so should you!
Join us on Twitter: @WSF2017 and @ArtBaselGallery
Friday, February 12, 2016
Better water, better jobs
World Water Day
is an international observance and an opportunity to learn more about water
related issues, be inspired to tell others and take action to make a
difference. World Water Day dates back to the 1992 United Nations Conference on
Environment and Development where an international observance for water was
recommended. The United Nations General Assembly responded by designating 22
March 1993 as the first World Water Day. It has been held annually since then.
Each year, UN-Water — the entity that coordinates the UN’s work on water
and sanitation — sets a theme for World Water Day corresponding to a
current or future challenge. The engagement campaign is coordinated by one or
several of the UN-Water Members with a related mandate.
Better water, better jobs
Today, almost
half of the world's workers - 1.5 billion people - work in water related
sectors and nearly all jobs depend on water and those that ensure its safe
delivery. Yet the millions of people who work in water are often not recognized
or protected by basic labour rights. The theme in 2016 - water and jobs -show
how enough quantity and quality of water can change workers' lives and
livelihoods - and even transform societies and economies.
Follow us on Twitter: @WSF2017
Source: UN Water - World Water Day 2016
Thursday, February 11, 2016
Thousands of people are coming together to try to give Japan’s oldest elephant the home she deserves
EllenScott for Metro.co.uk Saturday 6 Feb 2016 12:56 pm
Hanako the
elephant is 69 years old. For 67 of those years, she’s lived alone in
a concrete pen in Inokashira Park Zoo, Japan.
At 69, Hanako
is nearing the end of her life. More than 300,000 people believe she deserves
to be moved out of her current pen – which is around the size of half a
basketball court – and into a Thai sanctuary, where she would be able to live
in a natural, grassy habitat with other elephants.
According to
blogger Ulara Nakagawa,
the zoo in which Hanako currently lives is one of the ‘cruelest, most archaic
zoos in the modern world.’
 |
| At 69 years old, Hanako is Japan’s oldest elephant. (Picture: AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko) |
 |
She’s been living in a small concrete pen for 67 years. (Picture: AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
|
Nakagawa writes:
‘Totally alone in a small, barren, cement enclosure with absolutely NO comfort
or stimulation provided, she just stood there almost lifeless – like a
figurine.
‘There was
absolutely nothing else for her to do.’
 |
| She lives alone and has no entertainment. (Picture: AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko) |
Ikoshira Park
Zoo admits that they’re in no way equiped to look after an elephant, and won’t
bring a new one in after Hanako has passed away. They argue that they know
Hanako best, that she doesn’t like changes, and that it’s ‘too late’.
 |
| Thousands of people have signed a petition to move Hanako to a sanctuary. (Picture: AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko) |
More than
300,000 people have signed a petition to the zoo and the Japanese government,
urging them to take action and let Hanako live out her final years in comfort
and happiness.
‘Hanako
deserves freedom and to spend time with her own kind,’ writes Helen Wakeman.
 |
Hanako deserves her final few years to be happy. (Picture: AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
|
‘Please give
her peace and allow her last few years of life to be happy ones.’
If you’d like
to support moving Hanakon to a sanctuary for her final years, sign the petition over
The Petition Site.
Source: METRO
Wednesday, February 10, 2016
How Climate Change Changed the Face of Marine Science
February 10, 2016
- 06:25
The amount of marine science papers on climate change
has doubled every five years since the release of the first UN report on
climate change in 1990.
Keywords: Climate change, IPCC, marine
science, Science
By: Catherine Jex
In the last 15 years, marine science has become
increasingly dominated by the topic of climate change, shows new research.
And it is not just the physical sciences of
oceanography and climatology that are focussed on how climate change affects
the oceans. Marine biologists and ecologists have also shifted their focus to
climate.
“There’s been a huge growth in the proportion of
climate change research within the field of marine science,” says lead-author
Martin Pedersen, postdoc at the National Institute of Aquatic Resources,
Technical University of Denmark (DTU).
According to Pedersen, this growing interest in
climate change among marine scientists coincides with the publication of the
first report from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in
1990.
“Many people know of the IPCC reports, not only in
the scientific community but it’s also in the general news. So even though we
can’t prove that it’s the main driver [of shifting focus in marine science],
I’m pretty sure that it’s had a huge influence,” says Pedersen.
