Tag: Biodiversity

The Great Fish Robbery — Global Issues

Illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing takes advantage of corrupt administrations and exploits weak management regimes, in particular those of developing countries lacking the capacity and resources for effective monitoring, control, and surveillance. Credit: Desmond Brown/IPS
  • by Baher Kamal (madrid)
  • Inter Press Service

MADRID, Jun 06 (IPS) – Now it comes to another ‘crime’ being stealthy committed as a consequence of the unrelenting business obsession for making more and more money.

It is about the illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, a practice that threatens marine biodiversity, livelihoods, exacerbates poverty, and augments food insecurity.

Not only: products derived from IUU fishing can find their way into overseas trade markets thus throttling local food supply.

Let alone the other ‘crime’ of the greed-motivated overfishing.

Illegal, unreported and unregulated

The International Day for the Fight against Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing (IUU) coincides on 5 June with the World Environment Day.

It also marked only three days ahead of the World Oceans Day on 8 June.

These three Days further reveal the dire impacts of the ongoing human suicidal war on the Planet Earth’s natural resources, precisely those that are vital to life and livelihood.

But before going into these consequences, see what IUU fishing is all about as defined by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO):

IUU fishing is found in all types and dimensions of fisheries; it occurs both on the high seas and in areas within national jurisdiction. It concerns all aspects and stages of the capture and utilisation of fish, and it may sometimes be associated with organised crime.

Illegal fishing is conducted by national or foreign vessels in waters under the jurisdiction of a State, without the permission of that State, or in contravention of its laws and regulations.

Otherwise, it is conducted by vessels flying the flag of States that are parties to a relevant regional fisheries management organisation but operate in contravention of the conservation and management measures by which the States are bound,

Unreported fishing is about captures that have not been reported, or have been misreported, to the relevant national authority, in contravention of national laws and regulations.And unregulated fishing is conducted by vessels without nationality, or by those flying the flag of a State not party to that organisation or by a fishing entity, in a manner that is not consistent with or contravenes the conservation and management measures of that organisation.

Criminals, corruption…

Such illegal activities take advantage of corruption and exploit weak management regimes, in particular those of countries lacking the capacity and resources for effective monitoring, control, and surveillance.

In all these cases, IUU fishing takes advantage of corrupt administrations and exploits weak management regimes, in particular those of developing countries lacking the capacity and resources for effective monitoring, control, and surveillance.

“Such illegal activities are responsible for the loss of 11–26 million tons of fish each year, which is estimated to have an economic value of 10–23 billion US dollars.”

Marine debris, litter

Moreover, there are issues of marine debris and marine litter involved in IUU fishing, which are not only related to marine environment but also the safe navigation of ships, explains the International Maritime Organisation (IMO).

In addition, types of fishing gear and fishing methods are employed by IUU fishers in areas where their use is prohibited, to the detriment of those areas’ resources (fish extracted) and the marine environment (destruction of corals, habitats, etc), where often these gears may get caught in bottom structures and thus be abandoned.

Overfishing

Parallelly, such ‘crime’ of depleting the oceans just adds to another major devastating human activity: overfishing.

The number of overfished stocks globally has tripled in half a century and today fully one-third of the world’s assessed fisheries are currently pushed beyond their biological limits, according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations.

Overfishing is closely tied to bycatch—the capture of unwanted sea life while fishing for a different species, reports the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

This, too, is a serious marine threat that causes the needless loss of billions of fish, along with hundreds of thousands of sea turtles and cetaceans, adds this Fund, which for over six decades has been working to help local communities conserve the natural resources they depend upon; transform markets and policies toward sustainability; and protect and restore species and their habitats.

“The damage done by overfishing goes beyond the marine environment, it warns. Billions of people rely on fish for protein, and fishing is the principal livelihood for millions of people around the world.”

It also reports that more than one-third of all sharks, rays, and chimaeras are now at risk of extinction because of overfishing, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species extinction risk status.

Harmful subsidies

The World Wildlife Fund additionally warns that subsidies, or support provided to the fishing industry to offset the costs of doing business, are another key driver of overfishing.

Subsidies can lead to overcapacity of fishing vessels and skewing of production costs so that fishing operations continue when they would otherwise not make economic sense.

“Today’s worldwide fishing fleet is estimated to be up to two-and-a-half times the capacity needed to catch what we actually need. The United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development has called for an end to harmful subsidies.”

