Feed aggregator

People were banned from buying it as part of efforts to combat the spread of coronavirus.

Moins de 5% des voyageurs en Suisse romande et alémanique portent un masque dans les bus jaunes en ce week-end de fête chrétienne, selon une porte-parole de CarPostal.

SonntagsBlick liefert TV-Kommentatoren 16 mehr oder weniger geistreiche Sprüche für die Geister-Meisterschaft nach der Corona-Krise. SRF-Kommentator Sascha Ruefer nimmt sie unter die Lupe.

Kabili-Sepilok Forest Reserve, Sabah, Borneo. Copyright: Dr. Lindsay F. Banin

By Bruno de Pierro
SÃO PAULO, Brazil, Jun 1 2020 (IPS)

Tropical forests can develop resistance to a warmer climate, but 71 per cent will come under threat in the next decade if global average temperatures reach two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, a new study warns.

Forest-dependent communities and the global climate will be affected if tropical forests are further degraded, experts say.

Led by scientists at the University of Leeds and published in Science, the study involved 226 researchers from around the world. The cohort analysed carbon stock data in 590 permanent forest plots in South America, Africa, Asia and Australia, with most in the Amazon region.

The Amazon rainforest acts as a huge carbon sink, absorbing and storing carbon dioxide (CO2) and helping to cool global temperatures. Even under high temperatures, trees remove CO2 — a greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming — from the atmosphere.

However, the ability to store high levels of carbon drops dramatically if the forest is exposed to average temperatures above 32.2 degrees Celsius, the researchers found.

 

Researchers measured diameters of thousands of trees across 24 tropical countries. This one is in the Brazilian Amazon forest.
Image credit: Erika Berenguer.

 

Sustainable development in tropical regions will be directly impacted if the biodiversity of tropical forests is altered by rising temperatures and they lose their ability to absorb carbon, says Luiz Aragão, head of the remote sensing division at Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research and a co-author of the study.

“Understanding how climate change impacts carbon absorption in tropical forests can help us identify the most vulnerable areas where biomass loss can interfere with local economies and human development,” he says.

Plínio Barbosa de Camargo, a researcher at the Centre of Nuclear Energy in Agriculture at University of São Paulo and a study co-author, has been monitoring permanent plots in Santarém, in Brazil’s Amazon, for 20 years. His team monitors the growth of about 20,000 trees and measures the forest’s biomass and carbon balance.

“Understanding how climate change impacts carbon absorption in tropical forests can help us identify the most vulnerable areas where biomass loss can interfere with local economies and human development.”

Luiz Aragão, National Institute for Space Research, Brazil.

“The region we monitor still has the capacity to absorb carbon and recover after prolonged periods of drought,” he says.

“This gives room for different societies to continue investing in the development of products and services from biodiversity.”

But, the resilience potential of forests can only be achieved with proper climate change mitigation and solutions for the conservation and restoration of native vegetation, the researchers say.

“The results suggest that intact forests can withstand heating to some extent,” but for this to happen it is vital that forests remain intact, agronomist and study co-author Simone Aparecida Vieira, from the Centre for Environmental Studies and Research at São Paulo’s University of Campinas (Unicamp), tells SciDev.Net.

This requires reducing deforestation rates and the frequent fires associated with forest clearing, as well as mining, illegal logging and intensive low-productivity livestock farming.

Yet, it is unclear whether cooler forests in Asia and Africa will respond to global heating in the same way as those in South America or whether they can adapt in time, says Lara Kueppers, associate professor at the University of California, Berkeley’s energy and resources group, who did not take part in the study.

“I don’t have confidence that forests are going to be able to adjust on the time scale they will need to,” she says in a related Science commentary.

But, the research offers a good starting point to deepen knowledge about forests’ abilities to adapt to climate change, says biologist Ricardo Ribeiro Rodrigues from the Luiz de Queiroz School of Agriculture at the University of São Paulo, who was not involved in the study.

“The findings presented in the survey are encouraging because they show that forests do indeed have a certain resilience to warming. And this has been shown based on robust mathematical modelling,” he says.

However, Rodrigues warns that more research is necessary to understand how rising temperatures impact different plant species.

“The study deals with forests as a whole, but we know that each species reacts differently to global warming,” he says.

“It is important, therefore, that we identify which species are most resistant so that more effective reforestation actions can be put into practice.”

This story was originally published by SciDev.Net

The post Two-thirds of Tropical Forests ‘Under Threat in Next Decade’ appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Részlegesen újraindult hétfőn a tanítás a brit iskolákban és egyes piacok is kinyithattak, miután a brit kormány valamelyest enyhítette a koronavírus-járvány megfékezését célzó, több mint két hónapja elrendelt korlátozásokat.

