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Climate Action
Pakistn recupera su verdor
La provincia pakistaní de Khyber Pakhtunkhwa situada a unos 50 kilómetros de la capital Islamabad se ha cubierto de árboles estos últimos años. El paisaje se ha transformado al mismo tiempo que cambiaba la sociedad. La lucha contra el recalentamiento del clima y el combate contra la pobreza forman parte de la misma estrategia.
Gran angular: Filosofía y ética del cambio climático
La humanidad está en deuda. Año tras año consume más recursos de los que la naturaleza puede proporcionar. Este consumo excesivo tiene un efecto directo sobre el clima. Para comprender mejor la problemática en juego el biólogo y filósofo Bernard Feltz esclarece las complejas relaciones entre el hombre y la naturaleza al tiempo que se centra en los aspectos éticos de la gestión del cambio climático.
Nuestro invitado: Bakú, ciudad multicultural
Con una antigüedad de varios milenios la ciudad amurallada de Bakú capital de Azerbaiyán guarda huellas de la presencia de mazdeístas sasánidas árabes persas sirvaníes otomanos y rusos. La ciudad moderna nacida del primer boom del petróleo a fines del siglo XIX y principios del XX conserva un patrimonio cultural igualmente ecléctico. Gracias a su bahía y a la proximidad de las rutas de las caravanas Bakú siempre ha estado surcada por diversas corrientes. Esa característica la ha dotado de una diversidad a la vez armoniosa y excepcional que se refleja tanto en su arquitectura como en su espíritu cosmopolita.
Arshak Makichyan, piquetero solitario
Todos los viernes desde marzo de 2019 Arshak Makichyan ha manifestado solo en la plaza Pushkin de Moscú la capital de Rusia. En sus pancartas se leen consignas como “El calentamiento global es igual al hambre las guerras y la muerte”. Este joven violinista libra una batalla solitaria y tenaz en nombre de todo el planeta.
Making gold greener?
Poorly regulated gold mining is spreading around the world. Every day millions of artisanal and small-scale gold miners work extremely hard in often poor conditions and without the protective framework of formal labour market standards. By evening the vast majority have harvested only miniscule amounts of gold if anything at all. But the economic incentives are still attractive. Since ancient times gold has continuously been used as a source of long-term investment and it has now found its way into modern technologies and industry including computers cell phones and medical equipment. Global financial turmoil has helped more than double the price of an ounce of gold from $500 to well over $1000 over the past decade. Many poor people in rural areas have shifted their attention from agriculture to mining as a source of livelihood.
Matters of judgement
An independent judiciary in a political and legal system that values integrity and transparency is vital in addressing environmental degradation and in upholding the environmental rule of law worldwide. In an urban planning case at the National High Court of Brazil the court stated a view that I believe to be true in all areas of environmental law.
Ethical business works best
Forty-four years ago my parents joined the Government of Malaysia's settler programme administered by the Federal Land Development Authority (FELDA) a decision that has had a big influence on my life right up to today.
Blood gold
Day or night? It makes no difference in the Amazon gold rush. The clatter of the hundreds of engines that pump water in search of the precious metal never stops. By day enormous trucks move the earth where forests once stood; by night the soil is washed with hundreds of cubic metres of water to extract the gold. Informal mining camps extend into Peru Colombia Bolivia and Brazil destroying the most biodiverse ecosystems in the world and poisoning the land inhabited by hundreds of indigenous peoples with mercury. Huge tracts of tropical rainforest have become graveyards for trees drenched in the toxic metal.
Delivering on the mission
“No matter how minuscule or how vast only protection will make them last. We need to help the ones that can't help themselves because they become extinct so fast.”
Good connections
In 2012 I was invited to join a safari at the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy in Kenya. Lion prides cheetah coalitions and herds of buffalo and giraffes walk freely there. Majestic African elephants also roam the conservancy’s terrain but in far smaller numbers than they once did.
Prosecute climate crimes
Criminal justice can help achieve the objectives of the Paris Agreement on climate change as part of an integrated approach from governments private businesses finance science civil society and others.
Clearing the air
Ninety-eight per cent of cities with more than 100000 inhabitants in low and middle income countries do not meet World Health Organization (WHO) air quality guidelines concludes the WHO Global Urban Ambient Air Pollution Database 2016 update. In high-income countries however that percentage decreases to 56 per cent. In South Asia air pollution is especially acute in such countries as China Indonesia and India requiring State authorities to take immediate action to safeguard the health of their citizens. Long-term health effects include respiratory diseases like lung cancer and even damage to the brain and an increased risk of heart disease. A WHO study estimated that about 12.6 million deaths in the year 2012 could be linked to an unhealthy environment. India's Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act 1981 defines air pollution as “the presence in the atmosphere of any air pollutant” and an air pollutant as “any solid liquid or gaseous substance including noise present in the atmosphere in such concentration as may be or tend to be injurious to human beings or other living creatures or plants or property or environment.”
