OPINION

Image credit: sustainabledevelopment.un.org/sdgsummit

Everything Has to Change for Our Planet to Stay the Same

By António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations

NEW YORK (IDN) – Our planet is changing dramatically. Forests are burning, sea ice is shrinking, and the Greenland icecap is pouring unprecedented amounts of water into the ocean. Levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are higher than they have been in human history, climate disruption is the new reality, and scientists are warning that the planet is simply not capable of coping with the growing pressure being placed on it by humanity.

Since I became Secretary-General, I have witnessed what it means to live in a world that is, on average, one degree Celsius hotter than it was before the industrial revolution. I have come to know the dramatic force of natural disasters supercharged by climate change.

: UN Bureau; OPINION; 06 September 2019

Photo: Police firing tear gas to disperse protesters near Central Government Complex on 5 August 2019. VOA Cantonese. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

Non-violence Is the Need of the Hour in Hong Kong

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – The gloves are off in Hong Kong. Judging from the pictures on September 3 BBC News the police no longer have any compunction about beating protestors. Ironically, they don’t appear to get close to the fringe of protestors who are using violent tactics. Rather they are swinging their batons left right and centre at any young person they meet, even chasing them on to the metro trains where commuters get thwacked too.

It reminds me vividly of the tough sheriffs of Alabama and Mississippi in the 1960s who used dogs against the civil rights protestors and cracked heads.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 03 September 2019

Photo: Soviet Union conducted its first nuclear test in eastern Kazakhstan near the secret town of Semipalatinsk on August 29, 1949. Credit: Katsuhiro Asagiri | INPS-IDN August 2019

It Is Time to Close and Lock the Door on Nuclear Testing

Viewpoint by Daryl G. Kimball

The writer is Executive Director of the Arms Control Association. The following is the text of his article published in Arms Control Today.

WASHINGTON, DC (IDN | Arms Control Association) – Everybody knows that nuclear weapons have been used twice in wartime and with terrible consequences. Often overlooked, however, is the large-scale, postwar use of nuclear weapons: At least eight countries have conducted 2,056 nuclear test explosions, most of which were far larger than the bombs that leveled Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The United States alone has detonated more than 1,030 nuclear explosions in the atmosphere, underwater, and underground.

: Arms Control Association; OPINION; 02 September 2019

Photo: The night of 22 to 23 August 1791, in Santo Domingo (today Haiti and the Dominican Republic) saw the beginning of the uprising that would play a crucial role in the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade. Credit: UNESCOPhoto: The night of 22 to 23 August 1791, in Santo Domingo (today Haiti and the Dominican Republic) saw the beginning of the uprising that would play a crucial role in the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade. Credit: UNESCO

Remembering a Founding Tragedy of Our Modern World

Viewpoint by Ali Moussa

The writer is Coordinator of UNESCO's Slave Route Project. This article first appeared on UNESCO Website on 22 August 2019, a day before the International Day of Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolion initiated by UNESCO.

PARIS (IDN-INPS) – Among the major crimes that have marked human history, the slave trade and slavery are distinguished by their magnitude, their duration and the violence that accompanied them. It is difficult to understand how a tragedy of this scale could have been ignored for so long.

: UN Bureau; OPINION; 29 August 2019

New Climate Reality Is Frightening, But Surmountable

Viewpoint by Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana

The writer is Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP).

BANGKOK (IDN) – The past five years have been the hottest on record in Asia and the Pacific. Unprecedented heatwaves have swept across our region, cascading into slow onset disasters such as drought. Yet heat is only part of the picture.

: Ramesh Jaura; OPINION; 28 August 2019

Photo: Nigerian poet and novelist Ben Okri. Source: Wikimedia Commons

Great Novelist Ben Okri Explains Why Nigeria Has Become a 'Literary Factory'

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – “In the beginning there was a river. The river became a road and the road branched out to the whole world. And because the road was once a river it was always hungry.”

This must be one of the best opening lines ever penned by a novelist. It’s the work of the Nigerian novelist, Ben Okri, who won English literature’s premier annual award, the Booker prize, for his book, The Famished Road.

: Jonathan Power; ARTS & CULTURE; 27 August 2019

UN Chief Stresses the Urgency of Tackling Climate Emergency

Viewpoint by António Guterres

The UN Secretary-General met with the Group of Seven (G7) leaders during the 3-day summit to mobilize action ahead of the Climate Action Summit taking place in New York on September 23. Following are extensive excerpts from the transcript of his Press Encounter at the G7 Summit which ended in Biarritz on August 26.

BIARRITZ, France (IDN-INPS) – We are now facing a dramatic climate emergency. Last month was the hottest month on record. We are on track for 2015 to 2019 to be the five hottest years on record.

: UN Bureau; OPINION; 27 August 2019

The IAEA: In Search of a Director General

By Tariq Rauf *

VIENNA (IDN) – For only the sixth time in its 62 year history, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is engaged in the search for a new Director General. The Agency was established in Vienna in 1957, to promote the peaceful uses of atomic energy while preventing its misuse for weapons purposes, following the famous “Atoms for Peace” speech on December 8, 1953 by U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower at the United Nations.

: UN Bureau; OPINION; 27 August 2019

Photo: Ethiopian prime minister Abiy Ahmed plants a tree as part of the reforestation project. Credit: Office of the Prime Minister of Ethiopia.

Much More Needed than Planting a Trillion Trees

Viewpoint by Tim Christophersen

The growing enthusiasm for forests and trees is a good thing. But we need to be mindful of some pitfalls lurking along the way. With the right approach, we can make the conservation and restoration of ecosystems, including the planting of billions of new trees, a major step in building the sustainable future we all want, says Tim Christophersen, Branch Coordinator, Freshwater, Land and Climate at UN Environment as well as the Chair of the Global Partnership on Forest and Landscape Restoration in a blogpost.

: UN Bureau; OPINION; 25 August 2019

Photo: Secretary-General António Guterres launched Youth 2030, the United Nations Youth Strategy, at a high-level Event held at United Nations Headquarters in New York, 24 September 2018. Credit: Mark Garten/UN Photo

Educating Youth for Achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development

By Jayathma Wickramanayake

The writer is UN Secretary-General’s Envoy on Youth. Following are extensive excerpts from her article in July 2019 issue of the UN Chronicle. The views expressed do not necessarily imply official endorsement or acceptance by the United Nations.

NEW YORK (IDN-INPS) – At the end of May this year, I visited the Gaza Strip for the first time in my life. I was there to support the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) with their work on advocacy, policy influencing and resource mobilization. While visiting a school, I met two young people, Deema and Kareem, who were kind enough to show me around. Deema, Kareem and their friends dream of becoming teachers, doctors or engineers.