'Unseen' News and Views
– Now it comes to the scary water crises, as it is estimated that, globally, over two billion people live in countries that experience high water stress.
Up to four billion people – over half the population of the planet – are already facing severe water stress for at least one month of the year, while half a billion suffer from permanent water stress. Credit: Jeffrey Moyo/IPS
The Threat of a Large-Scale Global Famine by the Middle of the 21st Century
John Scales Avery
Unless efforts are made to stabilize and ultimately reduce global population, there is a serious threat that climate change, population growth, and the end of the fossil fuel era could combine to produce a large-scale famine by the middle of the 21st century.
As glaciers melt in the Himalayas and the Andes, depriving India, China and South America of summer water supplies; as sea levels rise, drowning fertile rice-growing regions of Southeast Asia; as droughts reduce the food production of North America and Southern Europe; as groundwater levels fall in China, India, the Middle East and the United States; and as high-yield modern agriculture becomes less possible because fossil fuel inputs are lacking, the 800 million people who are currently undernourished may not survive at all.
22 December 2021 (Wall Street International)* — At the beginning of October 2021, the ICIJ (International Consortium of Investigative Journalists) published the Pandora Papers – leaked data on how the world’s very rich hide their wealth in tax havens. The practice is perfectly legal, but less so when it is used to avoid or evade tax.
In both cases, it is money that remains hidden, and not only skews the statistics – according to Tax Justice between $20–30 trillion US dollars remain hidden from the tax authorities – but also causes financial problems for national governments.
Credit: UNHCRAlready seven years ago, a former director general of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), William Lacy Swing, estimated that the number of climate migrants and refugees could reach one billion humans by the year 2050.
By Kenny Stancil | Common Dreams – TRANSCEND Media Service*
West Antarctica’s massive Thwaites Glacier is often called “one of the world’s most dangerous glaciers” because of its potential contributions to sea level rise. (Photo: James Yungel/NASA)
“What we’re seeing is already enough to be worried about,” said one researcher.
The ice shelf holding back one of Antarctica’s most perilous glaciers is eroding from below due to higher ocean temperatures, prompting scientists to warn today that this key reinforcement could shatter in the next three to five years—a development that would threaten millions of people with intensifying sea level rise.
Methane is the primary contributor to the formation of ground-level ozone, a hazardous air pollutant and greenhouse gas, exposure to which causes 1 million premature deaths every year.
Approximately 281 million people were international migrants in 2020, representing 3.6 per cent of the global population.
Panama, 13 December 2021 (UNEP)* – If a sustainable transformation is pursued within this decade, Latin American and Caribbean cities can halve their consumption of natural resources such as fossil fuels, minerals and food, while succeeding in the fight against poverty and inequality, according to a new report by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).
13 December 2021 (Wall Street International)* — Last month, I read a newspaper story that called the future of automobiles electric; and it quoted an electric vehicle (EV) owner who worries “only about replacing his tires, wiper blades and air filter.”
Oh, dear.
(UN News)* — The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) on Tuesday [7 December 2021] launched an appeal for a record $9.4 billion as attacks against children continue to rise. Close to 24,000 grave violations against youngsters were confirmed last year, or 72 violations a day, according to the agency, in its largest ever appeal for funding.
The appeal is 31 per cent larger than last year’s campaign, as humanitarian needs continue to grow globally, exacerbated by conflict, the climate crisis and now the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Millions of children around the world are suffering from the impacts of conflict, extreme weather events and the climate crisis,” said UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 