Archive for united nations

UN Deforestation takes center-stage

October 27, 2010 · Filed under endangered animals, enviro facts, united nations · Tagged , ,

Delegates at the global U.N. meeting to preserve natural resources were trying to agree on ways to deploy about $4 billion in cash to help developing nations save tropical forests.

The talks are aimed at setting new 2020 targets to protect plant and animal species, a protocol to share genetic resources between countries and companies and more funding to protect nature, especially forests.

The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation estimates global deforestation fell from 16 million hectares (40 million acres) per year in the 1990s to 13 million hectares per year in the past decade, with the bulk of the losses in tropical countries.

About 12 percent of the world’s forests are designated primarily to conserve biological diversity, the FAO said in report earlier this month.

Forests soak up large amounts of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, and help curb the pace of climate change. They are also key water catchments, help clean the air and are home to countless species.

"Our forests need immediate action," said Brazil’s Environment Minister Izabella Teixeira told the meeting.

Ministers are focusing on a voluntary partnership covering nearly 70 nations aimed at boosting a U.N.-backed scheme that seeks to reward developing countries that preserve and restore forests.

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE69P0L820101026

Photo: http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/antenna/carboncycle/images/deforestation.jpg

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new 230,000 square miles sanctuary for whales and dolphins

October 26, 2010 · Filed under endangered fish, enviro facts, environmental facts, united nations · Tagged , ,

Dolphins, whales, and dugongs will be safe from hunting in the waters surrounding the Pacific nation of Palau. At the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in Nagoya, Japan, Palau’s Minister of the Environment, Natural Resources and Tourism, Harry Fritz, announced the establishment of a marine mammal sanctuary covering over 230,000 square miles (60,000 square kilometers) of the nation’s waters, an area the size of Mongolia.

(photo source- outdoors.webshots.com)

"Palau’s dugongs are the most isolated and endangered population in the world. We also have at least 11 species of cetaceans in our waters, including a breeding population of Sperm Whales and possibly as many as 30 other species of whales and dolphins

that utilize our EEZ. This sanctuary will promote sustainable whale-watching tourism, already a growing multi-million dollar global industry, as an economic opportunity for the people of Palau," Fritz said in Nagoya.

Already, last year Palau declared its waters a sanctuary for sharks. Sharks have been decimated worldwide, with some species’ population plunging by 99 percent, due to by catch, overconsumption, and the shark-fin trade, whereby caught sharks’ fins are cut off and the animals

are thrown back into the water to die.

Although many populations of whales are rebounding after centuries of commercial whaling, some are still threatened by whaling by Iceland, Japan, and Norway

, as well as pollution. Dolphins are often killed as by catch and suffer from widespread marine pollution.

Source: http://news.mongabay.com/2010/1024-hance_mammal_sanctuary.html

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How many children die each year to lack of safe drinking water?

August 8, 2010 · Filed under Safe Drinking Water, Uncategorized, united nations · Tagged

#diduknow that Worldwide 1.4 million children  die each year from lack of access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation www.twitter.com/ecogreentravel

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U.N. Calls for Global Ban on Plastic Bags

June 11, 2009 · Filed under ban plastic bags, united nations · Tagged , ,

Achim Steiner, Executive Director of the U.N. Environment Program is advocating a global ban on plastic bags because there is “zero justification for manufacturing them anymore, anywhere,” he says.

His comment came from a U.N. Environment Program report that identifies plastic as the most common form of ocean litter, along with cigarette butts, according to the results of the 2008 International Coastal Cleanup Day. “Plastic, the most prevalent component of marine debris, poses hazards because it persists so long in the ocean, degrading into tinier and tinier bits that can be consumed by the smallest marine life at the base of the food web,” the report says.

Currently, San Francisco is the only U.S. city that has completely banned plastic bags. China is also testing the same ban in which retailers distributing plastic bags can be fined up to $1,464.

For more information head to:

http://earth911.com/blog/2009/06/10/un-calls-for-global-ban-on-plastic-bags/

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Its time to act on ocean acidification or suffer the consequences

June 4, 2009 · Filed under Ocean acidification, united nations · Tagged , , , , , ,

A statement signed by 70 of the world’s leading science academies stated “Ocean acidification is expected to cause massive corrosion of our coral reefs and dramatic changes in the makeup of the biodiversity of our oceans and will have significant implications for food production and the livelihoods of millions of people”.

The world’s top scientific academies on Monday called on the UN (which started a 12-day round of negotiations in Bonn under the banner of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change) to include ‘ocean acidification’, which is a dangerous by-product of carbon pollution in their discussions.

The UNFCCC is tasked with steering 192 parties towards a deal in Copenhagen in December of this year which is aimed at setting down targets for curbing greenhouse-gas emissions by the middle of this century.

Martin Rees, President of the Royal Society said: “Everybody knows that the increasing concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere leads to climate change. But it has another environmental effect, ocean acidification which hasn’t received much political attention. Unless global CO2 emissions can be cut by at least 50% by 2050 and more thereafter, we could confront an underwater catastrophe, with irreversible changes in the makeup of our marine biodiversity. The effects will be seen worldwide, threatening food security, reducing coastal protection and damaging the local economies that may be least able to tolerate it. Copenhagen must address this very real and serious threat.”

For more details please go to http://royalsociety.org/news.asp?id=8572 or http://royalsociety.org/document.asp?tip=0&id=8569

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Climate change – caused by carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions

June 3, 2009 · Filed under Uncategorized, Green Hotel Programs, enviromental hotels, green awards, green programs, united nations, Ocean acidification · Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Its frightening to realize that every 4 hours a forest the size of Manhattan is lost to the world.

According to Conservation International and other environmental experts climate change — caused by carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions — threatens species, biodiversity and life on Earth as we know it. The destruction of tropical forests across the globe contribute as much as 20% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions ( more than all the world’s cars, trucks, and airplanes combined) and advances climate change. Human activity is the main cause of deforestation, usually tied to economic development, increasing consumption rates – in both developed and developing countries – and extractive industries such as logging. It is important that we consider using alteratives to virgin timber from rainforests and forests. Always look at sourcing reclaimed or recycled timber furniture or timbers that are FSC sourced.

One of the most important things we can do to improve the climate is to work towards conserving forests — the lungs of the Earth. New York Times columnist Tom Friedman in his new book Hot, Flat, and Crowded, explains how protecting forests is among the quickest and most cost effective solutions available to us to assist in the slow down of climate change. It can be put into effect immediately. Unfortunately, every day beautiful pristine jungles (home to wildlife, ecosystems, and over half of all the species on Earth) are burned and cleared for farming and ranching, or for plantations to produce biofuel crops. It has been reported that loggers extract more trees than the forest can reproduce, destroying ecosystems and leaving roads that invite other exploitative forces.

Forests are important ecosystems in the balance of nature, providing a multitude of resources and services essential to all people the relentless and ongoing destruction of habitat and resources not only lead to increases in climate change but also can lead to the displacement of people who depend and live within these beautiful eco systems. Where do people like this go to? Where do they end up? This impact results in poverty and social displacement and in turn instability.

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, halting deforestation and restoring already degraded areas while adopting more forest-friendly agriculture and management practices would prevent the emission of more than 300 billion tons of carbon dioxide over the next 40 years (that is more than total U.S. emissions over that same period, based on current levels).

For further information I recommend you go to http://www.conservation.org where you can donate or protect an acre for $15.00 US Dollars.

www.twitter.com/ecogreentravel

www.twitter.com/thenaturalroom

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