More demand, more business

Meanwhile, the demand for fish continues to increase around the world, and that means more businesses and jobs are dependent on dwindling stocks, reports WWF, while adding the following:

Fish ranks as one of the most highly traded food commodities and fuels a 362 billion US dollars global industry. Millions of people in largely developing, coastal communities depend on the fishing industry for their livelihood and half the world’s population relies on fish as a major source of protein.

“When fish disappear, so do jobs and coastal economies. High demand for seafood continues to drive over-exploitation and environmental degradation, exacerbating this circular problem.”

© Inter Press Service (2022) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service

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A New Hope for Our Commons — Global Issues

Fuzzy boundaries that lead to costly and incomplete enforcement and overlapping land and property laws lend common lands to exploitation. | Picture Courtesy: Foundation for Ecological Security (FES)
  • Opinion  anand, india
  • Inter Press Service

ANAND, India, Jun 03 (IPS) – Common lands are natural resources that are used collectively by a community, such as forests, pastures, ponds, and ‘wastelands’. They act as a resource base for non-cash, non-market economies that provides fodder, fuelwood, water, oils, fish, medicinal herbs, and a wide variety of fruits and vegetables to the local communities.

Variousstudies estimate that common lands contribute between 12 and 23 percent to rural household incomes. They also capture carbon, act as repositories of biodiversity, and relics of indigenous knowledge.

India’s common lands have been steadily declining. Grazing lands alone faced a 31 percent loss in total area between 2005 and 2015. The pressures from rapid industrialisation, over-utilisation, and more perceivable ‘productive’ land uses like agriculture, infrastructure, and extraction are driving the change in the landscape. India’s clean energy transition is the latest addition to the mix.

Common lands are also vulnerable to encroachments and private expropriation as tenure is less likely to be legally recognised in common lands than in private lands. Fuzzy boundaries that lead to costly and incomplete enforcement and overlapping land and property laws compound this issue.

To tackle this problem, on January 28, 2011, the Supreme Court of India pronounced a landmark judgement to set in motion a mechanism for the preservation of common resources across the country. In the case titled Jagpal Singh & Ors vs State of Punjab & Ors, the court recognised the socio-economic importance of common lands and directed state governments to prepare schemes for speedy removal of encroachments. The lands were then to be restored to the gram panchayat for the common use of the village.

This judgement provided hope and momentum for rural communities to reclaim the lands they had lost to encroachments, and prompted state governments to evolve mechanisms for protection, management, and restoration of common resources through programmes like MGNREGA. It also served as an inflection point for lower courts to develop jurisprudence over common lands in the country.

What are public land protection cells?

Common lands cover 36 percent and 37 percent of the total land area of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh respectively, and ensure dignity, security, and livelihoods for millions of rural people. At the same time, the state courts have been inundated with public interest litigations over their encroachments.

Taking this into account and following the footsteps of the Jagpal Singh judgement, the Rajasthan High Court in 2019 and the Madhya Pradesh High Court in 2021 directed the respective state governments to establish permanent institutions known as public land protection cells (PLPCs).

These cells receive complaints on encroachments of rural common lands, follow the due process of law to resolve such disputes, and restore the resources to the gram sabha or gram panchayat.

Today, PLPCs have been constituted in each district of the two states and are headed by the district collector. These institutions are a welcome intervention when more than two-thirds of India’s court litigations relate to land or property and most land conflicts relate to common lands.

At a PLPC, communities can defend their common lands by making a direct representation and avoid navigating through the complex land legislations. This reduces the need to engage professional legal assistance or pay court fees and thus allows a larger section of the population to access legal recourse at a much cheaper cost.

By institutionalising an alternative mechanism for dispute resolution, lengthy and costly court battles can be avoided and the judicial workload can be lowered. At present, the high courts only entertain cases where PLPCs do not intervene; assuming the role of a watchdog allows the judicial processes to monitor conduct and ensure accountability of these cells.

How can PLPCs be made more effective?

Despite being at a nascent stage, PLPCs are already proving to be instrumental in democratising legal information, building access to justice, and providing swift redress in encroachment cases. However, the larger role that PLPCs can play for the management and governance of common lands, beyond just settling issues of encroachments, needs to be explored further.

‘Land’ is a subject that comes under the purview of the states. More often than not, common lands are legally classified as a subset of ‘government lands’, unless the ownership of a governmental department (such as the forest department) is already established.

