'Unseen' News and Views – By Baher Kamal & The Like
I want to go back to girlish lands;
take me to a land soft of waters.(Gabriela Mistral)
24 April 2020 (Wall Street International)* — For 10 years, Chile has been facing what is already considered a mega drought or the worst drought in its history, covering six regions North and South of the capital, including Santiago.
22 March 2020 (World Water Day)* — Climate delay is almost as dangerous as climate denial. Every country in the world must work more quickly.
What do we mean when we say: ‘We cannot afford to wait. Climate policy makers must put water at the heart of action plans’?
Extreme weather events are making water more scarce, more unpredictable, more polluted or all three.
Humans need water to survive, as do all the systems we rely on: sanitation, healthcare, education, business and industry.
Action plans to tackle climate change need to be integrated across different sectors and coordinated across borders. And they must have one thing in common: safe and sustainable water management.
Water and Climte Change: What Do We Mean?
22 March 2020 (UN News)* — On World Water Day, the United Nations is calling on everyone to take action to save the planet and its water, with the launch of a flagship report that says reducing both the impacts and drivers of climate change will require major changes in the way we use and reuse the Earth’s limited water resources.
– Water is essential and indispensable for life on earth. We know that; and many of us have perhaps heard, written and uttered these words themselves a ‘million’ times.
Primary School students in Grenada are seen here working together to promote awareness on water conservation on World Water Day. Credit: Global Water Partnership
Therefore, I am astonished and increasingly worried about the relatively low-level of attention and priority accorded to water at the practical-political level.
1 February 2020 (UN Environment)* — A new global study sheds light on how interactions between specific characteristics of catchments, such as carbon and pollution, affect aquatic plant diversity and function in freshwater environments.
Photo by Lars L Iversen
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Photosynthesis in many aquatic plants relies on bicarbonate (HCO3−) in addition to carbon dioxide (CO2). The study investigates the link between the two and their impact on plant distribution.
30 January 2020 (UN Environment)* — World Wetlands Day marks the date of the adoption of the Convention on Wetlands on 2 February 1971 in the Iranian city of Ramsar on the shores of the Caspian Sea.
The 2020 theme for World Wetlands Day is an opportunity to highlight wetland biodiversity, its status, why it matters and to promote actions to reverse its loss.
– “They called me crazy” for fencing in the area where the cows went to drink water, said Elias Cardoso, on his 67-hectare farm in Extrema, a municipality 110 km from São Paulo, Brazil’s largest metropolis.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 