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| International-UN-NGOs |
| UN: Water to Get Dirtier (They want more of your money) |
| 2006-03-22 |
| Press release from the United Nations Environment Programme Division of Early Warning and Assessment (hold on to your wallets). Severely EFL. Global International Waters Assessment Report Launched "Freshwater Shortages, Engineering of River Flows, Pollution and Overfishing Highlighted in Final Global International Waters Assessment" 21 March 2006 - Freshwater shortages are likely to trigger increased environmental damage over the next 15 years, according to an international report of the world’s waters. Falls in river flows, rising saltiness of estuaries, loss of fish and aquatic plant species and reductions in sediments to the coast are expected to rise in many areas of the globe by 2020. These in turn will intensify farmland losses, food insecurity and damage to fisheries along with rises in malnutrition and disease. Overall agriculture ranks highest as the key concern on the freshwater front among the 1,500 experts involved in the final report of the Global International Waters Assessment (GIWA). They left off the quotation marks around "experts" “Globally, there has been an increased demand for agricultural products and a trend towards more water-intensive food such as meat rather than vegetables and fruits rather than cereals”. In other words, more people are eating better. AND the UN wants to tell everyone else besides themselves what they're allowed to eat. Figures. Knowledge gaps are also to blame, with many developing countries operating in the dark on the size of their water resource, and the precise patterns of supply and demand. And why might that be? Couldn't have anything to do with spending their money on palaces and jets for the kleptocracy, could it? “Aquifers represent the largest information gap, which is an increasingly significant hindrance for effective water management given the growing dependence on groundwater," says the report released in advance of World Water Day 22 March. Tomorrow is World Water Day? Who knew? I'll be sure to take a shower in its honor. The report recommends here it comes.... ecosystem service payments as one way of better valuing the goods and services provided by natural features like coral reefs and wetlands. For example, it argues that wetlands in Mexico would be less vulnerable if landowners are paid for the waste water treatment provided by these natural pollution filters. Are paid? By whom? (Don't bother, I know the answer.) And what does that even mean? Here's a clue, assholes. Mexico's wetlands (and Mexico in general) would be better off if they got rid of their corrupt government. Ever think of recommending that? Climate change is viewed as the overarching issue in the report, with specific concerns for fisheries and marine organisms. Ya' just knew they had to get "climate change" in there somewhere. I like climate change; I'm particularly glad the climate changed from the Ice Age of 10,000 years ago to what we have today. But maybe that's just me. Their final report, Challenges to International Waters: Regional Assessments in a Global Perspective, is formally launched today, complete with a string of forward looking recommendations to reverse the damage and declines. Uh-oh. In other words, they want more of our money. As usual. "I sincerely believe that overcoming poverty and meeting the internationally agreed Millennium Development Goals requires us to look harder at the way we manage the natural world." Ya' want to overcome poverty worldwide? Eliminate (with extreme prejudice, preferably) all the kleptocrats, dictators, theocrats, mullahs, etc., who keep their people in poverty AND ignorance while they live the high life, and you're more than half-way there. Of course, the UN's ruling kleptocrats' mileage may vary on that. Read the rest if you're interested - I'm going to use my time more productively. Like watching oil paint dry. |
| Posted by:Barbara Skolaut |
| #2 Well, I'll see your "Clean Water"...and raise you "Somalia". U.N. Appeals for Aid to Help Somalia NAIROBI, Kenya - The United Nations appealed Tuesday for nearly $327 million in aid to help starving people in southern Somalia, which is suffering its worst drought in a decade. About 2.1 million people are coping with severe food shortages caused by prolonged drought, war, displacement, flooding and human rights abuses, said the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. "This current drought is unprecedented in 10 years, and the impact it is having on food, water, health, education and livelihoods is alarming," said Christian Balslev-Olesen, the world body's acting humanitarian coordinator for Somalia. "With a rapidly deteriorating humanitarian situation, the humanitarian community needs to scale up its current response exponentially." Think I'll flush my spare bucks down a toilet, Mr. Humanitarian Coordinator. It'll do about as much good as sending it to the UN to solve what ails Somalia. |
| Posted by: tu3031 2006-03-22 14:43 |
| #1 More expensive crap for the UN to justify its pathetic exsitance. Can we kill it now? Pluuueeese??? |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2006-03-22 13:41 |