Publications by: Guest content
Despite Paris climate pledge, planet on track to surpass 3°C temperature rise
Blog / 5th November 2016After 24 years of negotiations we are hurtling towards a 3.5 degree world, which will be catastrophic for millions. By Nika Knight, Common Dreams.
Wealthy countries doing ‘nowhere near enough’ to help poorest cope with climate change
Article / 31st October 2016Wealthy nations are doing “nowhere near enough” to help the world’s poorest people cope with the effects of climate change, Oxfam has warned after 38 developed countries claimed they were on track to meet their pledges to provide aid.
World’s food and energy systems key to tackling global biodiversity decline
Report / 27th October 2016The Living Planet Report 2016 reaffirms WWF’s ‘One Planet Perspective’ on the need for better choices for governing, using and sharing natural resources within the Earth’s ecological boundaries. Ultimately, addressing social inequality and environmental degradation depends on creating a new economic system that enhances and supports the natural capital upon which it relies.
Are we moving towards a ‘world free of poverty’?
Blog / 26th October 2016There are reasons to question the World Bank's upbeat estimate of global poverty, especially if non-income dimensions are considered. If we adopt a truly international poverty line, there could be around five billion poor people in the world - far beyond the 700 million estimated, explains Iyanatul Islam.
Who owns geosynchronous orbital pathways?
Blog / 21st October 2016Who owns outer space? Our most idealistic visions of the future require us to transcend our narrow personal or nationalistic interests, but increasingly, space seems likely to be divvied up among the powerful, as has so often happened with the Earth. Can space be managed to serve the common interest? A commentary by EarthSharing.
The long march against monsanto: A letter from the Hague
Article / 21st October 2016Following the Monsanto People’s Assembly in The Hague, activists converged around the need to 'globalise the struggle' for a new model of food and farming led by the grassroots, writes Ronnie Cummins.
Think U.S. agriculture will end world hunger? Think again.
Report / 21st October 2016A new report by the Environmental Working Group confronts the myth that American farmers must double their food production to 'feed the world'. Instead, the key to ending world hunger while protecting the environment is to help small farmers in the developing world increase their productivity and income, and to promote “agro-ecology” everywhere.
Climate change could drive 122m more people into extreme poverty by 2030
Article / 18th October 2016The UN's 2016 State of Food and Agriculture report warns that without measures to halt and reverse climate change, food production could become impossible in large areas of the world. Consequently, millions more people could be living in extreme poverty by 2030, despite new government pledges in the sustainable development goals. Reported by Claire Provost for the Guardian.
The privilege of being privileged
Article / 18th October 2016The route to reducing inequality is not through generating more philanthropic endeavour, but rather through transformative solutions that rely on sacrifice and sharing—hence altering the production and distribution of wealth and power in fundamental ways, argues Michael Edwards in openDemocracy.
Human rights beyond borders: The Maastricht Principles turn five
Blog / 8th October 2016Five years ago, the Maastricht Principles on Extraterritorial Obligations of States was adopted in the area of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and these Principles are increasingly being used by civil society organisations to hold States accountable for their extraterritorial conduct. Human rights obligations are now well recognized to extend beyond borders, as explained in the following news update published by the ETO Consortium.