Healthy oceans: keeping Asia and the Pacific afloat
Viewpoint by Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana
The writer is the United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of ESCAP.
BANGKOK (IDN) – Memories of idyllic beaches and sonorous waves may seem far away while we remain at home. Yet, we need not look far to appreciate the enduring history of the ocean in Asia and the Pacific. For generations, the region has thrived on our seas. Our namesake bears a nod to the Pacific Ocean, a body of water tethered to the well-being of billions in our region. The seas provide food, livelihoods and a sense of identity, especially for coastal communities in the Pacific island States.
By Santo D. Banerjee
NEW YORK (IDN) -– In a dramatic warning from 13 Nobel Prize winners about the existential dangers of nuclear weapons and climate crisis, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists on January 23 set the hands of its iconic 'Doomsday Clock' to 100 seconds to midnight,
On April 25, during the Covid-19 crisis, over one thousand activists across the peace, climate, and social movements gathered online to take part in the first-ever virtual World Conference: Abolish Nuclear Weapons | Resist and Reverse Climate Change | For Social and Economic Justice.
By Ramesh Jaura
BERLIN (IDN) – German chancellor Angela Merkel and UN Secretary-General António Guterres have accentuated that any coronavirus recovery programme should have a clear focus on climate targets and rebuilding "our world for the better". They were addressing a two-day video conference in Berlin co-organised by Germany and Britain, the latter as the presidency of UN Climate Conference (COP 26).
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK (IDN) – A climate justice movement of over 100 major organizations in Africa and abroad has joined hands to press the African Development Bank (AfDB) to drop its support of an "exceptionally high-risk project" that threatens the livelihoods of millions of people in East Africa.
In a letter to the Bank President AfDB president Akinwumi Adesina, leaders of environmental and social groups from Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, and South Africa, among others, warned that the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) posed global climate risks and environmental damage including harm to freshwater supplies and biodiversity in the region.
By Kalinga Seneviratne
SYDNEY (IDN) – A positive outcome of the COVID-19 pandemic could be a better understanding of protecting biodiversity and a global ban on the trade in wild animals for food. The belief that COVID-19 began at a "wet market" in Wuhan in China, where wild animals were being sold for human consumption, has led to the Chinese government banning the trade in wild animals and a growing international campaign for this to be made into an enforceable international law. (P01) ARABIC | CHINESE | INDONESIAN | JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF
Viewpoint by Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana
The writer is Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP).
BANGKOK (IDN) – The unprecedented public health emergency triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic and its multi-faceted impact on people's lives around the world is taking a heavy toll on Asia and the Pacific.
Viewpoint by Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana.
The writer is the United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of ESCAP.
BANGKOK (IDN) – Rising economic prosperity and poverty reduction may not tell the whole story of progress in Asia and the Pacific. Telling signs in the natural world recount a narrative that is far from complete. This year has been particularly affected by the COVID-19 global health pandemic, with devastating impacts on our health and the economy. Yet, building on its achievements, the region must continue its drive towards a sustainable conclusion.
By Jaya Ramachandran
GENEVA (IDN) – A new UN study has warned of accelerating climate change on land, sea and in the atmosphere. Compiled by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), parented by the United Nations Economic and Social Council, the report documents impacts of weather and climate events on socio-economic development, human health, migration and displacement, food security and land and marine ecosystems.
Viewpoint by Simone Abram*
DURHAM, UK (IDN) – How do you respond to a crisis? It's obvious that the response to the COVID-19 pandemic has been dramatically different to anything provoked by repeated scientific warnings about climate change. The many organisations that declared climate emergencies throughout 2019 and 2020 have so far enacted nothing like the scale and speed of action to limit the spread of coronavirus.
Viewpoint by John Scales Avery*
COPENHAGEN (IDN) – The Industrial Revolution marked the start of a massive human use of fossil fuels. The stored energy from several hundred years of plant growth began to be used at roughly a million times the rate at which it had been formed. The effect on human society was like that of a narcotic. There was a euphotic (and totally unsustainable) surge of growth of both population and industrial production.
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