United Nations
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Right before my very eyes: Ethiopia
The vista of Ethiopia's ancient Rift Valley, speckled with shimmering lakes, stretches before me as our motorized caravan heads south from Lake Langano, part of a study tour on population-health-environment issues organized by the Packard Foundation. Sadly, the country's unrelenting poverty and insecurity are as breathtaking as the view -- Ethiopia currently ranks 170 out of 177 countries on the UN Development Programme's Human Development Index.
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Anika Rahman, women’s- and reproductive-rights advocate, answers questions
Anika Rahman. What work do you do? What’s your job title? I’m the president of Americans for UNFPA. UNFPA, or the United Nations Population Fund, is essentially the United Nations’ women’s health agency. It provides women’s health care and promotes the rights of women all over the world. Working in 140 countries, it is the […]
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Good God, Y’all
U.N. chief says climate change poses as big a threat as war When we were in school, assemblies were a chance to see something fun, like a juggler or a movie. How times change. Two months after taking office, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon gave his first climate-change speech, saying all kinds of gloomy things to […]
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And the Sand Played On
World’s deserts will become more desert-y, says U.N. Happy World Environment Day — we got you some bad news! As climate change progresses, desert temperatures will rise up to 12.6 degrees F by the end of the century; rainfall in most deserts will decline by up to 20 percent; water will become scant, or too […]
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What to expect from the U.N. climate-change negotiations in Montreal
“Conference of Parties” sounds like a contradiction in terms: conferences are dull talkfests punctuated by free booze, and parties are free boozefests punctuated by dull moments of trying to talk over loud music. More of the former than the latter is likely to go on later this month in Montreal, during the Conference of Parties […]
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A refresher on the basics of climate conferences and Kyoto
Later this month, a mess of world leaders will be gathering in Montreal to discuss climate change. The conference is a rendezvous — we must use French words when speaking of Quebec — of COP 11 and MOP 1. And it has to do with the Kyoto Protocol! Isn’t that mysterious and intriguing? One of […]
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Arid Extra Dry
Desertification will be big bummer for hundreds of thousands worldwide Hundreds of thousands of people — some of them the world’s poorest — will be displaced in the next 30 years as the globe’s deserts expand, according to the latest report from the U.N.’s Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. Climate change is likely to intensify droughts, heat […]
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Umbra on winning environmental arguments
Dear Umbra, I’ve recently been debating my cousin about the merits of environmentalism, and he consistently attacks my positions by claiming that the studies that make the case that the environment is in trouble are funded by groups that have a vested interest in maintaining that position. In other words, groups that are devoted to […]
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Who will represent the voice of the world’s people?
Petitions have been arriving in a flurry in my email inbox lately. I have some doubts about the efficacy of all this petitioning and tend to be quick with the delete button, but one recent petition drew me in. The message itself — which stated that the United Nations was collecting signatures of people opposed […]
