Oxfam warns of West Africa drought 'catastrophe'

Urgent action is needed to stop drought in West Africa's Sahel region turning into a humanitarian disaster affecting 13 million people, Oxfam says.

The charity says the international community waited too long to respond to famine in East Africa last year.

Oxfam has launched a £23m ($36m) emergency appeal to help reach more than a million of the most vulnerable.

A BBC correspondent says refugees fleeing fighting in northern Mali are adding to the problem.

Launching its appeal, Oxfam said that malnutrition rates across Chad, Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania, Niger and northern Senegal are hovering between 10% and 15%, and in some areas have risen beyond the emergency threshold level of 15%.

It says that more than one million children in the Sahel region are at risk of severe malnutrition.

In parts of Chad, Oxfam says, some villagers are digging up ant hills to gather grain that the ants have stored.

The agency says that drought, high food prices, severe poverty and regional conflict are causing the crisis.

"Millions of people are on the threshold of a major crisis," said Mamadou Biteye, Oxfam Regional Director for West Africa.

"All signs point to a drought becoming a catastrophe if nothing is done soon. The world cannot allow this to happen. A concerted aid effort is needed to stop tens of thousands dying due to international complacency."

He added: "We witnessed last year the situation spiralling out of control in East Africa as the aid community failed to act swiftly. The worst can be avoided and thousands of lives will be saved if we act now. It's that simple."

BBC world affairs correspondent Mike Wooldridge says that recent fighting between rebels and the army in northern Mali has caused more than 100,000 people to flee their homes - half of them crossing into Niger and other countries that are already hard-pressed.

In January, Oxfam and Save the Children said that thousands of people in East Africa died needlessly from famine last year because the international community failed to heed early warnings.

Venus and Jupiter to pass in the night sky

The pairing of Jupiter and Venus in the sky is set to reach its closest point in the coming days.

Despite being vastly far from one another in space, the conjunction will make them appear just a few degrees apart in the sky - about the width of a pair of fingers held at arm's length.

The pair can be seen to the west-southwest, shortly after sunset.

Venus is the brighter of the two, and Jupiter will appear to move in a line past it for the rest of the month.

The Slooh network of telescopes will be broadcasting the conjunction live on the web from 02:30 GMT on Monday morning.

This is an active period for planet-watchers. Last Monday, Mars made its closest approach to Earth in more than two years.

But the spectacle is not over. February saw the Moon join the celestial dance with the planetary pair; it will return in late March, appearing to head up and past the descending Jupiter and then Venus.

The most anticipated planetary event for 2012 will be the transit of Venus in early June, when it will appear from some locations on Earth to pass in front of the Sun.

Genomes of Tiny Microbes Yield Clues to Global Climate Change

WALNUT CREEK, CA � By analyzing the genomes of several microscopic ocean-dwelling organisms sequenced at the U.S. Department of Energy's Joint Genome Institute (JGI), scientists are gaining new insights into how the planet's oceans affect its climate.

Comparative studies of four types of cyanobacteria -- "photosynthetic" microbes that derive energy from sunlight, just like plants -- were published today on the websites of the journals Nature and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). Three of the microbes -- two strains of Prochlorococcus and one of Synechococcus -- were among the first organisms to have their DNA sequenced at JGI in the late 1990s, and are the first ocean bacteria to be sequenced.

Cyanobacteria are important in part because of their ability to turn sunlight and carbon into organic material. As the smallest yet most abundant photosynthetic organisms in the oceans, cyanobacteria play a critical role in regulating atmospheric carbon dioxide, a chief contributor to global climate change. Scientists estimate that Prochlorococcus and Synechococcus remove about 10 billion tons of carbon from the air each year as much as two-thirds of the total carbon fixation that occurs in the oceans.

Patrick Chain, a biologist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and co-author of the two Nature papers, said the three cyanobacteria sequenced by JGI were "hand-picked" to help scientists "begin to understand the physiological and genetic controls of photosynthesis, nitrogen fixation and carbon cycling." The sequencing was funded by the DOE Office of Science's Office of Biological and Environmental Research as part of its mission to study climate change and carbon management.