Colonel: We must act quickly!
Apathetic and soporific. These words describe the state of public opinion and the media’s attitude to climate change according to French-Danish conceptual artist Thierry Geoffroy alias Colonel. Little by little his slogans – that wavered between “Before it’s too late” and “Tomorrow is too late” – were reduced to a simple “Too late”. Paradoxically it is in despair that he finds some consolation.
Defining moment
We stand at a defining moment for the future of the planet and human well-being. Our global commons – the land seas and atmosphere we share and the ecosystems they host – are under severe threat from ever more powerful human activities.
Current Affairs: Mandela’s South Africa: Reality or distant dream?
Twenty-five years after attaining democracy South Africa has taken giant strides towards forging a united nation. But overcoming racism and realizing Nelson Mandela’s vision of a nation that belongs to all who live in it remains a wonderful ideal – which still requires a lot of work according to Justice Jody Kollapen. Both an arbitrator and a victim of racist cases (he was refused a haircut as recently as in October 2003!) this human rights defender maintains that there is enough goodwill to build on Mandela’s vision.
Climate change: A new subject for the law
More and more citizens and nongovernmental organizations around the world are going to court to seek climate change justice. The unprecedented extent of these disputes deserves to be highlighted. This relatively recent type of litigation is forging public opinion and constitutes a form of pressure on states and industries that is forcing them out of their inertia.
Pakistan: Green again
A billion trees have been planted in recent years in the Pakistani province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa about fifty kilometres from Islamabad the country’s capital. The landscape has been transformed and so has society. The fight against global warming and the fight against poverty are one and the same.
蒂埃里•若弗鲁瓦: 我们必须立刻行动!
Climate and social justice
There is a tendency in the public debate on climate change to present the use and development of green technologies as a miracle solution or panacea. We often forget one aspect: it is crucial to ensure that their development goes hand in hand with social justice. “The realization that it is not just global warming that we are dealing with but global warming in an unequal and unjust world has yet to sink in” according to Thiagarajan Jayaraman. Without equality and equity – in other words without peace and security – we cannot effectively fight climate change the Indian climate policy expert insists.
Managing the global commons
Here’s a prediction: planetary intelligence could emerge on Earth by 2050. “Hold on” you might say “that has emerged already right? Homo Sapiens.” No. What we have is a technologically advanced civilization. There is a subtle difference.
Hope from the hills
Kenya's Chyulu Hills host not just rich wildlife and beautiful landscapes but a groundbreaking partnership to conserve biodiversity and combat climate change between its people and the Maasai Wilderness Conservation Trust.
Greening cities
Climate change is the greatest threat facing our planet. The leaders of the world’s great cities recognize that fact and are taking urgent action. But mayors need strong allies to deliver the transformations needed to create sustainable green cities of the future. There is no greater partner for our campaign to save the planet than the Global Environment Facility.
The Global Environment Facility Partnership
影像: 裔年,阿拉伯未来的 锑埴者
Climate change and education
Educating on climate change and sustainable development issues is a necessity. In Latin America there are some promising experiments being carried out that deserve to be replicated both in the entire region and on other continents. There are some aspects however that are being neglected.
时事: 曼徳拉的南非: 是现实,还是遥远的梦想?
The Global Environment Facility at work. Oyster openings
Life can be hard in The Gambia – and even harder for the women who harvest oysters a local delicacy and key source of protein in the West African country’s swamps and wetlands.
Being accountable
The Global Environment Facility is a knowledge-based organization in which evaluation is central to accountability results and learning. For it to be truly useful it must respond to changes both in the external landscape in which the Facility operates and in internal modus operandi. During the Facility’s 7th Replenishment process the Independent Evaluation Office is completing its sixth Comprehensive Evaluation under the theme ‘the Global Environment Facility in the Changing Landscape of Environmental Finance’. All such replenishments have been accompanied by an overall performance study and as previously the purpose of the Comprehensive Evaluation is to provide solid evaluative evidence to inform the negotiations gauging the results and impact of the Facility’s work through a wide mix of methodologies. The Office is pioneering state-of-the-art geospatial methods that allow us to measure environmental change over longer periods of time both before and after project implementation and to compare project sites with matched control locations.
