Want to throw food, think again - World Environment Day 2013-

An annual program organized by UNEP (United Nations Environment Protection,) the World Environment Day falling on June 05, is back this year with the theme Think.Eat.Save. The theme focuses on not wasting food, as it seen that it takes a lot of effort to produce the food which in turns reflects to the amount carbon emissions produced. The UN Food and Agriculture estimates that about 1.3 billion tonnes of food is disposed off. Considering that amount of food wasted, it is possible to feed an entire continent of people for several years.

With a global population of 7 billion and growing, needing to feed such a population has been a burden on natural resources. The UN’s Food and Agriculture estimates that one third of the world’s food is wasted or lost. There are places in the world where people starve of hunger and are not able to have a proper three square meal. So imagining that 1.3 billion tonnes of food are wasted, this year’s theme seems very appropriate Think.Eat.Save.

It is not only about saving food but considering the fact of preserving other resources when consuming food. One of major requirements of producing food is water. I found an article from the Guardian published this year January indicating how much water is required to produce common food stuff. As I went through the article, it seems we waste a lot more water and I mean a lot. For example to produce 1 kg of chocolate, 17,196 litres of water is used. So now do the math, 1.3 billion tonnes of food wasted and multiple the amount of water wasted.

On the top of that, the production, manufacturing, shipping and transportation of food lead to a massive trail of carbon footprint. I again say, this year’s theme is about thinking before you eat, then eat and finally save/protect the environment.

They have created some interesting posters with facts for those of you who want to see, check it out.

Rio+20- Fingers crossed?

With less than 13 days left for the Rio +20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable development, the question arises will this summit be the turning point or just a get together of world leaders thinking about how to cook their food or just fall asleep into discussions.

After all the conferences that lead up to this, it is expected Rio to be the last hope or as the slogan for this conference is "The Future we want." The conference will focus on two broad issues

- Green economy in the relevance to sustainable development poverty eradication
- Institutional framework for sustainable development.

 These two broad issues then have been broken down into 7 critical issues that will need a proper framework  to pave for a sustainable future. The issues are

1- Jobs
2- Energy
3- Cities
4- Food
5- Water
6- Oceans
7- Disasters

Each one of them are interlinked with each other making it harder to maintain some sort of equilibrium. It is said that it would cost $100bn to sustain climate change each year. So that would mean if such a proper framework is to be finalized at Rio(fingers crossed), then this money of $100bn would be spent tackling these 7 critical issues. Looks like we have to wait and see...

To know more visit the site at UN Conference on Sustainable Development..

UN Secretary General endorses 10/10/10

Its great to hear that UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon has endorsed 10/10/10, the Global Day of Doing. As he quotes

“It’s time for us to roll up our sleeves and get to work on building the clean energy future that will generate economic opportunity and provide a better, safer, healthier world for our children. On October 10, I encourage everyone to do his / her part to be part of the solution to the climate challenge.”

He further said

“It’s time to roll up our sleeves.” Let’s get to work pulling in those 35 remaining countries and signing up even more work parties for 10/10/10. Together, we’ll show our nations what unity is all about.

Why the rest 35 countries? Apparently in 350.org website, 25 countries are still not active about 350 as in no activities relating to 350 have taken place. If they did last year, probably not this year. Just before posting this article, I was going through the list of the countries at 350.org website.

Read more about it.

Countries pledge to Copenhagen Accord

After the result of the Copenhagen Accord on December 2009, countries were given a time frame of January 31, 2010 to agree to the accord and the deadline has passed with US renewing vows to reduce CO2 emissions.

Basically the Accord summarized that global temperatures should not exceed more than 2 degrees and that countries affected by climate change were to be compensated by giving them financial support to combat climate change.

UN will announce the list of signatories soon but so far here are some of the pledges made by countries.

China - to reduce "carbon intensity" by 40-45% from 2005 by 2020.

India - to reduce carbon intensity by 20-25% from 2005 by 2020.

US - aim to cut emissions by about 17% by 2020, from 2005 levels.

EU - 20% emissions cut by 2020 from 1990 levels, and 30% if other nations deepen their reductions.

