'Unseen' News and Views
(UN News)* — A “polar vortex” was responsible for the freezing conditions in the US state of Texas last month, UN weather experts said on Tuesday 9 March 2021, before warning of a worrying increase in global carbon dioxide levels.
New data tool offers detailed insights covering role of land use, agriculture, refrigeration, packaging and more, providing critical guidance for holistic mitigation efforts
ROME, 9 March 2021 (FAO)* — The world’s food systems are responsible for more than one-third of global anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, according to a pioneering new study published in Nature Food.
Younger women among those most at risk
(WHO)* — Violence against women remains devastatingly pervasive and starts alarmingly young, shows new data from WHO and partners. Across their lifetime, 1 in 3 women, around 736 million, are subjected to physical or sexual violence by an intimate partner or sexual violence from a non-partner – a number that has remained largely unchanged over the past decade.
A woman in Aden, Yemen prepares food at a settlement for people who have fled their homes due to insecurity. Credit: UNOCHA/Giles Clarke
But rarely, if ever, has the world denounced the primary arms merchants, including the US and UK, for the more than 100,000 killings since 2015– despite accusations of “war crimes” by human rights organizations.
The killings are due mostly to air strikes on weddings, funerals, private homes, villages and schools. Additionally, over 130,000 have died resulting largely from war-related shortages of food and medical care.
In March 2015, Bill Gates showed an image of the coronavirus during a TED Talkand told the audience that it was what the greatest catastrophe of our time would look like. The real threat to life, he said, is “not missiles, but microbes.” When the coronavirus pandemic swept over the earth like a tsunami five years later, he revived the war language, describing the pandemic as “a world war.”
“The coronavirus pandemic pits all of humanity against the virus,” he said.
In fact, the pandemic is not a war. The pandemic is a consequence of war. A war against life. The mechanical mind connected to the money machine of extraction has created the illusion of humans as separate from nature, and nature as dead, inert raw material to be exploited.
But, in fact, we are part of the biome. And we are part of the virome. The biome and the virome are us. When we wage war on the biodiversity of our forests, our farms and in our guts, we wage war on ourselves.
March 2021 (WHO)* — Over 5% of the world’s population – or 430 million people – require rehabilitation to address their ‘disabling’ hearing loss (432 million adults and 34 million children). It is estimated that by 2050 over 700 million people – or one in every ten people – will have disabling hearing loss.
Nurse Carol Sinkende treating Memory Chisenga, 3, for a severe ear infection at the Lukomba Rural Health Centre in Kapiri Mposhii District, Zambia.
‘Disabling’ hearing loss refers to hearing loss greater than 35 decibels (dB) in the better hearing ear. Nearly 80% of people with disabling hearing loss live in low- and middle-income countries. The prevalence of hearing loss increases with age, among those older than 60 years, over 25% are affected by disabling hearing loss.
Geneva (WHO)* — Nearly 2.5 billion people worldwide ─ or 1 in 4 people ─ will be living with some degree of hearing loss by 2050, warns the World Health Organization’s (WHO) first World Report on Hearing, released on . At least 700 million of these people will require access to ear and hearing care and other rehabilitation services unless action is taken. |
When climate change dried up their livelihoods — literally — a group of women backed by the World Food Programme turned a traditional craft into a business
(WFP)* — “It is a beautiful river — it used to be very large, it had fish, but now the water’s gone down so much,” says Elba. Years of recurring droughts and an erratic climate have taken their toll on the Torola, which courses through the department of Morazán, in eastern El Salvador.
8 March 2021 (UN News)* — In Nigeria, where nearly three out of 10 Nigerian women have experienced physical violence by age 15, human rights lawyer Rashidat Mohammed fights for the rights of women, children and other vulnerable groups.
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Refugee Rosemary Kariuki has been recognized as Australia’s 2021 ‘Local Hero’ for her work helping other displaced women overcome isolation and gender violence.
Rosemary Kariuki, who came to Australia as a refugee from Kenya two decades ago, at her home in Western Sydney. © UNHCR/Brook Mitchell
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 