Rescuing rainforests
Maps of the Brazilian Amazon in 2000 and 2010 show unmistakable signs of dramatic change. Indigenous lands and several categories of protected areas now occupy millions of hectares forming a consolidated landscape of conservation. But it might not have been so.
Zoom: Arab youth: Architects of their future
French photographer Yan Bighetti de Flogny was in Pakistan when in the course of a conversation with a hotel owner he learned of the existence of Ibn Battuta the fourteenth-century Moroccan explorer. Unfairly little-known Ibn Battuta is “perhaps the greatest traveller who has ever lived” as an article in the Courier of August- September 1981 tells us.
AI innovations to counter social challenges
Artificial intelligence (AI) is being harnessed to tackle two of the most challenging problems today – the flagrant proliferation of fake news and the increasing invasion of individual privacy. Factmata which uses AI to fight disinformation and D-ID which protects identities from facial recognition systems using AI were two of the ten winners of the 2019 Netexplo awards presented at UNESCO Headquarters in April.
The Global Environment Facility at work. Grandma’s secret
The textile industry has long been an important employer in Mauritius. It is hard work with many women combining domestic responsibilities with long days in the factories just to feed their families. So when factories began to close in the 1990s many found themselves struggling to survive.
Ideas: A tale of two futures
Is artificial intelligence (AI) on the verge of becoming completely autonomous? The answer will depend on us alone. It is up to us to define the future of humanity in harmony with this technological tool that we sometimes perceive as a terrifying monster.
Global action is needed
There is no doubt that science is increasingly expanding our knowledge of the problem of environmental degradation (including our role in it) and the extent to which it affects our ability to continually improve our living conditions.
Wide angle: The philosophical and ethical issues of climate change
Humanity is in a state of debit. Year after year it consumes more resources than nature can provide. This over-consumption has a direct effect on the climate. To better understand the issues at stake the Belgian philosopher and biologist Bernard Feltz sheds light on the complex relationships between humans and nature and then focuses on the ethical aspects of climate change management.
Only connect
Sustainable development is thirty years old. It was born in 1987 with the release of the “Our Common Future” report which declared: “Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”
Reflections
More than just a financial mechanism or a partnership agreement the Global Environment Facility sits at the very heart of global action to protect and restore our environment. This edition of Our Planet looks at the work of the Facility which for more than a quarter century has driven catalytic change enabling progress on the world’s most pressing environmental challenges.
Zero carbon, starting with cities!
Non-state actors with cities at the forefront must be the first to sow the seeds of a carbon-free society. To avoid the nightmare of climate change we must reduce our carbon emissions further than called for by the Paris Agreement of 2015. This requires coordinated actions at the international level and concrete initiatives such as electric transport the decarbonization of housing and a large-scale transition of energy.
Environmental champion
Inna Modja is promoting the building of a wall across a continent one that is designed to provide hope and bring people together. The Malian singer is starring in a documentary on the 8000-kilometre Great Green Wall of trees and vegetation now being established across the width of Africa to combat desertification and restore land. She calls it a “world wonder” and says it has “great symbolism” that “extends far beyond the African continent”.
Elements of change
The Global Environment Facility was created to protect the global commons and funds projects to address climate change biodiversity loss land degradation sustainable forestry international waters and chemicals in more than 170 countries. Since 1991 it has provided $17.6 billion in grants and mobilized an additional $88.6 billion in financing for more than 4453 projects.
Time to act
The Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro Brazil in 1992 was an historic moment for our planet producing the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Convention on Biological Diversity in addition to the Rio Declaration. Bhutan under the far-sighted leadership of our monarchs was one of the early countries to welcome and support both agreements to help tackle the world's most pressing environmental problems. In the same year the Bhutan Trust Fund for Environmental Conservation was established with contributions from the Global Environment Facility World Wildlife Fund Norway Switzerland Denmark Finland the Netherlands and the Royal of Government of Bhutan. It was the world's first environmental trust fund.
Maximizing value
Many may think us an unlikely pair – a conservative Republican Representative from Nebraska in the heartland of America and a progressive Democratic Senator from Rhode Island the Ocean State. However we have come together as Co-Chairs in the United States Congressional International Conservation Caucus because we share a conviction that good natural resource management is fundamental to building a strong economy bolstering national security and protecting public health.
