Global economic crisis is further enriching the super-rich.

The world's 100 richest people earned a stunning total of $240 billion in 2012 – enough money to end extreme poverty worldwide four times over, Oxfam has revealed, adding that the global economic crisis is further enriching the super-rich.

“The richest 1 percent has increased its income by 60 percent in the last 20 years with the financial crisis accelerating rather than slowing the process,” while the income of the top 0.01 percent has seen even greater growth, a new Oxfam report said.

For example, the luxury goods market has seen double-digit growth every year since the crisis hit, the report stated. And while the world's 100 richest people earned $240 billion last year, people in “extreme poverty” lived on less than $1.25 a day.

Oxfam is a leading international philanthropy organization. Its new report, ‘The Cost of Inequality: How Wealth and Income Extremes Hurt us All,’ argues that the extreme concentration of wealth actually hinders the world’s ability to reduce poverty.

The report was published before the World Economic Forum in Davos next week, and calls on world leaders to “end extreme wealth by 2025, and reverse the rapid increase in inequality seen in the majority of countries in the last 20 years.”

Oxfam's report argues that extreme wealth is unethical, economically inefficient, politically corrosive, socially divisive and environmentally destructive.

The report proposes a new global deal to world leaders to curb extreme poverty to 1990s levels by:

- closing tax havens, yielding $189bn in additional tax revenues

- reversing regressive forms of taxation

- introducing a global minimum corporation tax rate

- boosting wages proportional to capital returns

- increasing investment in free public services

The problem is a global one, Oxfam said: “In the UK inequality is rapidly returning to levels not seen since the time of Charles Dickens. In China the top 10 percent now take home nearly 60 percent of the income. Chinese inequality levels are now similar to those in South Africa, which is now the most unequal country on Earth and significantly more [inequality] than at the end of apartheid.”

In the US, the richest 1 percent's share of income has doubled since 1980 from 10 to 20 percent, according to the report. For the top 0.01 percent, their share of national income quadrupled, reaching levels never seen before.

“We can no longer pretend that the creation of wealth for a few will inevitably benefit the many – too often the reverse is true,” Executive Director of Oxfam International Jeremy Hobbs said.

Hobbs explained that concentration of wealth in the hands of the top few minimizes economic activity, making it harder for others to participate: “From tax havens to weak employment laws, the richest benefit from a global economic system which is rigged in their favor.”

The report highlights that even politics has become controlled by the super-wealthy, which leads to policies “benefitting the richest few and not the poor majority, even in democracies.”

“It is time our leaders reformed the system so that it works in the interests of the whole of humanity rather than a global elite,” the report said.

The four-day World Economic Forum will be held in Davos starting next Wednesday. World financial leaders will gather for an annual meeting that will focus on reviving the global economy, the eurozone crisis and the conflicts in Syria and Mali.

source:http://www.whydontyoutrythis.com/2013/05/world-s-100-richest-earned-enough-in-2012-to-end-global-poverty-4-times-over.html

Eliminate silicosis globally by 2030

Despite environmental and lab­our laws, over one crore workers in India run the risk of silicosis, a lung disease caused by inhalation of silica dust in occupations such as cement-, glass- and brick-making, quarrying, mining, road-laying and all aspects of construction. Every year, silicosis kills about 30,000 people. Many of them die without treatment; their families seldom get due compensation.

Silicosis was once known as miners’ disease. Inhaling dust at work for years, miners end up with lung fibrosis. Ancillary infe­ctions like TB complicate matters. The deaths can be painful. Silicosis is incurable as the lung damage is irreversible; treatment aims at curbing ancillary infections and alleviating symptoms. Earlier, it was prevalent in western and central India and associated with mining and regional industries such as slate-pencil and chalk manufacture, ceramics factories etc. But with rampant development and construction, silicosis cases are seen in all regions.

In response to a direction from the Supreme Court in 2009, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) made several recommendations on preventive, remedial and rehabilitative measures against silicosis. It has been asked to work with all stakeholders—companies, workers’ unions, the Union labour and health ministries, state governments and other agencies. Tackling occupational diseases requires the participation of several agencies, which is why there is such lack of focus

“While silicosis is recognised as an occupational disease by the government, there is nothing being done to ensure proper safety equipment for labourers or even compensation,” says Samit Kumar Carr, secretary-general of the Occup­ational Safety & Health Ass­o­ci­ation of Jharkhand. “Cor­­r­uption is rampant and despite notices from the Supreme Court and the NHRC, we are still struggling to push the government to implement its own laws.” In Jharkhand alone, he says, there are 30 lakh workers suffering from silicosis, getting it from work in mines. Others run the risk in ramming units, stone crushers, iron ore crushers and other occupations in which dust is a given.