Brazil - to aim for 36-39% below projected levels by 2020.

Japan - 25% below 1990 levels by 2020

World Habitat day: October 5th 2009

The first Monday of each October has been declared as World Habitat Day. This year, the day falls on the 5th of October and Habitat for Humanity has done a great job at providing support for the homeless. They are more than 100 million people who are homeless, according to the United Nations.


What you can do to help? Habitat for humanity have given a head's up about that:

1) Advocate
2) Educate
3) Donate

Let's stand up on World Habitat Day and let it be known that affordable, adequate housing should be a priority everywhere—in our communities, in our towns, in our country, in our world.

Show your support and take action!

Maldives broke – Stance against climate change weakens

Maldives is the first country to face the affects of climate change quite literally with the country sinking under water every year.  When ever there is a global summit about climate change, you would always notice a Maldives representative to be there. However this time, its different.

With the Copenhagen summit nearby, Maldives president will be unable to attend the summit as the country is broke. The country’s population is already termed as climate refugees, as most of them are forced to evacuate the island.

Latest update- Denmark will finance the trip of Maldives representatives.

Current News

Those of you who have been watching the news, could say that the Cyclone Sidr that hit Bangladesh was devastating. Southern parts of Bangladesh were hit most. Death tolls so far published in my country's newspaper was something like 1,500 although I do not know the exact value. Homes blown away, trees uprooted, water supply shortages and electricity. My country's electricity grid was down for almost 2 days, that being in the capital city, Dhaka, however the southern parts of the country are still electricity deprived.

Dhaka was affected by the cyclone but not much damage was done. I would like to thank foreign agencies and donor agencies for providing relief. Just 3- 4 months ago we were hit by massive flooding and still recovering. If anybody can help with the relief please do try. Mobile operators in Bangladesh have created an opportunity to donate money simply by sms where each person donates Tk.10 which is something like 7 cents . To visit there sites go to Grameenphone, Banglalink, Warid telecom, Aktel, Citycell

International News

UN Chief Secretary Ban-Ki-Moon visited the Antarctic region and he requested nations to control climate change and global warming. This is what he said:

“This is an emergency. For an emergency situation we need an emergency act.We have resources. We have financing. Only lacking is political will.”

Save the environment, Save the world!

UN's way of helping climate change

A study done by the United Nation's states that in the peril of climate change and catastrophic disasters, we humans are capable in the sense that we have the money and the knowledge to stop global warming. The study concludes that we can stop 26 billion tonnes of emissions by the end of 2030.

Experts are saying that such an action would cost billion of dollars to the economy over the past twenty years. I think such a drastic action must be taken. We are intelligent enough to create a slower economy just enough to sustain lower gas emmissions.

This is way out of the topic but i rather continue.

When going for such a scheme newer, better and efficient technology must been invented. I was watching climate watch on BBC a few days and a new type of scheme or business is sprouting which is "Carbon Offset" or "Offsetting Carbon". The theme of this scheme is to create an industry which has zero carbon emmissions. By offsetting carbon schemes, larger industries can create smaller industries which follow the zero carbon emissions. In the end the larger industries just continue their regular carbon emmissions, if people say anything the large industries will reply i have a zero carbon emmission industry.

There are also single entities, or just a single person. They showed a farmer, i think in the UK that he used cow's manure to produce methane gas, which he later converted it into electricity. Quite neat!

Project to be launched to curb Mercury Pollution

The project backed by the United Nations have given governments a two year time frame to see whether a voluntary programme to reduce health and enviornmental threats from toxic mercury is working or ifa legally-binding treaty is needed to curb heavy metal linked with a wide range of medical problems such neurological diseases.

The programme is to be agreeded by 140 governments at a gathering of enviornment ministers at the UN Enviornment Programme(UNEP) Governing Council. The plan is to curb mercury emmissions from industries, power stations, mines, consumer products. A part of this project may mirror a successful UNEP-coordinated partnership to clean up fuels in developing countries.

An estimated 2,000 tons of mercury are released into the atmosphere from coal-fired power stations, waste incinerators as the result of gold and silver mining.