Climate Action

Photo: Plastic waste on a beach in Hawaii. Credit: NOAA

Pacific Ocean’s Delicate Ecology Under Threat

By Jodie L Rummer, Bridie JM Allan, Charitha Pattiaratchi, Ian A Bouyoucos, Irfan Yulianto and Mirjam van der Mheen*

In the run-up to the COP26 climate change conference scheduled for November 2021 in Glasgow, Scotland, The Conversation has prepared a five-part series entitled Oceans 21 examining the history and future of the world’s oceans. This is the second article in the series which looks at the Pacific Ocean, an ocean so vast that it may seem invincible. Click here for the first article on the series.

: Phil Harris; SUSTAINABILITY; Climate Action; 09 December 2020

Photo: The Indian Ocean could play a major role in future climate change. Credit: Earth.com

The Rich Historical Archive That Is the Indian Ocean

By Isabel Hofmeyr and Charne Lavery*

In the run-up to the COP26 climate change conference scheduled for November 2021 in Glasgow, Scotland, The Conversation has prepared a five-part series entitled Oceans 21 examining the history and future of the world’s oceans. This is the first article in the series which looks into ancient Indian Ocean trade networks.

JOHANNESBURG | PRETORIA (IDN) – On many beaches around the Indian Ocean, keen observers may spot bits of broken pottery. Washed smooth by the ocean, these shards are in all likelihood hundreds of years old, from centres of ceramic production like the Middle Eastern Abbasid Caliphate and the Chinese Ming dynasty.

: Phil Harris; SUSTAINABILITY; Climate Action; 09 December 2020

Photo: The panorama of Port Vila, capital and largest city of Vanuatu. CC BY 2.0

Vanuatu's Development Success Overshadowed by COVID-19

Viewpoint by Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana

Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana 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 Pacific Island Developing State of Vanuatu has emerged as one of the region’s great success stories. Vanuatu has joined the ranks of Samoa and the Maldives as one of only six countries to graduate from being a least developed country since the category was introduced by the United Nations in 1971.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 08 December 2020

Human Exploitation of the Biosphere Threatens Mass Extinction

Viewpoint by John Scales Avery*

COPENHAGEN (IDN) – According to a recent United Nations report, more than a million species of plants and animals are currently threatened with extinction because of human activities. Rates of extinction today are as much as 1,000 times greater than the normal background rate.

As the greenhouse gas emissions of human society push the earth towards catastrophic climate change, rates of extinction in the biosphere will certainly become higher.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 06 December 2020

Photo: AndryaHart: Rocky creek in the rainforest that could be submerged or destroyed by the Dunoon dam. Credit: Andrya Hart.

Australia: Veteran Environmental Campaigners Gear Up for a New Battle

By Kalinga Seneviratne

This article is the 45th in a series of joint productions of Lotus News Features and IDN-InDepthNews, flagship agency of the Non-profit International Press Syndicate. Click here for previous reports.

CHANNON (IDN) – In the late 1970s, they were breastfeeding youthful mothers seen on national television blocking the path of bulldozers sent in to fell timber forests in Terania Creek close by. Today they are grandmothers still living in this pristine rain forest area gearing up for possibly another epic battle, with the same passion, to stop the local council and developers building a dam here and flooding precious rainforests and sacred Aboriginal sites.

: Kalinga Seneviratne; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 30 November 2020

Photo credit: Global Bioeconomy Summit 2020:

A Global Summit Calls for Transition to the Bioeconomy

By Rita Joshi

BERLIN (IDN) – Global environmental threats, the opportunities brought by new sciences, and the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic call for the transition to the bioeconomy, says the communiqué emerging from the Global Bioeconomy Summit 2020 organised by the International Advisory Council on Global Bioeconomy (IACGB) composed of about forty high-level policy experts and drivers of the bioeconomy in all hemispheres. The transition is "more critical than ever before".

: Rita Joshi; SUSTAINABILITY; Food security, nutrition & sustainable agriculture; 24 November 2020

Australia: Environmentalists' Market 40 Years on Going Strong

By Kalinga Seneviratne

CHANNON (IDN) – At the peak of the hippie movement in the West, in 1976, the traditional farming village here in this scenic setting was a battleground between loggers and environmentalists who had travelled from across Australia, to stop the clear-felling of the rainforest at Terania Creek close by. This was the first direct action protest in Australia.

Many of the environmentalists decided to settle in the region, buying cheap agricultural land and setting up communities with a "back to the land" philosophy.

: Kalinga Seneviratne; SUSTAINABILITY; Climate Action; 17 November 2020

Photo: Fire at Kilimanjaro National Park, United Republic of Tanzania. Credit: TANAPA/TANAPA

Kilimanjaro Threatened by Fires Which Shaped It

Viewpoint by Andreas Hemp*

BAYREUTH (IDN) – In October 2020, firefighters in Tanzania had to tackle a number of fires on Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa’s tallest mountain and the largest free-standing mountain in the world. The mountain and surrounding forests fall into Kilimanjaro National Park, named a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1987. Andreas Hemp provides a glimpse into the mountain’s natural environment and the challenges it faces.

: Phil Harris; OPINION; 15 November 2020

The Need to Engage Youth Social Entrepreneurs to Accelerate the SDGs

Viewpoint by Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana

Ms. Alisjahbana, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) was Professor of Economics at Universitas Padjadjaran in Bandung, Indonesia.

BANGKOK (IDN) – This year, the United Nations is marking its 75th anniversary – a milestone of extraordinary economic and social progress in Asia and the Pacific. While the Organization enjoys a lifespan almost equal to the world’s improved average life expectancy, the future lies with those who have recently embarked on theirs: our young people.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 30 October 2020

Photo: Reverend John MacArthur. Credit: Wikimedia.

The US Pastor Who Preaches Climate Change Denial

Viewpoint by Paul Braterman*

LANCASTER (IDN) – Every so often you come across a piece of writing so extraordinary that you cannot help but share it. One such piece is a sermon on global warming by American pastor John MacArthur. Full of beautifully constructed rhetorical flourishes, it is forcefully delivered by an experienced and impassioned preacher to a large and appreciative audience.