MADRID, Oct 28 2021 (IPS)* – Can yet another dispendious world gathering find a way to halt the ongoing suicidal war on Nature, which is leading to the destruction of all sources of life?
More than 6,000 plant species have been cultivated for food. Now, fewer than 200 make major contributions to food production globally, regionally or nationally. A sea of soy is seen near the city of Porto Nacional, on the right bank of the Tocantins River, Brazil. Credit: Mario Osava/IPS
The answer appears to be a bold “no” in view of the business-oriented practices, which deplete biodiversity, pollute the oceans, rise sea levels, cause record temperatures, provoke deadly droughts and floods, and push millions to flee their homes as climate refugees, in addition to more millions of conflict and poverty displaced humans.
(UN News)* — Vulnerable countries are stepping up and taking climate action, amid a slow response from some of the biggest emitters of carbon dioxide, said the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) on Thursday [28 October 2021].
UNDP Timor-Leste | Communities in Timor-Leste are helping to restore mangrove forests.
In a new analysis, released ahead of the COP26 climate negotiations, the agency said that 93 per cent of least developed countries (LDCs) and small island developing States (SIDS) have submitted enhanced national climate plans (NDCs), or plan to do so.
MADRID, Oct 25 2021 (IPS)* – Hadn’t it been so worrisome, it would be ironic to hear that humanity is to mark theWorld Disarmament Week (Oct 24 to 30, 2021) barely six months after learning that the world’s biggest military powers had spent last year some 2,000,000,000,000 US dollars on killing machines.
World military spending rose to almost two trillion dollars in 2020, an increase of 2.6 percent in real terms from 2019. Credit: UN Photo/Rick Bajornas
And that the world’s nuclear arms arsenal is stuffed with some 150 atomic weapons, hundreds of which can be launched in just minutes.
Regenerating Biodiversity in our farms, forests, and our Gut Microbiome for Zero Hunger and Good – Health for All
Mother Earth is self-organised. Mother Earth has created and sustained Diversity.
The web of life is a web of diversity woven through the flow of Nutrition.
Colonialism transformed Mother Earth, Vasundhara, Pachmama , Terra Madre, into Terra Nullius, the empty earth. Our living, bountiful earth, rich in Biodiversity and Cultural Diversity was reduced to an empty earth.
People of the colonised lands were denied their humanity to justify the appropriation of the their lands, their homes, their resources.
The Biodiversity of the earth disappeared in the minds of men who reduced the earth to private property to be owned, and raw material to be extracted.
25 October 2021 (UN News)* — A group of UN human rights experts have condemned the United States of America’s recent and ongoing systematic mass deportation of Haitian migrants and refugees, declaring them a violation of international law.
IFRC | Haiti remains one of poorest countries in the world, where many people are forced to live from handouts from humanitarian agencies.
According to their analysis, US policies have also deterred Haitians from pursuing protection including asylum claims and forced them to return to other countries, “where they face an atmosphere of racial discrimination, gender violence and xenophobic violence”, said a news release issued on behalf of the experts, on Monday 25 October 2021.
One of the lingering effects of the food price crisis of 2007-08 on the world food system is the proliferating acquisition of farmland in developing countries by other countries seeking to ensure their food supplies. Credit: Bigstock
MADRID, Oct 22 2021 (IPS)* – “Imagine that the land your family has worked for generations is suddenly stripped away from you, purchased by wealthy companies or governments to produce food or bio-fuels or simply as a profitable investment for other people, often far away. You watch on helplessly as vast tracts of land are cleared for mono-culture crops and rivers are polluted with run-off and chemicals.”
NAIROBI, Oct 21 2021 (IPS)* – In a time when the world’s scientific community sounds louder, and stronger than ever, the alarm about the fast growing climate crisis and its destructive impacts, governments still plan to produce more than double the amount of fossil fuels in 2030.
The world’s governments plan to produce around 110% more fossil fuels in 2030 than would be consistent with limiting warming to 1.5°C, and 45% more than consistent with 2°C. Credit: Bigstock
Rather than looking to ‘save’ others, we should aim to dismantle the hatred and exploitation of those who reject property and national borders
A mural by Eduardo Kobra in Rio de Janeiro | Donatas Dabravolskas/Alamy Stock Photo.
17 October 2021 (openDemocracy)* — It is commonplace in Brazil for people or institutions to make a symbolic gesture towards an Indigenous community, and then frame it as a major advance for their rights.
PORTLAND, USA, Oct 18 2021 (IPS)* – Probably no country is more closely associated with the hamburger than the United States. It’s fair to say that the hamburger is the country’s culinary icon. It’s the most popular fast food consumed and readily available from coast to coast.
Will the United States and the other major meat consuming countries choose to significantly reduce their beef consumption and move to plant-based diets as part of measures to address climate change, environmental degradation and biodiversity loss? Credit: Bigstock
15 October 2021 (FAO)*— An agri-food system is a complex term that may seem far from your reality, but do you know our lives depend on them? Every time you eat, you participate in the system. The food we choose and the way we produce, prepare, cook and store it make us an integral and active part of the way in which an agri-food system works.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 