In October 2021, a vote by the UN Human Rights Council recognized that we all have a right to a safe, healthy and sustainable environment. Our most fundamental human rights are inextricable from the health of the natural world, including the right to adequate food and even the right to...
The Green New Deal is a progressive wish list that combines the reduction of carbon emissions with investments in Green technologies and Green jobs. In the United States, the Green New Deal has largely remained aspirational: a non-binding resolution that has not yet come to a vote in...
Take a look at the suited people at COP26. Some look inquisitively around as the bill is slipped across the table to them. Others pull out the inside of their empty pockets and shrug their shoulders. Some recall past promises and claim they are still owed money. Others point to someone else’s...
The disconnect between donor-based development aid and local needs grows wider as the crisis deepens in Yemen. Focus remains on prioritizing emergency response to crisis zones, such as the devastating environment in Mareb, rather than the development of stable economic zones. At the micro-level,...
Global warming is an established ongoing threat, and the Middle East is warming at twice the global average. This summer, Oman, the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Iraq have experienced temperatures surging above 50˚C. It is quite plausible that temperatures could rise closer to 60˚C over the coming...
There is no question about it: Our planet is warming faster than ever before. Having plateaued around 280 parts per million for thousands of years, global CO2 emissions have shot past 400 ppm at the end of the last decade, an atmospheric rise set in motion by the 18th-century Industrial...
Some 40 years ago, the Club of Rome published a study with what at the time was a relatively provocative title, “The Limits to Growth.” The book appeared at a time of rising environmental consciousness and growing uneasiness with respect to the state of the planet. Throughout the advanced...
Usually, the first images that spring to mind when at the mention of endangered ursine species are either of the formidable polar bear traversing the Arctic regions or the endearing panda clumsily munching on bamboo. With just around 40 remaining in the world, the Gobi bear is, in fact, rarer than...
I’ve only had to show my vaccination card a couple times — to eat in a restaurant in New York City, to see a play in Washington, DC. I was happy to do so. Once inside, I was relieved to be among the vaccinated. Most Americans have gotten vaccinated because they simply want protection from...
In life, we generally believe that words matter and that they are important. We also think promises and pledges expressed in words and made in public are really important. They show our intentions and commitment to people who matter to us. And that actions speak louder than words. Fiji’s...
The recent issuance of Latin America’s first blue bond could be a major milestone. The region stands to benefit from this nascent financial mechanism aimed at protecting water sources and creating opportunities for populations living near them. Announced during the UN climate summit in...