"While many questions remain," said Dr. Raymond L. Orbach, director of DOE's Office of Science, "it's clear that Prochlorococcus and Synechococcus play an immensely significant role in photosynthetic ocean carbon sequestration. Having the completed genome in hand gives us a first albeit crude 'parts list' to use in exploring the mechanisms for these and other important processes that could be directly relevant to this critical DOE mission."

Along with their contribution to the global carbon cycle, the cyanobacteria are of interest to scientists because of their ability to turn sunlight into chemical energy a potential model for sustainable energy production. Before their DNA was decoded and analyzed, however, little was known about the molecular machinery these single-celled organisms use to perform their alchemy.

"It behooves us to understand exactly how, with roughly 2,000 genes, this tiny cell converts solar energy into living biomass basic elements, into life," said Sallie W. (Penny) Chisholm, Professor of Environmental Studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

"These cells are not just some esoteric little creatures," she continued. "They dominate the oceans. There are some 100 million Prochlorococcus cells per liter of seawater, for example." Chisholm, a coauthor of one of the Nature papers, was part of the team that first described Prochlorococcus in 1988.

In one of the Nature papers, a team led by Gabrielle Rocap, assistant professor of oceanography at the University of Washington, reports on and compares the DNA sequence of two Prochlorococcus strains. In the other, a team led by Brian Palenik of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, describes the Synechococcus genome. The PNAS paper, written by a team led by Frederick Partensky of the Roscoff Biological Station in Brittany, France, reports on the genome of a third strain of Prochlorococcus.

The two Prochlorococcus and the Synechococcus genomes sequenced by JGI were analyzed by the Genome Analysis Group of the Life Sciences Division at DOE's Oak Ridge National Laboratory. ORNL's Frank W. Larimer said a comparison of the genome sequences of the three organisms shows the genetic basis for the physiological adaptation of each species to its particular ecological niche at different depths in the surface waters of the ocean.

According to the authors, the Prochlorococcus comparison reveals "dynamic genomes which are constantly changing in response to myriad selection pressures. Although the two strains have 1,350 genes in common, a significant number are not shared, which have either been differentially retained from the common ancestor, or acquired through duplication or lateral transfer. Some of these genes play obvious roles in determining the relative fitness of the (strains) in response to key environmental variables," the authors report, "and hence in regulating their distribution and abundance in the oceans."

LLNL's Chain noted that the genome of one of the Prochlorococcus strains is significantly smaller than the other. "Among many other interesting findings," he said, "the genome sequences reveal that differential gene loss has played a major role in defining the photosynthetic apparatus from which these organisms derive their energy."

Along with the Department of Energy, the research was supported by the National Science Foundation, the Seaver Foundation, the Israel-U.S. Binational Science Foundation, and France's FP5-Margenes.

JGI was established in 1997 by the three DOE national laboratories managed by the University of California: Lawrence Livermore and Lawrence Berkeley in California and Los Alamos in New Mexico. In addition to its microbial sequencing projects, JGI has whole-genome sequencing programs that include vertebrates, fungi, and plants.

“What do you want to be when you grow up?”

As children, How many of us answered the question depended on the scope of our imagination, not our economic status. Most of us were taught to believe that if we work hard, even if we are born less advantaged than others- we can achieve our dreams. Understanding the topic of Work and Economics on a global scale begins with examining our own reality – poor or privileged – and realizing that our economic status is not solely determined by how hard we work, but by social and economic factors such as equality of opportunity and education, and emotional and physical health.

Many people argue that globalization has served to bring the world closer together creating a more cooperative environment. The impact of new Information and Communication Technologies has changed the way people learn, work and live. Despite these advantages, the reality is that many people work hard and are underpaid for their labor. The current form of globalization primarily serves the interests of powerful nations and corporations who shape the terms of world trade. Many factory workers and field laborers are exploited by large companies and paid pennies for products that sell for large profits.

Globalization has opened new avenues for both employers and job seekers. One off-shoot of this is the practice of outsourcing jobs (hiring lower-paid service workers in foreign countries to do work previously done by higher-paid workers) has been a contentious issue in high-income countries, especially the United States. Many American citizens dispute this industry trend because it takes away jobs for Americans, while others dispute it for the ethical implications of exploiting overseas workers. But even in high-income countries like the United States, millions of workers earn minimum wage at full-time jobs and still cannot afford basic necessities. And when people are forced to work for low wages in poor working conditions, workplace safety and health is severely compromised. Another facet of this phenomenon is the need for creation of sustainable livelihoods which has become an important factor in the present day world , especially in developing countries and among disadvantaged populations. Sustaining the progress calls for an explicit consideration of future generations. Youth will inherit many of the environmental, economic and social problems created over the past decades and incorporating their opinions and concerns into policies at all levels is critical for a country’s progress.

