While the world continues to grapple with the devastating consequences of Covid-19, WWF is calling for urgent action to address the key drivers it has identified which will cause future zoonotic disease outbreaks. In a new report Covid-19: Urgent Call to Protect People and Nature, WWF identifies a number of environmental factors which drive the emergence of zoonotic … [Read more...]
Let’s help Ayakha Melithafa get to Davos
Ayakha Melithafa, a 17-year-old climate justice activist from Khayelitsha has been invited to attend the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland from 19-24 January 2020. There she will represent the youth of South Africa on a number of panels with world-renowned youth climate activist Greta Thunberg. The Forum brings together stakeholders to help address the greatest … [Read more...]
Ethiopia plants 350 million trees to fight deforestation
Ethiopia has planted more than 350 million trees in 12 hours, its government announced, claiming a world record. Across the country, volunteers took part in the mass planting as part of the “Green Legacy” initiative, a programme that aims to reforest large swathes of the land. The efforts far surpassed an original target of planting 200 million seedlings in a day. … [Read more...]
Ethical consumerism: shepherding back biodiversity
Climate change, over-population, pollution, plastic-filled seas. The threat to biodiversity, which ensures we have any future at all, is overwhelming. What can I do, I ask myself, to turn back the tide? Are my attempts at recycling, buying free range and organic food, signing Greenpeace petitions, boycotting products that contain palm oil and using public transport making any … [Read more...]
Interconnections imply enhanced systemic risks
“Our lives are changing at an unprecedented pace. Transformational shifts in our economic, environmental, geopolitical, societal and technological systems offer unparalleled opportunities, but the interconnections among them also imply enhanced systemic risks. Stakeholders from across business, government and civil society face an evolving imperative in understanding and … [Read more...]
Cost of climate change high on Davos agenda
From within the Davos Congress Center, you can see skiers racing down the slopes outside of the World Economic Forum. Looking at the snow outside, some participants might wonder why there's so much talk about global warming. Not so Christiana Figueres. Standing in the snow, the UN climate chief said she is pleased the topic is so high on the agenda at Davos. "The risk of … [Read more...]
Women & under-30s most concerned about climate change
Women and the under 30s are more concerned about the potential impacts of climate change than men and older generations. That’s one of the findings of a report published today by the World Economic Forum (WEF), a week ahead of its annual meeting in Davos. It rates environmental crises linked to climate impacts in its top ten global risks of 2014, based on a survey of 700 … [Read more...]
