9 JUNE 2022 (UNEP)* — A prolonged and deadly heatwave has hit large swaths of India and Pakistan affecting hundreds of millions of people and sparking food and energy shortages. Experts say the extreme heat is a grim preview of what the climate crisis has in store for a region home to over 1 billion people.
Reuters/Ajay Verma
Temperatures in India’s capital and parts of Pakistan have at times reached close to 50°C, killing dozens of people in both countries and upending the daily lives and livelihoods of students, labourers, and farmers.
9 June 2022 (UNEP)* — The harmful chemicals released from plastic products throughout their entire life cycle can pose a serious risk to humans and the environment, particularly when waste is not properly managed, finding its way to air, water and soils.
Photo: Unsplash
Global cumulative plastic production is predicted to reach 34,000 million tonnes between 1950 and 2050.
MADRID, Jun 7 2022 (IPS)* – Imagine a patient connected to a vital oxygen device to keep him or her breathing, thus alive. Then, imagine what would happen if this patient unplugged it. This is exactly what humans have been doing with the source of at least 50% of the whole Planet’s oxygen: the oceans.
The ocean produces 50% of the planet’s oxygen, absorbs 30% of carbon dioxide produced by humans, buffering the impacts of global warming, and is the main source of protein for a billion people around the world. Credit: IPS
But oceans do not only provide half of all the oxygen needed. They also absorb about 30% of carbon dioxide produced by humans, buffering the impacts of global warming while alleviating its consequences on human health and that of all natural resources. Continue reading →
SAN FRANCISCO, USA, Jun 1 2022 (IPS)* – New outcries for gun control have followed the horrible tragedies of mass shootings in Uvalde and Buffalo. “Evil came to that elementary school classroom in Texas, to that grocery store in New York, to far too many places where innocents have died,” President Biden declared over the weekend during a university commencement address.
(By UN News)* — Safe food is one of the most critical guarantors for good health, the UN said on Tuesday [7 June 2022] – the fourth global World Food Safety Day – aiming to mobilize action for preventing, detecting and managing foodborne risks and improving human health.
.Benefits of safe food for well-being include improved nutrition and reduced absenteeism in schools and in the workplace.
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), only when food is safe can we fully benefit from its nutritional value and from the mental and social benefits of sharing a safe meal.
“Unsafe foods are the cause of many diseases and contribute to other poor health conditions, such as impaired growth and development, micronutrient deficiencies, noncommunicable or communicable diseases and mental illness,” said FAO.
(By UN News)* — Ending the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory, and discrimination against Palestinians, is essential to stopping the decades-long conflict between the two sides, a new UN independent human rights body said on Tuesday [7 June 2022].
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Photo/Ryan Rodrick Beiler | The Separation Wall in the occupied Palestinian Territory and behind it an Israeli settlements.
The Commission said occupation and discrimination are the key root causes of the recurrent tensions, instability, and drawn out nature of the conflict in the region.
The “high seas”. For the uninitiated, a mere mention of the phrase throws up images of a vast never-ending expanse of pristine blue waters. But in reality, we know this vast expanse is far from pristine – threatened as it is by a toxic cocktail of climate change, plastic pollution, and the potential threat of deep-sea mining.
MADRID, Jun 6 2022 (IPS)* – Now it comes to another ‘crime’ being stealthy committed as a consequence of the unrelenting business obsession for making more and more money.
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Illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing takes advantage of corrupt administrations and exploits weak management regimes, in particular those of developing countries lacking the capacity and resources for effective monitoring, control, and surveillance. Credit: Desmond Brown/IPS
It is about the illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, a practice that threatens marine biodiversity, livelihoods, exacerbates poverty, and augments food insecurity.
Humanitarian and peace-loving people take seriously the oft repeated vows of “never again” to atrocities committed leading up to and during WWII.
The lack of widespread outcry was thus disheartening when the US Congress uncritically approved unprecedented amounts–$54 billion since March–of military aid to Ukraine, dangerously escalating hostilities in a country with a troubling track record of condoning Nazism and ruthless persecution of its sizable Russian speaking population.
I define Nazism as an authoritarian ideology exerting tight control over a chosen population, deemed inherently superior, while dehumanizing and condoning the exclusion, abuse and extermination of people belonging to undesirable groups.
It facilitates extreme concentration of wealth and power by keeping working people divided, rewarding loyalty in useful players among the chosen and blaming any social ills on the undesirables.
MADRID, Jun 3 2022 (IPS)* – In a previous article, IPS reported on some of UNICEF’s key findings about the harsh impacts on the world’s children –and the whole Planet Earth– of the excessive consumption by mostly rich countries.
If everyone were to consume resources at the rate at which people in the United States, Canada and Luxembourg do, at least five Earths would be needed. Credit: Emilio Godoy / IPS
One of these is that if everyone were to consume resources at the rate at which people in the United States, Canada and Luxembourg do, at least five Earths would be needed.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 