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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Interconnections: Global E-waste and a Writer’s Decisions

Stephen Interconnections

Working on story about E-waste and global efforts to deal with what is an environmental pollution issue and depletion of limited natural resources issues. Wrote about problem of billions of mobile phones being discarded previously but this looks at all electronic waste.

It’s a complex issue with new European laws, lack of laws in US, the Basel Convention, China/India as giant scrap yards while generating their own e-waste.

As in most writing and journalism the challenge here is what to leave out and still be able to tell a complete story. And those decisions should be in service to the story not to a particular POV. Often my fave bits of a story, interesting facts or important issues have to be pushed aside.

Also working on another story about new research on connection between droughts, civil wars and climate change.

Interconnections: Diary of an Independent Environmental Journalist

Stephen Interconnections

This is the first of a hopefully a daily conversation about the stories I am working on, the process of researching and covering environmental and other issues and probably some rants. Ok, that’s what everyone does in the blogosphere. Turned out to be a big deal for me because even after six months of agonizing over it I remain ….

A Reluctant Blogger.

Why?

Like many journalists, I am more than a little shy of revealing what I am doing and how I do it. Not sure why this is exactly, so we’ll see what happens here. Also not keen either on sharing my opinions beyond family and a few friends, unless I am getting paid for doing op eds or columns.

That brings me to the real sticking point.

As an independent journalist, I have supported my family by the paid word for the last 12 years. Writing about environmental issues is one of the steeper paths in the very challenging career of freelancing so it’s hard to write anything for free.

Hard as Granite

Why now?

Interconnections. So I can get your input on what I am doing, and hear your ideas, sources of information, contacts etc. I have already received some thoughtful feedback which has improved my work I hope. And I will try to answer your questions about environmental issues, journalism and media. When ever I do talks there are usually lots of media questions such as why was that story is on the front page or lead item on a TV newscast and not another.

I’d really like to make this a conversation. I hope you do too.

Cheers
Stephen

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.
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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.

Melting Ice Offers Window on Polar Ecosystem

Stephen CLIMATE CHANGE/GLOBAL WARMING, ECOLOGY, News, OCEAN

Copyright Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research

By Stephen Leahy

Feb 27 (IPS) – The collapse of Antarctic ice shelves due to climate change is providing the first views of marine life hidden deep under the polar ice for more than 5,000 years.

A 10-week Antarctic international expedition to probe the region’s secrets is also the first major scientific effort of the International Polar Year that was officially launched Monday in Paris and London.

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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).

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DIRTY GOLD: Protests at Canada’s Goldcorp Mines In Honduras and Guatemala

Stephen CANADA, developing world, ENVIRONMENT, Health, Mexico, News, Pollution and Toxics , ,

[update: May 2010: The mining company Entremares, subsidiary of the Canadian consortium Glamis Gold, (Goldcorp _Vancouver, Canada) will be charged with polluting the central valley of Siria and of hiding information from the authorities. — Tierramerica]

By Stephen Leahy

The Canadian mining giant Goldcorp, which runs the largest gold mine in Mexico, is racking up complaints about its environmental violations. In Honduras, officials are considering legal action.queensland-olf-goldmine.JPGOld gold mine Queensland Australia Copyright 2004 Renate Leahy

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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.

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