The environment in the news thursday, 20 October, 2016 unep and the Executive Director in the News



Download 363.46 Kb.
Page2/5
Date20.10.2016
Size363.46 Kb.
#6181
1   2   3   4   5

_________________________________________________________________
Ecoticias (Spain):Deja de hablar, ponte a sembrar!
24 April 2010
Así lo han decidido los niños. “Stop talking. Start planting” (Deja de hablar. Ponte a sembrar) es una campaña global protagonizada por niños que pretenden llamar la atención sobre la importancia de pasar a la acción para proteger nuestro medioambiente.
Félix Finkbeiner es un niño alemán comprometido con el futuro. Cuando en enero de 2007, a la edad de 9 años, terminó su presentación en clase con las palabras “plantemos millones de árboles en el mundo entero, un millón en cada país”, no era consciente de que estaba sentando las bases de la iniciativa estudiantil que ha culminado con el lanzamiento de la campaña Stop talking. Start planting. En esta campaña, que se traduce como “Deja de hablar.
Ponte a sembrar”, los protagonistas son los niños: “ya que los adultos no están dispuestos a trabajar por nuestro futuro, nosotros vamos a pasar a la acción”. Y lo hacen tapándoles la boca a personajes públicos del mundo entero, en un significativo gesto.
“Teníamos que hacer un proyecto para la escuela que tratara sobre el cambio climático”, explica Félix sobre los comienzos de la iniciativa. "En casa, mi abuelo estaba leyendo el libro de “Una verdad incómoda”, y yo tomé datos de la película de AlGore y extraje información sobre Wangari Maathai de Internet.".
"A los niños nos afecta enormemente lo que hacen y dejan de hacer los adultos. Nos va a tocar vivir 80 ó 90 años en la Tierra y de pronto nos damos cuenta de que se han provocado una serie de crisis con las que vamos a tener que convivir: la crisis económica, la crisis medioambiental, la extrema pobreza.
Los seres humanos emitimos grandes cantidades de CO2 a la atmósfera que calientan la Tierra, derriten los glaciares, aumentan el nivel del mar y hacen avanzar las sequías. Algún día, los niños pagaremos las consecuencias de todo esto".
Entusiasmada con el mensaje de su alumno, la profesora propuso a Félix que repitiera su exposición ante sus compañeros. Después, se sucedieron las conferencias en varios centros escolares de toda Alemania.
En el año 2008, Félix presentó su idea como apoyo a la campaña “mil millones de Árboles” en la Conferencia Tunza de las Naciones Unidas y fue nombrado representante de Europa en la asamblea juvenil del Programa de las Naciones Unidas para el Medioambiente (PNUMA).
En 2009, en la conferencia Tunza de la PNUMA, que tuvo lugar en Corea del Sur, los niños crearon una red internacional por la justicia climática.
La red incluye academias de formación de “mensajeros del clima”, donde los niños aprenden a hablar en público sobre la teoría del movimiento para transmitir su mensaje.
Ellos mismos colaboran activamente en la creación de estas academias, piden ayuda a sus profesores y deciden dónde y cuándo tendrá lugar la próxima acción para plantar árboles. Félix, el principal representante del movimiento, no deja de dar conferencias internacionales predicando su mensaje.
La campaña “Stop talking. Start planting” se basa asimismo en la filosofía de la acción. “Los niños sabemos más sobre el cambio climático que los mayores.
Ellos están ocupados ganando dinero y no tienen tiempo para dedicarse a las cosas realmente importantes, así que esta es nuestra misión”.
Que todos los niños del mundo pasen a la acción. Hay que plantar un millón de árboles en cada país del mundo. ¡Juntos podemos luchar por un futuro mejor!
Back to Menu