Des pluies, parfois sous forme d’averses orageuses, affecteront à partir d’aujord’hui a 9h00 plusieurs wilayas du pays, indique un bulletin météorologique spécial (BMS) de l’Office national de la météorologie. Les wilayas concernées sont: Batna, Sétif, Mila, Constantine, Souk Ahras, Khenchela, Oum El Bouaghi, Guelma et Tebessa, précise le BMS, dont la validité s’étale de lundi […]

L’article Alerte météo | Pluies orageuses sur plusieurs wilayas du pays est apparu en premier sur .

453450 Andrii Dziubenko

A vast majority of Ukrainian civil and administrative court cases concerning the interests of a minor are being examined without involving the minor in question. This is one of the key findings of monitoring and research conducted by civil society on the initiative of Ukraine’s Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights. The research was supported by the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine.

The report, available in Ukrainian, was presented at an online event on 1 June 2020, the International Day for the Protection of Children. The event brought together more than 200 judges, representatives of state authorities, civil society and human rights activists, and other justice sector stakeholders. The event was also streamed live for the general audience (streaming available here).

The monitoring was conducted in autumn 2019 and covered court hearings and meetings of the guardianship authorities in the regions of Kyiv, Lviv, Sumy, Lugansk, Zakarpattya, Khmelnytsk and Chernivtsi as well as the city of Kyiv. The monitoring was complemented by analysis of official court statistics related to non-criminal cases as well as a review of court judgments in civil and administrative cases related to the rights and interests of the child. Additionally, interviews with judges, advocates, jurors and guardianship authorities’ representatives were also conducted.

Of the 109 hearings monitored, children were personally present in a courtroom in only 5% of the cases. In only 14% of the cases, they attended respective sessions of the guardianship authorities. For only 34% of the cases, the monitors recorded information that the child’s opinion was asked by the guardianship authorities, and in 12% of the cases – by courts. The analysis of the court decisions found evidence that the child personally expressed his/her opinion in the court hearing only in 10% of the examined court judgements. Half of the respondents of stakeholder interviews acknowledged that the child’s opinion does not have due weight and a decisive effect, although recognizing that it is important and deserves consideration.

“The judicial system should be adapted to the needs and vulnerability of children; child’s right to be heard should be respected at every stage of the court proceedings. We hope that this report will be useful for all professionals in making the justice system more child-friendly,” said Henrik Villadsen, OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine.

To enable the analysis, the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine helped to adapt the OSCE ODIHR methodologies on trial monitoring for the local context, trained monitors to use it and provided funding for this research.

“The presented research is the first comprehensive analytical document in Ukraine, which covers issues of implementation of the right of children to have their best interests as a primary consideration in all matters involving or affecting them in non-criminal cases. The obtained results provide good reasoning for the improvement of state policy in this field,” said Lyudmyla Denisova, Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights.

The report also provides recommendations to address the identified issues by codifying legislation on children’s rights and producing a law on child-friendly justice; developing training programmes for judges, lawyers, custody and guardianship authorities’ representatives on child-friendly justice standards, as well as ensuring court buildings and courtrooms are designed with due considerations for needs of visitors with children.

The presentation was organized as part of the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine project “Supporting Civil Society Trial Monitoring” in co-operation with Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights, the NGOs “Centre for Policy and Legal Reform” and “Human Rights Vector”.

Credit: UNDP, Ghana

By Osagyefo Amoatia Ofori Panin Okyenhene
ACCRA Ghana, Jun 1 2020 (IPS)

The tragedy of the coronavirus pandemic and its associated challenges have thrown our world into chaos, with the virus destroying lives and livelihoods in its path.

The whole world is presently seized by the effects of the pandemic, but there is a silent crisis of equal measure that has long been ravaging lives, devastating livelihoods, destroying property and threatening the fate of our entire planet.

This is the global climate crisis.

Unlike COVID-19, climate change and its impacts are not novel processes. What is new is the severity, frequency and rapid rate of change laced with extreme events that are slowly becoming metaphors for human suffering and deprivation.

Incontrovertible evidence firmly anchored in science suggest that the climate crisis is reaching a tipping point, with huge and potentially irreversible damage to our planet, our economies and overall human security.

The World Meteorological Organisation states emphatically that the impact of climate change on our planet is ‘reaching a crescendo, with the past five years being the hottest on record’.

Our world cannot be in denial of the climate crisis any longer. COVID-19 is devastating thousands of lives and threatening millions, but the impacts of climate change are endangering the lives and livelihoods of billions of people.

The ongoing pandemic must be a wake-up call to our global community of the ultimate costs of inaction on the silent, but rapidly unfolding, catastrophic climate crisis.

The shock of the sudden onset coronavirus pandemic and the dreadful experience that the world is presently going through must laser-focus us all on the benefits of proactive action on climate change.

