By Staff WritersNov 22, 2010 United Nations (AFP) – United Nations leaders will demand “concrete results” from the looming Cancun climate summit as global warming is accelerating, a top UN organizer of the event said Monday. Robert Orr, UN under secretary general for planning, said the next Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report on global […]
By Sean O’Grady, Economics EditorThursday, 18 November 2010 A food crisis could overtake the world in 2011, according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation, an agency of the United Nations. Climate change, speculation, competing uses such as biofuels and soaring demand from emerging markets in East Asia are the factors that will push global food […]
Geneva (AFP) Nov 3, 2010 – The United Nations on Wednesday launched an appeal for 38.9 million dollars in aid for 120,000 people struck by a five year drought in the east African state of Djibouti. United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Valerie Amos said many people were unable to feed their families, leaving one […]
By David Fogarty, Climate Change Correspondent, AsiaSINGAPORE | Fri Oct 22, 2010 3:25am EDT (Reuters) – Climate change is set to drive the spread of invasive plant and animals species, threatening forests, fisheries and crops, in a double blow to nature and livelihoods, a World Bank-funded report [UPDATE: Archived here: pdf] said on Friday. The […]
Measured on conventional indicators, water stress is increasing. Today, about 700 million people in 43 countries live below the water-stress threshold of 1,700 cubic metres per person—an admittedly arbitrary dividing line. By 2025 that figure will reach 3 billion, as water stress intensifies in China, India and Sub-Saharan Africa. Based on national averages, the projection […]
UPIOct. 19, 2010 at 11:00 AM ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Oct. 19 (UPI) — An estimated 20.2 million Pakistanis were affected by the monsoon-driven rains that inundated portions of the country, a U.N. agency reported Tuesday. Nearly 2 million homes were damaged or destroyed by the flooding that started during the summer, and at least 7 million […]
By Chisa Fujioka; editing by David FogartyMon Oct 18, 2010 9:44am EDT NAGOYA, Japan (Reuters) – The world cannot afford to allow nature’s riches to disappear, the United Nations said on Monday at the start of a major meeting to combat losses in animal and plant species that underpin livelihoods and economies. The United Nations […]
By Jeremy Hance, www.mongabay.com October 06, 2010 The cost of environmental damage to the global economy hit 6.6 trillion US dollars—11 percent of the global GDP—in 2008, according to a new study [executive summary pdf] by the Principles for Responsible (PRI) and UNEP Finance Initiative. If business continues as usual, the study predicts that environmental […]
By Rhett A. Butler, www.mongabay.comOctober 06, 2010 A new global assessment of forest stocks by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) shows a sharp acceleration of primary forest loss since 2005 despite gains in the extent of protected areas. FAO’s Global Forest Resources Assessment 2010 reveals some 13 million hectares of forest were cleared […]
By Paul Ohia with agency report 24 August 2010 Human rights organisation, Amnesty International (AI) yesterday challenged the credibility of data cited by the United Nations in an ongoing investigation of oil-impacted sites in Ogoniland which will almost entirely exonerate Royal Dutch Shell for 40 years of oil pollution in the oil rich region. Amnesty […]