_________________________________________________________________
Goal (Blog):Einigkeit: Die Botschaft Afrikas für die WM 2010
23 April 2010
Dem Fußball wird oft nachgesagt, dass er nur nimmt und nicht gibt. Eine Initiative von PUMA will diesen Ruf am Beispiel Afrikas ändern.
Der Sportartikelgigant bekam von der FIFA grünes Licht zur Präsentation seines Africa Unity Kits als offizielles drittes Outfit für die zwölf afrikanischen Mannschaften. Die WM-Teilnehmer Ghana, Elfenbeinküste, Kamerun und Algerien werden die neuen Trikots zur Eröffnung der WM am 11. Juni tragen.
Die FIFA hat die Aktion abgesegnet. Das Trikot wird wir einen Africa Unity Aufnäher haben, der zwei Hände bei einem solidarischen Handschlag zeigt. Damit ist das neue Trikot das erste kontinentale Fußballoutfit der Welt. PUMAs Kreativteam hat das Braun des Trikots aus einer Erdmischung erstellt, die in Mosambik, Ghana, der Elfenbeinküste und Kamerun gewonnen wurde.
PUMA hat bereits eine langjährige Beziehung zum afrikanischen Fußball und wird einen Teil der Einnahmen aus dem Verkauf der neuen Trikots in den Kontinent zurückfließen lassen, um wichtige Umweltprojekte zu unterstützen.
Das Sportartikelunternehmen beteiligt sich damit am Jahr der Biodiversität des United Nations Environment Programmes (UNEP), das auf die gefährdeten Tier- und Pflanzenarten des Kontinents aufmerksam macht.
Kameruns Superstar Eto'o sagte dazu: „Das neue Africa Unity Kit hat mich und meine Teamkameraden inspiriert. Wir sind stolz darauf, dieses Trikot zu tragen, das dazu beiträgt, den afrikanischen Kontinent zusammenrücken zu lassen. Es ist eine weitere einzigartige Idee einer einzigartigen Marke für einen einzigartigen Kontinent.
Das Outfit erfreut sich jetzt schon großer Beliebtheit bei den Spielern. Doch hinter den brandneuen Farben steckt auch eine wichtige Kampagne, die die Begeisterung der Welt für den Fußball mit einer grünen Message verbindet: Neun der 35 Hotspots der Biodiversität - der artenreichsten, aber auch gefährdetsten Regionen des Planeten - befinden sich nämlich in Afrika.
„So, wie die ganze Welt für die WM 2010 zusammenkommt, wird in diesem Jahr die Welt auch zusammenstehen, um um die unbezahlbaren natürlichen Ressourcen der Erde zu bewahren. Das ist Biodiversität‟, sagte Angela Cropper, die stellvertretende Exekutivdirektorin von UNEP.
Eto'o fügte hinzu: „Fußball hilft uns jetzt schon dabei, uns einander zu nähern und Unterschiede und Politik zu vergessen. Der Sport sendet eine wichtige Botschaft nach Afrika: Wir stehen als Kontinent zusammen und helfen dabei, das Leben und den Planeten zu bewahren.‟
Back to Menu

=============================================================
Other Environment News


Reuters: Climate debate gets ugly as world moves to curb CO2
25 April 2010
TRUTH AND TRUST
Skeptics also accused the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change of supporting flawed science after several errors in a major 2007 report surfaced.
The errors, including a reference to a non-peer reviewed study that Himalayan glaciers would melt by 2035, represent a fraction of the conclusions in the report, the main climate policy guide for governments, which is based on the work of thousands of scientists.
The IPCC has defended its work and has ordered a review. Many governments, including the United States, Britain and Australia have also reiterated their faith in the IPCC.
For climate scientists, truth and trust are at stake.
"In general, the battle for public opinion is being lost," said Kevin Trenberth, head of climate analysis at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colorado. His emails were also hacked in the CRU incident.
"There is so much mis-information and so many polarized attitudes that one can not even hold a rational discussion or debate. The facts are certainly lost or glossed over in many cases. The media have been a bust."
Schneider said the mainstream media had failed to do "its job of sorting out credible from non-credible and not giving all claimants of truth equal status at the bargaining table."
Across the Internet, the climate science debate is being played out in a myriad of climate skeptic sites and blogs as well as sites defending the science of human-induced climate change.
One high-profile site is climatedepot.com, run by Marc Morano, a former aide to Republican Senator James Inhofe, who is an outspoken critic of climate change policies.
Morano, who told Reuters he had also been the target of abusive emails, has been quoted as saying that climate scientists should be publicly flogged.
"The global warming scientists need to feel and hear the public's outrage at their shenanigans like "climategate" ... There is no advocacy of violence or hint that people should threaten them," Morano said, adding: "Public outrage is healthy."
"THE EMPEROR HAS NO CLOTHES"
Another prominent climate change denialist, Christopher Monckton, who's associated with the U.S.-based Science and Public Policy Institute, told Reuters he doesn't condone the coordinated attack on climate scientists, saying that he, too, was a victim.
He said his main aim was to expose what he calls the "non-problem of global warming" and in an email interview with Reuters accused climate change scientists of being "increasingly desperate to discredit anyone who dares to point out that the Emperor has no clothes."
Media commentators have added their voices, polarizing public opinion further. In the United States, conservative radio talkshow host Rush Limbaugh said on the air last November that climate change was a massive hoax and that all climate scientists involved should be "named and fired, drawn and quartered, or whatever it is."
In Australia, just as in the United States, the level of abuse also coincides with media appearances or the release of peer-reviewed scientific work on climate change.
"Each time I have a media profile in terms of media reports on scientific papers, major presentations, there is a flurry. So if I am on TV, or radio there ends up being a substantial increase," said David Karoly of the University of Melbourne.
"One of the purposes for the attacks is either an intention to waste my time or to distract my attention essentially from communication about climate change science or even undertaking research, and it's also perhaps intended to make me concerned about my visibility."
ABSOLUTE PROOF
"We get emails to say we're destroying the Australian economy, we get emails to say it will be our fault when no one in Australia can get a job.
We get emails just basically accusing us of direct fraud and lying on the science," said Andy Pitman, co-director of the Climate Change Research Center at the University of New South Wales in Sydney.
"My personal reaction to them is personal recognition that this means we are a threat to the sorts of people who would be trying to prevent the finding of solutions to global warming."
Pitman said a major problem was trying to satisfy demands for absolute proof of human-induced global warming.
"There is no proof in the context that they want it, that the earth goes around the sun. They are demanding a level of proof that doesn't exist in science.
"And then they say when you can't prove it to the extent that they want, then clearly that means there isn't any evidence, which of course is a logical fallacy."
Better communication about the science is key, scientists say, even if they complain that many Skeptics are reluctant to debate the science on a level playing field.
"One of the ways I describe it (the debate) is it's very asymmetric," said Roger Wakimoto, director of NCAR in Colorado.
"It's very difficult to counter someone who just says 'you're wrong. I think this is a scam'. How do you respond to that? ... They haven't done any research, they haven't spent years looking into the problem. This is why it's asymmetric," he said.
"We like to go into a scientific debate, show us you're evidence and we'll tell why we agree or disagree with you. But that's not what the naysayers are doing," Wakimoto added.
"We've never experienced this sort of thing before," he said of the intense challenges to climate science and the level of email and Internet traffic.
All the climate change scientists with whom Reuters spoke said they were determined to continue their research despite the barrage of nasty emails and threats. Some expressed concern the argument could turn violent.
"My wife has made it very clear, if the threats become personalized, I cease to interact with the media. We have kids," said one scientist who did not want to be identified.
Back to Menu