Climate change a growing concern to marine science
Pedersen and colleagues sorted through almost 2,800
marine science articles published in scientific journals since 1990. Of these,
1,362 dealt with the topic of climate change.
They grouped all of these articles into different
disciplines, including the physical sciences with a focus on the ocean or
atmosphere, the biological sciences, and the social sciences, which looked at
economic aspects such as the livelihood of fishermen affected by climate
change.
If a paper shared more than one discipline it would
be labelled as inter-disciplinary.
They saw that since the first IPCC report in 1990,
the number of scientific studies in marine science as a whole has doubled every
ten years.
And within marine science itself, the number of
scientific studies focussed on climate change has increased twice as
fast--doubling every five years. This is a huge shift in the focus of marine
scientists to the issue of climate change, says Pedersen.
Biologists more aware of climate change
But it is not just the total number of climate
change studies that have shot up. Where once oceanographers and climatologists
dominated climate change research, there is now an increasing focus on the
topic from marine biologists.
“These disciplines [physical sciences] have studied
climate change for a long time, well before the IPCC, so we wouldn’t expect
this branch of science to explode simply as a result of the IPCC,” says Pedersen.
“But it could have caused the biological sciences
to have changed focus as they become more aware of climate change,” he says.
Not only the IPCC that has scientists’ attention
Not all marine scientists are convinced that the
IPCC is the main driver of this shifting focus to the topic of climate change.
Marine Biologist Christiane Lancelot, from the
Université Libre de Bruxelles recently chaired a session on the changing face
of marine sciences at the largest
Earth Science conference held annually in San Francisco, USA.
Asked whether the IPCC has changed the face of
marine sciences she writes, “This is true but not exactly true,” in an email to
ScienceNordic.
“At the same time [end of the 1980s] ICSU
[International Council for Science] launched the International Geosphere
Biosphere Program on Global Change research,” writes Lancelot.
According to her, this large review program has
also focussed scientists’ attention to the issues of climate change and
contributed to the changing face of research across different disciplines.
Social Scientists yet to come on board
But not all scientists have shifted their focus to
climate. Social scientists have published comparatively little on the topic of
climate change in the marine environment.
Pedersen attributes this in part to the large
investments in funding for international research teams and long running
projects in the natural and biological sciences that has amassed huge amounts
of data over the last 15 years.
“The big biological data collection programs for
example are well organised, big projects, and often international. And they’re
well funded, which you don't really have in the social sciences. Of course,
there’s loads of data, but perhaps they’re not as accessible to social scientists
as they are to biologists,” he says.
There are also relatively few interdisciplinary
studies, indicative of how scientists from different disciplines still do not
have many opportunities to interact and work together, says Pedersen.
Source: ScienceNordic
Tuesday, February 9, 2016
Confirmed Keynote Speaker - The 6th World Sustainability Forum - 27 and 28 January 2017 - Cape Town, South Africa
Graça Machel, DBE
President of the Foundation of Community Development and the UNESCO National Commission in Mozambique and Member of the Sustainable Development Goals Advocacy Group, United Nations, is a Mozambican politician and humanitarian. She is the widow of former South African president Nelson Mandela and of Mozambican president Samora Machel. She is an international advocate for women's and children's rights and in 1997 was made a British dame for her humanitarian work. Graça Machel is the only woman in history to have been first lady of two separate republics, serving as the First Lady of Mozambique from 1975 to 1986 and the First Lady of South Africa from 1998 to 1999.
President of the Foundation of Community Development and the UNESCO National Commission in Mozambique and Member of the Sustainable Development Goals Advocacy Group, United Nations, is a Mozambican politician and humanitarian. She is the widow of former South African president Nelson Mandela and of Mozambican president Samora Machel. She is an international advocate for women's and children's rights and in 1997 was made a British dame for her humanitarian work. Graça Machel is the only woman in history to have been first lady of two separate republics, serving as the First Lady of Mozambique from 1975 to 1986 and the First Lady of South Africa from 1998 to 1999.
Follow us on Twitter: @WSF2017
Source: http://sciforum.net/conference/wsf-6 and Wikipedia
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)