One problem is that many of these occupations are in the inf­ormal sector, so workers are not registered. Says a senior res­earcher at the National Institute of Occupational Health, Ahme­dabad, “We have been working to address this issue but the unorganised sector is a huge hurdle. Workers are not registered, so they are not entitled to any medical care and compensation.” The health ministry, under the National Rural Health Mission (NHRM), has set up a five-member cell which is planning pilot projects to tackle the disease in vulnerable districts, some of them in Jharkhand. There is also a plan to set up occupational disease diagnosis centres.

All that might not be enough. To see labour safety measures put in place, to get workers registered, ensure that employers arrange for treatment and clear compensation claims—all this requires strong and concerted action. Meanwhile, a deadline looms: the Inte­rnational Labour Organisation and the who aim to eliminate silicosis globally by 2030. That will be difficult for India to contribute to. For, say activists, the average lifespan of labourers in industries with the risk of silicosis is 35 years, and workers who have been exposed to dust for up to seven years are 100 per cent bound to have the disease.

Source:http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?285351

" Frequent Fights On Water"

There is a water crisis In Uttar Pradesh’s hamirpur district, The Energy and Research Institute
(TERI), found that around 162,000 village in India face the problem of brackish or contaminated water. Mamana, with a population of 4,387 is clearly one of them. People in Mamana can recognise the hardness in the water easily enough. If they use soap, they will find that it does not lather and instead leaves a white deposit on the body. If they leave water standing in a glass for a while, a stain forms around the water’s rim.

Hardness in water comes from heavy metals and minerals that have made their way into the water from sedimentary rocks, seepage or farm runoff. Substances like calcium and magnesium, emerging from limestone and chalk deposits found in soil have a presence in the water. The ill-effects of the drinking hard water are found in the whole in Hamirpur. “Many people here complain of pain in one side of their stomach and it is said that is because of Kidney stones caused by the poor quality of drinking water.”

Mamana has 742 households, of which 369 are from the Schedule caste and 275 belong to other backward Classes. As in the rest of UP, caste determines every aspect of life, including the quality of water that reaches Dalits . Dalits and Muslims neighbourhoods are the least serviced and the hardest hit when there is an acute shortage of water during the summer when temperatures soar to 45 degree Celsius.

There is frequent fights on water , fights  break out of access the six wells that have sweet water and the water from the tankers. Those who are not so lucky to get that water ,have to drink the brackish water in the hand pumps, which cause serious illness to them , many of them get gastrointestinal problems .

Women traditionally have been given the drudge task of collective water for all domestic purpose, including watering the cattle if there are any. The sight of women and young girls hauling pitchers and buckets is common enough but rarely can men be spotted doing similar activity.

By :Sonika

Source : The Hindu News Paper

"Every Day Over A Thousand Children Die Due To Three Reasons"

Every Day Over A Thousand Children Die Due To Three Reasons: They are unsafe drinking water, bad sanitation and un hygienic practices . we can protect our child by providing safe drinking water in school and at home , adopt good sanitation practice in home ,school, and public places . Personnel and community hygiene helps in personnel as well as community development.  Globally, an estimated 2,000 children under the age of five die every day from diarrhea diseases and of these some 1,800 deaths are linked to water, sanitation and hygiene.

 Because of Un safe drinking water, sanitation and hygiene many children are dying. Many of them became the victims of disease ,and affect mentally & physically. It also affect personnel development and community development.  

Almost 90 % of child deaths from diarrhea diseases are directly linked to Unsafe drinking water, lack of sanitation and  hygiene facilities . Deaths have come down significantly over the last decade, from 1.2 million per year in 2000 to about 760,000 a year in 2011,UNICEF says.UNICEF child mortality data show that about half of under-five deaths occur in only five countries: India, Nigeria, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Pakistan and China. Two countries –  India (24 per cent) and Nigeria (11 per cent) – together account for more than a third of all under-five deaths. These same countries also have significant populations without improved water and sanitation.

Of the 783 million people worldwide without improved drinking water, there are 119 million in China; 97 million in India; 66 million in Nigeria; 36 million in DRC; and 15 million in Pakistan.

Those without improved sanitation in these countries are: India 814 million; China 477 million; Nigeria 109 million; Pakistan 91 million; and DRC 50 million. Improvements in water and sanitation would greatly contribute to a reduction in child mortality in these counties.

