Global Issues and Perspectives

International Women’s Day: 500,000 Women Die Needlessly

Stephen Global Issues and Perspectives, Health

U.S. Gag Rule Killing Women, Experts SayCopyright 2004 Renate Leahy
Stephen Leahy

[Written last Dec, I’m posting this article for the first time because of International Women’s Day]


Dec 7 (IPS) – While world attention has focused on the HIV/AIDS pandemic, public health experts say that U.S. political interference and declining financial support for family planning, abortion and prevention of other sexually transmitted infections has contributed to shockingly high death and disability rates in developing countries.

Approximately 500,000 women die each year of causes related to pregnancy, abortion and childbirth, 99 percent of them in developing countries, according to the World Health Organisation.
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Peak Fish: The Beginning of the End of Ocean Seafood

Stephen Agriculture/Food, ECOLOGY, ENVIRONMENT, Global Issues and Perspectives, News, OCEAN, WILDLIFE

Ocean Fisheries Maxed OutCopyright 2004 Renate Leahy

By Stephen Leahy

Mar 5 (IPS) – Two-thirds of fish stocks in the world’s high seas are overfished, while most of those closer to shore are failing or fished to the maximum, a new U.N. report said Monday.

More and stronger regional fisheries management organisations are needed to rebuild depleted stocks and prevent the collapse of other stocks, warned the FAO’s latest “State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture” (SOFIA) report.
Continue reading →

Response To Global Change Too Slow

Stephen CLIMATE CHANGE/GLOBAL WARMING, ECOLOGY, ENVIRONMENT, Global Issues and Perspectives, News, OCEAN, WILDLIFE

 

Paraphrase of the Day:

Institutions are not responding fast enough to the industrial might and scale of change that is happening be it climate change or rapid loss of species or decline in the global fisheries. The rate are which our institutions take action is simply too slow. — Daniel Pauly, director of the Fisheries Centre at the University of British Columbia.

See complete story

Heed the Warning of the Frogs

Stephen CLIMATE CHANGE/GLOBAL WARMING, ECOLOGY, ENVIRONMENT, Global Issues and Perspectives, News, WILDLIFE

Amphibians are rapidly going extinct around the world — 43 per cent of known species are in decline according to the Global Amphibian Assessment.

Frogs and other amphibians are warning us about environmental deterioration that threatens all species and our own well being, said Alan Pounds an ecologist at the Tropical Science Center, Monteverde Cloud Forest Preserve in Costa Rica.

“We should be listening to the message from the frogs.”

Story to be completed and published in a few days.

Global Food Supply Near the Breaking Point

Stephen Agriculture/Food, CLIMATE CHANGE/GLOBAL WARMING, Global Issues and Perspectives, News

Global Food Supply Near the Breaking Point

By Stephen Leahy

[Written last year, this article continues to be re-published frequently and often illegally (sigh) – remember short quote and link is ok but reposting entire articles violates copyright]

May 17 (IPS) The world is now eating more food than farmers grow, pushing global grain stocks to their lowest level in 30 years.

Rising population, water shortages, climate change, and the growing costs of fossil fuel-based fertilisers point to a calamitous shortfall in the world’s grain supplies in the near future, according to Canada’s National Farmers Union (NFU).

Continue reading →

Factory Farms, Bird Flu and Global Warming

Stephen BIRDS, CLIMATE CHANGE/GLOBAL WARMING, ECOLOGY, ENVIRONMENT, Global Issues and Perspectives, Health

Report Blames Factory Farms for Bird Flu
By Stephen Leahy

Feb 20 (IPS) – Factory farms are responsible for both the bird flu and emissions of greenhouse gases that now top those of cars and sport utility vehicles (SUVs), according to a report released Monday.

Sixty percent of global livestock production, including chicken and pig “confined animal feedlot operations” (CAFOs), now occur in the developing world. Unregulated zoning and subsidies that encourage these CAFOs or factory farms are moving closer to major urban areas in China, Bangladesh, India, and many countries in Africa, said the report, “Vital Signs 2007-2008” by the Worldwatch Institute.

Continue reading →

Capturing Carbon Crucial to Preventing Climate Catastrophe

Stephen CLIMATE CHANGE/GLOBAL WARMING, ECOLOGY, ENVIRONMENT, Global Issues and Perspectives, News

img_0510.JPG Recapturing Carbon Won’t Come Cheap
By Stephen Leahy

Feb 9 (IPS) – Putting climate-altering greenhouse gases back in the ground where they came from is an essential part of any global plan to avoid catastrophic climate change, scientists say.

Capturing carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fired power plants and pumping the global warming gas deep underground or under the sea “may well be the most critical challenge we face, at least for the next 100 years,” writes Daniel Schrag, director of Harvard University’s Centre for the Environment, in the journal Science Friday.

Coal is, and will continue to be, a major source of the world’s energy and emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), writes Schrag in the report “Preparing to Capture Carbon”.

“By the end of the century, coal could account for more than 80 percent” of all CO2 emissions — double the present level — he writes. Continue reading →

New Era of Spin in the War to Save Ourselves From Global Warming

Stephen CLIMATE CHANGE/GLOBAL WARMING, ECOLOGY, ENVIRONMENT, Global Issues and Perspectives, News , ,

No Getting Around Emissions Caps, Experts Saynigerian oil field

By Stephen Leahy

Feb 5 (IPS) – With the stark realisation that global warming is transforming our world, there will be crazy new era of “greenwashing”, desperate “geo-engineering” schemes, “grandfathering” of newly-built coal power plants and carbon-credit “profiteering”, environmentalists warn.

Welcome to the battle to save ourselves and future generations from the worst impacts of climate change, like increased floods, droughts and storms.
Continue reading →

Immediate, Mandatory Emissions Cuts Only Solution to Global Warming Crisis

Stephen CLIMATE CHANGE/GLOBAL WARMING, Global Issues and Perspectives, News

Paraphrase of the Day:

People should expect their governments to legislate immediate, substantial and manadatory cuts to emissions of greenhouse gases by all sectors. Anything less will be a pretense.

— Pat Mooney, the ETC Group, an international NGO.

Now available here: New Era of Spin in the War to Save Ourselves From Global Warming

IMPORTANT NOTICE: Your Input Needed for Special Global Warming Project

Stephen CLIMATE CHANGE/GLOBAL WARMING, ECOLOGY, ENVIRONMENT, Global Issues and Perspectives, News, Science/Tech

Over the years people have asked for explanations about various aspects of global warming or climate change (ie what’s the difference?). I’ve probably written close to 100 stories on climate change but it may be time to put the whole subject together in a format that is concise, accurate and easy to understand. So I’m considering putting together a very brief eBook as an PDF electronic download and offering it on the highly-regarded self-publishing site lulu.com or from me directly.

Before investing the time and effort to put this together – please remember my livelihood is independent environmental journalism – I would like to have at least 25 people send me an email (writersteve AT gmail . com) or a comment to let me know they support this idea and would consider purchasing it. (only $5.00 — see ad notice below)

Please pass this link on to anyone who might be interested — or you think should be:].

Cheers and thanks for your support — Stephen

 

——–Draft eBook Notice——–

 

 

Really Brief BUT Authoritative Guide to Global Warming
Global warming, the latest climate science (including the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Feb 2 report) and how it is changing our world explained in less than 20 factual and easily understood pages by experienced science writer Stephen Leahy.

 

Includes loads of links to high-quality, authoritative websites for more detailed information and further exploration of the most important issue of the 21st century.

$5.00 as high-quality eBook as PDF electronic download. (Note: To be published only if enough people say they want it.)