Environment

Italy’s Olive-Oil Industry Sees Simmering Threats from Climate Change and Nasty Bacteria

By Eric Reguly
On a warm Saturday morning in late October, the silver-green leaves of the 200 productive olive trees on a rolling country property in Umbria, in central Italy, sparkled in the brilliant sun. Fausto Venturi, a local farmer who devotes autumn weekends to making olive oil, could not have been happier.

Burkina Faso: Climate Change Triggers Rural Exodus

By Issa Sikiti da Silva
Ibrahim Harouna and his neighbours sit under a tree at his uncle’s house, playing chess and chatting amid the simmering heat of Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso.

Europe’s Green Deal is Turning Red

By Delara Burkhardt
Global temperatures are set to rise by a catastrophic 3°C by the end of the century unless we take major action. The next 10 years in particular are crucial.

Prepare to Win: Tsunami Awareness and Preparedness

By Asako Okai
Once considered rare in their occurrence, in the last 10 years tsunamis have struck nearly every year: from Samoa to Chile, and from Iceland to New Zealand.

No Region is Immune from Rising Inequalities, Trade Tensions & Declining Growth Rates

By Antonio Guterres
We are facing tense and turbulent times around the globe. Rising inequality is a danger everywhere. Trade and technology tensions are building. Growth forecasts are being revised down. Unease and uncertainty are going up. This is a global phenomenon. No region is immune.

Africa’s Youth make Land Restoration their Business

By Diana Wanyonyi and Nalisha Adams
The last time Siyabulela Sokomani ran a marathon he did so with a tree strapped to his back. A native wild olive sapling to be exact. It affected his race time for sure, with the seasoned runner completing the 42.2 km race in 4.42 hours rather than his usual 3.37 hours.

Going with the Wind: Transition to Clean Energy in Latin America & the Caribbean

By Luis Felipe López-Calva
The UN Climate Action Summit 2019, which took place in the days leading up to the 74th UN General Assembly, delivered new pathways and practical actions for governments and private sector to intensify climate action.

Red Alert for Blue Planet and Small Island States

By Farhana Haque Rahman
Barely a week passes without alarming news of the most recent scientific research into the global climate crisis compounding a growing sense of urgency, particularly the impact on small island states from rising sea levels and extreme weather.

As Urbanisation Grows, Cities Unveil Sustainable Development Solutions

Over half of the world’s population now live in cities, with numbers expected to double by 2050, but while urbanization poses serious challenges, cities can also be powerhouses for sustainable development; something the UN is spotlighting on World Cities Day, marked 31 October. 

Solar Cookers Produce More Than Food for Mexican Women

By Emilio Godoy
The sun's rays are also used to cook food and thus replace the burning of firewood and gas, improve the health of local residents and fuel the energy transition towards the use of renewable sources - the objectives of an enterprise in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca.

How Can We All Hear That the World is on Fire?

By Andrew Bovarnick
The annual rhythm of the United Nations year peaks with the General Assembly in September. One month on, it’s a good time to reflect on this year’s gathering which was remarkable for its focus on fighting climate change, the transforming effect of one 16 year old girl telling it like it is, and the way people heard her words in a way they haven’t heard before.

Mother Earth’s Café Dares Climate Crises in India

By Manipadma Jena
The sun has barely risen when Phlida Kharshala shakes her 8-year-old grandson awake. He hoists an empty cone-shaped bamboo basket on his back, sets the woven strap flat across his forehead and off they go into the wilderness.

India has a Groundwater Problem

By Rachita Vora and Smarinita Shetty
A majority of India’s water problems are those relating to groundwater—water that is found beneath the earth’s surface. This is because we are the largest user of groundwater in the world, and therefore highly dependent on it.

The Russian Government and the UN join to fight water hyacinth in Kenya

By PRESS RELEASE
A major partnership between The Embassy of Russia, the United Nations in Kenya and the County Government of Kisumu will see the over 14,000 hectares of the Water Hyacinth in Lake Victoria cleared following an injection of USD 7 million by the Russian government.

Climate Change to Further Escalate Violence in Western Africa

By Rabiya Jaffery
Nearly 50 million people in west Africa rely on agriculture and livestock for their livelihood but the land available for pastoral use has been rapidly shrinking.

Governments Must Short Circuit Tobacco Industry’s Pervasive Tactics

By Dr. Mary Assunta and Dr. Ulysses Dorotheo
The tobacco industry’s new rhetoric that smoking is harmful and that its so-called less risky products will reduce the global tobacco epidemic, should see the industry stop opposing or fighting government efforts to reduce tobacco use. However, this is not the case.

Sustainable Development and Education – Is the Non-Aligned Movement Still Relevant?

By Manssour Bin Mussallam
By the time of publication, representatives, senior officials, and Heads of State and Government of 120 countries from around the world will have converged on Baku in Azerbaijan for the XVIIIth Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM).

Solar Tubewells Suck Water out of Sindh Desert

By Zulfiqar Kunbhar
At the southern end of Pakistan’s Sindh-Balochistan border near the Kirthar mountain range, Sindh’s Kachho desert has witnessed an unprecedented surge in the use of solar-powered tubewells for groundwater extraction in agriculture.

Insurance Scheme Offers Hope for Drought-stricken African Farmers

By James Reinl
A partnership between United Nations and African Union (AU) agencies will help African economies insure themselves against the droughts and other extreme weather events that plague the continent, organisers say.

Bangladesh’s Climate Change Victims Safeguard the Sundarbans’ Endangered Dolphins

By Rafiqul Islam
Israfil Boyati lives along the shoreline of the Bay of Bengal. In the past he used to catch fish in the canals and rivers of Bangladesh’s Sundarbans mangrove forest — one of the world’s largest and habitat to many endangered species, including the Bengal tigers and freshwater dolphins.

Solar Energy Transforms Villages in Argentina’s Puna Highlands

By Daniel Gutman
"On moonless nights it was very difficult to walk around this town," says Celia Vilte, a teacher from San Francisco, a highlands village of just 54 people in the extreme northwest of Argentina whose centre is not a town square but 40 solar panels, which provide one hundred percent of its electricity.
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