The responsibility to survey, record, and maintain land records also lies with the state revenue departments. Simultaneously, the Panchayati Raj system assigns the gram panchayats the duty to manage and protect the village common lands.

However, experience from the ground shows that, while access and usage rights are usually recognised at the local level, they are not formally recorded. Even when common lands are entered into permanent land records, they are not routinely updated.

Spatial identification of their boundaries is also missing. Such informational gaps weaken the claim of the community, lead to poor use and neglect of common lands, and encourage private encroachments with little to no defense.

An ideal PLPC can attempt to address some of these barriers and focus on preventing encroachments rather than removing them as a corrective measure. For instance, a strong step forward can be to undertake comprehensive identification, survey, and boundary demarcation of common lands and prepare cadastral maps.

The Digital India Land Record Modernization Programme, which seeks to overhaul the management of land records, is also largely focused on private land ownership and titling. Common lands have also been omitted from the latest SVAMITVA Scheme, which uses drone technology to survey inhabited rural areas and formalise land tenure.

PLPCs can undertake a similar exercise to create an open-access, spatially referenced database for common resources and bring them to the foreground of land governance. They can then enable the database to be synchronised with panchayat asset registers, lay the groundwork for social audits, and be the baseline to monitor encroachments.

Recently, in an attempt to deal with rampant encroachments across the state, the Madras High Court directed the Tamil Nadu government to conduct satellite imaging of all water bodies and maintain them for each district as a reference point that these resources were once intact. The PLPCs could assume this responsibility by design.

To achieve responsive governance of common resources, the effectiveness of a top-down rule of law approach, which puts encroachments at the centre stage, needs to be evaluated. Land is a political issue, and thriving common lands characterise social capital, social cohesion, and social harmony.

PLPCs can thus focus on more effective interventions to support panchayats and village institutions in managing these resources. Working to improve social relations, while having conflict resolution as an auxiliary arm, may deliver more just outcomes.

Pooja Chandran is an environmental lawyer, policy researcher, and senior project manager at the Foundation for Ecological Security.

Subrata Singh is programme director at the Foundation for Ecological Security

This story was originally published by India Development Review (IDR)

© Inter Press Service (2022) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service

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Give Edible Insects a Chance as an Alternative High-Quality Protein Source, say Scientists — Global Issues

A variety of insect-based delicacies. It is estimated that 2.5 billion people around the world eat insects as part of their regular diet. Encouraging the eating of insects could have health and climate change benefits. Credit: icipe
  • by Joyce Chimbi (nairobi)
  • Inter Press Service

Nairobi, May 06 (IPS) – Growing up in Samoya Village of Bungoma County in the Western part of Kenya, Elvis Wanjala has fond childhood memories of the rainy season, chasing and catching black-bellied winged termites in the rain.

“The termites would also come inside the house, attracted by the light late in the evening. My mother would sun-dry the termites and pan-fry them. We would then eat the crunchy termites with ugali (posho) and a serving of traditional vegetables,” he recounts.

“I grew up believing that everybody ate termites. At 11 years, I visited my uncle in Nairobi and was shocked to find that termites were more of a nuisance than food. One morning after a heavy downpour, I watched in awe as women and girls swept termites from their doorsteps and threw them in the bin.”

Beatrice Karare from the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries tells IPS termites, and other insects such as grasshoppers, locusts, black and white ants, and crickets are part of traditional diets in Western Kenya, but not so in other parts of the country.

But with rising inflation, scientists at the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (icipe) say edible insects are a low-cost alternative to more expensive foods. The Kenyan ‘food basket’ indicates that food inflation rose by 20 percent in January 2022 compared to the same period in 2021.

Pan-dried desert grasshoppers. Credit: icipe
Pan-dried desert grasshoppers. Credit: icipe

Dr Saliou Niassy, a scientist from icipe, tells IPS edible insects contain high-quality protein, vitamins, fibre, calcium, iron, B vitamins, selenium, zinc, and amino acids and are also an excellent source of healthy fats.

Insect oil produced through an icipe research project from two edible insects – the desert locust and the African bush-cricket – was richer in omega-3 fatty acids, flavonoids, and Vitamin E than the plant oil.

Niassy says as this East African nation grapples with increasing threats to food security such as “climate change, landscape degradation and pest invasion, edible insects are a viable and affordable alternative.” It is projected that Africa’s annual food import bill of  $35 billion could rise to $110 billion by 2025.