Globalisation also stands as a major cause for unequitable distribution of Resources. Women and children are the major sufferers and are the most economically disadvantaged of all groups. Women comprise 70% of the world's 1.5 billion people living in absolute poverty. Women's contributions are essential to the functioning of an economy, but their labor is not valued in the same way as men's (especially if it involves work in the home such as raising children). Women’s work makes up a large component of the informal economy – work that does not receive compensation, but that is integral to a functioning economy. The Millennium Development Goals (UN campaign to eliminate extreme poverty by 2015) is an international response to improve economic and social conditions including access to early education, gender equality, sustainable development, and extreme poverty. For more please visit Understanding Poverty.

Sustainable Efforts,Income equality and equitable distribution remain integral components of all the topics explored in this section, as does the pursuit of meaningful work. We all need to make a living and safe, fairly compensated work is everyone’s right

The Effects of Human Population Growth

In order to truly know the effects of human population growth on the world, we would have to trace it right back to the time when humans first appeared. This, however, is impossible due to the fact that a lot of this time in unaccounted for. For this reason, we will look at the time frame that us and our ancestors have been able to record.

The real population of Earth is still unknown to this day. Estimates, however, are much closer now than they were back thousands of years ago. This has a lot to do with technology and modern research. Birth rates are also always changing. It is estimated that they were 80/100 in 80 000 BC, 50/1000 in 1750 AD, and 23/1000 at the present. As you can see, these are dramatic changes. It would make you think the population id actually getting smaller, but those thoughts are deceiving. Population growth is occurring exponentially, which means there are many more thousands of people in the world to judge by. Another factor is that modern technology and advanced medicine have caused the survival rate to dramatically increase. (C. Haub 2002)

Concern over this increase has abated somewhat as birthrates have fallen right across the world. This may be true, but we are still a long way away from stabilizing. This is estimated to occur at somewhere between eight and eleven billion.

Many experts are concerned that the earth’s carrying capacity is already over-strained. This leads to other worries such as greenhouse gas emissions. Over-population will put a lot of strain on the earth’s natural systems. (T. Obaid 2003)

As our population increases, so does the demand we put on our natural resources. More is needed to keep everyone alive and happy. Farmers and fishermen are pressured into dangerously over-exploiting fragile ecosystems, urbanization increases rapidly, and certain land structures are being totally destroyed. As the world grows rapidly, it causes unplanned settlements to spring up. This leads to things being done in a hurry, with little thought and care put into it. It causes poor sanitation and a lack of clean water. It also causes a lot of air pollution.

With an increase in people, there comes an increased need for jobs. That may be ok in newly developing countries, but in already highly industrialized countries with under-employment, it can be a major problem. You need a job in order to have money, and you need money in order to survive. So if there are no jobs, your chance of survival is pretty slim.

Human population growth also has effects or other organisms. About 27 000 plant, animal and insect species become extinct every year. About 24 percent of mammals and 12 percent of birds are currently regarded as globally threatened. Most of these extinctions can be traced to human contribution. Everything from the water to the forests are being affected. (E. Wilson 2003)

Poverty is also a big effect of over-population. As the amount of people increase, so does the demand for food and shelter. In order to produce food, more land is needed for farming. This destroys habitats for other organisms. More land is also needed for shelter. If you take the land for shelter, that decreases the amount of land left for farming. Either way, you can’t use all the land. If you did, many important ecosystems would be destroyed, and that would have a major effect on the world. Even the loss of one organism can have a major effect. Mother nature created the world so that everything has a purpose. If we cut down all the trees, there would be little oxygen left to breath. If we contaminated all the water, there would be little left to replenish our bodies. All of these things have to be taken into consideration.

