Climate Action

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.

: Phil Harris; OPINION; 19 October 2020

Photo: Ugandan activist Vanessa Nakate (left) CC BY-SA 4.0 and South African climate activist Ayakha Melithafa (right) at DAVOS World Economic Forum in 2020. CC BY 3.0

African Teens on World Stage Demand Action on Climate Change

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg has at least two African partners stepping up on the global stage and telling world leaders to “wake up” and recognize the dangers to women and girls of climate change.

In a speech broadcast as part of the Desmond Tutu International Peace Lecture, Ugandan activist Vanessa Nakate tied climate change to poverty, hunger, disease, conflict and violence.

“See the danger we are in,” Nakate urged the leaders at the Tutu peace lecture.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 14 October 2020

Photo credit: United Nations Forum on Sustainability Standards.

Agribusiness Interests Hijack 2021 UN Food Systems Summit

Viewpoint by Anuradha Mittal *

OAKLAND, USA (IDN) – This World Food Day (October 16) amidst the ongoing pandemic and the devastating impact of the climate crisis, a Food Systems Summit is being planned a year from now by the United Nations, to fulfil the realization of the Sustainable Development Goals. As the Summit takes shape, it is obvious that it does not intend to trigger the deep systemic changes necessary to address the massive challenges that we face. The Summit will do more of the same – green and poor wash – to preserve and perpetuate interests of agribusiness and agro-chemical corporations at the expense of people and the planet.

: Opinion Editor; SUSTAINABILITY; Food security, nutrition & sustainable agriculture; 14 October 2020

Photo: Mr Nguyen Anh Tuan, CEO of Boston Global Forum

On Way to A Transatlantic Alliance on Digital Governance

A New Social Contract in the Age of Artificial Intelligence'

By Ramesh Jaura

BERLIN | NEW YORK (IDN) – People around the world are realizing that capitalism driven by Artificial Intelligence (AI) requires crafting a new sort of Social Contract, based on "stakeholder capitalism", that is, capitalism that benefits everyone.

"Such capitalism cannot measure itself by money alone, but instead must encompass all aspects of human life, using metrics such as those developed to quantify the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)," says Alex Pentland, director of MIT Connection Science, an MIT-wide initiative. He previously helped create and direct the MIT Media Lab and the Media Lab Asia in India.