- News source:
- September 2010
- Scientific American
If the 20th century was an expansive era seemingly without boundaries—a time of jet planes, space travel and the Internet—the early years of the 21st have showed us the limits of our small world. Regional blackouts remind us that the flow of energy we used to take for granted may be in tight supply. The once mighty Colorado River, tapped by thirsty metropolises of the desert West, no longer reaches the ocean. Oil is so hard to find that new wells extend many kilometers underneath the seafloor. The boundless atmosphere is now reeling from two centuries’ worth of greenhouse gas emissions. Even life itself seems to be running out, as biologists warn that we are in the midst of a global extinction event comparable to the last throes of the dinosaurs.
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- News source:
- first published March 2010
- UN-HABITAT
While nearly a quarter of a billion people escaped life in the slums over the past decade, rural exodus to the cities has more than countered this trend. Sustainable urban development is likely to prove impossible if the urban divide is allowed to persist, finds a report by UN-HABITAT…
The report calls on governments to implement inclusive policies to narrow inequalities dividing residents of many cities in developing nations and allow them access to decent housing, transport, education, recreation, communication, employment and the judiciary… more including full report
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- News source:
- 24 August 2010
- By Bryan Farrell
The eight-foot-long Norwegian electric car Buddy may not be most people’s idea of a perfectly sized car, but it is the perfect size for blocking train tracks, as the activist group Neptune Network recently proved, when it managed to block shipments from a mine that was polluting a nearby salmon-fjord.
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- News source:
- 20 August 2010
- The Consensus Building Approach
- By Lawrence Susskind
National Public Radio featured a story this week about growing opposition to renewal energy facilities, particularly wind power. The wind advocates were asked how they might overcome local opposition — dubbed the NIMBY syndrome — in the future. The spokesperson said, “We’ve got to get in there earlier and educate people.” Wrong! How arrogant! You think people are opposed because they don’t understand? No, they’re opposed because the “costs” and “impacts” ON THEM are likely to outweigh the likely benefits TO THEM. The only way to overcome the NIMBY syndrome, regardless of the type of facility involved, is to make sure that the overwhelming majority of people in the area believe that the benefits TO THEM will outweigh the costs and impacts THEY are likely to experience if a facility is built.
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- News source:
- 17 August 2010
- TIME
- By Krista Mahr
Residents living along the shores of Lake Kivu in central Africa have always appreciated – and feared – its power. In Swahili, the word mazuku, or “evil wind,” refers to pockets of deadly, odorless gas that seep from the lake, killing whatever happens to be in its path. Two hundred and fifty feet below the surface of Lake Kivu, which covers an area of roughly 1000 square miles on a natural border between Rwanda and Congo, some 250 cubic kilometers of carbon dioxide is lurking, along with another 65 cubic kilometers of methane. Every so often, some escapes.
Yesterday, the Guardian’s east Africa correspondent Xan Rice wrote about Rwanda’s efforts to harness some of that deadly potential for clean energy.
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- News source:
- Abstract posted 6 August 2010
- Abstract posted on Zunia.com
- By Aon Benfi eld UCL Hazard Research Centre, University College London
This report intends to open up a dialogue on an issue, it asserts, that could put the lives and livelihoods of millions of people at risk in the foreseeable future. This issue is water – water as a vital resource and as a potential crisis driver in the Hindu-Kush Himalaya (HKH) region.
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- News source:
- 2 August 2010
- Bloomberg
- By Elisha Bala-Gbogbo
International oil companies operating in Nigeria’s Niger Delta region agreed to set up a fund to cover the costs of oil spills, the country’s environment minister said.
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- News source:
- 2 August 2010
- Arab News
- By IMAN KURDI
Last Wednesday, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution declaring access to clean water and sanitation a fundamental human right.
It sounds like a no-brainer. Surely all of us think that having clean water to drink and basic sanitation is a “right that is essential for the full enjoyment of the right to life,” to quote the resolution, or at least I hope so. But merely wishing something is one thing. Delivering it and making it a reality is quite another.
For a start, the resolution was passed without consensus. A total of 41 countries abstained, and these included the US, Canada, Great Britain, Israel and Turkey.
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- News source:
- 30 July 2010
- Yes! Magazine
- "Embarrassed to go on record against the right to this fundamental liquid, not one country voted against it."
- By Daniel Moss
A remarkable piece of water history should have been headline news everywhere this week.
After over a decade of grassroots organizing and lobbying, the global water justice movement achieved a significant victory when the United Nations General Assembly voted overwhelmingly to affirm “the right to safe and clean drinking water and sanitation as a human right that is essential for the full enjoyment of life and all human rights.”
The resolution—put forward by Bolivia and co-sponsored by 35 states—passed overwhelmingly with 122 states voting in favor and 41 abstaining.
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- News source:
- 10 May 2010
- Mongabay.com
- By Jeremy Hance
One of Africa’s largest exporters of tropical hardwoods, Cameroon, has announced today a trade agreement with the European Union (EU) to rid all illegal wood from its supply chain to the EU and worldwide. Cameroon signed a legally-binding Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) that will cover all wood products produced in Cameroon.
