A recent article published in the journal of the American Botanical Council, HerbalGram, warns that climate change is affecting medicinal and aromatic plants around the world and could ultimately lead to losses of some key species.
The article notes that species endemic to regions or ecosystems that are especially vulnerable to climate change, such as Arctic and alpine regions, could be most at risk.(...)
How much disease could be prevented through better management of our environment? The environment influences our health in many ways — through exposures to physical, chemical and biological risk factors, and through related changes in our behaviour in response to those factors. To answer this question, the available scientific evidence was summarized and more than 100 experts were consulted for their estimates of how much environmental risk factors contribute to the disease burden of 85 diseases.
This report summarizes the results globally, by 14 regions worldwide, and separately for children. The evidence shows that environmental risk factors play a role in more than 80% of the diseases regularly reported by the World Health Organization. Globally, nearly one quarter of all deaths and of the total disease burden can be attributed to the environment. In children, however, environmental risk factors can account for slightly more than one-third of the disease burden. These findings have important policy implications, because the environmental risk factors that were studied largely can be modified by established, cost-effective interventions. The interventions promote equity by benefiting everyone in the society, while addressing the needs of those most at risk. (...)
(…) L’impronta ecologica, che scaturisce dagli studi dell’ecologo William Rees prima e poi del suo allievo Mathis Wackernagel che oggi dirige il Global Footprint Network, fornisce dati interessanti sul nostro impatto nei confronti delle risorse naturali. Essa misura quanto l’umanità richiede alla biosfera in termini di terra e acqua biologicamente produttive necessarie per fornire le risorse che usiamo e per assorbire i rifiuti che produciamo. Quest’area viene espressa in ettari globali, ettari cioè con una produttività biologica media globale.(...)
UNEP Releases Policy Brief on Global Green New Deal in Advance of G20
The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) has released “Global Green New Deal: Policy Brief,” which aims to inform the debate at the upcoming G20 meeting to be held in London, UK, in early April 2009.
Based on the findings of the UNEP-commissioned report “A Global Green New Deal,” the policy brief calls for the investment of 1% of global GDP in the energy efficiency of buildings, renewable energy, sustainable transport, ecological infrastructure and sustainable agriculture. According to the report, investing about US$750 billion of stimulus monies in the green economy could aid recovery from the economic downturn, create jobs, address poverty, promote achievement of the Millennium Development Goals, and fight climate change.
Un nuovo rapporto sulla situazione ambientale dei paesi arabi pone l’accento sulle condizioni climatiche estreme. L'incremento delle temperature rischio danneggia l’agricoltura causando una perdita di 5 miliardi di dollari all’anno (...)