New UNEP report provides a guide to increase resource efficiency in cities through circularity, better connectivity, ecosystem restoration, among others.
If no action is taken, by 2050 cities in the LAC region will consume two to four times more resources over the limits of sustainability.
Panama, 13 December 2021 (UNEP)* – If a sustainable transformation is pursued within this decade, Latin American and Caribbean cities can halve their consumption of natural resources such as fossil fuels, minerals and food, while succeeding in the fight against poverty and inequality, according to a new report by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).
13 December 2021 (Wall Street International)* — Last month, I read a newspaper story that called the future of automobiles electric; and it quoted an electric vehicle (EV) owner who worries “only about replacing his tires, wiper blades and air filter.”
(UN News)*— The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) on Tuesday [7 December 2021]launched an appeal for a record $9.4 billion as attacks against children continue to rise. Close to 24,000 grave violations against youngsters were confirmed last year, or 72 violations a day, according to the agency, in its largest ever appeal for funding.
The appeal is 31 per cent larger than last year’s campaign, as humanitarian needs continue to grow globally, exacerbated by conflict, the climate crisis and now the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Millions of children around the world are suffering from the impacts of conflict, extreme weather events and the climate crisis,” said UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore.
(UN News)* — The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, said on Tuesday [7 December 2021] that the human rights situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory has become “disastrous”, with severe infringements occurring effecting some four million people.
MADRID, Dec 6 2021 (IPS) – ”All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.” These words are a sound introduction to the transcendental issue of human rights and equalities, as stated by the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).
The Declaration proclaims the “inalienable rights that everyone is entitled to as a human being – regardless of race, colour, religion, sex, language, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.”
(UN News)* — The UN’s top human rights official on Monday [6 December 2021]condemned the imprisonment of Myanmar’s State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi by a military-controlled court, and called for her release. She also faces additional charges of corruption and electoral fraud.
ICJ/Frank van Beek | Aung San Suu Kyi appears at the UN International Court of Justice (ICJ) on 10 December 2019.
.The development follows media reports that a military vehicle slammed into demonstrators in the city of Yangon over the weekend, leaving an unknown number injured and at least five dead.
A shift to wind energy is leaving a trail of destruction in Ecuador, with a brutal impact on Indigenous communities and fragile ecosystems | ESPAÑOL
An island on the Pastaza river seen from the community of Sharamentsa in the Ecuadorian Amazon | Francesc Badia i Dalmases
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1 December 2021 (openDemocracy)* — What has the destruction of balsa trees in the Ecuadorian Amazon rainforest got to do with the wind power industry in Europe?
Thanksgiving is the quintessential American holiday, in which exceptionalism and selective amnesia are celebrated. The sick fairy tale obscures the violent foundations of a settler colonial nation.
United American Indians of New England | Photo: Facebook
Tomorrow, in homes across the country, millions of people will cluster around dinner tables and say an obligatory prayer of thanks that they were born free and white in America. They will then stuff their faces with piles of bland food and wash it all down with too much beer and occasional shots of whiskey.
Bulawayo, ZIMBABWE , Dec 1 2021 (IPS)* – Millet could be Africa’s silver bullet for combating anaemia – and apart from health benefits, it is climate-resilient.
Supermarkets stock both millet and sorghum products, but these are often ignored. Now research has shown the crops have health benefits and are climate resilient. Credit: Ignatius Banda/IPS
(UN News)* — Lack of opportunities, gangs, organized crime, the ravages of the pandemic and climate change, have triggered the displacement of nearly one million people in Mexico and Central America in recent years.
UNICEF/César Amador | Asylum seekers, including children, at the Matamoros camp awaiting their US immigration hearings in Mexico
To deal with the problem more effectively, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees called on Thursday [2 December 2021] for a new mechanism that could operate across the whole region, to deal with what is now an unprecedented displacement crisis.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 