Slowdown caused by Covid not putting brake on climate change
By IANS |
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Global Covid-19 caseload tops 116 mn. Image Source: IANS News
Geneva, April 20 : The Covid-19-related economic slowdown failed to put a brake on climate change drivers and accelerating impacts, said a UN report.
The year 2020 was one of the three warmest years on record, with the global average temperature being about 1.2 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial level, said the report on the State of the Global Climate 2020, compiled by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and an extensive network of partners, Xinhua reported.
Concentrations of the major greenhouse gases continued to increase in 2019 and 2020, the report, released on Monday, noted.
Afghanistan: 13 million lack food as drought crisis bites
Photo: Meer Abdullah Rasikh / Afghan Red Crescent Society
Kuala Lumpur, Kabul, Geneva, 20 April 2021
– The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) says urgent action is needed to avert a deepening crisis in Afghanistan as one third of the country’s population is going without adequate food due to a worsening drought crisis.
The drought and food crisis is one of the worst suffered in Afghanistan in recent decades, as 13.1 million people are grappling with food shortages according to the latest food insecurity analysis.
This acute food security crisis compounds social and economic hardships already faced by millions of people in Afghanistan due to the COVID-19 pandemic and years of conflict.
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Gillies Carbonnier, the vice-president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), recently travelled to Honduras and El Salvador
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At the end of his six-day trip, he concluded that the ongoing violence in those countries had serious and worrying humanitarian consequences, including internal displacement, migration, disappearances, homicides, restricted access to health and education services, and limited opportunities for personal and social development or community participation.
The vice-president, together with Sophie Orr, the regional director for the Americas, visited El Salvador from 10 to 13 April to strengthen cooperation with the national authorities to advance the humanitarian agenda. They met people whom the ICRC had helped, in order to find out about their needs, first-hand.
How to Help St. Vincent Amid Volcanic Disaster Claire Lampen
On April 9, La Soufrière volcano on St. Vincent began a series of catastrophic eruptions that have downed vital infrastructure on the Caribbean island. According to NASA, the active volcano which has not erupted since 1979 is among the most troubling to volcanologists due to its “explosive and erratic eruption style,” which flings ash and hot gas into the atmosphere. In this case, the explosions also triggered landslide-like currents of superhot volcanic material pyroclastic flows that charged into the island’s valleys to drain toward its river and coasts.
Thankfully, residents were evacuated 24 hours ahead of time, so no one was injured or killed by the event itself. But now, an estimated 20,000 people have been displaced from their homes, and the island faces a growing humanitarian crisis. With residents crowding into government shelters in the midst of a pandemic, basic necessities suc