4 November 2020 (UN News)* — The UN climate change secretariat, UNFCCC, has underlined its commitment to work with stakeholders in the United States and beyond, to accelerate climate action, in line with an historic treaty on limiting global warming and curbing greenhouse gas emissions.
C40 Cities Finance Facility | Cycling avenues aim to shift urban infrastructure to sustainable, zero-emission transport.
.On Wednesday [4 November 2020], the US formally withdrew from the 2015 Paris Agreement on Climate Change, a decision originally announced three years ago.
(United Nations)* — Conflict and the environment are deeply interlinked. Around the world, at least 40 per cent of all intrastate conflicts have had an important natural resource dimension. Rising temperatures due to climate change now threaten to further amplify environmental stresses and tensions. And, all too often, the environment is among the casualties of war, through deliberate acts of destruction or collateral damage, or because, during conflicts, governments fail to control and manage natural resources.
A Nepalese peacekeeper with the African Union-UN Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID) plants a tree outside UNAMID Headquarters in El Fasher, Sudan. | PHOTO:UN Photo/Albert Gonzalez Farran
5 November 2020 (United Nations)* — Though humanity has always counted its war casualties in terms of dead and wounded soldiers and civilians, destroyed cities and livelihoods, the environment has often remained the unpublicized victim of war. Water wells have been polluted, crops torched, forests cut down, soils poisoned, and animals killed to gain military advantage.
I would like to announce the publication of a new book. It discusses the role of what might be called decision trees in science, in linguistics, in philosophy and literature, and in our daily lives. The book may be downloaded and circulated free of charge from the following link:
During each human life, a child starts with many possible destinations. He or she then makes decisions, and each decision more closely defines who the person is and what it is possible for the person to become.
(UNESCO)* — The Report is a unique mechanism within the UN system for monitoring the killings of journalists. It was first published in 2008, upon a Decision of the Intergovernmental Council of IPDC, which was renewed at subsequent sessions in 2010, 2012, 2014 and 2016.
2 November 2020 (UN News)* — Even though 2020 saw a “slight decrease” in the rate of impunity for crimes against journalists, 87 per cent of such cases worldwide were still not resolved, UNESCO, the UN agency tasked with defending press freedom, has reported.
.
.
UN Photo/Sylvain Liechti | According to UNESCO, journalism remains a dangerous profession, and in 2018-19, like in previous years, TV and local journalists were most vulnerable to violent attacks.
.
According to the Safety of Journalists and the Danger of Impunity, a report by the Director-General of UNESCO, only 13 per cent of cases globally involving crimes against journalists were reported “as resolved”, in comparison to 12 per cent in 2019, and 11 per cent in 2018.
“If we do not protect journalists, our ability to remain informed and make evidence-based decisions is severely hampered”, Secretary-General António Guterres spelled out in his message for the day.
And when they cannot safely do their jobs, “we lose an important defense against the pandemic of misinformation and disinformation that has spread online”, he added.
30 October 2020 (THE CONVERSATION)*— Growing up in the United States, I remember on Halloween my mother used to say, “Honey, this is not just a day for costumes and candy. You must also remember your relatives. Know their names.” She would show me pictures of great-aunts, uncles and other deceased relatives.
31 October 2020 — (Wall Street International)* — On September 4, 1970, at the height of the Cold War, an unprecedented page was written in the history of Chile and of the world’s left: For the first time, in a distant Third World country, but one with a solid democracy, a Marxist candidate supported by a left-wing coalition – the Unidad Popular (Popular Unity) – whose central axis were the socialist and communist parties, triumphed in the presidential elections.
Some Christian right groups have denied that coronavirus cases exist – while others have claimed the virus was deliberately made by China. Español.
A satirical poster of President Jair Bolsonaro saying COVID-19 ‘is just a flu’ in Brazil, where US-linked groups have also denied the virus exists. | Cris Faga/NurPhoto/PA Image
29 October 2020 (openDemocracy)* — Half a dozen US Christian right groups have poured millions of dollars into Latin America and have promoted misinformation about COVID-19 and other health and rights issues, openDemocracy can reveal today.