Global challenges
Since the Global Environment Facility was established more than 25 years ago the global dimension of environmental challenges has become increasingly evident. Scientists tell us that our 'planetary boundaries' the biophysical processes that determine the stability and resilience of the Earth are being pushed to their limit or overstepped with high risks of severely jeopardizing the very base that has allowed our societies to thrive over the past 10000 years. Especially in developing countries environmental degradation is imperiling if not sweeping away development achievements.
L’écologie du recyclage
Bien que n’étant pas à l’avant–garde des solutions climatiques le recyclage des déchets des eaux usées et de l’énergie gaspillée est un moyen efficace disponible localement pour réduire les gaz à effet de serre. L’un de ces gaz le méthane issu des sites d’enfouissement et des eaux usées représente environ 90 % des émissions de gaz à effet de serre dans le secteur des déchets. Selon le Groupe d’experts intergouvernemental sur l’évolution du climat1 18 % des émissions de méthane sont imputables aux activités humaines dans le monde et environ 3 % aux émissions mondiales de gaz à effet de serre. Le détournement des déchets des sites d’enfouissement et leur utilisation est donc un moyen évident et avéré de conserver les terres et les ressources comme nous le savions depuis longtemps. Nous pouvons désormais ajouter aux nombreuses études que ces pratiques améliorent également la protection de l’environnement.
Surveiller le changement climatique de l’espace
Pendant des siècles les communautés rurales des hauts plateaux des Andes ont utilisé l’eau produite par la fonte des glaciers de cette étonnante chaîne de montagnes. Or le recul de ces glaciers force les populations à modifier leurs moyens de subsistance et à chercher des façons de s’adapter. Dans une perspective plus vaste la fonte des glaciers est une image emblématique du réchauffement climatique pour les plus grandes villes des Andes qui dépendent des glaciers pour leur approvisionnement en eau potable. Malheureusement pour ces populations la source de ce problème particulier et les solutions possibles résident loin de leur sphère d’influence du fait que les actions locales contribuent très peu à résoudre ce problème.
Dans le contexte des changements climatiques
Les changements climatiques sont l’un des plus grands défis du XXIe siècle. Leurs effets varient selon les régions les générations l’âge les classes sociales les groupes de revenus et les sexes. D’après les résultats du Groupe d’experts intergouvernemental sur l’évolution du climat (giec) il est clair que les populations qui sont déjà les plus vulnérables et les plus marginalisées seront les plus touchées. Il est probable que les pauvres principalement dans les pays en développement seront touchés de manière disproportionnée et auront donc le plus besoin de stratégies d’adaptation pour faire face aux changements climatiques. Tant les hommes que les femmes qui travaillent dans le secteur des ressources naturelles comme l’agriculture en ressentiront les effets mais à des degrés divers. Il est de plus en plus évident que les femmes sont plus vulnérables que les hommes en grande partie parce qu’elles représentent la majorité des pauvres dans le monde et dépendent davantage des ressources naturelles menacées. La différence entre les hommes et les femmes est également notable en ce qui concerne leurs rôles leurs responsabilités la prise de décisions l’accès à la terre et aux ressources naturelles les opportunités et les besoins. Dans le monde entier les femmes ont moins accès que les hommes aux ressources telles que la terre les crédits les intrants agricoles les structures de prise de décision la technologie la formation et les services de vulgarisation qui renforceraient leurs capacités à s’adapter aux changements climatiques.
Beyond carbon markets
The headlines generated by the carbon trading mechanisms at the heart of the Kyoto Protocol most notably the Clean Development Mechanism (cdm) tell a story of a scheme in trouble. But why has it caused such controversy?
La sécurité humaine, les changements climatiques et les femmes
Global warming and surging glaciers
The Earth’s climate undergoes fluctuations and for the past thousand years has experienced periods of warming and cooling. In the seventeenth century severe and long-standing winters known as the Little Ice Age recurred in the south of Europe. One can see frozen channels and snow-covered Holland in the paintings of famous Flemish artists.
Un espoir possible pour les pays en développement
Environ 99 % des décès causés par les changements climatiques ont lieu dans les pays en développement. Alors que la croissance économique et le développement sont des priorités dans tous les pays les besoins des pays en développement et des pays les moins avancés sont d’un tout autre ordre. Les pays en développement sont soumis à des contraintes en raison de leur vulnérabilité aux effets des phénomènes météorologiques et du climat. Les pauvres de ces pays sont exposés à un risque élevé en raison de nombreux facteurs : leur dépendance vis-à-vis de l’agriculture et des services fournis par les écosystèmes leur croissance rapide la concentration de la population et l’insuffisance des services de santé. Si l’on ajoute à ce sombre tableau leur manque de moyens pour s’adapter aux effets des changements climatiques leur infrastructure inappropriée les revenus bas des ménages et leurs difficultés à épargner ainsi que le soutien limité des services nous avons une bombe prête à exploser.