A survey conducted by icipe shows there are an estimated 500 species of edible insects in African communities. The Central African region is home to approximately 256 edible insect species. East Africa hosts about 100 species, and about eight species are available in North Africa. An estimated 17 primary species are used for feed and food in Kenya.

“We have had two main challenges as far as increasing consumption of insects is concerned, a lack of legislation around the production, packaging, and marketing of insects for food and strong perceptions that dictate what is culturally acceptable as food. There are also strong beliefs that you must be very poor to eat insects,” Karare explains.

Karare says some of these issues were resolved in December 2020 when Kenya became the first African country to develop national standards regulating the production, handling, and processing of insects for food and feed.

Included in the regulation are stipulations of the necessary minimum infrastructural and environmental requirements necessary for the ideal production of edible insects, including how they are packaged and presented.

Wanjala, now a teacher based in Nairobi, says communities that do not eat insects and children could be slowly introduced to insect products such as biscuits “so that the idea of eating insects can slowly sink in. When it comes to eating whole insects, I find that people are also more likely to try dry-fried, crunchy insects.”

Despite the challenges of creating a viable and attractive market for insects, Karare is convinced that insects can be part of the diet in many homes, drawing parallels with the journey of Kenyans embracing traditional vegetables.

“A few years ago, highly nutritious traditional vegetables were eaten by a few communities. In Central Kenya, for instance, Amaranthus was considered to be food for poor people. Today, Amaranthus is a popular delicacy and part of the menu in five-star hotels. The same with pumpkin leaves,” Karare observes.

“We need to educate the people that edible insects can add nutrients to a plant-based meal. More importantly, insects can even nutritionally replace meat.”

These are pan-dried nsenene. Researchers say edible insects provide low-cost alternative protein. Credit: icipe

According to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), an estimated 2.5 billion people eat insects as part of their regular meals, whole or in processed food products such as snacks and pasta. Karare says the global edible insect market estimated at $112 million in 2019, could reach $1.5 billion by 2026.

There are approximately 1,900 edible species globally, including butterflies, cockroaches, crickets, grasshoppers, ants, bees, dragonflies, beetles, domestic silk moths, centipedes and locusts.

According to FAO, turning to insects is not only good for the body but highly environment friendly and could contribute to reducing the emission of harmful greenhouse gases. The livestock sector contributes significantly to climate change as total emissions from global livestock represent 14.5 percent of all anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions.

Cattle reared for beef and milk and inedible outputs such as manure and draft power account for 65 percent of the livestock sector’s emissions. Producing insects for food is yet another alternative to reducing the emission of harmful greenhouse gases, the FAO says.

Crickets need six times less feed than cattle, four times less than sheep, and half as much as pigs and broiler chickens to produce the same amount of protein. Additionally, insect-based products are found to have a much smaller carbon footprint in comparison to conventional livestock.

With these revelations, Niassy says there is a lot more to learn and benefit from, “we have just scratched the surface in terms of sustainable access to biodiversity for resilience, livelihood, food and nutritional security in Africa.”

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Big Business Depletes Nature, Big Business Supplants Naturewith Synthetic Food — Global Issues

If forest loss continues at the current rate, it will be impossible to keep warming below two degrees Celsius as pledged in the Paris Agreement.
Credit: José Garth Medina/IPS
  • by Baher Kamal (madrid)
  • Inter Press Service

MADRID, Apr 27 (IPS) – In case you were not aware, please know that humanity used to cultivate more than 6.000 plant species for food, but now instead fewer than 200 of these species make major contributions to food production. Out of these, only 9% account for 66% of total crop production.

Also that 33% of the world’s fish stocks are overfished.

And that 26% of the nearly 8.000 local breeds of livestock that are still in existence are now at risk of extinction.

And most coral reefs face too many pressures from pollution to overfishing and habitat destruction.

In addition, many species, including pollinators, soil organisms and the natural enemies of pests, that contribute to vital ecosystem services, are in decline as a consequence of the destruction and degradation of habitats, overexploitation, pollution and other threats.

There is also a rapid decline in key ecosystems that deliver numerous services essential to food and agriculture, including supply of freshwater, protection against storms, floods and other hazards, and habitats for species such as fish and pollinators.

All the above facts do not come out of the blue – they, among many others, are based on specific scientific findings provided by 91 countries and 27 international organisations, and contributions from over 175 authors and reviewers, who elaborated The State of the World’s Biodiversity for Food and Agriculture.

What is biodiversity for food and agriculture?