By Gaurav Kashyap

Data Source :Unicef

"Collective efforts to achieve water secure world"

Unless greater efforts are made to reverse current trends, the world will run out of freshwater, the United Nations said today marking the International Day for Biological Diversity and urging stronger scientific alliances to understand and protect natural resources.

“We live in an increasingly water insecure world where demand often outstrips supply and where water quality often fails to meet minimum standards. Under current trends, future demands for water will not be met,” Mr. Ban said in his message for the Day.

“Although seemingly abundant, only a tiny amount of the water on our planet is easily available as freshwater,” he added.

Of the total volume of water on Earth, freshwater makes up around 35 million km3, or about 2.5 per cent of the total volume, according to the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).

Water scarcity affects almost every continent and more than 40 per cent of the people on our planet, the UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) said. With current trends, 1.8 billion people will be living in countries or regions with absolute water scarcity by 2025, and two-thirds of the world’s population could be living under water stressed conditions.

“Biodiversity and the ecosystem services it provides are central to achieving the vision of a water secure world,” Mr. Ban said, noting the mutually supporting roles of forests, wetlands and soil biodiversity.

“Integrating nature-based solutions into urban planning can also help us build better water futures for cities, where water stresses may be especially acute given the rapid pace of urbanization,” he added.

This year’s theme for the Day is ‘Water and Biodiversity’, which coincides with the UN designation of 2013 as International Year of Water Cooperation. The Year is being coordinated by UNESCO on behalf of UN-Water.

“This is an opportunity for us to join efforts to enhance fair and innovative water management arrangements and to share best practices for the preservation of wetlands – streams, lakes, coasts and marine zones – that play a substantial role in ensuring biodiversity,” Irina Bokova, head of UNESCO, said in her message for the Day.

Ms. Bokova and Mr. Ban noted the importance of strong scientific alliances as part of a global effort to protect natural resources. They encouraged parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity who have not already done so to ratify the Nagoya Protocol on the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of the utilization of genetic resources. Adopted in 2010, the Nagoya Protocol also sets a goal of cutting the current extinction rate by half or more by 2020.

Recognizing the importance of biodiversity, the UN General Assembly encouraged the use of the Convention on Biological Diversity’s Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020 and its Aichi Targets in the elaboration of the post-2015 development agenda. Last year’s Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) also recognized the role of ecosystems in maintaining water quantity and quality.

He stressed that a focus on water and biodiversity is particularly important now as the international community strives to hasten progress towards the eight anti-poverty targets known as the Millennium Development Goals by the 2015 deadline and to plan a new set of development targets.

“As the international community strives to accelerate its efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals and define a post-2015 agenda, including a set of goals for sustainable development, water and biodiversity are important streams in the discussion,” he noted.

In a press conference in New York, Braulio de Souza Dias, Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity said biodiversity needs to be seen as part of a ‘win-win’ solution for sustainable development.

“It’s very easy to say that yes, we should provide water for everyone, but how do we do that, so the traditional way of doing this is to work in silos,” Mr. Dias said, stressing the importance of thinking beyond traditional engineered solutions in a more integrated, collaborative way to effectively deliver on the MDGs.

He also noted that Governments sometimes make decisions based on “short-sighted information” without informing sufficiently communities about the impact of those decisions on local ecosystems.

Source:UN News Center 

"Protection against hazardous chemicals and waste"

Representatives from 170 countries have adopted a series of measures to strengthen protections against hazardous chemicals and waste during a United Nations conference in Geneva.

The conference, organized by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), brought together three UN conventions – the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm treaties – that together regulate chemicals and hazardous waste, and sought to promote synergies among them.

The three autonomous Conventions convened the joint meeting to strengthen cooperation and collaboration between the Parties to the treaties, with a view to enhancing the effectiveness of their activities on the ground. Each Convention then continued individually over the two-week period to deal with its own specific topics of the global chemicals and waste agenda before returning in a joint session at the end of the week to finalize their outcomes.

In a press conference, UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner said the meeting was “a unique historic event coming at a time of unprecedented change and progress in the arena of global environmental governance. The strengthening of UNEP and the synergies process of chemicals and waste multilateral environmental agreements are complementary parts of the ongoing reform to fortify the environmental dimension of sustainable development.”

FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva noted that countries need to find more sustainable ways to produce food while using chemical pesticides responsibly.

“Around 70 per cent of the chemicals addressed by the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions are pesticides, and many are used in agriculture,” he said. “It is in the best interest of all countries to ensure that the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions can work together, effectively and efficiently, to address various aspects of the chemical life-cycle.”

