Archive for ‘Mother Earth’

11/02/2021

Give Us Access to Tigray to Find Missing Refugees – Norwegian Refugee Council Pleas

Human Wrongs Watch

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UNITED NATIONS, Feb 11 2021 (IPS)* – The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) has called for unimpeded access to all parts of Ethiopia’s Tigray Region, to locate an estimated 20,000 unaccounted for refugees and assess damage to its Hitsaats Camp which was looted and set alight in early January.

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In Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region. Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) says that for three months Ethiopia’s Tigray Region has been completely blocked off from the world. The reports that have trickled out speak to extensive violence, extensive conflict and extensive impact on civilians, the humanitarian agency says. (File photo) Credit: James Jeffrey/IPS

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11/02/2021

East Asian Countries Led Economic Recovery in Last Quarter of 2020

Human Wrongs Watch

(UN News)* — Without the resilience of the economies of East Asia and the Pacific, there would have been no global trade recovery at the end of last year, UN analysts said on Wednesday [10 February 2021].

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UNCTAD/Jan Hoffmann | Shipping containers at a port in the Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe. (file)

“The recovery process has been uneven, with many countries lagging”, said UNCTAD economist Alessandro Nicita.

According to a new report from the agency, exports from East Asia grew about 12 per cent in the last quarter of 2020, while imports increased by around five per cent.

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10/02/2021

In Search for New Energy Direction

Human Wrongs Watch

By Aleksandra Pećinar*

Montenegro and Greece at the focal point of untapped oil and gas resources

Shallow water pipelay, Albanian waters
Shallow water pipelay, Albanian waters | Image from Wall Street International.

9 February 2021 (Wall Street International)* — The global economy, international geopolitics as well as intra-national security have hinged upon oil production capacity and petrol markets so thoroughly that this inseparability of oil economics and geopolitics makes them in fact two sides of a coin.

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09/02/2021

Can the United States be trusted on climate?

Human Wrongs Watch

By William Becker*

The United States is second only to China in the amount of carbon dioxide

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The Paris Agreement adopted by nearly every nation in 2015 to address climate change and its negative impacts
The Paris Agreement adopted by nearly every nation in 2015 to address climate change and its negative impacts | Image from Wall Street International.

9 February 2021 (Wall Street International)*  — One of the first things Joe Biden will do as President of the United States will be to revive U.S. participation in the Paris climate accord. Most other nations will be happy that “America is back”.

After all, the United States is second only to China in the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) it dumps into the atmosphere.

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09/02/2021

Creeping Corporate Statism, aka Fascism

By Ann Garrison | Black Agenda Report – TRANSCEND Media Service*

Despite depending on separate news media that purvey different realities, the two corporate parties both serve a corporate dictatorship.

When I look back to the beginning of Donald Trump’s presidency, four light years ago, the first image that comes to mind is that of Jimmy Dore’s conversation  with Glenn Greenwald about Congressmember Adam Schiff’s appearance on The Tucker Carlson show. Schiff is a Democrat representing California’s 28th District, and the military industrial complex
Northrop Grumman, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Raytheon are among his most generous campaign contributors.
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He voted against  banning armed forces in Libya without congressional approval, voted against  removing U.S. troops from Afghanistan, voted in favor  of the Iraq War, voted in favor  of arming moderate Syrian opposition rebels, and pushed  for the US to arm Ukrainian rebels.

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09/02/2021

The West vs the Global South: You Have the Numbers. We Have the Money

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UNITED NATIONS, Feb 9 2021 (IPS)* – When the 134-member Group of 77, the largest single coalition of developing countries, was trying to strike a hard bargain in its negotiations with Western nations years ago, one of its envoys famously declared: “You have the numbers. We have the money.”

When-Palestine_

When Palestine made history as Chair of the Group of 77 in 2019. The current chair is the Republic of Guinea. Credit: UN Photo/Manuel Elias

But that implicit threat– signifying the power of the purse– did not deter the G77 from playing a key role in helping shape the UN’s socio-economic agenda, including sustainable development, environmental protection, universal health care, South-South cooperation, eradication of extreme poverty and hunger—all of them culminating largely in the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted in 2015 and targeted for a 2030 deadline.

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09/02/2021

A Major Intrusion of Sand and Dust from the Sahara Transformed Skies and Landscape over Europe, with Far-Reaching Impacts for the Environment and Health

8 February 2021 (WMO)* — A major intrusion of sand and dust from the Sahara transformed skies and the landscape over Europe on the weekend of 6-7 February, with far-reaching impacts for the environment and health. It once again highlighted the importance of accurate forecasts and warnings of this transboundary hazard.

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jurasnow

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08/02/2021

‘Companies that Ignore Their Impact on the Environment Don’t Just Alienate Customers and Turn Off Investors…’ Ultimately They Face “Existential Challenges”

Survival of the greenest: businesses must reduce their footprint

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Photo credit: Georgina Smith/UNEP / 03 Feb 2021

8 February 2021 (UNEP)* — Companies that ignore their impact on the environment don’t just alienate customers and turn off investors. Ultimately, says a new business brief from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), they face “existential challenges”.

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08/02/2021

Heartbreaking Refugee Film Opens Human Rights Weekend 2021

Amsterdam,  8 February 2021 – Online only, free of charge, and streaming across the Netherlands. These are the unique features of the 9th edition of the Human Rights Weekend(February 12 to 14), 2021. All three documentaries are European or Dutch premieres and available on all days of the event, accompanied by various bonus content.

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© Pieter Scheltema for Human Rights Watch

The opening night, co-presented by De Balie, features a live event about refugee rights on Zoom and the Netherlands premiere of Mira Jargil’s documentary film Reunited, available from February 11  through February 14.

Reunited is the heartbreaking story of a family torn apart by the Syrian war and their attempts to navigate frustrating bureaucracies, living separately in Denmark, Canada, and Turkey.

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07/02/2021

Chicken Wings, Hunger and the Super Bowl

6 February 2021 (UN News)* —  The amount of money spent on food and beverages to enjoy, perhaps, the United States’ most high-profile annual sporting event, adds up to more than twice the global budget of the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP), according to the agency.

Unsplash/WFP | Americans spent more than $17 billion on 2020 Super Bowl parties.

WFP says Americans spent around $17 billion on food, drinks, party supplies and other paraphernalia to mark the 2020 Super Bowl, the flagship event of the American football season, and in the process consumed a stomach-churning 1.3 billion chicken wings and almost 900 million pints of beer.

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