_________________________________________________________________
AFP: Developing nations want global climate accord by 2011
25 April 2010
Four major developing countries meeting in South Africa on Sunday called for a global, legally binding agreement on climate change to be finalised by next year at the latest.
Environment ministers from Brazil, South Africa, India and China met in Cape Town to discuss on how to speed up a process of finalising a global agreement that would require rich nations to cut carbon emissions and reduce global warming.
"Ministers felt that a legally binding outcome should be concluded at Cancun, Mexico in 2010, or at the latest in South Africa by 2011," ministers from the developing world's powerhouses said in a joint statement, referring to United Nations climate talks.
The Copenhagen meeting, held last year and aimed at thrashing out a new climate treaty to replace the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, was widely criticized for failing to produce a new treaty to limit greenhouse gas emissions.
"Developing countries strongly support international legally binding agreements, as the lack of such agreements hurts developing countries more than developed countries," the statement said.
The ministers also called for developed nations to fast track the release of a 10-billion-dollar fund to help poor countries "to develop, test and demonstrate practical implementation approaches to both adaptation and mitigation."
Meanwhile, the environmental lobby group Greenpeace urged the ministers to seize climate leadership in the run-up to the next UN Climate summit in Cancun, Mexico, at the end of the year and help break the current deadlock in the climate negotiations.
"Greenpeace urges the governments gathered in Cape Town to take the opportunity to make a clear and unanimous call for a fair, ambitious and legally binding deal to avert catastrophic climate change," said Greenpeace Africa political advisor Themba Linden in a statement.
Back to Menu

_________________________________________________________________


AP: Developing nations: Climate change treaty in 2010
25 April 2010
Four influential developing nations say the world must work for a strong climate change agreement this year.
Summing up strategy talks in South Africa on Sunday, South African Environment Minister Buyelwa Sonjica and her counterparts from Brazil, China and India said they want year-end talks in Mexico to produce a binding international agreement to reduce greenhouse gases and help poor countries cope with climate change. But they add success could still come from a 2011 round in South Africa.
Hopes for success in Mexico have been fading since acrimonious talks in Copenhagen last year failed to produce a binding agreement.
The 1997 Kyoto Protocol, with provisions capping industrial countries' greenhouse gas emissions, expires in 2012.
Back to Menu

