politicodiary

Prolonged droughts, loss of livestock and similar climatic challenges have pushed many young girls from the continent of Africa into city bounds, fending for themselves through sex trade. A human rights report found out that from the Hwange district in northwestern Zimbabwe itself, many teenage girls have moved to urban areas to escape the effects of climate change. Speak to residents and they agree that this has happened as their fields are just not producing enough to feed people at home. Do these girls send money back home? This isn’t a guarantee either. Many are with friends and have shifted to sex trade post pandemic as there was not work to support their livelihood in the cities either. The city of Hwange is said to be notorious for sex trade, drug trafficking and violence amongst young. Teenage girls can be seen gathering at a spot popularly known as the ‘booster’, where a tall communications tower shoots into the sky. During the day, the area is quiet, with few people a...

The European Union has revealed in a report, the possibility for conflict in the Middle East due to climate change. The report prepared by the European Union Cascades project, reveals some striking findings, stating “Climate Change and Water Report for the Tigris and Euphrates Basin.” As per their findings, the climate change in future will affect the water resources, which in further is expected to create economic and political challenges in the Euphrates-Tigris basin shared by the countries of Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey. Farming and other livelihood is depending on the water, with the expected climatic changes, there will be severe water shortages and water quality problems in future. This in-turn will lead to other issues like food scarcity, poverty, insecurities, and unemployment in rural farming regions, and this will eventually lead to displacement and internal migration at a larger scale than is seen today.” Considering the findings of the report, the expected changes in...

All favorable and promising talks have not culminated into concrete goals and actions on ground... This year 2021, UK is hosting the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow on 31 October – 12 November 2021. There have been some positive developments, including pledges to end and reverse deforestation, agreement to reduce methane emission levels by 30% by 2030 and new commitments to phase out coal power. No single party is happy with the effectiveness of the carbon emission targets set and countries failing to adhere to them. As of now EU has asked that it  wants the final document of the UN COP26 climate summit in Glasgow to denounce insufficient ambition in the fight to reduce greenhouse gases. In a nutshell, this is what has happened.  Indeed, there is a gap  between the nationally determined contributions (NDCs) to fight climate change and the goal to limit global warming to no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-indu...

Britain sounds off siren over those responsible really of increasing emission rates doing nothing.... The G20 summit ended at Rome with few commitments and realisations by the world leaders on the importance on concrete action’s to be taken. There have been comments regarding the world’s biggest economies failing to agree on anything significant to climate change. Two days of intensive talks made the global leadership realised the importance of meaningful and effective action by all countries to avoid the global temperatures to rise above 1.5 degree Celsius, set forth by Paris agreement. A joint commitment to hit this goal by 2050, before it turns into a catastrophe was also realised, though China and Russia are pushing this goal to 2060. Additionally, a commitment was reached to stop Publicly financing coal generation. Although the timeline for complete phaseout of coal usage as an energy source was not yet done. United States, United Kingdom China and Russia are responsible for 80% ...

Somalian herders have never seen a drought like the one last year and the year before that. It has killed their herds of sheep, goat and even camels. There is no food, no water and literally no vegetation left for their survival Thousands of such herders are now on the move to look for safe haven, into cities which are not even equip to receive them. Earlier war torn, today their battle is with environmental conditions that have made survival not just difficult but impossible. Fierce and frequent droughts and floods have uprooted more than three million Somalis since 2016, according to UNHCR data that tracks internal displacement by cause. Thousands are moving from various pockets in Somalia and moving into the outskirts of cities nearby, creating pockets of migrant population sitting in shanties and makeshift settlements. These cities are already bursting on the seams with no hope to sustain the Somalian herding migrants. Pastoral communities used to assign names to the great drough...

Rumour doing rounds is that Britain has given up climate change goals for Free Trade Agreement to materialise with Australia In a surprising move, The United Kingdom has dropped its climate change targets in order to get the free trade agreement going with Australia. Maybe its decision to move out to Brexit is a reason enough for this movement. The news comes through an official document that came into limelight with certain British media house that 10 Downing Street has gone ahead and sacrificed the climate change targets for trade. The official document said: ‘The Business Secretary has agreed that, in order to get the Australia FTA over the line, DIT can drop both of the climate asks.’ The British government has been in denial saying that this is the first time ever that the mention of climate change has come while speaking of about trade with Australia. All it seems is that everything is status quo and there will be no harm to the environment while doing trade with Australia....

  Amidst all the turmoil that the world is going through due to the ever mutating Covid-19 virus and its strange will to wipe out humanity, there are places that are making sense out of all the turmoil. Tajikistan is one of them Photo courtesy: Tajikistan News The small country of Tajikistan has to its credit a harvest of almost 500 tonnes of green house tomatoes. This is part of its rich bounty of 900 and more tonnes of vegetables harvested. Green house tunnels or overhead artificially created greenhouse environments are becoming a preferred way to cultivate nutrient rich vegetables and fruits.  According to the Department of Crop Production of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Tajikistan, greenhouse vegetables grow on a surface of ​​about 86 hectares. With the way environmental conditions have been ravaging the crop in Tajikistan, this is a huge bounty of naturally grown fruits and vegetables for the country.  Economic instability and environmental concerns...