Page 122 - Un Environment Program News Today

Few countries have oil reserves as deep as Iraq. The extractive industries bring jobs and tax revenues to a nation that has been hobbled by invasion, war and insurgency for close to two decades. Yet this economic activity comes at a cost. Oil spills, pollution and declining air quality have taken a significant toll on the environment, and on the health of many Iraqis. On top of this, greenhouse gas emissions from the oil industry continue to contribute to global warming while some areas of Iraq...

Humanitarian crisis feared in St. Vincent amid eruptions Poll Yes A man rides his bicycle on the main Black Rock road, covered with ash coming from the St. Vincent eruption of La Soufriere volcano, on the outskirts of Bridgetown, Barbados, Sunday, April 11, 2021. (AP Photo/Chris Brandis) SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – Ongoing volcanic eruptions have displaced about 20% of people in the eastern Caribbean island of St. Vincent as a U.N. official on Wednesday warned of a growing humanitarian crisis. ...

Scientific American Inspiring individuals from Argentina, Colombia and Kuwait lay out actions that can improve people’s lives Print Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans, heavily damaged by Hurricane Katrina, has become a symbol of climate injustice. Credit: James Houser Advertisement Young people are increasingly speaking out against environmental and social injustices that are ruining people’s lives worldwide. Leaders of youth movements are now trying to pin down what actions, beyond protests ...

Trebucq said that based on certain information and preliminary estimations, 20,000 people are “estimated at risk of food insecurity, given the loss of the assets in terms of livelihood like fisheries, or agriculture”. About 4,000 people are temporarily living in 87 government shelters, while others have relocated to hotels or the homes of friends and family, officials said. Trebucq noted that many shelters were lacking basic services including drinking water. He said the second most urgent ...

World Health Organization Calls for Ban on Selling Wildlife in Food Markets 13 Apr 2021 The World Health Organization (W.H.O.) on Tuesday recommended a ban on the sale of live wild animals at food markets. The W.H.O.’s report on the origins of the coronavirus in Wuhan, China, classified transmission from wild animals to humans as the most likely scenario, and suspicion has long focused on food markets that sell wildlife as the location where humans were infected. “Suspend the trade in live ...

Shrinking Sea Meadows Store More Carbon Than Forests. Scientists Race to Track What’s Left The Saya de Malha Bank is part of the Mascarene Plateau and located between Mauritius and Seychelles in the Indian Ocean. It is the largest seagrass meadow in the world and one of the biggest carbon sinks in the high seas. (© Tommy Trenchard / Greenpeace) Hundreds of miles from the nearest shore, ribbon-like fronds flutter in the ocean currents sweeping across an underwater mountain plateau the size of...

C. J. Polychroniou argues that all financial and political links to the fossil fuel industry must be severely disrupted if any serious progress is to be made towards building a development-led green economy on a global scale. We live in a strange and dangerous world. By all accounts, the climate crisis threatens to destroy human civilization as we know it unless immediate action is taken to reduce to zero carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere. As such, the conditi...

As the Climate Crisis Grows, a Movement Gathers to Make ‘Ecocide’ an International Crime Against the Environment International lawyers, environmentalists and a growing number of world leaders say “ecocide”—widespread destruction of the environment—would serve as a “moral red line” for the planet. By Nicholas Kusnetz, Katie Surma and Yuliya Talmazan April 7, 2021 The Fifth Crime:  First in a continuing series with NBC News about the campaign to make “ecocide” an internationa...

Bidens policy shift in Yemen courts environmental disaster Morgan Lorraine Viña and Simone Ledeen © Getty Images Yemen A major disaster is unfolding in slow motion, with the international community seemingly incapable of taking any action other than public hand wringing. A crippled oil tanker, FSO Safer, has been moored just north of the port city of Hudaydah, Yemens main hub for humanitarian delivery, for more than five years. Its in bad shape. In January, the Internationa...

A Green New Deal Is Actually More Affordable in the Long Term Than Fossil Fuels Protesters gather outside Union Station on March 31, 2021, in Washington, D.C. Tasos Katopodis / Getty Images for Green New Deal Network By With global warming representing humanity’s greatest existential crisis, reducing carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2050, as recommended by the 2018 report of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), should be one of the U.S.’s most urgen...