The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) explains that biodiversity is the variety of life at genetic, species and ecosystem levels. Biodiversity for food and agriculture is, in turn, the subset of biodiversity that contributes in one way or another to agriculture and food production, it says, adding the following:

Biodiversity includes the domesticated plants and animals that are part of crop, livestock, forest or aquaculture systems, harvested forest and aquatic species, the wild relatives of domesticated species, and other wild species harvested for food and other products.

It also encompasses what is known as “associated biodiversity”, the vast range of organisms that live in and around food and agricultural production systems, sustaining them and contributing to their output.

Biodiversity supplies many vital ecosystem services, such as creating and maintaining healthy soils, pollinating plants, controlling pests and providing habitat for wildlife, including for fish and other species that are vital to food production and agricultural livelihoods, adds FAO, while also explaining the following:

Biodiversity makes production systems and livelihoods more resilient to shocks and stresses, including those caused by climate change. It is a key resource in efforts to increase food production while limiting negative impacts on the environment.

It makes a variety of contributions to the livelihoods of many people, often reducing the need for food and agricultural producers to rely on costly or environmentally harmful external inputs.

Biodiversity at genetic, species and ecosystem levels helps address the challenges posed by diverse and changing environmental conditions and socio-economic circumstances.

Diversifying production systems, for example by using multiple species, breeds or varieties, integrating the use of crop, livestock, forest and aquatic biodiversity, or promoting habitat diversity in the local landscape or seascape, helps to promote resilience, improve livelihoods and support food security and nutrition.

“Many key components of biodiversity for food and agriculture at genetic, species and ecosystem levels are in decline. The proportion of livestock breeds at risk of extinction is increasing. Overall, the diversity of crops present in farmers’ fields has declined and threats to crop diversity are increasing.”

More than 6,000 plant species have been cultivated for food. Now, fewer than 200 make major contributions to food production globally, regionally or nationally. A sea of soy is seen near the city of Porto Nacional, on the right bank of the Tocantins River, Brazil. Credit: Mario Osava/IPS

Demolishing our own home

Should this not be enough, please also know that the world’s oceans are getting warmer because of increasing global carbon dioxide emissions.

Also that the world’s best-known coral reefs could be extinct by the end of the century unless more is done to make them resilient to our warming oceans.

In short, “We are wreaking havoc on our own home – the only home we have, the one home we all share,” UN General Assembly President Abdulla, Shahid said on 22 April 2022 on the occasion of the International Mother Earth Day.

But who is behind the destruction of biodiversity?

Obviously, those who have been making voracious profits by exploiting the essential infrastructure of all kinds of life on Earth, through their industrial intensive agriculture, the collection of genetic resources of flora and fauna to register them as their own “property”, the production of genetically modified food, and the over-use of chemicals.

They are also the big timber business destroying forests, inducing the waste of huge amounts of agriculture and livestock products to keep their prices the most profitable possible, and a long, very long etcetera.

And who profits from such destruction?

A specific, accurate answer to this question may be deduced from the numerous studies elaborated by Professor Vandana Shiva, the world-famous environmental activist from India, who is known for her opposition to big multinationals such as Monsanto for their “nefarious influence on agriculture.”

In her ‘must read’ report, The Corporate Push for Synthetic Foods: False Solutions That Endanger Our Health and Damage the Planet, Vandana Shiva informs that fully artificial food is an increasingly popular trend focused on developing a new line of synthetically produced, ultra-processed food products by using recent advances in synthetic biology, artificial intelligence, and biotechnology.

“These new products seek to imitate and replace animal products, food additives, and expensive, rare, or socially conflictive ingredients (such as palm oil), explains the world-known physicist, ecofeminist, philosopher, activist, and author of more than 20 books and 500 papers.

“Biotech companies and agribusiness giants are seeing the opportunity to move into this promising market of “green” consumption and hence these products are marketed to a new generation of environmentally conscious consumers who are growing critical of the grim realities of industrial food production.

“As a result, meatless burgers and sausages, as well as imitations of cheese, dairy products, seafood, and others, have begun to flood the market, being found anywhere from fast food chains to local grocery stores.

Such products market themselves as ‘eco-friendly’, ‘healthy’, and ‘sustainable,’ says Vandana Shiva, who already three decades ago, founded Navdanya and the Navdanya movement to defend Seed and Food sovereignty and small farmers around the world, as well as the Research Foundation for Science, Technology, and Ecology (New Delhi, India).

In short: big business has largely contributed to destroying the essential web of life… and big business now supplants Nature by producing synthetic food.

