Category Environment & Development

Why Pacific Island nations like Micronesia need climate finance now?

0 Comments read Climate Change, Environment & Development
Robby Nena and family outside their home in Utwe village in Federated States of Micronesia’s Kosrae state. Photo Credit: RN

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 28.06.2021 (IPS): Robby Nena is one of the many farmers and fishermen on the frontline of climate change in the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), where coastal flooding and erosion, variable and heavy rainfall, increased temperature, droughts and other extreme weather events are becoming all too common.

FSM is one of the 22 Pacific Island Countries and Territories (PICTs). These nations contribute less than 0.03 percent of the world’s total CO2 and other greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Yet, they are amongst the most vulnerable to the impacts of global warming, climate change and sea level rise. A quarter of Pacific people live within 1 km of the coast.

“Every time it rains, our home and farm get flooded, destroying our crops, damaging infrastructure and posing a major health hazard. Our tapioca and taro crops were completely destroyed in the major flooding event last month”, Nena tells IPS from Utwe village in FSM’s Kosrae state via a choppy Messenger call.

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Ozone threatens food security

0 Comments read Environment & Development, Health & Science
Photo Credit: ©Neena Bhandari

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 24.06.2021 (SciDev.Net): Tropospheric and surface ozone pollution pose significant threats to global crop production and food security, but farmers are largely unaware of its impact on agriculture and damage to ecosystems, say scientists.

According to scientists, ozone, as an air pollutant, is highly oxidising and damages plant tissues. But because it is an invisible, odourless gas that often co-occurs with other stresses, such as heat stress, farmers do not directly experience it.

Baerbel Sinha, head of the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, in Mohali, India, says: “If one wants to look at where ozone is possibly disturbing the economics on a large scale, and where one may also be able to educate farmers better, it would be the legumes — soybean, chickpeas and beans in general are very ozone sensitive, their prices are not regulated and they display visible ozone damage on the leaf.”

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© Copyright Neena Bhandari. All rights reserved. Republication, copying or using information from neenabhandari.com content is expressly prohibited without the permission of the writer and the media outlet syndicating or publishing the article.

COVID-19 widens digital divide, but cuts e-waste

0 Comments read Environment & Development, Health & Science

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 15.06.2021 (SciDev.Net): Consumption of electronic and electrical equipment at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic fell in low- and middle-income countries by almost a third, according to a UN report, despite a growing need to be connected with the world in lockdown.

While the reduction means that millions of tonnes of potential e-waste has been saved, it also highlights a deepening of the north-south digital divide, said the report, published 9 June by the UN University’s (UNU) Sustainable Cycles Programme (SCYCLE) and UN Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR).

The report analysed Electric and Electronic Equipment consumption during the first three quarters of 2020 as compared to the “business as usual” scenario before the pandemic and used it to estimate future e-waste. Consumption of electronic and electrical equipment at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic fell in low- and middle-income countries by almost a third, according to a UN report, despite a growing need to be connected with the world in lockdown.

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© Copyright Neena Bhandari. All rights reserved. Republication, copying or using information from neenabhandari.com content is expressly prohibited without the permission of the writer and the media outlet syndicating or publishing the article.