Against the lessons that the pandemic is painfully teaching us, it would be irresponsible to wait until the climate crisis reaches ‘pandemic’ levels for the world to act aggressively. We must take politics out of the climate crisis, embrace the evidence generated by science, and act decisively on climate change now.

Okyenhene Osagyefuo Amoatia Ofori Panin is the reigning king of Akyem Abuakwa, an ancient powerful kingdom in the Eastern region of Ghana. He is a Champion of the environment, taking a strong stance against environmental degradations.

As climate activist, Emily Atkins, aptly puts it ‘the pandemic is showing us that rejecting science doesn’t make the laws of nature go away’.

As with the coronavirus pandemic, climate change is a threat multiplier. It makes existing problems worse, creates new ones, makes a mockery of boundaries whilst striking with great force in rich and poor countries alike.

And crucially, dealing with the climate crisis now is in itself a mitigation action against future pandemics. Protecting the environment and addressing climate change is not about abstract emotionalism. It is about protecting people, saving lives and livelihoods and safeguarding our heritage.

As a traditional leader, I deem saving our heritage a non-negotiable goal, and I am determined to do exactly that.

The climate crisis is as much a global crisis as the on-going pandemic, and there are real parallels between the two. As the debilitating effects of the COVID-19 pandemic are forcing changes in our ways of life and lifestyles, we must, with a sense of urgency, move from business as usual and confront the existential threat posed by the climate crisis head-on.

We must focus on, and accelerate actions on the necessary adjustments needed to safeguard our ecosystems, halt and reverse the effects of climate change, protect our planet and its future, as the Sustainable Development Goals enjoin us to do.

Although we have yet to win the war, our collective experience in fighting the coronavirus should serve as an inspiration and spur the needed changes and global actions.

The extraordinary cooperation in the global response to the pandemic, evidenced amongst others, in China sending critical supplies to the United States, the US donating ventilators to Europe, and Cuban doctors being sent to Italy to treat patients must serve as a shining example for global action on climate change.

It is manifestly clear that the effects of the virus, just as those of climate change, are not circumscribed to national boundaries, and that solidarity, whether in the context of a climate crisis or a health pandemic is about our shared humanity.

We must muster the same vigour, the equivalent political will and the bountiful energy that we are seeing in the battle against the pandemic to fight climate change.

As nations unveil trillions in stimulus packages to deal with the economic effects of the pandemic, environmental equity and environmental protection must be integral components to help build back better, and address the needs of millions of global citizens so vulnerable to the effects of climate change.

Our aspirations and desires to address the climate crisis are right and those aspirations must be non-negotiable. But with the consequential lessons that the coronavirus pandemic is teaching us, we must be resolute in our resolve to move from aspirations to swift and robust actions.

We must pool and scale up our efforts to deal a mighty blow to climate change using all the worthy lessons that have emerged through the unfortunate and dreadful COVID-19 pandemic.

We must act now and do so with gusto, to protect the future of the planet and our shared humanity, as the cost of inaction to our common future, our joint heritage and our shared humanity is too dire to ponder.

The post The Consequential Effects of Covid-19 on the Climate Crisis appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Osagyefo Amoatia Ofori Panin Okyenhene is King of Akyem Abuakwa, Ghana

The post The Consequential Effects of Covid-19 on the Climate Crisis appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Une plainte portant sur un trou financier dépassant les 70 millions de dinars, a été déposée mercredi dernier, par le secrétariat national de l’UGTA, au tribunal correctionnel de Sidi M’hamed. Tout porte à croire que l’ancien secrétaire général de l’UGTA, Sidi Saïd, mais aussi plusieurs de ses cadres sont en train d’être rattrapés par la […]

L’article Sidi Saïd rattrapé par plusieurs scandales financiers est apparu en premier sur .

Le procès de Karim Tabbou renvoyé au 29 Juin, au tribunal de Kolea, ce procès a été renvoyé deux fois en dates du 6 Avril et 27 Avril dernier et aujourd’hui lundi 1 Juin, annonce le Comité National pour la Libération des Détenus  CNLD. Il s’agit du procès dans sa première arrestation (arrêté le 11 […]

L’article Koléa : Le procès de Karim Tabbou à nouveau reporté est apparu en premier sur .

Americas

Digiflight won an $18.2 million contract modification for programmatic support services for the Apache attack helicopter project office. Digiflight Incorporated provides information technology services. The Company offers material solution analysis, production and deployment, technology development, updating legacy technology, engineering, operations, cyber security, and support services. The firm serves government and commercial sectors in the States of Maryland and Alabama. The Apache attack helicopter was developed by Boeing for the US armed forces. It entered service with the US Army in 1984 and has been exported to Egypt, Greece, Israel, the Netherlands, Japan, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and the UK. Work will take place in Columbia, Maryland. Estimated completion date is November 30, 2021.