© Inter Press Service (2022) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service

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The Suicidal War on Nature Continues Unabated

The planet is losing 4.7 million hectares of forests every year – an area larger than Denmark, according to a new UN report. Credit: UNDP
  • by Baher Kamal (madrid)
  • Inter Press Service

MADRID, Apr 20 (IPS) – The gloomy picture is drawn from indisputable scientific conclusions and should be already known by everybody, in particular by decision-makers, whether they are politicians… or rather not.

Oceans filling with plastic and turning more acidic. Extreme heat, wildfires and floods, as well as a record-breaking Atlantic hurricane season, have affected millions of people. Even these days, we are still facing COVID-19, a worldwide health pandemic linked to the health of our ecosystem.

Climate change, man-made changes to nature as well as crimes that disrupt biodiversity, such as deforestation, land-use change, intensified agriculture and livestock production or the growing illegal wildlife trade, can accelerate the speed of destruction of the planet.

The message is clear. And it is now once more launched on the occasion of the International Mother Earth Day, marked 22 April 2022, coinciding with the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration.

“Ecosystems support all life on Earth. The healthier our ecosystems are, the healthier the planet – and its people. Restoring our damaged ecosystems will help to end poverty, combat climate change and prevent mass extinction…”

Making peace with nature

The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) report “Making Peace with Nature: A scientific blueprint to tackle the climate, biodiversity and pollution emergencies” translates the current state of scientific knowledge into crisp, clear and digestible facts-based messages that the world can relate to and follow up on.

“Humanity is waging war on nature. This is senseless and suicidal. The consequences of our recklessness are already apparent in human suffering, towering economic losses and the accelerating erosion of life on Earth,” said António Guterres, the United Nations Secretary General, in his forward to the report.

Major facts

Many staggering facts have been repeated on the occasion of Mother Earth Day. Here are just some of them:

  • None of the agreed global goals for the protection of life on Earth and for halting the degradation of land and oceans have been fully met.
  • Three quarters of the land and two thirds of the oceans are now impacted by humans. One million of the world’s estimated 8 million species of plants and animals are threatened with extinction, and many of the ecosystem services essential for human well- being are eroding.
  • It is estimated that around one million animal and plant species are now threatened with extinction.
  • The planet is losing 4.7 million hectares of forests every year – an area larger than Denmark.
  • A healthy ecosystem helps to protect humans from these diseases. Biological diversity makes it difficult for pathogens to spread rapidly.
  • Environmental changes are impeding progress towards ending poverty and hunger, reducing inequalities and promoting sustainable economic growth, work for all and peaceful and inclusive societies.
  • The well-being of today’s youth and future generations depends on an urgent and clear break with current trends of environmental decline.
  • The coming decade is crucial. Society needs to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 45 per cent by 2030 compared to 2010 levels and reach net-zero emissions by 2050 to achieve the 1.5°C Paris Agreement target, while at the same time conserving and restoring biodiversity and minimising pollution and waste.
  • Over the last 50 years, the global economy has grown nearly fivefold, due largely to a tripling in extraction of natural resources and energy that has fuelled growth in production and consumption.
  • The world population has increased by a factor of two, to 7.8 billion people, and though on average prosperity has also doubled, about 1.3 billion people remain poor and some 700 million are hungry.
  • The increasingly unequal and resource-intensive model of development drives environmental decline through climate change, biodiversity loss and other forms of pollution and resource degradation.

Over-production, over-consumption

Two more scientific worrying findings are the fact that every year, 570 million tons of food is wasted at the household level, according to the United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP) Food Waste Index Report 2021.

And that meanwhile over 800 million people are still hungry, and global food waste accounts for 8–10 percent of greenhouse gas emissions. Food waste accelerates the triple planetary crisis of climate change, nature and biodiversity loss, and pollution and waste.

There is plenty of information alerting against the ongoing devastating human war on Mother Nature.

Should you need to know more about what exactly is climate change and what does the Paris Agreement say? Also about what actions are being taken and who is carrying them out? What are the latest scientific reports on the subject? Are we in time to save Mother Earth? Discover it here.

It’s now or never

In its worth reading report Climate Change 2022: Mitigation of Climate Change, released on 4 April 2022, the Working Group III to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), world scientists warn that “without immediate and deep emissions reductions across all sectors, limiting global warming to 1.5°C is beyond reach.”

© Inter Press Service (2022) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service

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