By Zadie Neufville Negril, Jamaica, Aug 24 (IPS) – Ceylon Clayton is trying to revive a sea moss growing project he and friends started a few years ago to supplement their dwindling earnings as fishermen. This time, he has sought…
Category: Columns
China’s renewable-energy revolution
Jiang Kejun and Jonathan Woetzel Beijing – At the start of 2017, China announced that it would invest $360 billion in renewable energy by 2020 and scrap plans to build 85 coal-fired power plants. In March, Chinese authorities reported that…
Climate migrants might reach one billion by 2050
By Baher Kamal Rome, Aug 21 (IPS) – Imagine a world with as many as one billion people facing harsh climate change impacts resulting in devastating droughts and/or floods, extreme weather, destruction of natural resources, in particular lands, soils and…
Weathering the violence of climate change
Gulrez Shah Azhar Santa Monica – With India experiencing its worst drought in 140 years, Indian farmers have taken to the streets. At a protest in Madhya Pradesh this summer, police opened fire on farmers demanding debt relief and better…
A greener grid for East Asia
Sung-Young Kim and John A. Mathews Sydney – Not long ago, the future of nuclear power was in Asia. In 2015, nine of the ten reactors that opened globally were on the continent. But recent declarations by South Korea and…
Minamata Convention, curbing mercury use, is now legally binding
By IPS World Desk Rome, Aug 16 (IPS) – The Minamata Convention — a legally-binding landmark treaty, described as the first new environmental agreement in over a decade – entered into force August 16.
Population aging hallmark of 21st century
While rapid population growth may be the defining feature of the 20th century, with world population nearly quadrupling from 1.6 to 6.1 billion, the hallmark of the 21st century is likely to be population aging.The consequences of the population aging…
Celebrating International Day of World’s Indigenous Peoples
Danielle Nierenberg On the 2017 International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, the United Nations is celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). The Declaration, formally adopted in 2007, is an international human…
You cannot trap the ‘Magic Rat’: Trump, Congress and Geopolitics
Robert J. Burrowes A wonderful thing about observing and analysing the human mind is that there is a seemingly infinite variety of phenomena to observe and analyse. I sometimes wonder if it is even remotely possible to master this subject…
Why world needs indigenous communities to steward their lands
By Manipadma Jena Bhubaneswar, India, Aug 7 (IPS) – “Showing them a picture-book crow, I intone ‘kaak’ in Bengali, the State language. While others repeat in chorus, the tribal Santhali first-graders respond with a blank look. They know the crow…
Gender equality? It’s still a man’s world
By Anna Shen San Francisco, California, Aug 3 (IPS) – Gender inequality is the greatest moral and social issue of our time — and the world’s most critical economic challenge. If half of the global population cannot fulfil their human…
Urgent action needed on Hepatitis C
By Martin Khor It’s not acceptable that 500,000 M’sians are infected with the disease but cannot afford treatment when a total cure is available. WORLD Hepatitis Day fell on July 28. So it was timely that the alarming situation of…
Which country is the most sustainable?
Danielle Nierenberg The Food Sustainability Index (FSI), developed by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) with the Barilla Center for Food & Nutrition (BCFN) Foundation, ranks countries on food system sustainability based on three pillars: food loss and waste, sustainable agriculture,…
Gender pay gap in Europe
by Alexandra Scheele Though the two principles “equal pay for equal work” and “equal pay for work of equal value” have been legally fixed with the European Treaty of Rome 1957 as well as with the subsequent Equal Pay Directive…
China seeks to export its green finance model to the world
Hand in hand with UN Environment and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) disembarked in the Argentine capital to prompt this country to adopt and promote the agenda of so-called green finance, which supports clean…
‘The time is now’ to invest in youth, girls
By Tharanga Yakupitiyage UN, Jul 28 (IPS) – The demographic dividend: though not a new concept, it is one of the major buzzwords at the UN this year. But what does it really mean? There are 1.8 billion young people…
The bilateral relationship that matters
By Chandra Muzaffar Which is the most important bilateral relationship in the international arena today? Many analysts would argue that it is the relationship between the United States of America and China that has the greatest significance for the world.…
Biological annihilation on Earth accelerating
Robert J. Burrowes Human beings are now waging war against life itself as we continue to destroy not just individual lives, local populations and entire species in vast numbers but also destroy the ecological systems that make life on Earth…
The unnoticed demise of democracy
By Roberto Savio Rome, Jul 24 (IPS) – Politicians are so busy fighting for their jobs, they hardly seem to notice that they risk going out of business. Democracy is on the wane, yet the problem is nowhere in Parliaments.…
Unmasking the climate-change deniers
Benjamin Franta Stanford – Twenty-five years after the adoption of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change on May 9, 1992, the world has yet to implement a treaty that effectively addresses global warming. Now, following President Donald Trump’s withdrawal…
No good choices for UK in the Brexit negotiations
by Brendan Donnelly David Davis has been criticised in some quarters for spending only two hours in Brussels this week negotiating with Michel Barnier before returning hurriedly to London. This criticism is misplaced. As Secretary of State for Exiting the…
The EU’s mafia state
Following the collapse of communism, many of us in Central and Eastern Europe had hoped that the region would steadily move toward liberal democracy and that any obstacles en route to that goal could be overcome. But in many former…
Why can’t the US left get Venezuela right?
By Shamus Cooke As Venezuela’s fascist-minded oligarchy conspires with U.S. imperialism to overthrow the democratically elected government of Nicolas Maduro, few in the U.S. seem to care.
Prepare now for the next financial crisis
By Martin Khor Penang, Malaysia, Jul 22 (IPS) – The Asian financial crisis started 20 years ago and the global financial crisis and recession 9 years back. When a new global financial crisis strikes, the developing countries will be more…
Twenty initiatives saving seeds for future generations
Danielle Nierenberg By saving, exchanging, and re-using seeds over thousands of years, farmers and gardeners carefully selected crops for various traits adapted to many growing conditions and climates, creating a rich genetic plant heritage that formed the base of the…
Is social democracy facing extinction in Europe?
by Davide Vittori The last French presidential election and the recent legislative elections confirmed a seemingly unstoppable declining trend in the electoral support of social democratic parties. For the second time in the last fifteen years, the official candidate of…
The health costs of environmental change
by Shaukat Aziz Oxford – In recent years, the world has become increasingly preoccupied with the catastrophic potential of global warming and other human-induced environmental changes, and rightly so. But one of the most serious risks has been all but…
Reforming the international financial system
By Jomo Kwame Sundaram Kuala Lumpur, Jul 13 (IPS) – When we fail to act on lessons from a crisis, we risk exposing ourselves to another one. The 1997-1998 East Asian crises provided major lessons for international financial reform. Two…
Brexit to nowhere?
Politics brings out strong emotions in everyone. Even the British, despite their reputation for pursuing their interests in a cool and calm fashion, apparently are not immune. Perhaps that reputation is merely a holdover from the long-gone British Empire. It…
Inspiring change: 21 lifelong food heroes
Danielle Nierenberg Building a better food system requires hard work and perseverance. At Food Tank, we are continuously inspired by the people who have dedicated their lives to making food more sustainable, equitable, and nutritious. Food Tank is recognizing these…