GLOBAL ISSUES – Page 208 – IDN-InDepthNews

GLOBAL ISSUES2013-02-282023-07-10

Battle Against Post-harvest Losses Can Be Won

IDN-InDepth NewsReport

WASHINGTON DC (IDN) – Robert D. Hormats, Under Secretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment, speaking at a conference here on February 19, 2013, urged that solving the problem of post-harvest food losses should be made a global priority. That would be “a giant step forward” towards conserving the world’s natural resources. It would, as well, improve the food security of the world’s poor and boost the incomes of smallholder farmers in developing countries, he explained.

Measures to avoid post-harvest losses are “within reach” he emphasized – if “bold action” is taken.

ARMAMENTS2013-02-272023-07-10

I CAN Get Rid Of Nuclear Weapons!

By Xanthe Hall* | IDN-InDepth NewsViewpoint

BERLIN (IDN) – The latest acronym in the disarmament community is CHC. It stands for Catastrophic Humanitarian Consequences and is the message that the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear weapons (ICAN) is trying to get across, both to the general public and to governments. So far, so successfully.

ARMAMENTS2013-02-272023-07-10

U.S. Abandoning Commitment to Nuke-free World?

By Lawrence Wittner* | IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis

ALBANY (IDN) – In a major address in Prague on April 5, 2009, the newly-elected U.S. President, Barack Obama, proclaimed “clearly and with conviction America’s commitment to seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons.”

On January 24, 2013, however, Senator John Kerry, speaking at Senate confirmation hearings on his nomination to become U.S. secretary of state, declared that a nuclear weapons-free world was no more than “an aspiration,” adding that “we’ll be lucky if we get there in however many centuries.” Has there been a change in Obama administration policy over the past four years? There are certainly indications that this might be the case.

GLOBAL ISSUES2013-02-252023-07-10

Happiness is More than State of Mind

By Shastri Ramachandran* | IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis

NEW DELHI (IDN) – The big-versus-small debate pervades all facets of our lives. Big may be better, but small is smarter. This seems to be the subtext of a recent “happiness survey” in the Indian daily Hindustan Times. The happiness index was based on whether people are happy with their health, wealth and sex lives.

The survey’s findings are important for what they state as much as for what they conceal. Small is not always beautiful or smart.

Trade2013-02-222023-07-10

Global Trade Talks Remain Stuck

By R. Nastranis and Kinda Mohamadieh*
IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis

GENEVA (IDN) – Uncertainty clouds the fate of the current round of global trade negotiations under the umbrella of the World Trade Organization (WTO), which commenced in November 2011 and have been stalled since July 2008. All eyes are now set on the ninth ministerial conference (MC9) to be held on the Indonesian island of Bali December 3-6, 2013.

The reason behind the impasse, according to Dr Rubens Ricupero, a former UNCTAD Secretary-General, is that the advanced economies are retracting on their promises given at the WTO’s Fourth Ministerial Conference in Doha, Qatar, in November 2001.

ARMAMENTS2013-02-212023-07-10

What Oslo Conferences Mean For Nuke Abolition

By Alyn Ware* | IDN-InDepth NewsViewpoint

NEW YORK (IDN | Pressenza) – A meteor blasting into the atmosphere over Siberia (on February 15), injuring about 1000 people with debris, provided a graphic warning of the risk of a larger meteor, or even an asteroid, hitting earth. About the same time that the 10 ton meteor entered the earth’s atmosphere, an asteroid 15,000 times larger whizzed past planet earth. If the asteroid instead of the meteor had hit us, it could have wiped out civilization just as an asteroid hitting the earth 65 million years ago created climatic consequences that wiped out the dinosaurs.

ARMAMENTS2013-02-192023-07-10

High-Alert Nukes As If the Cold War Didn’t End

By Jamshed Baruah | IDN-InDepth NewsReport

BERLIN (IDN) – A new report by the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR) has come to a worrisome conclusion that the United States and Russia continue to maintain large numbers of nuclear forces on high levels of alert, ready to launch within minutes, as if the Cold War – which is believed to have ended more than two decades ago – was going on unabated.

Together with France and Britain, the four countries deploy approximately 2000 warheads ready for use on short notice – more nuclear warheads than held by all the other states in possession of nuclear weapons combined, finds the report titled Reducing Alert Rates of Nuclear Weapons, co-authored by Hans M. Kristensen, Director of the Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) and Matthew McKinzie from the Natural Resources of Defense Council.

USA and Canada2013-02-172023-07-12

Obama Retains Audacity of Hope

By Ernest Corea* | IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis

WASHINGTON DC (IDN) – Hostile and sometimes potentially humiliating treatment of some of President Barack Obama’s nominees or potential nominees for high office by opposing legislators provides a foretaste of what might lie ahead for legislation that will be formulated in line with the national agenda he outlined in his State of the Union Address on February 12.

His proposals cannot simply spring into life and become the law of the land without expert and empathetic management and implementation by senior officials, primarily members of his second term Cabinet that he is now in the process of putting together.

Indigenous Peoples2013-02-152023-07-10

Indigenous Peoples Find A New Dialogue Forum

By R. Nastranis | IDN-InDepth NewsReport

ROME (IDN) – The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), a specialized agency of the United Nations, has opened a new chapter in its longstanding engagement with indigenous peoples, majority of whom live in rural areas and face the dual challenges of poverty and marginalization. They were offered an important platform of dialogue at the first meeting of the Indigenous Peoples’ Forum at IFAD.

Climate Change2013-02-142023-07-10

UNFCCC Partners With Yet Another African Bank

By Jaya Ramachandran | IDN-InDepth NewsReport

BONN (IDN) – The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) secretariat is joining hands with the East African Development Bank (EADB) to establish a regional collaboration centre in Ugandan capital Kampala, to increase African countries’ participation in clean development mechanism (CDM) projects.

An agreement for the purpose was signed by UNFCCC Executive Secretary, Christiana Figueres, and the EADB Director General, Vivienne Yeda, on February 12.