Global News Post: Global Issues

Earth Just Decades From Doomsday – Scientists

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<div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">MOSCOW (RIA Novosti)--- The Earth is threatened with an abrupt change in the global ecosystem that may cause "a state shift," in as soon as a few decades, a report published on Thursday in the scientific Nature magazine says.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The research by a group of 22 international scientists, including biologists, geologists, paleontologists, ecologists and theoreticians claimed the global ecosystem could soon reach a tipping point as the human population and consumption rates continue to grow. A global “state shift” occurs when from 50 to 90 percent of ecosystems are disrupted, the study says.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">   </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">"Humans now dominate Earth, changing it in ways that threaten its ability to sustain us and other species," Nature quoted the report as saying.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The consequences of such a global change in the ecosystem are unknown, but the researchers think it could trigger severe changes in world's agriculture, forests, water resources and fisheries, Nature said, adding all these effects could lead to the “widespread social unrest, economic instability and loss of human life.”</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The scientists deliberately avoided the word “doomsday” in their findings, calling it a “tipping point.”</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">"It really will be a new world, biologically, at that point," Nature quoted Anthony Barnosky, professor of integrative biology at the University of California, Berkeley as saying.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Barnosky suggested half of the Earth's land would be altered by humans by 2025, adding it would be "disturbingly close" to a potential global tipping point.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
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Earth Just Decades From Doomsday – Scientists

MOSCOW (RIA Novosti)--- The Earth is threatened with an abrupt change in the global ecosystem that may cause "a state shift," in ...

NASA: Earth's Prehistoric Record Warns of Nearing Rapid Climate Change

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</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white;">A new <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">U.S.</st1:place></st1:country-region> space agency study warns the Earth this century could see rapid and catastrophic climate changes if man-made global warming levels are allowed to reach an internationally-recognized so-called “safe limit” of two degrees Celsius.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white;">The NASA researchers examined prehistoric climate conditions during past interglacial periods - the time between ice ages - and compared them with the interglacial period the Earth is currently experiencing. The last interglacial period ended around 115,000 years ago when temperatures were less than one degree Celsius warmer than today, and sea levels were six meters higher.<span>  </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white;">The scientists say looking at how the prehistoric climate responded to natural changes gives them more insight into determining a dangerous level of man-made global warming for today’s world. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white;">NASA study leader James Hansen says the findings show that Earth’s climate is more sensitive than even recent estimates suggest. He described the notion of limiting man-made global warming to an increase of two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels as “a prescription for disaster.”<span>  </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white;">Recent studies, including those by NASA, indicate the average global surface temperature since 1880 has gone up 0.8 degrees Celsius and is on course to continue rising by 0.1 degrees every decade.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white;">NASA researchers say global warming of two degrees Celsius would more closely match conditions of an interglacial period that occurred some five million years ago when seas were about 25 meters higher than today.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white;">For decades, a two-degree Celsius rise above pre-industrial age levels in average global surface temperatures was considered a safe margin. Many scientists now advocate a threshold of one degree or less and say more has to be done to decrease global warming caused by human activity, such as burning fossil fuels. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white;">Developing and wealthy nations, however, remain deeply divided over how to reduce man-made emissions of climate-changing greenhouse gases, especially carbon dioxide.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white;">An interglacial geologic period, such as the one Earth is now having, occurs when the North and South Poles are frozen, but glaciers do not dominate the rest of the planet.<span>  </span>Scientists call the current interglacial period the Holocene epoch. The previous interglacial period is known as the Eemian epoch.<b> </b><span> </span>---VOA News<o:p></o:p></span></span></div></div>

NASA: Earth's Prehistoric Record Warns of Nearing Rapid Climate Change

A new U.S. space agency study warns the Earth this century could see rapid and catastrophic climate changes if man-made global warming le...

Brazil, South Africa, India, China Officials Discuss Climate Change

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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span>  </span><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><st1:city w:st="on">BEIJING</st1:city> (NNN-XINHUA) -- Officials from <st1:country-region w:st="on">Brazil</st1:country-region>, <st1:country-region w:st="on">South Africa</st1:country-region>, <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">India</st1:place></st1:country-region> and China (BASIC) have opened a two-day meeting here to discuss climate change.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">Xie Zhenhua, Vice-Minister of China's National Development and Reform Commission, is leading a Chinese delegation to the meeting, Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hong Lei said at a daily press briefing Monday.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">"The meeting will focus on the prospects and major issues of the <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Durban</st1:place></st1:city> climate change conference," Hong added.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">With the <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Durban</st1:place></st1:city> climate change conference set to take place from Nov 28 to Dec 9, Hong said the focus would be the extension of the Kyoto Protocol and the commitment of developed countries for the protocol's next period.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">The Kyoto Protocol, an international agreement linked to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, sets binding targets for 37 industrialized countries and the European Community for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from 2008 to 2012.-- NNN-XINHUA</div></div>

Brazil, South Africa, India, China Officials Discuss Climate Change

BEIJING (NNN-XINHUA) -- Officials from Brazil , South Africa , India and China (BASIC) have opened a two-day meeting here to discuss c...