_________________________________________________________________
Guardian (UK): On the frontline of climate change
24 April 2010
This week's massive climate conference in Bolivia played host to a geographically diverse group of diplomats from the US, well-versed in advancing tough negotiating postures, and working within a framework of international treaties often not worth the paper they're printed on.
The US delegation didn't come from the state department, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) or the department of energy. Yet one delegate was given central billing in the inaugural event that kicked off the conference earlier in the week.
"We remain firm in our inalienable, sovereign rights," Faith Gemmill told a crowd of thousands that filled up Tiquipaya Coliseum on a sun-scorched morning, to a loud round of applause. "We the indigenous people of the north have survived colonial policies intended to terminate us, assimilate us, and displace us from our land. Despite this, we are still here! Indigenous people of Alaska and North America have given me voice to transmit this message to you."
Faith Gemmill is executive director of Redoil (Resisting Environmental Destruction on Indigenous Lands), an Alaska Native grassroots alliance formed in 2002 that organises around the impacts of oil and gas development on or near native land in Alaska.
She was one of more than 20 indigenous representatives from North America who travelled to the Cochabamba, Bolivia this week for the World People's Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth, which ended on Thursday with a host of concrete proposals heavily informed by indigenous thinking on "living well" versus "living better", and influenced by the long and fraught histories of the impact of resource extraction on their traditional lands.
The US government politely declined to send as much as a low-level observer to the historic summit, which drew more than 31,000 people from all over the world, and representatives from almost 50 governments.
"People have to make a choice, whether they want the Earth to continue to be here, or if life will disappear. It's a hard choice, and we're all involved in it," Carrie Dann tells me, a 75-year-old woman who travelled to Cochabamba from the Great Basin ("What non-indigenous people call Nevada," Carrie tells me), representing the Western Shoshone Defence Project. Carrie came to meet with other indigenous activists whose advocacy and activism against climate change is rooted in very local struggles.
For Carrie, it's the Barrick Gold Corporation, a Canadian mining giant that is looking to mine a rich store of gold in Mt Tenabo – a sacred site for the Shoshone. The tribe has sued the US Bureau of Land Management, which approved the lease to Barrick, in an attempt to block the project.
"They were given the right to mine, but nobody knows what it's going to look like. It's a horrible destruction, it looks like a cancer on the earth. They keep extracting more and more for their people, eventually there won't be anything left."
One consistent premise that seemed to unite many indigenous activists from North America who travelled here was a desire to debunk many of the much-touted technocratic solutions to combat climate change – such as carbon offsetting.
"Including forests in the carbon market, it's a terrible idea. They want to offset emissions by planting or protecting trees," Jihan Gearon told me, an organiser with the Indigenous Environment Network, from Navajo country in the Southwest.
"So corporations say, 'Great! we'll expand our emissions, but offset it by planting trees in the Amazon'. But in our network, which encompasses North and South America, we are seeing indigenous people displaced from their homes to 'protect' the land."
Another theme that came out of my many conversations with these North American diplomats was a deep historical analysis about who bears the brunt of extraction and energy development – including the resurgence of a nuclear industry that has successfully branded itself as form of "clean energy" that will be a key component in mitigating climate change.
"My homeland has one of the largest deposits of uranium in the world," Navajo activist and scholar Michelle Cook tells me.
Although the Navajo nation, and the smaller Havasupai tribe whose ancestral lands run through the Grand Canyon, have long banned uranium mining, there is a encroaching on tribal lands.
"People often don't realise how destructive nuclear energy is and how it impacts indigenous communities specifically. There is nothing clean about an energy source that gives people cancer, and causes irreparable harm to the land, water, and future generations."
If the raison d'être of the meetings here in Cochabamba was to advance the kind of genuinely ambitious solutions to combating climate change that many world governments failed to deliver on in the UN sponsored talks last winter, it also appears to have been a place for a diplomatic corps on the frontlines of the struggle against climate change to meet each other, compare notes, and fortify each other for what will likely be a long slog ahead.
"Our indigenous people are the third world of the north," said Tom Goldtooth, director of the Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN), sitting with me outside on the last day of the conference during one of the closing plenaries, echoes of Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez's long-winded oratory in the background. "We're working hard to break down the borders placed between our communities."
Back to Menu

_________________________________________________________________
Reuters: Whale feces could help oceans absorb CO2
23 April 2010
Whale droppings have emerged as a natural ocean fertilizer which could help combat global warming by allowing the Southern Ocean to absorb more carbon dioxide, Australian scientists have found.
New research from the Australian Antarctic Division suggests whales naturally fertilize surface waters with iron-rich whale excrement, allowing the whole eco-system to send more carbon down into deep waters.
"The plants love it and it actually becomes a way of taking carbon out of the atmosphere," Antarctic scientist Steve Nicol told Reuters, adding the droppings appear as a plume of solids and liquids.
A larger population of baleen whales and krill would boost the productivity of the whole Southern Ocean ecosystem and could improve the absorption of carbon dioxide, blamed for global warming.
Iron is a limited micronutrient in the Southern Ocean, but recent experiments have found that adding soluble iron to surface waters helps promote much-needed phytoplankton algal blooms.
Iron is contained in algae in the surface waters where plants grow, but there is a constant rain of iron-rich particles falling into deep waters.
When krill eat the algae, and whales eat the krill, the iron ends up in whale poo, and the iron levels are kept up in surface waters where it is most needed.
"We reckon whale poo is probably 10 million times more concentrated with iron than sea water," Nicol said.
"The system operates at a high level when you have this interaction between the krill, the whales and the algae and they maintain the system at a very high level of production. So it's a self sustaining system."
Nicol said the idea to research whale droppings came from a casual pub chat among Antarctic scientists in Australia's island state of Tasmania.
He said it was not yet known how much poo it would take have a significant impact on the Southern Ocean.
Back to Menu