Is Africa ready?
The evidence for climate change is overwhelming. It has been reconfirmed by successive international studies and reports over the last two decades. Catastrophic climate change which will threaten our entire ecosystem as we know it is possible though not yet probable. It is likely to happen if we do not change course and continue to ignore the evidence before our eyes: escalating temperatures will cause a big rise in sea level and the release of methane from the tundra will take us towards a tipping point where living creatures are unable to adapt to the changes fast enough.
Small Islands, rising seas
“You know that with a sea-level rise of over 1.5 metres hundreds of millions of people would be dead. They would simply be wiped out” President Mohammed Nasheed of the Republic of Maldives told the UN Chronicle just two days after he addressed other world leaders at the 2009 UN General Assembly Summit on Climate Change.
Pour des emplois plus verts
Lors de cette dernière phase des négociations relatives au changement climatique les négociateurs se sont fixé pour tâche de définir un ensemble d’engagements qui compteront parmi les plus complexes que la communauté internationale se soit jamais assignés. Cet objectif est un plan ambitieux qui peut contribuer dans le peu de temps qu’il nous reste à prévenir les changements climatiques dangereux. Un tel accord favorisera la réorientation des investissements facilitera le transfert des technologies et mobilisera des milliards de dollars pour aider les pays en développement à faire face au changement climatique.
L’Afrique est-elle prête ?
Les effets des changements climatiques sont bien réels. Ils ont été confirmés par des études et des rapports internationaux au cours des deux dernières décennies. Une catastrophe climatique qui menacera l’ensemble de notre écosystème tel que nous le connaissons est possible mais pas encore probable. Elle risque de se produire si nous ne changeons pas de voie et continuons d’ignorer les preuves : la hausse des températures entraînera l’élévation du niveau de la mer et la libération de méthane dans la toundra nous conduira vers un point de non-retour où les créatures vivantes n’arriveront plus à s’adapter.
Biotechnology—A solution to hunger?
World hunger and food insecurity is a recurring problem in most parts of the developing world. Among the many potential biotechnologies that are available and the different ways in which they can be applied genetic modification (gm) of crops demands particular attention. Genetically modified crops possessing genes from different species could possibly relieve global food shortages. Although initial excitement surrounded the use of gm crops—that they will provide bigger and better harvests for farmers— there are still questions about the benefits of such crops. In addition the general public may not welcome the creation of “super plants” as a viable option in solving global hunger.
HIV/AIDS and climate change a pattern of response
Almost three decades into the hiv/aids pandemic there is still widespread stigma denial and government inaction. There are reports of rising rates of infection in the Western industrialized nations and concerns about the possibility of explosive epidemics in the Asian block; yet sub-Saharan Africa with less than 15 per cent of the world’s population remains at the epicentre of the epidemic with over 70 per cent of the infections worldwide.
Tracking climate change from space
For centuries rural communities in the high plateaus of the Andes have utilized water from melting glaciers that typify this amazing mountain range. But the retreat of these glaciers is forcing the communities to reconsider their livelihoods and ways to adapt. From a wider perspective the melting of glaciers is an iconic warning to the larger cities in the Andes that rely on glaciers for potable water. Unfortunately for these communities the source of this particular problem and its potential solution lie far away from their arc of influence due to the fact that local actions contribute very little to remedy this problem.
Livelihoods in peril indigenous peoples and their rights
Inuit hunters in northern Greenland are treading carefully on increasingly thinning ice while at the same time the key marine species they depend on—seals walrus narwhals and polar bears—are moving away from the areas in which they are traditionally hunted as they in turn respond to changes in local ecosystems. In the high ranges of the Himalaya Sherpa Tamang Kiranti Dolpali and other indigenous groups are witnessing the melting of glaciers; the same is true in other mountain regions of the world such as the Peruvian Andes where the indigenous Quechua report that they are worried when they look at the receding glaciers on their mountain peaks. In the Kalahari Desert the San have learnt to deal with the periodic but all-too-frequent occurrence and experience of hunger and poverty arising from a combination of economic political environmental and climatic events. The San like other indigenous peoples have had to devise ingenious strategies to cope with environmental change and its consequences yet they are reporting that the character of such change is now different than many remember. All over the world indigenous peoples are confronted with unprecedented climate change affecting their homelands cultures and livelihoods.
