygen needed. They also absorb about 30% of carbon dioxide produced by humans, buffering the impacts of global warming while alleviating its consequences on human health and that of all natural resources.
(By UN News)* — Safe food is one of the most critical guarantors for good health, the UN said on Tuesday [7 June 2022] – the fourth global World Food Safety Day – aiming to mobilize action for preventing, detecting and managing foodborne risks and improving human health.
.Benefits of safe food for well-being include improved nutrition and reduced absenteeism in schools and in the workplace.
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), only when food is safe can we fully benefit from its nutritional value and from the mental and social benefits of sharing a safe meal.
“Unsafe foods are the cause of many diseases and contribute to other poor health conditions, such as impaired growth and development, micronutrient deficiencies, noncommunicable or communicable diseases and mental illness,” said FAO.
The “high seas”. For the uninitiated, a mere mention of the phrase throws up images of a vast never-ending expanse of pristine blue waters. But in reality, we know this vast expanse is far from pristine – threatened as it is by a toxic cocktail of climate change, plastic pollution, and the potential threat of deep-sea mining.
MADRID, Jun 6 2022 (IPS)* – Now it comes to another ‘crime’ being stealthy committed as a consequence of the unrelenting business obsession for making more and more money.
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Illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing takes advantage of corrupt administrations and exploits weak management regimes, in particular those of developing countries lacking the capacity and resources for effective monitoring, control, and surveillance. Credit: Desmond Brown/IPS
It is about the illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, a practice that threatens marine biodiversity, livelihoods, exacerbates poverty, and augments food insecurity.
Humanitarian and peace-loving people take seriously the oft repeated vows of “never again” to atrocities committed leading up to and during WWII.
The lack of widespread outcry was thus disheartening when the US Congress uncritically approved unprecedented amounts–$54 billion since March–of military aid to Ukraine, dangerously escalating hostilities in a country with a troubling track record of condoning Nazism and ruthless persecution of its sizable Russian speaking population.
I define Nazism as an authoritarian ideology exerting tight control over a chosen population, deemed inherently superior, while dehumanizing and condoning the exclusion, abuse and extermination of people belonging to undesirable groups.
It facilitates extreme concentration of wealth and power by keeping working people divided, rewarding loyalty in useful players among the chosen and blaming any social ills on the undesirables.
MADRID, Jun 3 2022 (IPS)* – In a previous article, IPS reported on some of UNICEF’s key findings about the harsh impacts on the world’s children –and the whole Planet Earth– of the excessive consumption by mostly rich countries.
If everyone were to consume resources at the rate at which people in the United States, Canada and Luxembourg do, at least five Earths would be needed. Credit: Emilio Godoy / IPS
One of these is that if everyone were to consume resources at the rate at which people in the United States, Canada and Luxembourg do, at least five Earths would be needed.
MADRID, Jun 2 2022 (IPS)* – As an introduction to this year’s World Environment Day on 5 June, this report deals with how the excesses of the world’s population, mostly in the wealthiest countries, are causing so much harm to Planet Earth.
The world population is already using the equivalent of 1.6 Earths to maintain the current way of life. Credit: Mario Osava/IPS
For this purpose, the following account of some of the major facts and figures that the world’s largest multinational body–the United Nations Organisation– has been successively providing, should be enough to complete the picture.
(Greenpeace International)* — We know that oil companies hid knowledge of global heating for decades, but the captains of petroleum also schemed to turn the ecological crisis into a profit centre. The industry devised a plan to swindle money from the public purse by pretending to address the climate issue while using subsidies to increase oil production. If one had no moral compass, one might say their scam was a stroke of genius.
From unimaginable habitat loss to heartbreaking species extinctions, it shouldn’t be a surprise to any of us that our biodiversity – the variety of life in the world – continues to suffer from human greed, exploitation, encroachment, and neglect – putting short-term profit above all else. All life on this planet interacts and interconnects. All life relies on the biodiversity that surrounds it to thrive and survive.
This article shows how media uses computer modeling and “virtual crime scenes” to assign blame for some extremely important international events.
Protesters at a Managua roadblock, 30 May 2018. SITU Research
In these examples from Nicaragua, Ukraine and Syria, many people died in complex circumstances. The deaths at the “Mother’s March” in Managua, Nicaragua precipitated an attempted coup. The Maidan Massacre in Kyiv led to an actual coup. The claims of a chemical attack in Douma led to the US, France and the UK bombing Syria.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 