Mr. Steiner and Mr. Graziano da Silva, along with Global Environment Facility CEO Naoko Ishii also pledged to deepen cooperation and collaboration as part of a broader effort to raise the profile of chemicals and waste issues, promote green growth and alleviate poverty.

On Friday, the conference hailed the “Geneva Statement on the Sound Management of Chemicals and Waste” which welcomed the UNEP-led consultative process on financing options for chemicals and waste.

“The Parties have agreed to strengthen capacity building and technical assistance for countries by investing the savings realized over the past two years into an enhanced technical assistance programme that better meets the needs of developing countries and countries with economies in transition” said Jim Willis, Executive Secretary of the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions. “In an era of financial austerity, we have learned through synergies how to deliver more to parties while living within the economic limits faced by governments today.”

The Parties also adopted a framework for the environmentally sound management of hazardous wastes and other wastes, and agreed, over the next two years, to develop technical guidelines on movements across borders of electronic and electrical wastes.

The Basel Convention regulates the export and import of hazardous waste and waste containing hazardous chemicals. It was adopted in 1989 and entered into force in 1992. It currently has 180 Parties.

The Rotterdam Convention regulates information about the export and import of 47 hazardous chemicals listed in the Convention’s Annex III, 33 of which are pesticides and 14 of which are industrial chemicals. It was adopted in 1998 and entered into force in 2004. It currently has 152 Parties.

Adopted in 2001, the Stockholm Convention regulates 23 toxic substances that are persistent, travel long distances, accumulate in organisms and are toxic. The treaty entered into force in 2004. It currently has 179 Parties.

Japan to host world conference on disaster risk reduction next year

Japan will host the world conference slated to be held next year at which countries will adopt the successor to the current global blueprint for disaster risk reduction efforts, it was announced today at a United Nation forum on the issue that wrapped up in Geneva.

The 10-year Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA) came out of the world conference held in Kobe, Hyogo, Japan, in 2005. It is the first plan to explain, describe and detail the work that is required from all different sectors and actors to reduce disaster losses.

The HFA outlines five priorities for action, and offers guiding principles and practical means for achieving disaster resilience. Its goal is to substantially reduce disaster losses by 2015 by building the resilience of nations and communities to disasters.

Delegates at this week’s 4th Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction called for immediately starting work on developing targets and indicators to monitor the reduction of risk, ahead of next year’s conference, to be held in the Japanese city of Sendai.

Martin Dahinden, Director-General of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation and Chair of the Global Platform, said the three-day meeting confirmed that the process to develop a successor to the Hyogo Framework is well underway.

“There is consensus that the new instrument should build on the HFA and introduce the necessary innovations to address the challenges of increasing risk over the next 20 to 30 years,” he stated.

“We need to enable local action, address climate risk and recognize the central roles of both the scientific community and the private sector, which were both very present at this Global Platform.”

In addition to the scientific community and the private sector, the record 3,500 participants at the Global Platform also including representatives of government, academia and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), among others.

Organized by the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR), the Global Platform was established in 2007 as a biennial forum for information exchange, discussion of latest development and knowledge and partnership-building across sectors, with the goal to improve implementation of disaster risk reduction through better communication and coordination amongst stakeholders.

Also today, UNISDR released the most detailed account yet of the implementation of the Hyogo Framework. It finds that, since 2005, 121 countries have enacted legislation to establish policy and legal frameworks for disaster risk reduction.

In addition, 191 countries have established HFA focal points and 85 countries have set up national coordinating bodies for disaster risk reduction.

While noting that almost 90 per cent of countries report the integration of disaster risk reduction in some form within public investment and planning decisions, the report finds that a key challenge is finding the resources to ensure that frameworks and principles become operational.

“Since the HFA was introduced there has been a significant change in mindset. We are seeing lots more planning, legislation and new policies. There are 56 national disaster loss data bases and their numbers are growing all the time. Nearly every country in the world now has a HFA focal point,” said UNISDR Director Elizabeth Longworth.

“There is evidence that the HFA is making a difference, even if a lot more needs to be done to address the gap between policy and implementation and arrest the continuous rise in economic losses from disasters,” she added.

Among the events at this week’s forum was the launch of a new interactive tool for accessing disaster data. With the touch of a finger, users of “GAR for Tangible Earth” can access real-time weather data or check historical disaster patterns. It uses earth science data from the 2013 Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction, released earlier this month by UNISDR.

Tablet computer users can download the application for free from iTunes. Among other functions, they can request hourly weather updates or query the probability of seismic events for a given region. They can also make correlations between such phenomena as continental drift, El Niño, global warming and the growth of megacities.

Source: UN News Center