A hypothesis of hope for the developing world
About 99 per cent of climate change casualties take place in the developing world. While economic growth and development are priorities in all countries the needs in developing and least developed countries are on a different scale altogether. Developing countries are constrained by their particular vulnerability to the impacts of fickle weather and climate. The poor in these countries are at a higher risk to future climate change given their heavy dependence on agriculture strong reliance on ecosystem services rapid growth and concentration of population and relatively poor health services. Add to this gloomy scenario insufficient capacity to adapt to climate change impacts inadequate infrastructure meagre household income and savings and limited support from public services and you have a veritable time bomb ticking away.
VIH/sida et changements climatiques un modèle de réponse
Presque trois décennies après le début de la pandémie du vih/sida la stigmatisation le déni et l’inaction des gouvernements subsistent. Des rapports font état d’une augmentation des taux d’infection dans les pays occidentaux industrialisés et l’on craint une explosion de l’épidémie dans les pays asiatiques. C’est pourtant en Afrique subsaharienne qui compte moins de 15 % de la population mondiale que se trouve l’épicentre de l’épidémie avec plus de 70 % des infections dans le monde.
Amincissement de l’ozone
La formation du trou d’ozone dans l’Antarctique montre la rapidité avec laquelle nous pouvons changer l’atmosphère de notre planète. Il y a de nombreuses autres questions environnementales auxquelles nous faisons face aujourd’hui et nous devons les lier entre elles pour comprendre les causes sous-jacentes et en débattre au lieu de traiter chaque question de manière isolée. L’Antarctique est un continent magnifique. Les glaciers descendent jusqu’à la mer royaume des pingouins et des baleines. Bien que 70 % de l’eau douce du monde se trouve dans la calotte polaire le continent est un véritable désert où l’eau douce y est pratiquement inexistante. La glace prend diverses couleurs du blanc étincelant de la neige fraîche au bleu indigo profond au bas d’une crevasse béante. C’est dans cette terre de contrastes que l’on a découvert le trou d’ozone.
Le pétrole dans une économie à faible emission de carbone
Lorsque l’on parle d’énergie au Moyen-Orient on pense instinctivement au pétrole – l’or noir qui a été la source des économies stables et saines dans la région. Or cela est sur le point de changer. Avec la Conférence des Nations Unies sur le climat qui doit bientôt avoir lieu à Copenhague les gouvernements réalisent que face à la menace imminente posée par le changement climatique il n’y a pas d’autre choix que d’agir vite. Selon l’Étude sur la situation économique et sociale dans le monde 2009 : promouvoir le développement protéger la planète nous devons transformer notre économie à un niveau similaire à celui des périodes de guerre. Lorsqu’il a annoncé qu’un sommet sans précédent sur le climat aurait lieu au siège de l’ONU le 22 septembre 2009 le Secrétaire général des Nations Unies Ban Ki-moon a dit qu’il nous restait moins de dix ans pour enrayer la hausse des émissions de gaz à effet de serre si nous voulions éviter des conséquences catastrophiques pour les populations et la planète. Les petits États insulaires en développement qui sont directement menacés par l’élévation du niveau de la mer demandent de fixer un seuil d’émissions d’ici à la fin de 2010 afin de limiter dès que possible la concentration de gaz à effet de serre à 350 parties par million (ppm) d’équivalent CO2.
Human security, climate change and women
Le rayon des livres de la Chronique
The true costs of conventional energy
“Renewable energy is expensive—we cannot afford it.” I have heard this argument many times over. But those who bring it up are wrong. The costs of renewable energy are not higher than those for conventional energy. Instead people confuse costs with prices and need to be better aware that the market price of conventional energy does not tell the truth.
Reflections
Just after World Wildlife Day this year armed poachers broke into a French zoo undetected by staff and security shot a white rhinoceros and stole the murdered animal’s precious horn.
Will climate change impact the right to health & development?
On a dusty construction site in western China Mr Tan is just another anonymous migrant labourer. But the unassuming former farmer is also the face of a complex web of crises threatening global health.
Climate change and our common future
I saw at one time a leaflet that asked people to come together in stopping climate change. It seems that many are not aware that the climate changes all the time and that the change is not stoppable. Climate changes however differ in their timing and magnitude and are a result of many factors such as the distance between the sun and the equator which contributes to the heat budget of the Earth and the difference in the temperature of the equator from that of the cooler poles due to deviations in Earth’s orbit or variations in solar radiation.