_________________________________________________________________
AFP:New whaling plan draws fire from all sides
23 April 2010
A "peace plan" by the International Whaling Commission to legitimise but reduce whaling drew fire Friday as Japan demanded higher quotas and environmentalists warned of serious harm to the ocean giants.
The chairman of the 88-nation commission, seeking to end decades of bitter conflict between its pro- and anti-whaling members, unveiled Thursday the compromise proposal to be voted on at a June meeting in Morocco.
Under the draft proposal, Japan, Iceland and Norway would reduce their whale kills over the next decade, subject to tight monitoring, with Japan eventually cutting its Antarctic whale culls by three quarters.
The IWC said in a statement that the "10-year peace plan" would save thousands of whales and present "a great step forward in terms of the conservation of whales and the management of whaling."
But it was roundly criticised by anti-whaling nations and environmental groups, which charged that it would end the moratorium in all but name and risked reviving a dwindling industry in whale meat.
Japan now hunts whales under a loophole to a 1986 moratorium on commercial whaling that allows lethal "scientific research" on the sea mammals, while Norway and Iceland defy the moratorium altogether.
"It will be a major achievement if, despite some fundamental differences ... countries can put these differences aside for a period to focus on ensuring the world has healthy whale stocks," IWC chair Cristian Maquieira said.
Japan reacted by saying it would push for higher cull quotas than those outlined in the proposal.
Japan, which now targets more than 900 whales in its annual Antarctic hunts, would have to reduce that number to around 400 whales in the next season and to just over 200 a year from the 2015-16 season onwards.
It would also be allowed to catch 120 whales a year in its coastal waters.
Fisheries Minister Hirotaka Akamatsu, while welcoming the endorsement of coastal whaling, said: "Regarding the total catch allowed, it is different from Japan's position. We want to continue negotiating with patience."
But environmental groups voiced deep concern.
"This is probably the biggest threat to the ban on commercial whaling that we've faced since it came into force," said Nicolas Entrup of the Munich-based Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society.
Greenpeace said the proposal would reward whaling nations.
"It's a bit like a bank robber who keeps robbing the bank. You can't actually catch him, so you decide to just give him a big pile of money," said its oceans campaigner Phil Kline.
The World Wide Fund for Nature's species programme manager Wendy Elliott charged that the proposed quotas were "a result of political bargaining which has little if anything to do with the whales themselves."
Australia's Environment Minister Peter Garrett said Canberra could not accept the proposal and stressed that "the government remains resolutely opposed to commercial and so-called 'scientific' whaling."
In Wellington, Foreign Minister Murray McCully called the catch limits unrealistic and said "New Zealanders will not accept this".
"The proposal to include fin whales in the Southern Ocean is inflammatory," he said, pointing at a plan to allow Japan to catch 10 of the animals annually for three years, and five per year after that.
The United States, which has helped spearhead the compromise, withheld a final judgment, anticipating further negotiations.
"The important thing here is that the IWC isn't working right now," said Monica Medina, the US commissioner to the IWC.
"Even with the moratorium in place, the number of whales being killed is increasing and if we can turn that around and decrease the number of whales being killed, that would be a good thing."
The compromise would also allow the killing of 870 minke whales a year in the Atlantic, slightly down from the current total catch quotas by Norway and Iceland, along with Japan's continued hunt in the Pacific Ocean.
Back to Menu

_________________________________________________________________
Telegraph (UK):Endangered whales could be killed legally
24 April 2010
The body, set up to protect the species in international waters, banned the commerical hunting of whales outright in 1986.
But whaling nations like Japan, Norway and Iceland continued to hunt the mammals using a series of loopholes, such as whaling for "scientific research".
The IWC, which is due to meet next month to update the law around the protection of whales, has suggested the only way forward is to set up a series of quotas.
It is argued that this will limit the slaughter because the killing of whales is controlled under international law.
However the details of the proposals reveal that the quotas will be in the thousands and include endangered species. Papers issued by the IWC suggest thousands of minke whales could be killed in the Southern Ocean over the next ten years. Even fin whales and sei whales, that are officially in danger of dying out, are included.
Environmentalists were outraged, arguing that the killing of whales should never be sanctioned under international law while the species is still under threat of extinction.
Heather Sohl, species policy officer for WWF-UK, said it was "ridiculous" to allow hunting of whales in the Southern Ocean, which is a critical feeding ground for species including blue whales.
"Some whales feed exclusively in the Southern Ocean - not eating at all during the winter months when they travel up to tropical waters," she said.
"Allowing commercial whaling in an area where whales are so vulnerable goes against all logic."
She also criticised the decision to include fin and sei whales in the quota.
"Both fin and sei whale species were depleted to severely low levels by previous whaling that spun out of control, and they remain endangered as a result.
"Allowing new commercial whaling on these species when they have yet to recover from previous whaling is management madness."
Whaling nations like Japan back the IWC proposals and are arguing for even higher quotas.
But critics, including the UK, US and Australia, are against any deal that could cause an increase in whale hunting.
The IWC will meet in in Agadair, Morocco at the end of this month. Nations will decide on whether to set quotas and the catch that will be allowed. There are also proposals to promote whale watching as an alternative source of income for whaling communities and to protect whales from climate change and over fishing.
Back to Menu

