24/04/2021

Small Family Farmers Produce a Third of the World’s Food

Human Wrongs Watch

New FAO research focuses on contributions of farmers with fewer than two hectares

Photo: ©FAO/Cristina Aldehuela

A farmer in Ghana.

ROME, 23 April 2021 (FAO)* – The world’s smallholder farmers produce around a third of the world’s food, according to detailed new research by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

Five of every six farms in the world consist of less than two hectares, operate only around 12 percent of all agricultural land, and produce roughly 35 percent of the world’s food, according to a study published in World Development.

Smallholders’ contributions to food supply varies enormously between countries, with the share as high as 80 percent in China and in the low single-digits for Brazil and Nigeria.

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23/04/2021

Agro-Industry Surrounds Xingu Indigenous Territory

Human Wrongs Watch

Impacts of grain crop cultivation spill into Brazil’s oldest indigenous reserve as farmers work with tribes to restore degraded land

The peoples of the Xingu say agricultural activity beyond the borders of their territory has impacted fish populations (image: Alamy)

Watatakalu Yawalapiti is 40 years old. She was born in the Amakapuku village, surrounded by a large preserved forest in the heart of Brazil. She spent part of her childhood on the white sands and clear waters of the Tuatuari river.

At other times, she would sit in a circle listening to her great-grandfather telling stories, like the one about how the white man would arrive with a huge blade and cut down the trees as one shaves one’s body hair.

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23/04/2021

‘Weather-Related Crises Have Triggered more than Twice as Much Displacement as Conflict and Violence in the Last Decade’

Human Wrongs Watch

Climate change link to displacement of most vulnerable is clear: UNHCR

© UNHCR/Xavier Bourgois | Refugees in Minawao, in northeastern Cameroon, plant trees in a region which has been deforested due to climate change and human activity.

(UN News)* — Weather-related crises have triggered more than twice as much displacement as conflict and violence in the last decade, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said on 22 April 2021.

Coinciding with Earth Day on Thursday 22 April, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, UNHCR, published data showing how disasters linked to climate change likely worsen poverty, hunger and access to natural resources, stoking instability and violence.

23/04/2021

‘Past Decade Was the Hottest on Record, and We Continue to See Rising Sea-Levels, Scorching Temperatures, Devastating Tropical Cyclones and Epic Wildfires…’ 

Human Wrongs Watch

The planet’s on ‘red alert’ UN chief warns leaders at President Biden’s climate summit

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NOAA/Jerry Penry | Scientists believe that climate change is causing an increase in extreme weather events.
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(UN News)* — World leaders must act now and put the planet on a green path because “we are at the verge of the abyss”, UN Secretary-General António Guterres on 22 April 2021 said in his address to the virtual climate summit convened by United States President Joseph Biden.

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22/04/2021

Ocean Benefits Increasingly Undermined by Human Activity

Human Wrongs Watch

Coral Reef Image Bank/Michele Roux | A turtle swims in the ocean in Martinique in the Caribbean.

The second World Ocean Assessment (WOA II) is the work of hundreds of scientists from across the globe and follows an initial report published in 2015.

It warns that many benefits the ocean provides are increasingly being undermined by human actions, the UN chief said, describing the findings as alarming.

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22/04/2021

‘People Aren’t Starving, They Are Being Starved’: Humanitarian Agencies Issue Joint Call for Funds to Avert Famine

Human Wrongs Watch

By Peyvand Khorsandi*

International Council of Voluntary Agencies rallies Oxfam, Save the Children and 258 other organizations after World Food Programme’s warning on increasing levels of hunger

Woman_Mozambique
Mozambique: Displaced people receive assistance in Mueda in Cabo Delgado having escaped the violence in Palma. Photo: WFP/Shelley Thakral

20 April 2021 (WFP)* — Humanitarian agencies around the world have joined forces to warn that rising hunger levels are going to lead to famines unless urgent action is taken. 

Oxfam, Save the Children and the International Red Cross are among 260 signatories to an open letter on famine prevention led by the International Council of Voluntary Agencies (ICVA).

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22/04/2021

As Biden Plans Withdrawal, Analysis Shows Afghan War Cost At Least 241,000 Lives and $2.26 Trillion

Human Wrongs Watch

By Jessica Corbett | Common Dreams – TRANSCEND Media Service*

“Ending the war as soon as possible is the only rational and humane thing to do,” said a co-director of the Costs of War Project.

Since the 2001 U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, the war has cost trillions of dollars and nearly a quarter-million lives. (Photo: Veronique de Viguerie/Edit by Getty Images)

In the wake of President Joe Biden’s announcement that he plans to withdraw all regular U.S. combat troops from Afghanistan by this year’s anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks, experts at the Costs of War Project on Friday released an update on what nearly two decades of war has cost in both dollars and human lives.

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22/04/2021

‘Our Planet Is at a Tipping Point’

A girl with a mask drawn with as a sky.
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22/04/2021

When Mother Earth Sends Us a Message

Child planting a plant in a plastic bottle as a pot.

A young child participates in a plant workshop organized by UNDP Peru and FAO in Ayacucho, Peru. | PHOTO:UNDP Peru
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Climate change, man-made changes to nature as well as crimes that disrupt biodiversity, such as deforestation, land-use change, intensified agriculture and livestock production or the growing illegal wildlife trade, can increase contact and the transmission of infectious diseases from animals to humans (zoonotic diseases) like COVID-19.
20/04/2021

Climate Change Indicators and Impacts Worsened in 2020

New York/Geneva, 19 April 2021 (WMO)* – Extreme weather combined with COVID-19 in a double blow for millions of people in 2020.

However, the pandemic-related economic slowdown failed to put a brake on climate change drivers and accelerating impacts, according to a new report compiled by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and an extensive network of partners.

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