शुक्रवार, 11 अगस्त 2023

A dried-up part of the Muga riverbed in northern Spain.

Global heating likely to hit world food supply before 1.5C, says UN expert

Water scarcity threatening agriculture faster than expected, warns Cop15 desertification president

The world is likely to face major disruption to food supplies well before temperatures rise by the 1.5C target, the president of the UN’s desertification conference has warned, as the impacts of the climate crisis combine with water scarcity and poor farming practices to threaten global agriculture.

Alain-Richard Donwahi, a former Ivory Coast defence minister who led last year’s UN Cop15 summit on desertification, said the effects of drought were taking hold more rapidly than expected.

“Climate change is a pandemic that we need to fight quickly. See how fast the degradation of the climate is going – I think it’s going even faster than we predicted,” he said. “Everyone is fixated on 1.5C [above pre-industrial levels], and it’s a very important target. But actually, some very bad things could happen, in terms of soil degradation, water scarcity and desertification, way before 1.5C.”

The problems of rising temperatures, heatwaves and more intense droughts and floods, were endangering food security in many regions, Donwahi said. “[Look at] the effects of droughts on food security, the effects of droughts on migration of population, the effect of droughts on inflation. We could have an acceleration of negative effects, other than temperature,” he said.

Poor farming practices were not helping, he said. “The degradation of soil comes with bad habits, and the way we do our agriculture will lead to degradation of the soil. When the soil is affected, the yield is affected,” he said.

Donwahi called on private sector investors to get involved and take advantage of opportunities for turning a profit. “The private sector has an interest in agriculture, and the better usage of the soil. We’re talking about [improving] yields. We’re talking about agroforestry, which is another way the private sector can have a return on investment,” he said. “We have to be innovative, to find new vehicles for finance.”

Governments around the world signed a treaty pledging to combat desertification in 1992, alongside the UN framework convention on climate change, which is the parent treaty to the 2015 Paris climate agreement, and the UN convention on biodiversity, which aims to safeguard species abundance.

But the desertification treaty gains least attention, and last year’s Cop15 on desertification went largely unnoticed compared with the climate Cop27 and the biodiversity Cop15 last December. Desertification Cops are held less frequently than climate summits: the next desertification conference will be held in Riyadh in December 2024, while the next climate summit, Cop28, will be in Dubai in late November.

Donwahi said the world could not afford to ignore desertification. “We need to solve all the problems together. Desertification and drought leads to climate change, leads to loss of biodiversity. And when you have climate change you have droughts, floods, storms.

“It’s not only the poor countries, everybody is in the same boat [on food security]. Climate change, droughts, storms, floods don’t know any boundaries, they don’t need a visa to go into a country.”

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Rich countries should look to Africa for the solutions to the climate crisis, he added. Africa enjoys many of the natural resources – from minerals required for renewable energy technology, to forests, sun and vast groundwater reserves – needed to cut greenhouse gas emissions, improve food security and preserve biodiversity.

“Africa is a continent of solutions. It’s a continent where you have the most natural resources. The people who have the finance should help the people who have the natural resources. It’s a win-win situation, a partnership situation,” he said.

He called on Africans to seize these opportunities. “If the Africans realise that Africa is a solution, they will act differently – they will come with a more positive attitude, that you’re fighting to find solutions together. That’s how we should think – you don’t want to always be the one waiting for the help, for the handout, waiting cap in hand.”

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गुरुवार, 10 अगस्त 2023

Anti-corruption presidential candidate is assassinated in Ecuador as country reels from violence.

Anti-corruption presidential candidate is assassinated in Ecuador as country reels from violence

An Ecuadorian presidential candidate who recently pledged to root out corruption and lock up the country’s thieves was fatally shot at a political rally in the capital

ByGONZALO SOLANO and REGINA GARCIA CANO Associated Press

August 10, 2023, 6:29 AM

Ecuador Presidential Candidate Killed — Presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio speaks during a campaign event at...
The Associated Press

QUITO, Ecuador -- An Ecuadorian presidential candidate who recently pledged to root out corruption and lock up the country's “thieves” was fatally shot at a political rally in the capital as the South American country reels from drug-related crime and violence.

Fernando Villavicencio, 59, who was known for speaking up against cartels, was assassinated Wednesday, less than two weeks before a special presidential election. He was not a front-runner, but his death deepened an organized crime crisis that has already claimed thousands of lives and underscored the challenge that Ecuador's next leader will face.

Video of the rally in Quito posted on social media appeared to show Villavicencio walking out of the rally surrounded by guards. The footage then showed the candidate getting into a white pickup truck before gunshots were heard, followed by screams and commotion around the truck.

The sequence of events was confirmed to The Associated Press by Patricio Zuquilanda, Villavicencio’s campaign adviser.

The candidate had received at least three death threats before the shooting and reported them to authorities, resulting in one detention, Zuquilanda said.

“The Ecuadorian people are crying, and Ecuador is mortally wounded,” the adviser said. “Politics cannot lead to the death of any member of society.”

Former Vice President Otto Sonnenholzner, who also is seeking the presidency, bemoaned the loss at a news conference: “We are dying, drowning in a sea of tears, and we do not deserve to live like this.”

The assassins threw a grenade into the street to cover their flight, but it did not explode, President Guillermo Lasso said. Police later destroyed the grenade with a controlled explosion.

Operations carried out in different sectors of Quito resulted in six arrests. One suspect died in custody from wounds sustained in a firefight, the attorney general’s office said.