The US Northern Command announced an Atlantic Ocean exercise involving four other combatant commands and led by the USS Harry S. Truman Carrier Strike Group. The unprecedented, large-scale exercise involves homeland defense operations and the involvement of the US Northern Command, the North American Aerospace Defense Command, the US Transportation Command, the US Strategic Command and the US Space Command. With Canadian fighter planes also participating, the North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD, is also involved. The exercise, which started Friday, is the first time that four US combatant commands have worked together in a military exercise.

Middle East & Africa

General Dynamics Land Systems won a $7.7 million contract modification to provide logistics support and training services to the Iraqi Army. Fiscal 2010 Iraq train and equip (Army) funds in the full amount were obligated at the time of the award. The US Army Contracting Command is the contracting activity. Work will take place in Taji, Iraq, with an estimated completion date of December 31, 2020.

Europe

The Russian Armed Forces received their first Koalitsiya-SV 152 mm self-propelled howitzer, TASS reported. The report added that the vehicle’s trials are expected to be concluded in 2022, a significant revision of the original timelines various Russian sources reported when the vehicle first emerged in 2015. Russia’s Central Military District reported on the Ministry of Defense website that it had received eight 2S35s, which would be distributed among the Russian Ground Forces. The vehicles are fitted with the 6S21 remote-controlled turret carrying a 12.7 mm heavy machine gun.

Asia-Pacific

Northrop Grumman won a $12.6 million contract modification for initial aircraft spares to assist in sustainment purposes of the Global Hawk in the Republic of Korea. The RQ-4 Global Hawk is a high-altitude, long-endurance unmanned aircraft system with an integrated sensor suite that provides intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, or ISR, capability worldwide. Global Hawk’s mission is to provide a broad spectrum of ISR collection capability to support joint combatant forces in worldwide peacetime, contingency and wartime operations. The South Korean Air Force had receives its second Global Hawk high-altitude unmanned reconnaissance drone in April. Work will take place in San Diego, California. Estimated completion date is May 30, 2022.

Officials from Japan’s Ibaraki Prefecture are recommending to the governor that the civilian side of Hyakuri Air Base, Ibaraki Airport, be nicknamed as Tokyo Ibaraki International Airport. The committee argued that adding Tokyo to the airport’s name will help boost its awareness overseas. The governor is expected to make a decision this month, so far, the name has been used in overseas marketing material.

Today’s Video

Watch: TOP 5 WEAPONS OF TAIWAN THAT CHINA WOULD BE REALLY WORRIED ABOUT!

L’alimentation en électricité sera perturbée les trois prochains jours (lundi, mardi et mercredi) dans des quartiers des communes de Bouzareah et Cheraga (Alger), en raison des travaux de maintenance, a indiqué hier la concession de distribution d’Alger, relevant de la Société algérienne de distribution de l’électricité et du gaz (Sadeg).   « Dans le cadre des […]

L’article SADEG : Perturbation d’électricité pendant 3 jours à Alger est apparu en premier sur .

Le bureau de l’APN a décliné toutes les propositions d’annulation de l’article 24 relatif à l’augmentation des prix du carburant, proposé par le gouvernement dans le projet de loi de Finances complémentaire 2020 (PLFC). Pour justifier ce refus, le bureau de l’APN s’est référé « à l’article 139 de la Constitution ». L’article en question […]

L’article PLFC 2020 : L’augmentation des prix des carburants, maintenue est apparu en premier sur .

RTVS: Az emberek kérik a romatelepeken történő állattartás betiltását. Eddig csaknem 50 ezer ember írta alá a petíciókat. Az állatjogi ombudsman arra figyelmeztet, hogy a petíciók szövege alkotmányellenes.

In den Kantonen St. Gallen und Aargau hat die Polizei Aktionen gegen sogenannte Autoposer durchgeführt. Mehrere Fahrer wurden verzeigt und deren Autos stillgelegt.

Die Corona-Krise trifft die Autobranche hart. Im Vergleich zum Vorjahr wurden satte 63 Prozent weniger Fahrzeuge gekauft. Schuld seien aber auch schlechte Regulierungen, so der Verband.

Joe Biden, az amerikai Demokrata Párt várható elnökjelöltje még helyi idő szerint vasárnap rövid időre meglátogatta az előző napon tartott tüntetések egyik helyszínét a Delaware államban lévő Wilmingtonban.

SVP, SP und Grüne haben eines gemeinsam: Sie brauchen neue Parteipräsidenten. Nach der erzwungenen Corona-Pause suchen sie jetzt wieder.

RTVS: Az igazságszolgáltatás megtisztítása az új kabinet prioritása. Mária Kolíková (Za ľudí) igazságügyi miniszternek azonban a tárca rendes működésére sincs elég pénze. Az elődje, Gál Gábor szerint évente visszatérő problémáról van szó. Ráadásul az állami büdzsé nem is számol a tárcánál a költségkeret megemelésével.