'Unseen' News and Views – By Baher Kamal & The Like
ROME (FAO)* – Unlocking the potential of agricultural innovations, be it simple solutions or satellite-based technologies, will help prevent a drought from turning into famine and forced displacement and to reverse desertification, FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva on 17 June 2019 said.
17 June 2019 – Some 2.2 billion people around the world do not have safely-managed drinking water, while 4.2 billion go without safe sanitation services and three billion lack basic handwashing facilities, according to a new report from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organization (WHO).
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“Mere access is not enough” said UNICEF’s Kelly Ann Naylor, Associate Director of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH). “If the water isn’t clean, isn’t safe to drink or is far away, and if toilet access is unsafe or limited, then we’re not delivering for the world’s children”.
By the year 2050, there will be some 9.7 billion people living on Earth, says a UN population report released on 17 June 2019. However, the overall growth rate will continue to fall, and more countries will have to adapt to the consequences of an ageing population.
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Trump and His Party Must Be Defeated
There are so many things wrong with Donald Trump that one hardly knows where to begin. He is a racist, habitual liar, tax evader, cruel cager of infants, misogynist, narcissist, bully, violator of numerous laws, both national and international, a friend of rich oligarchs and enemy of the poor, to mention only a few of his faults. He has made the United States resemble Germany, Italy or Spain in the 1930’s, when fascism was on the rise.
Pershing Square, Los Angeles, United States | Photo by Samantha Sophia @samanthabroxton | Unsplash
– The coming decades will be crucial in shaping and implementing a transformative land agenda, according to a scientist at the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) framework for Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN).
On all continents you have the issue of land degradation, and it requires governments, land users and all different communities in a country to be part of the solution. Credit: Albert Oppong-Ansah /IPS
Yet another under-reported human-made disaster: the relentless desertification of Planet Earth that may make uninhabitable some regions like the Middle East, endanger food security, aggravate climate crisis, and force more and more millions of people to flee.
Unsplash/Photo by Brad Helmink@booradley1234
But before listing the main causes and consequences of this mounting threat, you should know that, according to the UN, desertification does not refer to the expansion of deserts, but rather the degradation of land in arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas, primarily as a result of human activities and climatic variations.
Traditional indigenous attire of a Mayan woman from the Quiche region of Guatemala. UN Photo/John Olsson
But the focus on these populations has been limited, leaving them forgotten and marginalized as they continue to be disproportionately affected by climate change.
The disappearance of farmlands and unreliability of crops due to climate change have led families to experience increased food and economic insecurity—that have forced some of them to migrate.
“In general, we can say that the majority of rural migrants are poor people, but often not the poorest, because the latter cannot afford the significant costs of these journeys,” Ricardo Rapallo, Senior Food Security Officer at the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), told IPS.
This Sunday [16 June 2019] marks the second International Day of Family Remittances, observed every year on 16 June, in recognition of the fundamental contribution of migrant workers to their families and communities back home.
Nairobi, 15 June 2019 (UN Environment)* – Danish economist and environmentalist Inger Andersen today took up her new role as Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme, promising to prioritize greater action on climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution during her four-year tenure.
Inger Andersen
Ms. Andersen was nominated for the post by United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres and approved by the General Assembly in February 2019.
“I am proud and excited to begin work at the UN Environment Programme in beautiful Kenya at a critical time for humanity,” said Ms. Andersen.
“Good environmental stewardship has never been more important. Climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution in all its forms pose a clear and present danger to human and planetary health, and to prosperity.
There is something in the air. I am not talking about pollution or greenhouse gas emissions. I am talking about the change humanity needs to address these and other environmental challenges, which have placed our planet and societies in imminent peril.
Inger Andersen
We can all sense this change: in our workplaces and schools, in our cities and communities, in the boardroom and in the media, in parliaments and city councils, in laboratories and business incubators.
People from all corners of the world are demanding a fundamental redesign of how we – as individuals and as a society – interact with the planet.