L’eau douce en Amérique latine et dans les Caraïbes
Bien que l’Amérique latine et les Caraïbes possèdent les plus grandes ressources en eau douce par habitant un tiers de la population n’a pas accès durable à l’eau potable. Jusqu’à ces dernières années on attribuait les problèmes liés à l’eau douce à la distribution inéquitable des ressources à l’absence de financement adéquat pour les infrastructures hydriques à la mauvaise gouvernance dans le secteur de l’eau douce ou à une conjugaison de ces trois facteurs. Aujourd’hui alors que les nations essaient de préparer la voie qui mène à la conclusion d’un accord afin de mettre en place un régime multilatéral qui stabilisera le climat mondial les pays d’Amérique latine et des Caraïbes ont réalisé que les changements climatiques ont eu des effets profonds sur les ressources en eau douce de la région avec des conséquences importantes pour les écosystèmes et les sociétés.
Will there be climate migrants en masse?
While some countries are historically responsible for climate change should the global community take up responsibility for climate migrants even if they do not cross international borders? Should there be immigration concessions for climate migrants when they need to or have to cross borders? These are important questions that arise at a time of global climate change.
Freshwater in latin america and the caribbean
Despite the fact that Latin America and the Caribbean have the largest freshwater resources per capita a third of the region’s population is cut off from sustained access to drinking water. Up until a few years ago freshwater problems had been generally characterized as a result of inequitable natural distribution lack of adequate financing for water infrastructure poor freshwater governance or a combination of the three. Nowadays as nations try pave the way towards sealing a deal to put in place a multilateral regime that will stabilize the global climate Latin America and the Caribbean countries have realized that global climate change has affected freshwater resources of the region with significant consequences to ecosystems and societies.
In the shadow of climate change
Climate change is one of the greatest global challenges of the twenty-first century. Its impacts vary among regions generations age classes income groups and gender. Based on the findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (ipcc) it is evident that people who are already most vulnerable and marginalized will also experience the greatest impacts. The poor primarily in developing countries are expected to be disproportionately affected and consequently in the greatest need of adaptation strategies in the face of climate variability and change. Both women and men working in natural resource sectors such as agriculture are likely to be affected. However the impact of climate change on gender is not the same. Women are increasingly being seen as more vulnerable than men to the impacts of climate change mainly because they represent the majority of the world’s poor and are proportionally more dependent on threatened natural resources. The difference between men and women can also be seen in their differential roles responsibilities decision making access to land and natural resources opportunities and needs which are held by both sexes. Worldwide women have less access than men to resources such as land credit agricultural inputs decision-making structures technology training and extension services that would enhance their capacity to adapt to climate change.
Unlayering of the ozone
The formation of the Antarctic ozone hole is a graphic demonstration of how rapidly we can change the atmosphere of our planet. There are many other environmental issues facing us today and we must link them together to understand and debate the under lying causes rather than treat each issue in isolation. Antarctica is a wonderful continent. Glaciers carve their way to the sea where the waters teem with penguins and whales. Although 70 per cent of the world’s fresh water resides in the polar ice cap the continent is a veritable desert with liquid water in short supply. The frozen ice takes on many shades from the brilliant white of freshly fallen snow to the deep indigo at the bottom of a gaping crevasse. This land of contrasts is where the Antarctic ozone hole was discovered.
A future for itself
In a small village in western Zambia the Lozi king—the Litunga— will call on his people to leave the lowlands and join him in a spectacular ceremony celebrating the seasonal flooding that will fertilize their farmlands. But in the past two years there have been no celebrations. Rains arrived earlier than usual leading to devastating floods. The Lozi blame climate change. “The seasons have changed. This is a very big disaster” says Bennet Imutongo Sondo the seventy-four-year-old induna or chief advisor of Liyoyelo village in Zambia’s Mongu district.
The ecology of recycling
While not on the front line of climate solutions recycling of waste materials wastewater and wasted energy is a locally available and highly desirable means of reducing greenhouse gases. One potent greenhouse gas the methane emitted from landfills and wastewater accounts for about 90 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions from the entire waste sector. That amount is 18 per cent of human-caused methane emissions globally and about three per cent of total greenhouse gases according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Diverting waste bound for landfills and putting it to good use then is an obvious and proven means for conserving land and resources as we have known for a long time; we can now add the knowledge from numerous studies that these practices also bolster climate protection.