_________________________________________________________________
Guardian (UK): Water pollution expert derides UN sanitation claims
25 April 2010
Hundreds of millions of people that the UN declares have gained access to safe water and sanitation are still struggling with polluted supplies and raw sewage, a leading expert has told the Guardian.
In its latest report on the progress of the UN Millennium Development Goal to halve the proportion of people lacking access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation, the World Health Organisation said that since 1990 1.3 billion people had gained access to improved drinking water and 500 million better sanitation.
The world was on course to "meet or exceed" the water target, it said, but was likely to miss the sanitation goal by nearly 1 billion people.
However, Prof Asit Biswas, who has advised national governments, six UN agencies and Nato, said official figures showing that many cities and countries had met their targets were "baloney", and predicted that by the UN deadline of 2015 more people in the world would suffer from these problems than when the goals were first adopted.
Biswas, president of the Third World Centre for Water Management, spoke to the Guardian ahead of a speech tomorrow in which he will tell water industry leaders that inadequate improvements to drinking water and sewage are hiding the true scale of the problem and storing up environmental problems for future generations.
"If somebody has a well in a town or village in the developing world and we put concrete around the well – nothing else – it becomes an 'improved source of water'; the quality is the same but you have 'improved' the physical structure, which has no impact," said Biswas.
"They are not only underestimating the problem, they are giving the impression the problem is being solved. What I'm trying to say is that's a bunch of baloney."
The problem would not have been halved by 2015, he added. "I would say more people will not have access to drinking water in the sense they will have water they can drink straight from the source, and sanitation is even worse."
Biswas will also tell the Global Water Intelligence conference in Paris that water problems are caused not by physical scarcity of supplies but by poor management, including corruption, interference by politicians and inexperience.
Such comments will be controversial in an industry dominated by companies providing technological solutions to "water stress" or "scarcity" – a lack of reliable supplies for average daily needs – which experts estimate affect more than 1 billion people around the world.
"These are real-life problems, but are we talking about them in the water profession? No. We talk about water scarcity," the professor said. "With the water we have, and the money we have, we can manage it better."
Biswas, whose awards include the prestigious Stockholm water prize for "his outstanding and multi-faceted contributions to global water resource issues", has travelled to cities and countries that have officially met the UN goals, such as India, Egypt and Mexico, visited the new facilities and carried out tests on the water supplied.
"I'm asking them which planet they are on," he said. "I advise the government of India, I have been advising Egypt since 1974: you'd be hard-pressed to find anybody lower-middle class or up [in those countries] who drinks that water."
Instead, most homes in these countries pay high prices for extra filters, expensive membranes so they can create mini sewage plants to treat their own water, and bottled water, said Biswas. He is calling for politicians to be removed from water management, well-paid experts to be appointed to run water authorities and more public outcry when supplies are too bad to drink.
His comments follow another report last week from the WHO and Unicef, which claimed aid for water and sanitation improvements was falling and that only 42% of money donated to the issue went to where it was needed most.
Furthermore, a report from the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund on Friday said the global financial crisis would cut progress towards the provision of clean water, meaning that in 2015 more than 100 million people would be enduring dirty water.
Responding to Biswas's criticism, a WHO spokesman told the Guardian the organisation shared his concerns about water quality and the spread of improvements in water and sanitation.
The latest WHO update on progress, published in March, also warned that even if the Millennium Development Goals were reached in full, billions of people would still live with very poor water and sanitation.
Barbara Frost, chief executive of the UK-based global charity WaterAid, said: "Here is a global catastrophe which kills more children than HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined and which is holding back all development efforts including health and education."
Back to Menu

_________________________________________________________________
BBC News:Oil rig spill off Louisiana could threaten coastline
26 April 2010
There are fears of an environmental disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, as efforts to clear up an oil spill have been suspended because of bad weather.
A drilling rig leased by the oil company BP exploded and sank off Louisiana coast last Thursday.
Some 1,000 barrels of oil a day are now leaking into the sea from the damaged well, officials say.
They say the oil leak has the potential to damage beaches, barrier islands and wetlands across the coastline.
Eleven workers are still missing and presumed to have been killed in the accident. The search for them has been called off.
More than 100 other workers were rescued.
The Deepwater Horizon had been burning for 36 hours when it sank on Thursday in 5,000 ft (1,500m) of water, despite efforts to control the flames.
It was carrying out exploratory drilling 84km (52 miles) south-east of Venice, Louisiana when the blast occurred.
'HIGHLY COMPLEX TASK'
Bad weather caused cleanup efforts to be suspended over the weekend, allowing the slick to grow to about 580 sq miles (1,500 sq km), officials say.
BP has been using a robot submarine to try to activate a blowout preventer - a series of pipes and valves that could stop the leak.
However, this was a "highly complex task" and "it may not be successful", chief operating officer of BP's exploration and production unit Doug Suttles was quoted as saying by Reuters.
The company has also brought in more than 30 cleanup vessels and several aircraft to spray dispersant on the floating oil.
At the moment, the weather conditions are keeping the oil away from the coastline and it is hoped the waves will break up the heavy crude oil, allowing it to harden and sink back to the ocean floor.
Back to Menu

=============================================================

RONA MEDIA UPDATE



THE ENVIRONMENT IN THE NEWS

Friday, April 23, 2010

UNEP or UN in the News




  • Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: International officials gather in Pittsburgh as city kicks off series of environmental events

  • Pittsburgh Magazine: The New Emerald City

  • Channel 4 Action News This Morning/WTAE-PIT (ABC) - Pittsburgh, PA: Today Marks Start of Events for World Environment Day




International officials gather in Pittsburgh as city kicks off series of environmental events

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, April 22, 2010, By Joyce Gannon

Since 1972, the United Nations' World Environment Day has been marked in communities around the world but there was little notice paid to the event in North America.

That's probably because the global event was largely overshadowed by the much better known Earth Day - a grass-roots effort started in 1970 in the United States to raise awareness of environmental problems.

