'Unseen' News and Views
15 October 2020 (UN Environment)* — Industrialized farming has been a reliable way to produce lots of food, at a relatively low cost. But it’s not the bargain it was once believed to be. Unsustainable agriculture can pollute water, air and soil; is a source of greenhouse gas; and destroys wildlife – an environmental cost equivalent to about US$3 trillion every year.
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UN Photo/Fred Noy / 15 Oct 2020
The use of chemicals and antimicrobials can have adverse health effects and lead to resistant infections. And to top it all off, our production and consumption habits have been linked to the emergence of zoonotic diseases, such as COVID-19.
16 October 2020 (FAO)* — In India, a grassroots movement focused on agroecological farming is spreading fast. Beginning in the southern state of Karnataka, the natural farming methods were adopted first by tens, then hundreds and now hundreds of thousands of farmers across India. So, what’s so special about it?
Amid the Covid-19 pandemic and a projected rise in extreme poverty, a team of scientists says the world can no longer afford to overlook the role of forests and trees in poverty eradication.
– With extreme poverty (living on $1.90 a day) projected to rise for the first time in over 20 years, a new study has concluded that global poverty eradication efforts could be futile in the absence of forests and trees.
Social protection coverage in Asia and the Pacific ‘riddled with gaps’
(United Nations)* — In a world characterized by an unprecedented level of economic development, technological means and financial resources, that millions of persons are living in extreme poverty is a moral outrage.
Poverty is not solely an economic issue, but rather a multidimensional phenomenon that encompasses a lack of both income and the basic capabilities to live in dignity.
Addressing poverty eradication last week, just ahead of the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty on October 17, UN chief António Guterres warned that the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic are falling “disproportionately on the most vulnerable: people living in poverty, the working poor, women and children, persons with disabilities, and other marginalized groups”.
Twelve-year-old boy in Dhaka, capital of Bangladesh, sorts through hazardous plastic waste without any protection, working to support his family amidst the coronavirus lockdown. Credit: UNICEF/Parvez Ahmad
14 October 2020 (UN News)* — UN agencies in Myanmar have expressed ‘sadness’ and ‘shock’ over the killing of two boys, allegedly used as human shields by security forces in the country’s northern Rakhine province, earlier this month.
The US is a hopelessly divided, and dysfunctional country
14 October2020 (Other News)* — Let’s take a look at the American elections which at this moment are important not only for the United States but also for the entire world. The American electoral system is a little known but disastrous system. It is also the most anti-democratic you can imagine.
Roberto Savio
This system is incomprehensible for a modern society but it is untouchable in the United States.
There are 50 states and each state has two senators. California has 39 million inhabitants and two senators. Wyoming has 850,000 inhabitants but also two senators.
Currently there are 47 Democratic senators (therefore 53 are Republicans) who obtained 17 million more votes than the Republicans. So the Republicans have the majority of seats despite having obtained 17 million fewer votes.
14 October 2020 (United Nations)* — Women and girls are disadvantaged in this pandemic, a problem aggravated in rural areas. Rural women, with a crucial role in agriculture, food security and nutrition, already face struggles in their daily lives.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 