Delegates from 181 nations at a UN-sponsored Food Security Summit in Rome closed a three-day meeting late yesterday with promises to push the United Nations' 12-year-old pledge to halve the number of malnourished people, now 860 million, by 2015 and help farmers from developing countries produce for international markets.
UN officials called the meeting a success for focusing attention on food prices ahead of a meeting of leaders of the Group of Eight nations in Japan next month. Other participants were more skeptical, saying the discussions resulted in an essentially meaningless statement.
Damage to forests, rivers, marine life and other aspects of nature could halve living standards for the world's poor, a major report has concluded.
Current rates of natural decline might reduce global GDP by about 7% by 2050.
The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) review is modelled on the Stern Review of climate change.
It will be released at the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) meeting in Bonn, where 60 leaders have pledged to halt deforestation by 2020.The distinguished agronomist, Norman Borlaug, warns that, "WITH food prices soaring throughout Asia, Africa and Latin America, and shortages threatening hunger and political chaos, the time could not be worse for an epidemic of stem rust in the world’s wheat crops. Yet millions of wheat farmers, small and large, face this spreading and deadly crop infection.
Brazil has been accused of turning its back on its duty to protect the Amazon after the resignation of its award-winning Environment Minister fuelled fresh fears over the fate of the forest. The departure of Marina Silva, who admitted she was losing the battle to get green voices heard amidst the rush for economic development, has been greeted with dismay by conservationists.
Announcing plans for economic, social and security measures, Tony Blair says that it would be “a mistake to think” that political negotiations could work without changing the reality on the ground.
Bill Mckibben argues that the reduction of atmospheric carbon dioxide is of crucial importance to maintaining civilisation.
Gershon Baskin of the Jerusalem Post writes about Independence Day in Israel.
Jonathan Freedland reflects on the possibilities for peace between Israelis and Palestinians on Israel's 60th anniversary.
WHEN Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, was asked to ponder the future of the world before an audience of powerful businessmen and politicians, at a meeting in Switzerland earlier this year, he could have chosen any topic he liked. What he focused on was both a hoary old favourite, and a newly popular preoccupation, of debates on world affairs: the rising risk of wars over fresh water, as populations increase and the world gets drier.
Listen to almost any American politician, President Bush included, and you’ll hear that the fight against global warming cannot be won without cleaner technologies that will ease dependence on fossil fuels. Yet these same politicians are on the verge of allowing modest but vital tax credits in the USA to expire that are crucial to the future of renewable energy sources like wind and solar power.
Tony Blair who is now an international envoy on the Middle East, said that he believed agreement on a Middle East peace deal was possible "faster than people think".
The Middle East peace Quartet held talks in London on Friday and called on Israel to cease all settlement activity to prevent the collapse of the peace process.
This was a week for Egypt and the region in general -- and maybe beyond -- to assess whether Hamas may or may not be engaged by a diplomatic drive.
