Sustainable development blog : ecology and humanitarian aid

As the threats to marine ecosystems continue to build thanks to things such as climate change, overfishing, pollution and non-sustainable uses of this finely balanced natural resource, a leading research scientist discusses what we can do about problems associated with the world's oceans.

Dr Dr. Alex Rogers, Scientific Director of IPSO and Professor of Conservation Biology at the Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, makes the important point that what is going on today in our oceans is morally corrupt, as we destroy an essential resource that will be needed to provide sustenance to people long past our own limited lifespans.

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Watch this great video from the Center for Investigative Reporting about the true price of gasoline. Read more »

Nairobi (Kenya), 22 February 2011

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) today announced that India, with one of the fastest growing economies in the world that is embracing the process of a transition to a Green Economy, will be for the first time ever the global host of World Environment Day 2011 (WED) on 5 June.

This year's theme 'Forests: Nature at Your Service' underscores the intrinsic link between quality of life and the health of forests and forest ecosystems. The WED theme also supports this year's UN International Year of Forests.

India is a country of 1.2 billion people who continue to put pressure on forests especially in densely populated areas where people are cultivating on marginal lands and where overgrazing is contributing to desertification. Read more »

Picture by Seguya Henry Kizito (courtesy CDSi)

It’s a question that became the central theme for an online community created by Tim Magee, former business owner and Director of Development at the University of the Valley of Guatemala. During his three-year tenure with the university his job was to build a development team, which led to a working relationship with hundreds of NGO’s, universities, donors and Read more »

Translated from the original Italian (http://www.blogecologia.it/2010/10/grande-muraglia-verde-contro-la-deser...) by Marcella Oliviero.

It has been called “The Great Green Wall”; a project for a planned environmental barrier to quickly stop desertification and fight against climate change in China. By 2050 it has been estimated that the artificial forest will reach 400 millions of hectares and will cover more than 42% of the whole country. China already boasts the biggest artificial forest of the world that actually covers more than 500,000 square kilometers. The project was Read more »

Climate change could have terrible side effects... and leave another 25 million children malnourished by 2050, unless heafty investments in adaptive measures are made, says a major new report.

Three-year-old Antonio, who has the weight of a 6-month-old baby, is being attended at a health center for malnourished children (Patrick Farrell/Miami Herald)

An annual US$7 billion investment in agricultural productivity will be necessary to help farmers adapt and reduce

http://humanityy.com/

A guest post by Angela Lovell, a freelance writer who manages the Once a Fortnight blog.

It is not in our interest, as we approach the UN Copenhagen Climate Summit, to continue to engage in pointless bantering, (however beautifully orchestrated), about whether global warming should continue to be a subject of debate or a given fact. In the broader sense it really doesn’t matter whether we agree that global warming exists and if so, to what extent, or who is responsible. Read more »