Lasso suggested the slaying could be linked to organized crime and insisted on proceeding with the election scheduled for Aug. 20. He declared three days of national mourning and a state of emergency that involves deploying additional military personnel throughout the country.

“Given the loss of a democrat and a fighter, the elections are not suspended. On the contrary, they have to be held, and democracy has to be strengthened,” Lasso said Thursday.

In his final speech before he was killed, Villavicencio promised a roaring crowd that he would fight corruption and imprison more criminals.

He had been threatened by affiliates of Mexico's Sinaloa cartel, one of a slew of international organized crime groups that now operate in Ecuador. He said his campaign represented a threat to such groups.

“Here I am showing my face. I'm not scared of them,” Villavicencio said in a statement before his death, naming detained crime boss José Adolfo Macías by his alias, “Fito.”

Villavicencio, one of eight candidates running for president, was the candidate of the Build Ecuador Movement.

As drug traffickers have begun to use the country’s coastal ports, Ecuadorians have reeled from violence not seen for decades. Gunfire is heard in many major cities as rival gangs battle for control, and gangs have recruited children.

Just last month, the mayor of the port city of Manta was shot and killed. On July 26, Lasso declared a state of emergency covering two provinces and the country's prison system in an effort to stem the violence.

People waiting for buses in Guayaquil, a port city south of Quito that has been the epicenter of gang violence, expressed shock over Villavicencio's killing.

“It shows that the violence in the country is increasing,” pharmacist Leidy Aguirre, 28, said. “Politicians supposedly have more security than citizens and this shows that not even they are safe.”

Elsewhere, people went about their lives by taking outdoor exercise classes and daily walks because they are resigned to live amid the violence.

Marjorie Lino, a 38-year-old housewife, lamented the danger as she walked with a friend along the main road that leads to one of the country’s most violent neighborhoods.

“To us as women, our husbands tell us not to go out here, but it doesn’t matter (because) when one is going to die, one dies even at the door of one’s house,” she said. She does not believe that any of the presidential candidates will be able to end the violence.

Villavicencio was one of the country's most critical voices against corruption, especially during the 2007-2017 government of President Rafael Correa.

He was an independent journalist who investigated corruption in previous governments before entering politics as an anti-graft campaigner.

Villavicencio filed many judicial complaints against high-ranking members of the Correa government, including against the ex-president himself. He was sentenced to 18 months in prison for defamation over his criticisms of Correa, and fled to Indigenous territory in Ecuador, later receiving asylum in neighboring Peru.

Edison Romo, a former military intelligence colonel, said the anti-corruption complaints made Villavicencio “a threat to international criminal organizations.”

Lasso, a conservative former banker, was elected in 2021 on a business-friendly platform and clashed from the start with the left-leaning majority coalition in the National Assembly.

A snap election was called after Lasso dissolved the National Assembly by decree in May, in a move to avoid being impeached over allegations that he failed to intervene to end a faulty contract between the state-owned oil transport company and a private tanker company.

The country has faced a series of political upheavals in recent years.

Authorities said that at least nine others were injured in the shooting, including a congressional candidate.

The killing was met with an outcry by other candidates who demanded action, with presidential front-runner Luisa González of the Citizen Revolution party saying “when they touch one of us, they touch all of us.”

Villavicencio was married and is survived by five children.

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मंगलवार, 8 अगस्त 2023

अमेरिका का हालात खराब।

अमेरिका की हालत खराब, Fitch ने घटा दी रेटिंग, 12 साल में पहली बार हुई कटौती

अमेरिकी इकॉनमी को तगड़ा झटका लगा है। रेटिंग एजेंसी फिच (Fitch) ने इसकी रेटिंग घटा दी है। फिच ने अमेरिका की रेटिंग को AAA से घटाकर AA+ कर दिया है। 2011 के बाद से यह पहली बार है जब अमेरिका की रेटिंग में कटौती हुई है। रेटिंग में यह कटौती देश की वित्तीय स्थिति और बढ़ते कर्ज को देखते हुए की गई है

अमेरिकी इकॉनमी को तगड़ा झटका लगा है। रेटिंग एजेंसी फिच (Fitch) ने इसकी रेटिंग घटा दी है। फिच ने अमेरिका की रेटिंग को AAA से घटाकर AA+ कर दिया है। 2011 के बाद से यह पहली बार है जब अमेरिका की रेटिंग में कटौती हुई है। रेटिंग में यह कटौती देश की वित्तीय स्थिति और बढ़ते कर्ज को देखते हुए की गई है। फिच के मुताबिक बढ़ते राजकोषीय घाटे और कमजोर होते गवर्नेंस के चलते पिछले दो दशक में कई बार कर्ज खतरनाक सीमा तक पहुंच गया। हालांकि अब फिच ने इसकी रेटिंग घटा दी। इससे पहले पिछली बार एसएंडपी ग्लोबल रेटिंग्स ने इसकी रेटिंग घटाई थी।

फिच का कहना है कि फेडरल रिजर्व सितंबर में ब्याज दरों में एक और बढ़ोतरी कर सकता है जिससे रेटिंग्स पर और दबाव आ सकता है। फिच ने आगाह किया है कि अगर खर्च से जुड़े मुद्दों और मैक्रोइकनॉमिक पॉलिसी से जुड़ी चुनौतियों का समाधान करने में सरकार नाकाम रहती है तो रेटिंग और नीचे जा सकती है। वहीं दूसरी तरफ मूडीज इनवेस्टर्स सर्विस ने अभी भी अमेरिका की सोवरेन रेटिंग एएए दी हुई है जो इसकी टॉप रेटिंग है।

शुक्रवार, 11 अगस्त 2023