So in recent years, the U.N. has tried to integrate the two environmental celebrations by organizing a six-week series of events that launches in April before Earth Day and culminates on World Environment Day, which this year will be held June 5.

"[World Environment Day] has a huge following around the world but we have to admit that in North America, it's been challenging," said Elisabeth Guilbaud-Cox, deputy director of the U.N. Environment Programme's regional office in Washington, D.C.

Ms. Guilbaud-Cox is in Pittsburgh this week to help kickoff the events as the city plays North American host for World Environment Day 2010.

"Earth Day is really well known, but we don't want to challenge it," she said. "So we came up with the 'bridging the gap' concept." More than 100 events are scheduled in and around Pittsburgh during the World Environment Day time frame, ranging from scientific symposiums to interactive arts displays at the Three Rivers Arts Festival.

Pittsburgh follows Omaha, Neb., and Chicago as North American host cities. "We were trying to do outreach to the heartland of the United States and share with them the accomplishments of the U.N. Environment Programme and the work that we do," said Ms. Guilbaud-Cox.

The U.N. Environment Programme was created in 1972, the same year as World Environment Day, to coordinate scientific information and act as the U.N.'s "leading authority on the environment" and to help countries "set their environmental agenda," she said.

Among its accomplishments, she said, has been establishing the Montreal Protocol, which banned the manufacture of harmful compounds known as chlorofluorocarbons used in refrigeration units; and working to save some endangered species including elephants.

Bayer Corp., the German-based chemicals and drug company with U.S. headquarters in Robinson, was instrumental in making connections for Pittsburgh to host this year's World Environment Day, Ms. Guilbaud-Cox said.

While all the activities scheduled locally should expose the community to environmental issues, she believes the most significant event is the Water Matters conference, scheduled for June 3 at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center.

Water as a resource is the theme of the Pittsburgh events and the June 3 conference, expected to attract participants from outside the region, will feature business owners, community leaders and others providing expertise on how best to use and conserve water.

Another important event, she said, is a May 27 symposium at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History that is being organized by the Rachel Carson Homestead and will feature E.O. Wilson, a scientist and professor emeritus at Harvard University who provided Ms. Carson, a Springdale native, with research for her book, "Silent Spring."

A number of events converged in the city this week to mark the launch of World Environment Day activities.

As part of the kickoff, Global Pittsburgh is hosting representatives from 11 countries who are being encouraged to consider the city for potential business partnerships and economic development opportunities.

Among the delegation were officials from Vietnam, Canada, Ireland, Belgium, Czech Republic, Germany, the Netherlands, Oman, South Africa, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

The group dined Wednesday night at the International Bridge Awards at Heinz Field and had lunch earlier in the day at Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens.

Tours and symposiums on the group's agenda focused on local initiatives in energy, life sciences and education, and were designed to showcase why the city was selected for last year's G-20 Summit and as a host city for World Environment Day.

On Wednesday the delegates visited the energy center at the University of Pittsburgh in Oakland, and today the group was scheduled to attend panel discussions featuring experts in carbon capture, Marcellus Shale, nuclear, wind and solar energy sources before touring UPMC Children's Hospital in Lawrenceville.

Also Wednesday, the city hosted the Women's Health and the Environment Conference, a free event at the convention center where a capacity audience heard Teresa Heinz and other speakers discuss links between the environment and health.

And tonight, winners will be announced at the CAUSE (Creating Awareness and Understanding of Our Surrounding Environment) Challenge High School Film Festival at the Carnegie Science Center. Students from throughout the region were invited to produce and submit films of five minutes maximum length featuring this year's theme, "Mutual Impact: The Environment and You."

Joyce Gannon: jgannon@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1580.


The New Emerald City

Pittsburgh has been earning oohs and aahs for our wizardry in the green revolution. This year, we roll out the green carpet as the North American host for World Environment Day.

Pittsburgh Magazine, By Lissa Rosenthal, April 2010


Why Pittsburgh as the North American host for World Environment Day (WED)? Perhaps it’s our transformation from smokestack industry to green economy or for our leadership and commitment to sustainability. Not to mention that we have bragging rights as the birthplace of Rachel Carson, founder of the contemporary environmental movement.

If Carson were still with us (other than in memory and as the namesake of a bridge downtown), she might find it surprising but probably would be ecstatic that we’ll be rolling out the green carpet starting on Earth Day, April 22, for a six-week, regionwide eco celebration. The event will culminate on June 5 when Pittsburgh will be the North American host for this year’s World Environment Day, a global event established in 1972 to raise environmental awareness and action.

Pittsburgh is one of six regional sites worldwide selected by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to host this year’s activities, which will focus on the theme “Biodiversity: Ecosystems Management and the Green Economy.”

But World Environment Day 2010 Pittsburgh is envisioned to be more than just a celebration; it’s also intended to be transformative and catalytic. “It is a very real opportunity for our region to create an economic strategy that will embrace the business of water,” says Court Gould, executive director of Sustainable Pittsburgh, a public-policy advocacy group that helps integrate economic prosperity, social equity and environmental quality for regional businesses and communities through sustainable solutions.

