 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
By Caroline Mwanga
NEW YORK (IDN) – The UN Secretary-General António Guterres has said that climate change is “the battle of my life”. The fact is that it’s a battle we are all fighting. The battle is taking place particularly in cities. The very basis of urban life is threatened: by rising sea levels, extreme temperatures, floods, droughts and storms. These are ravaging people’s homes, destroying infrastructure and jeopardizing vital access to basic services such as clean water and sewage.
By Bronwen Evans *
CHANTHABURI, Thailand (IDN) – There are generally two reasons why Thai farmers embrace organics – one is health and the other is economics. For 73-year old Kumnung Chanthasit it was the latter. He had farmed the same plot of land in Thailand’s eastern province of Chanthaburi since boyhood. Despite the rich volcanic soil, he found himself sinking deeper and deeper into debt as he struggled to pay for the fertilisers and pesticides he thought he needed.
Viewpoint by Manish Rai
NEW DELHI (IDN) – In August, the port city of Aden, which is currently the seat of exiled President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi government, was captured by southern separatists demanding secession of South Yemen. The separatists are backed by the UAE, Saudi Arabia’s “So Called” partners in Yemen. The recent clashes are not the first time the two sides – that is ,exiled President Hadi and Southern separatists – have engaged in deadly fighting.
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK (IDN) – Since independence, natural resources in Kenya have been on a fast track to extinction. Today, nearly half of all its forests are gone, resulting in more droughts, floods and other dire consequences for communities, ecosystems, food security and infrastructure.
From 10% of the country covered in forest in 1963, noted Kaluki Paul Mutuku, Youth4Nature Regional Coordinator, Africa Group, only 6% was covered in 2009.
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK (IDN) – The palm oil industry is growing by leaps and bounds around the globe but its overnight success is worrying environmentalists.
An estimated 7.5 million acres of land traditionally used or inhabited by local communities has been acquired by palm oil companies, according to GRAIN, a nonprofit that supports small farmers.
Viewpoint by René Wadlow
The writer is President, Association of World Citizens, a Nongovernmental Organization in Consultative Status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).
GENEVA (IDN) – The 14 September 2019 drone attacks on oil installations in eastern Saudi Arabia have dimmed hope for U.S.-Iranian discussions aimed to reduce tensions and potentially end the armed conflict in Yemen. Tensions have increased, and oil prices have risen. Certain hopes created by the initiatives of the French President during the G7 meeting in Biarritz, France and the forced departure of John Bolton as U.S. National Security Advisor have lessened.
By Josephine Latu-Sanft
The writer is Senior Communications Officer, Communications Division, Commonwealth Secretariat.
LONDON (IDN) – In the lead up to September 23 global climate summit in New York and barely two weeks after Hurricane Dorian battered The Bahamas, the Commonwealth’s top official is calling for urgent action to tackle climate change and its disastrous impacts.
Speaking at the UN Trade Forum (September 9-13) in Geneva, co-organised by the UNCTAD, the Commonwealth and other partners, Commonwealth Secretary-General Patricia Scotland stressed the need for responses to the global climate crisis to be more coordinated and more swiftly implemented.
By PACNEWS | Samoa Observer
APIA (ACP-IDN) – The Secretariat of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) States has mobilised more than 4 billion Euros ($12 billion tala, the currency of Samoa) for projects in ACP countries, including Samoa over the past six years, according to its Assistant Secretary-General, Viwanou Gnassounou.
“We have projects in every area including private sector developments, climate change, trade, natural disasters monitoring, prevention,” Gnassounou said in an interview with the Samoa Observer.
By Shastri Ramachandaran*
NEW DELHI (IDN) –The Modi-Putin relationship is, perhaps, the most fascinating of India’s external “affairs”. The reasons for their diplomatic bonding and evolving personal chemistry may be many. And, the dazzle of events and optics, as is the wont in any political romance, take the focus away from tangible outcomes.
This is what happened during the two-day visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the Russian port city of Vladivostok on September 4-5 for a summit meeting with President Vladimir Putin.
By Lowana Veal
REYKJAVIK (IDN) – It was widely believed that the U.S. military left Iceland in 2006 when they abandoned the base adjoining Iceland’s international airport at Keflavik on the southwest tip of the island.
But recent developments, in particular the visit of U.S. Vice-President Mike Pence to Iceland in early September and perhaps a previous visit of U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in February 2019, reveal other motives.