Financial innovations and carbon markets
For the first time in recorded history humans are altering the planet in ways that can endanger its basic life-support systems. We are rapidly transforming the planet’s atmosphere its bodies of water and the complex web of species that makes up life on Earth. Human emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases have changed the Earth’s atmosphere unleashing a potentially catastrophic climate change that can threaten the survival of human civilization. This is real and it is happening now. As the polar caps and Greenland’s permafrost start to melt the sea level rises. Entire towns in Alaska are sinking into the warming seas. Species such as the polar bear are on the verge of extinction. Island nations like the Seychelles and low-lying countries such as Bangladesh risk sinking into the ocean. And hundreds of millions of people could follow suit. Indeed 50 million “climate change refugees” are expected by 2010 and more than 200 million by 2050—one out of every 45 people who will be alive at the time.
Oil in a low-carbon economy
When it comes to the subject of energy in the Middle East we instinctively think of oil—the black gold that has been the source of stable and healthy economies in the region. Nevertheless this is about to change. With the lead up to the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen Governments are realizing the imminent threat of climate change and that there is no choice but to act fast. According to the “2009 World Economic and Social Survey: Promoting Development Saving the Planet”1 we need to transform our economy similar to a wartime setting. When United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced that he will convene an unprecedented Climate Change Summit at UN Headquarters on 22 September 2009 he said that we have less than ten years to halt the rise in greenhouse gas emissions if we are to avoid catastrophic consequences for people and the planet. Small Island Developing States that are under the threat of rising sea levels are calling for a peak in emissions by the end of 2010 and to stabilize greenhouse gas concentration at 350 parts per million (ppm) CO2 equivalent as fast as possible.
Arshak Makichyan: The lone picketer
Every Friday since March 2019 Arshak Makichyan has been demonstrating alone in Moscow’s Pushkin Square. His placard displays slogans like “Global warming equals hunger war and death”. This young violinist in Russia’s capital is leading a solitary and tenacious fight on behalf of the entire planet.
تغير المناخ والتعليم
خانلما ّيغت ةحفاكم لىع ةيبترلا نإ .يروضر رمأ ةمادتسلما ةيمنتلا عيجشتو ةريدج براجت كانه ،ةينيتلالا اكيرمأ في لىع ءاوس اهب ىذتحُي ةلثمأ نوكت نأب .ىرخلأا تاراقلا في وأ ةقطنلما ىوتسم.ةلمهم تيقب بناوجلا ضعب نأ يريغ
جرائم في حق البيئة
.يلماعلا ديعصلا لىع يثراك روطت رطاخم نم تداز خانلما ةرهاظ راكنإ لىإ ةعزنلا نإ ةداَقلل دعي ملو ؟ةعزنلا هذه عابتأ عدرل ليودلا يئانجلا نوناقلا لىإ ءوجللا بجي لهف وأ ةيئيب راضرأ في ةببستم تناك ءاوس .ؤّبرتلل لااجم ينييسايسلاو ينييداصتقلاا تاموكحلا لمحتت نأ دب لا ،يشربلا سنجلا ءاقب لىع طلسلما ديدهتلا لهاجتب ةيفتكم كرحتلا نع اهعانتما وأ اهتافصرت ءارج اهقتاع لىع عقت يتلا ةيلوؤسلما تاسسؤلماو.خانلما يريغت ءازإ
Искусственный интеллект – наш помощник в решении социальных проблем
Искусственный интеллект (ИИ) все шире применяется для решения двух острейших проблем сегодняшнего дня: фальшивые (фейковые) новости и вторжение в частную жизнь. Компания Factmata использует его для борьбы с дезинформацией а компания D-ID – для защиты от систем распознавания лиц. Обе они вошли в десятку лауреатов форума инноваций Netexplo-2019 награды которым были вручены в апреле этого года в штаб-квартире ЮНЕСКО.
Изменение климата исоциальная справедливость
В публичных дискуссиях об изменении климата «зеленые» технологии зачастую представлены как универсальное решение. При этом мы часто упускаем одну деталь: крайне важно чтобы их развитие шло параллельно с укреплением социальной справедливости. «Мы до сих пор не осознали того факта что речь идет не просто о глобальном потеплении а о глобальном потеплении в мире где присутствуют неравенство и несправедливость» – отмечает Тьягараджан Джаяраман. По мнению индийского исследователя без равенства и справедливости – иначе говоря без мира и безопасности – с изменением климата нельзя бороться эффективно.
Идеи: Сценарий будущего: Выбор за нами
Станет ли искусственный интеллект полностью самостоятелен? Ответ на этот вопрос зависит только от нас. Именно нам предстоит написать сценарий будущего человечества и построить такой мир где люди смогут мирно сосуществовать с этим сверхмощным инструментом который подчас кажется нам фантастическим чудовищем.