In the long run, the six-week span of events is designed to foster the development of water projects of lasting significance for the people of our planet.

Water Matters

Pittsburgh has the unusual distinction of being a city with three rivers—or more. The so-called “Fourth River,” one of the most reliable aquifers on the planet, runs beneath the Golden Triangle. These water sources are part of the reason WED organizers deemed “Water Matters!” as the specific focus of Pittsburgh’s WED activities, which include numerous activities on or near the rivers and the first global water conference at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center on June 3.

Pittsburgh WED supporting partners are Bayer Corp., the Bayer USA Foundation, the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation, the Hillman Foundation and the Richard King Mellon Foundation. A leadership group comprised of UNEP, Allegheny County, the City of Pittsburgh and Sustainable Pittsburgh oversees the event’s organizational efforts. But the entire partnership envisions WED as a way to catapult the region to the forefront of the world’s water stage and forge innovative solutions to water management, not only in our rivers, but also around the globe.

Unlike many parts of the United States and across the world, our region does not have a problem with water scarcity, but water quality is an issue.

“In terms of sustainability, Pittsburgh has come so far, whether it’s in innovation and research, environmental education, sustainable business practices or our efforts to improve the viability of our water supply,” says Greg Babe, president and CEO of Bayer Corp., which has its U.S. headquarters here. “As the North American host city for World Environment Day, the Pittsburgh region and the companies that call it home have a unique opportunity to focus on the water and its sources that surround our city. That is why we have chosen ‘Water Matters!’ as a focal point for the six-week period from Earth Day to World Environment Day.”

Green County

There are numerous new, exiting and ongoing green efforts in the private and public sectors of our region. And Allegheny County, aka “Green County,” is leading the way.

Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato says he is eager to show the world that the county is not only a leader in green technology but that it is leading by example. “Through our Allegheny Green initiative, the county is working to reduce our ecological footprint and is creating countywide policies and programs to further promote sustainable practices. We’re building green roofs and gardens, installing solar arrays and geo-thermal systems and expanding our parks and trails. We're also reclaiming and redeveloping brownfields, which sets future green development guidelines through our County Comprehensive Plan. In addition, we’re giving our residents the skills they need to compete for 21st-century jobs.”

Jeaneen Zappa, Allegheny County’s sustainability manager, is pursuing Onorato’s eco charge with her green gusto. One example is the installation of a green roof on the Allegheny County Office Building, located downtown. Half of the building’s roof, an area of 8,400 square feet, will be covered with a waterproof partition that contains native plants. These plants will provide an urban habitat for birds and butterflies, save energy, reduce storm-water runoff and cut down on the amount of pollution reaching our rivers. The roof also will serve as a model for residents and businesses to prove that green infrastructure works.

Many organizations are already actively participating in ecosystem management through the Pittsburgh Climate Initiative (PCI), a collaborative effort sponsored by the Roy A. Hunt Foundation, The Heinz Endowments and the Surdna Foundation. PCI’s goal is to lead residents, businesses, government and institutions of higher learning to increase awareness of actions that reduce pollution from global warming and its impact on health and the economy. PCI will adapt a water-conservation theme in recognition of WED by offering practical steps that Pittsburghers can make in support of water and ecosystem sustainability. (Info: pittsburghclimate.org)



Eco-Friendly Events for the New Emerald City

Pittsburgh-area government officials, businesses, organizations and individuals are planning an array of events and activities to complement World Environment Day (WED). Water and eco-related programming starts in the region in early April with the concentration of activities and events that “bridge the gap” during the six-week period from Earth Day on April 22 to WED on June 5. Most events are open to the public. Some “bridging the gap” events include the following:



April 22: EARTH DAY

C.A.U.S.E. Challenge High School Film Festival, hosted by partners Bayer Corp., Carnegie Science Center's Sci Tech Initiative and Pittsburgh Filmmakers. Pittsburgh-area high school students will present videos they created on the theme “Mutual Impact: The Environment and You” at the Carnegie Science Center’s Works Theatre.
Pittsburgh Zoo and PPG Aquarium will present special interactive and learning stations at the zoo to celebrate Wild Earth Day, hosted by the Conservation Education Department. This year’s Wild Earth Day will be filled with exciting, fun activities for students.
Pittsburgh Glass Center, one of only two green glass-art facilities in the United States, unveils its local juried exhibit, “From the Earth to the Fire and Back,” which continues through June 13. The exhibit showcases glass artwork addressing environmental concerns.

April 23-24:

Spring Earth Day Redd Up, hosted by Citizens Against Litter.

April 24:

Globalization Film Festival at Carnegie Mellon University.
Earth Day Cleanup in Panther Hollow, hosted by Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy, Friends of the Pittsburgh Urban Forest and Pennsylvania Resources Council.
Nine Mile Run Stream Sweep, hosted by Nine Mile Run Watershed Association.


Download 363.46 Kb.

Share with your friends:
1   2   3   4   5



The database is protected by copyright ©ininet.org 2024
send message
    Main page
executive director
global economy
environmental impact
widespread adoption
track record
life-cycle
water levels
fourth annual meeting