Another big concern of population growth is global warming. During the 1960's a succession of bitterly cold winters in the northern hemisphere led climatologists to predict that the world was heading for another ice age. This led to a major concern of global cooling. By the mid-70's however, climate experts realized that average global temperature was actually increasing. Since then, global warming has become a major issue of concern. (People and the Planet 2003)

Some scientists have speculated that global warming could lead to the wiping out of the Amazon rainforest, and the melting of the polar ice caps. This would cause sea levels to dramatically rise. It may also cause tropical diseases such as malaria to spread to temperate climates. This increase in temperature has been identified as a result of human activities. There is no knowledge of what measures are needed to be taken to slow or reverse this process.

The greenhouse effect is caused by a blanket of water vapour and greenhouse gases about the earth. The gases are mostly carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide. These gases help tp trap some of the sun’s radiation as it bounces off the surface of the earth. The natural greenhouse effect has enabled life to develop on earth in the complexity that it has. Without it, the planet would be 30EC colder. Due to the increase in industrialization, the amount of greenhouse gas has dramatically risen. This is causing more heat to be trapped, causing a warming of the atmosphere.
The main gas is carbon dioxide. This is produced by burning fossil fuels.

Concentrations of it in the air have risen by a third. At the rate we are going, by 2030, carbon dioxide concentrations will have doubled. The burning of fossil fuels seems to be constantly increasing. This is due to industrialization, and more people driving cars.

Another major greenhouse gas is methane. Scientists have suggested that it traps heat 30 times more efficiently than carbon dioxide. Over the past two centuries, methane concentrations have more than doubled. It comes mainly from harvesting rice. It also comes from pipe leaks and cattle flatulence. (People and the Planet 2003)
If global warming continues, it cam have devastating effects on the earth. The Arctic ice cap is already starting to melt. The depth of it has shrunk about 40% in the past few decades. If this melting continues, it is estimated that the sea levels will rise by between 0.09 and 0.88 meters by 2100. Even a half-meter sea rise would be devastating to many low rise islands, especially in the Pacific.
Global warming will cause massive flooding, greater spread of disease (better living conditions for the bacteria), and a major economic downfall. Tourism rates will fall, and farming will be harder due to an increase in pests. (Climate Change 2003)
Scientists are looking for a possible solution to this problem. Although the process is going rather slow, no one has stopped looking for progress. A major factor in solving this problem stems from the Kyoto Accord. Kyoto has put strains on countries to reduce gas emissions over a period of time. This may give the atmosphere some time to replenish. Many environmentalists argue that the cuts are much to small to make any significant difference, but whether they realize it or not, every little action, no matter how big or small, makes a difference. After all, you can’t quit anything cold turkey without having major consequences.

Many countries are against the Kyoto Accord because it will has major economic effects on them. This is true. Car companies and many other industries will see a decrease in business, which will cause a certain degree of poverty, but if we look for other ways to create energy, maybe this can be counteracted. Kyoto isn’t asking that countries totally give up gas emissions, but only to decrease them. Unless countries comply with this, we will never know if it would work or not. (S. Mehanna 2001)

There are ways we can help to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The major issue is to reduce the burning of fossil fuels. We can do this by switching to other sources of energy such as solar and wind power. Countries also have to try and improve the fuel efficiency in cars.

Although many people would like to abolish the thought of global warming, it is there, and it’s time we do something about it.

The depletion of the ozone layer and the protection of coral reefs and rainforest have become very popular in Egypt. They have realized that it has become a major problem, and are worried about the effects it will have on their country. The major concerns are that of immediate environmental degradation, such as garbage, sewage, and noise pollution. Just think about it. As the population increases, so does the amount of sewage being released. This leads to contaminated water and many diseases. How would you like our oceans to turn into sess-pools of filth and sludge. It doesn’t paint a pretty picture. This is reason enough to make people want to do what they can. (N. Hopkins 2001)

The degradation of the ozone layer has also had a big impact on the earths functions. It’s designed to protect all life from the sun’s harmful radiation. Human activities however, have majorly damaged it. There is now less protection from ultraviolet rays, and over time, it will lead to higher skin cancer and cataract rates. It will also result in major crop damage. Many countries are trying to phase out the production of ozone-depleting substances. It has become a major world issue.
The Earth’s atmosphere is divided into several parts. The harmful substances are produced in the troposphere, where virtually all human activities take place. Some are also produced in the stratosphere, where planes usually fly.

