UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for a renewed commitment to finish what they have started and to make the AIDS epidemic a thing of the past. “The world is well on its way to meeting the target of ending…
Category: Op-Ed
Reducing the health burden due to pollution
By Olusoji O. Adeyi and Julia Bucknall Heavy smog compelled New Delhi to declare a pollution emergency last week. As air pollution soared to hazardous levels and residents donned masks, India’s capital took a series of measures, such as banning…
Killing biosphere to fast-track human extinction
Robert J. Burrowes Several years ago in Cameroon, a country in West Africa, a Western Black Rhinoceros was killed. It was the last of its kind on Earth. Hence, the Western Black Rhinoceros, the largest subspecies of rhinoceros which had…
For Rohingyas every day is a nightmare
Parul Akhtar, a Rohingya woman in her mid-twenties, may never wish to remember the homeland she and her children left about three weeks ago. Too scared to speak out, Parul, the mother of two young children, rests inside the makeshift…
Rooppur to have most powerful-safe VVER-1200 reactor
Alexander Khazin Dhaka – The Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant’s generation units will be based on VVER-1200 reactors of the 3+ generation technology. The innovative power generation units have improved technical and economic parameters that ensure absolute safety of the operation…
New leadership to revive Greek social democracy
by Kostas Botopoulos What would you say is the current situation of Pasok, the Greek social democratic party? What is the historic position of social democracy in the Greek political system? Given the recent Greek crisis, where does the party…
Scientists reveal Himalayan Yeti was in fact local bear
Legend-slaying scientists on Wednesday dismantled the myth of the abominable snowman, the towering yet furtive half-human rumoured for centuries to inhabit inaccessible reaches of the Himalayas. It turns out, they report in the Royal Society journal Proceedings B, that the…
Peasants not food corporations feed the world
The latest edition of a report from ETC Group “Who Will Feed Us?” is a synthesis of research over several years which produces critical, much needed information to guide decision-make much-needed and agriculture. The report states that it is the…
Time Magazine sold in Koch-backed deal
US magazine publisher Time Inc will be bought by rival media company Meredith Corporation for $2.8bn (£2.1bn). The deal is backed by the billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, who are known for supporting economically conservative causes.
Queen Elizabeth responds to article on Rohingya Issue
Prof. M Zahidul Haque Recently, an article of mine on the recent visit of Jordan Queen Rania Al-Abdullah to Rohingya refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh plus Rohingya crisis was published in your esteemed daily wherein I had focused on…
From Gothenburg social summit to social union
On 17 November, the European Parliament, Council and Commission proclaimed a European Pillar of Social Rights in Gothenburg. The launch of the Pillar signals a cautious but steady paradigm shift, away from austerity, at least at the level of the…
Exhibition on India’s urban rivers on Rivers Day
New Delhi – The theme for India Rivers Day 2017 (IRD 2017), held on 25th November 2017 at the INTACH Delhi premises, was ‘Rivers in the Urban Context’. Various formats of engagement were deployed for discussion among the participants from…
What the Padmavati row is all about
What is it? On November 19, Viacom18 Motion Pictures, the studio behind Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Padmavati, decided to voluntarily defer the December 1 release of the film. Reportedly drawn from Sufi poet Malik Muhammad Jayasi’s epic poem Padmavat, the film…
Capitalizing on climate unity
Hilda Heine and Kevin Rudd Bonn – When Donald Trump was elected US president a year ago, some said the end of the Paris climate agreement was nigh. Yet, as the latest round of global climate talks in Bonn, Germany,…
Carbon pricing takes off
Catherine McKenna and Feike Sijbesma Bonn – The hurricanes that pummeled the Caribbean, Texas, and Florida this year left highways submerged, homes and businesses demolished, and lives lost. The floodwaters have since receded, but the images of upheaval remain etched…
Natural solutions to climate change
Justin Adams Oxford – In response to climate change, land is key. Today, agriculture, forestry, and other land uses account for roughly a quarter of global greenhouse-gas emissions. But adopting sustainable land management strategies could provide more than one-third of…
‘Combating climate change? Combat land degradation.’
By Stella Paul Bonn, Germany, Nov 24 (IPS) – Land restoration is not a “glamorous subject even when you give all the numbers,” admits Monique Barbut, the Executive Secretary of United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification UNCCD). But she also…
Will DNA data base deter sexual abuse at UN?
By Thalif Deen UN, Nov 25 (IPS) – The United Nations is fighting a losing battle against the widespread – and continued – sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) by UN peacekeepers and civilian staff resulting in relatively few convictions amidst…
How billionaires become billionaires
By Prof. James Petras America has the greatest inequalities, highest mortality rate, most regressive taxes, and largest public subsidies for bankers and billionaires of any developed capitalist country.
A Cop cut at COP23?
By Tharanga Yakupitiyage UN, Nov 23 (IPS) – Despite a few victories, the UN’s annual climate change conference ended without achieving its goals or injecting a sense of much needed urgency.
The Trump Presidency
By Noam Chomsky [Editor’s note: This interview has been excerpted from Global Discontents: Conversations on the Rising Threats to Democracy, the new book by Noam Chomsky and David Barsamian to be published this December.] David Barsamian: You have spoken about…
Light pollution: Night being lost in many countries
By Victoria Gill A study of pictures of Earth by night has revealed that artificial light is growing brighter and more extensive every year. Between 2012 and 2016, the planet’s artificially lit outdoor area grew by more than 2% per…
Dhaka’s energy planning after Bonn climate alignments
Mostafa Kamal Majumder The climate change conference that concluded late last week in Bonn, Germany, upheld the global alliance of nations, environmental workers, activists and scientists to remain committed to Paris Climate Agreement despite US President Donald Trump’s rejection of…
10 lessons from the Obama Foundation Summit
Three weeks ago, the first Obama Foundation Summit brought together hundreds of leaders from around the world to exchange ideas and explore creative solutions to common problems in our communities.
Pesticides driving mass extinction in the Anthropocene
We are in the Anthropocene and likely experiencing the Earth’s sixth mass extinction, the first to be caused by humans. In 1962, Rachel Carson warned in her book, ‘Silent Spring’ that the decline of birds (primarily due to DDT exposure)…
Democracy À La Carte in Catalonia
by Manuel Serrano We live in the era of fake news and alternative facts. Fascism has been so debased as a phrase that fascists nowadays are simply those with whom we disagree. They are the others. The bad and the…
Desperate need to halt ‘world’s largest killer’ — pollution
By Baher Kamal Rome, Nov 20 (IPS) – Now that the lights of the UN climate change summit’s meeting rooms have been turned off in Bonn, after a week of intense negotiations and some partial results, another major environmental event…
Tribute to Indian environmental activist Latha Anantha
Forum for Policy Dialogue on Water Conflicts in India Latha, well known environmental activist and researcher from Kerala, is no more with us physically. Though many of us knew that she was battling with cancer for the last 3-4 years,…
The greening of the miners
Raimund Bleischwitz London – Donald Trump’s presidency in the United States has turned mining – and the coal industry in particular – into a political cause célèbre over the last year. In June, during his first White House cabinet meeting,…
Sounding the alarm on biodiversity loss
Robert Watson Norwich – With the United Nations’ climate change conference underway in Bonn, Germany, rising global temperatures are once again at the top of the world’s agenda. But why care about the increase in temperature, if not because of…