7 January 2025 (UNEP)* —In the unusually hot summer of 2016, a bacterium that causes anthrax killed more than 2,500 reindeer in Siberia’s remote Yamal Peninsula, according to one study.
Credit: AFP/Olivier Morin
Normally locked deep in a layer of permanently frozen land, or permafrost, the once-dormant pathogen eventually spread to humans, claiming the life of a 12-year-old boy and causing dozens of others to fall ill.
Some researchers believe the outbreak is a sign of things to come. As climate change rapidly warms the Artic, scientists say it could unleash a wave of potentially deadly microbes that for centuries have been trapped in ice.
(UN News)* — The General Assembly wrapped up the main part of its 79th session on Tuesday [], approving a $3.72 billion budget for the United Nations for 2025 and adopting a new programme to support landlocked developing countries.
UN Photo/Loey Felipe | A view of the UN Headquarters, in New York.
Credit: Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNOHCR)
UNITED NATIONS, Dec 20 2024 (IPS)* – The United States, long described as a country built largely by immigrants, is planning to clamp down on migrants, refugees and asylum seekers entering the country—which averaged about 2.4 million in 2022-2023, according to the US Congressional Budget Office.
The incoming Trump administration is calling for “mass deportations” of mostly illegal aliens and undocumented workers.
MADRID, Dec 20 2024 (IPS)* – Perhaps demographers would consider designing a new classification system to separate from their estimates of the world’s total population –eight billion plus– the billion humans who live without legal identity and, thus, are deprived from the most basic rights.
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The IOM estimates that one billion people live without legal identity, limiting their access to vital services and restricting their mobility. Credit: Shutterstock
The one billion figure seems to fall short if you consider that there are at least 150 million unregistered births.
(UN News)* —The UN Secretary-General on Thursday [] urged the Security Council to act decisively to establish international guardrails for artificial intelligence (AI), warning that delays could heighten risks to global peace and security.
UNMAS/Martine Perret | Advances in artificial intelligence offer potential to detect landmines and unexploded ordnance, but misuse of this technology could pose significant risks to society.
Addressing ministers and ambassadors, António Guterres warned that rapid developments in AI are outpacing humanity’s ability to govern it, raising important questions about accountability, equality, safety and human oversight in decision-making.
RIYADH & HYDERABAD, Dec 17 2024 (IPS)* – The 16th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD COP 16) concluded early hours of Saturday with a renewed focus on building drought resilience globally.
COP16 in Riyadh launched a drought resilience initiative, which also saw contributions of over USD 12 billion for land restoration and drought resilience. Credit: IISD/ENB
However, the COP also failed to agree on bringing a legally binding drought protocol.
MADRID, Dec 17 2024 (IPS)* – Planet Earth is drying up, relentlessly. Over three-quarters of all lands have become permanently drier in the last three decades. This is not jut a statistic but a stark scientific fact. But while such an ‘existential crisis’ affects nearly every region, guess where -and who- are the most hit?
“Without concerted efforts, billions face a future marked by hunger, displacement, and economic decline.” Credit: Desmond Brown/IPS
They are the 1.35 billion humans living in Asia’s drylands, that’s more than half the global total. And they are the 620 millions people who inhabit Africa’s drylands, e.g. nearly half of the continent’s population.
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Dec 17 2024 (IPS)* –– The new geopolitics after the first Cold War undermines peace, sustainability, and human development. Hegemonic priorities continue to threaten humanity’s well-being and prospects for progress.
Jomo Kwame Sundaram
End of first Cold War The end of the first Cold War has been interpreted in various ways, most commonly as a US triumph.
Francis Fukuyama famously proclaimed the ‘end of history’ with the victory of capitalism and liberal democracy.
With the collapse of the Soviet Union and allied regimes, the US seemed unchallenged and unchallengeable in the new ‘unipolar’ world. The influential US journal Foreign Affairs termed ensuing US foreign policy ‘sovereigntist’.
SAN SALVADOR, Dec 10 2024 (IPS)* –Metal mining has a renewed momentum in Central America, encouraged by populist rulers who, in order to soften environmental damage, claim they can develop it in harmony with nature, which is hard to believe. | En español
Representatives of a dozen environmental organisations, united in the Roundtable Against Metal Mining in El Salvador, speak out against Salvadoran president Nayib Bukele’s goal to reopen this industry, banned by law since 2017. Credit: Roundtable Against Metal Mining in El Salvador
Thus, they seek to win the approval of a majority that seems to follow them blindly, but not environmentalists or other social sectors, activists told IPS.
MADRID, Dec 11 2024 (IPS)* – The available data is self-explanatory: business-prompted human activities have already altered over 70% of the Earth’s lands, with 24 billion tonnes of fertile soil lost due to industrial agriculture, the excessive use of chemicals, overgrazing, deforestation, pollution and other major threats.
Human activity has degraded over 70% of Earth’s land, with 24 billion tonnes of fertile soil lost annually. It takes up to 1,000 years to produce just 2-3 cm of soil. Credit: Busani Bafana/IPS
Credit: AFP/Olivier Morin
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