Ozone is composed of three oxygen atoms in a molecule. It is blue in colour and has a strong odor. Normal oxygen has only two oxygen atoms, and is colorless and odorless. This is what we breathe. Out of each 10 million air molecules, about two million are normal oxygen, and only three are ozone. This small amount still plays a major role in the atmosphere.

Many countries are now taking action to reduce ozone depleting substances. CFC’s and aerosol use is majorly reduced. These were very effective products, but were found to be too harmful to the ozone layer. This is a major step in solving the problem. (U.S. Environment Protection Agency 2002)

Although there are no real answers to these problems, many actions are being taken to try and preserve our environment. The solution may be far a way, but it is coming, as long as there are people in the world those still cares. Over-population is a major problem, but it is possible to be controlled. Technology and education are preparing people for the dramatic changes, and it possible to win this treacherous battle. After all, our worst enemy is ourselves.

Pollution Challenges

Selecting Sustainable Solutions

The fundamental challenge for developing countries is to select, from the wide range of techniques and technologies available, those which are most relevant and applicable to the realities and constraints of their local situation. While there is usually limited access to capital and supplies, what is available in many developing countries is labor and, in many cases, time. This leads us in the direction of simple approaches to achieve the needed improvements.

Lack of Financing

The "Polluter Pays" principle should obviously apply but bankrupt companies or legal battles can often delay the implementation of urgently needed clean-up. In many cases, the original polluter can no longer be identified or is unable to pay.

Lack of Recovery Value of Toxic Sites

In some places such as China and India, a number of major schemes have been started where the high cost of the remediation work can be recovered in the land value and a new use. As a result, there is an increasing level of interest and growing expertise available for cleanups in large and valuable urban sites, often using the best of international technology. Unfortunately, relatively few of the many polluted sites have the potential value to justify the cost of remediation. Small sites, often in urban fringe or rural areas, are unlikely to see any interest from a commercial angle and limited support from the regulatory system, leaving them truly orphaned.

Pollution Facts

Pollution is a Global Killer
Pollution likely affects over a billion people around the world, with millions poisoned and killed each year. The World Heath Organization estimates that 25 percent of all deaths in the developing world are directly attributable to environmental factor.1 Some researchers estimate that exposure to pollution causes 40 percent of deaths annually.2

Pollution is Regarded as a Major (and quickly emerging) Factor in Disease

People affected by pollution problems are much more susceptible to contracting other diseases. Others have impaired neurological development, damaged immune systems, and long-term health problems.

Women and Children are Especially at Risk, Children are Most Susceptible

Children are physiologically different and more vulnerable than adults. In some cases they have higher exposures since they eat, drink and breathe more per kilogram of body weight than adults and tend to ingest a lot more dirt and house dust than adults from their crawling around and playing outside.
While children only make up 10 percent of the world’s population, over 40 percent of the global burden of disease falls on them. Indeed, more than three million children under age five die annually from environmental factors.

Death is Not the Only Toll of Exposure to Pollutants

Pollution causes chronic illness, neurological damage and shortened lifespan. For instance, the presence of lead in children lowers I.Q. by an estimated 4-7 points for each increase of 10 μg/dL.3 Our database identifies populations around the globe with blood lead levels ranging from 50 -100 μg/dL, up to 10 times the WHO reference levels for protection against neurological damage.

Pollution is Worst in the Developing World

The world’s worst polluted places are in the developing world. Similar conditions no longer exist in the U.S., Canada, Europe, Japan and Australia today. In wealthier countries, there are sufficient legal, political, cultural and economic disincentives for polluters to allow their activities to affect human health on a massive scale. Unfortunately, many of these tactics do not work in developing countries that are trying to increase their industrialization and make themselves economically competitive for manufacturing and processing.

Pollution Contributes to Global Warming

Toxic emission from industry and other sources may contain greenhouse gases. Therefore some sources of pollution contribute to global warming. Unlike global warming, where the negative effects are evolutionary and solutions elusive, the effects of pollution are immediate and deadly, and the solutions are well-known and available.

Pollution: A Global Killer, a Solvable Problem

The understanding and the technology for remediation of all types of pollution sites is well established in the industrialized world, where life-threatening toxic pollution has almost been eliminated. All that is needed to eliminate pollution worldwide is resources and commitment.