UN Launches 2011 World Food Day

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</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><i><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 8.0pt;">By Sabina Castelfranco from <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Rome</st1:place></st1:city><o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">The U.N. World Food Program says there are growing concerns over food insecurity in the developing world. Some of those concerns are discussed in a report released to coincide with the commemoration Sunday of World Food Day.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">The theme for World Food Day 2011 is “Food Prices - From Crisis to Stability.”<span>  </span>A ceremony to mark World Food Day will be held Monday at the headquarters of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Rome</st1:place></st1:city>.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Rising food prices, weather emergencies and political instability are deepening the struggle of families trying to provide for their households in many developing nations. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">This year’s “State of <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Food Insecurity</st1:place></st1:state> in the World” report, published last week, focuses on the impact of food-cost volatility, confirming that high, unpredictable prices are likely to continue.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">The report highlighted how poor consumers, small farmers and countries dependent on imports, especially in <st1:place w:st="on">Africa</st1:place>, have been deeply affected by the food and economic crises.<span>  </span><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Gregory Barrow is with the World Food Program in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Rome</st1:place></st1:city>. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">“If you look at the places where World Food Program works particularly in developing countries, you see populations of people who might be spending 60, 70, 80 percent of their salaries on purchasing food for their families”. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Barrow added that if prices become volatile and generally start rising, even by a small amount, it means that many of these people are going to struggle to put nutritious food on their tables.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">The report also showed that even short-term fluctuations in prices can have a long-term effect on development, and that cutting back on nutritious food in the first 1,000 days of a child’s life can affect mental and physical development and ultimately, future earning capacity. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">The United Nations has programs in place aimed at reducing the number of hungry people by one-half by 2015. But most observers agree this target is unlikely to be reached. --- VOA News<o:p></o:p></span></div></div>

UN Launches 2011 World Food Day

By Sabina Castelfranco from Rome The U.N. World Food Program says there are growing concerns over food insecurity in the developing world...

Richer countries have greater responsibility to restore financial stability – Ban

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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhs83NkWdJJStVv3cUXpc3OKs60v4H9mjUHTlOC8QxDotWV4JIFKE9pDyli8qtXHevhw1-GaNAkrfe9yeZZJfks1ArNA3isBnmTMrcOKJII9SFO6lRcGkWjvWISYatF5DzWwAyXk9AmX0o/s1600/Secretary-General+Ban+Ki-moon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhs83NkWdJJStVv3cUXpc3OKs60v4H9mjUHTlOC8QxDotWV4JIFKE9pDyli8qtXHevhw1-GaNAkrfe9yeZZJfks1ArNA3isBnmTMrcOKJII9SFO6lRcGkWjvWISYatF5DzWwAyXk9AmX0o/s400/Secretary-General+Ban+Ki-moon.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"><i>Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon</i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium; text-align: justify;"><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS';">Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today said that the world's major economies must shoulder greater responsibility to restore global financial stability, urging them to follow the model of the 2008 London summit of the Group of 20 (G20) when leaders agreed to back the financial system for the benefit of all with more than a trillion dollars in credit.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">“Today, the G20 must be no less ambitious,” said Mr. Ban in an address to the 125th Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union in the Swiss city of <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Bern</st1:place></st1:city>.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">“It must be imaginative in considering innovative new means of financing development and renewable energy for all. The G20 must also follow through on the development agenda agreed to last year in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Seoul</st1:place></st1:city>, with a special emphasis on achieving the Millennium Development Goals [MDGs].”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">He pointed out that developing economies are a vital source of global dynamism, which can be unleashed for the benefit of future generations if they are supported to advance on a course of sustainable development.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">The Secretary-General exhorted leaders of the larger economies to re-dedicate themselves to securing a comprehensive climate change agreement, noting that there can be no sustainable development or prosperity for anyone unless the realities of climate change are addressed.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">“Around the world, I hear people say yes, economic adjustment will be necessary. But do not adjust our hopes. Do not adjust our children's dreams. The decisions we make today must lay the foundations for a healthy, inclusive economic prosperity for all of the world's people,” said Mr. Ban.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">He also underlined the need to expand women's participation in all spheres of life, including in parliaments. The Secretary-General noted that 28 countries now have at least 30 per cent women's representation in parliament, but that also meant that more than 160 States have not reached that threshold.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">The youth must also not be neglected, the Secretary-General said, noting that they are helping change the world as evidenced by the recent political changes in North Africa and the pro-democracy uprising in a number of countries in the <st1:place w:st="on">Middle East</st1:place>.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">“Since the dawn of the Arab Spring, young people around the world have taken to the streets, demanding greater opportunities to participate in economic and political life. Their future is our future. Let us listen to them, lest the coming decades be marked by an instability and alienation that undermine our prospects for peace, security and prosperity for all,” said Mr. Ban. ---UN News<o:p></o:p></span></div></div>

Richer countries have greater responsibility to restore financial stability – Ban

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today said that the world's major economies must shoulder greater resp...