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- News source:
- 10 May 2010
- Mongabay.com
- By Rhett Butler
Indigenous groups in the Colombian Amazon have long suffered deprivations at the hands of outsiders. First came the diseases brought by the European Conquest, then came abuses under colonial rule. In modern times, some Amazonian communities were virtually enslaved by the debt-bondage system run by rubber traders: Indians could work their entire lives without ever escaping the cycle of debt. Later, periodic invasions by gold miners, oil companies, colonists, and illegal coca-growers took a heavy toll on remaining indigenous populations. Without title to their land, organization, or representation, indigenous Colombians in the Amazon seemed destined to be exploited and abused.
But new hope would emerge in the 1980s, thanks partly to the efforts of Martin von Hildebrand, an ethnologist who would help indigenous Colombians eventually win control over 260,000 square kilometers (100,000 square miles) of Amazon rainforest…
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- News source:
- 10 May 2010
- Mongabay.com
- By Jeremy Hance
A joint report released today by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the UN Environment Program (UNEP) finds that our natural support systems are on the verge of collapsing unless radical changes are made to preserve the world’s biodiversity.
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- News source:
- 28 April 2010
- Canada.com
- By Randy Boswell, Canwest News Service
An unexpected landmark agreement this week between Norway and Russia on where to draw an offshore boundary in the oil-rich Barents Sea heralds a new era of circumpolar peace, says a leading Canadian expert on Arctic affairs.
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- News source:
- originally posted 19 March 2010
- Tantalum Investing News
The movement to stop the flow of Congo conflict minerals into the global supply chain is growing and activist groups like The Enough Project are employing several tactics to get the message out…
The public outcry against conflict minerals is already having an impact on the industry. Some of the world’s top manufacturers and processors of tantalum will be meeting in Boston this April to discuss how to develop a certification process for smelters whose tantalum is procured through “socially and environmentally responsible mines.” The conference is sponsored by The Electronic Industry Citizenship Coalition and hosted by Cabot Corp., one of the global leaders in tantalum products.
With pressure mounting to provide transparency and responsibility in the supply chain for the electronics industry, the investment case for miners exploring for tantalum in conflict-free regions is increasing.
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- News source:
- 13 April 2010
- Reporting on Conflict
- By Catherine Morris
April 10 marked the launch of a useful new website created by Michael Mulley who aims to make the work of Canada’s Parliament accessible and to encourage transparency in government. “For all its routine and formal trappings, Parliament remains a crucial engine of our democracy,” states the website. “And it all happens in the open. But, too often, information that’s technically available is difficult to find and use. This site aims to make some of that information.”
You can look up government bills and private members’ bills to see their progress through Parliament. Of particular interest to me are Bill C-447, a private member’s bill to Establish a Department of Peace, and Bill C-300 Respecting Corporate Accountability for the Activities of Mining, Oil or Gas in Developing Countries. Feeds are available for each Bill.
You can also follow the latest House Transcripts, or the activities of particular Members of Parliament.
This excellent effort makes it so much simpler to follow activities of Parliament. Otherwise one needs to use the publicly accessible but cumbersome Parliamentary website. Thanks to Michael Mulley for this extraordinarily helpful voluntary project.
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- News source:
- 8 April 2010
- CNN
- (See video)
- By CNN Wire staff
Prague, Czech Republic – President Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Thursday signed a major nuclear arms control agreement that reduces the nuclear stockpiles of both nations.
The new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty — known by its acronym, START– builds on a previous agreement that expired in December.
The agreement cuts the number of nuclear weapons held by the United States and Russia by about a third.
“This day demonstrates the determination of the United States and Russia — the two nations that hold over 90 percent of the world’s nuclear weapons — to pursue responsible global leadership,” Obama said after the signing.
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- News source:
- 27 March 2010
- Abstract on Zunia.org
- By preventionweb.net
The overall purpose of this paper is to evaluate the substantive results of the Copenhagen conference, including the status of the negotiations on the key issues under the formal negotiating tracks and the provisions of the Copenhagen Accord, and to draw implications for implementation of actions in developing countries… full text .pdf
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- News source:
- 22 March 2010
- UN News Centre
More people die from unsafe water than from all forms of violence, including war, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said today, calling for better protection and sustainable management of one of the Earth’s most precious resources on the occasion of World Water Day…
In his message, Mr. Ban highlighted that water is vitally linked to all UN development goals, including maternal and child health and life expectancy, women’s empowerment, food security, sustainable development and climate change adaptation and mitigation.
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- News source:
- 1 March 2010
- Globe and Mail
- By Frances Bula
Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson heads east to Ottawa this week, to spend some of the political capital that he and the city have amassed during the successful run of the 2010 Games.
On his shopping list: a national housing strategy to help Vancouver’s homeless, and greater funding for transit, both from the federal and B.C. governments.
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