The Planet Is Slowly Dying

The world is over four billion years old and has been habitable by life forms for over six million years. Otherwise known as the globe, the planet has been our home for over 200,000 years. It has provided our species with all the resources we need to survive and flourish. Life hasn’t always been easy on the planet especially while our ancient ancestors lived in the wild but as evolution harnessed our cognitive ability, we emerged as the superior species and it enable us to develop the world into what it is today.

Unfortunately, all these advancements have taken its toll on the planet. Over the centuries, big and small changes have taken place on the planet. The continents have shifted into the modern world that is now our home. Pre-historic animals vanished and modern life took their place. There have been other changes but they happened gradually. However, as the world endures all the abuse and misuse of its resources, major changes are rapidly taking place, much faster than what the world has witnessed over the years. Polar caps are melting and are causing the sea level to rise. The ozone layer is slowly depleting, trapping in more heat that results to global warming. We are responsible for eating away our own life systems here on earth and we are also the first one to suffer once Mother Nature strikes back.

Pollution and rapid urbanization are the major contributors to the planet’s deterioration. Climate change is mostly driven by human abuse. The same changes that took place over the past 60 years actually took 10,000 years to happen in the past. The world’s environment and climate were at its best then but things have turned from bad to worst now. Our planet is slowly dying and it is our entire fault.

Instead we live in a world threatened by a climate change catastrophe.

Severe, pervasive and irreversible

The last report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) released in 2014, made it clear that, unless steps were taken, manmade climate change carried “the likelihood of severe, pervasive and irreversible impacts for people and ecosystems.”

It is probable that the focus on severe and irreversible change — the thought of glaciers disappearing from the Himalayas, of the polar ice caps melting completely and leading to a warmer ocean, and up to 200 million people being displaced — was the major factor that helped pave the way for the Paris Agreement. But to focus on only the risk may not tell the whole picture.

Speaking about the future, AR5 states, “Limiting climate change would require substantial and sustained reductions in greenhouse gas emissions which, together with adaptation, can limit climate change risks.”

This is the challenge we currently face. As with a world filled with nuclear weapons and nations at each other’s throats in the 1980s, humanity is unlikely to survive — or at least survive in any way comparable to the conditions in which we now live — if we continue to follow the standard path.

(Via: http://www.eco-business.com/opinion/climate-change-the-case-for-hope/)

Climate change is no longer just a threat but a sad reality of our times. And as if the destruction we inflict on the environment is not enough, the political and religious conflicts all over the world make life even more difficult for many. These wars continue to claim lives but also destroy the environment with the constant bombing and chemical and nuclear warfare. Aside from the Far East and Africa, Asia is also one of the places badly hit by climate change and political tensions.

Competition for dwindling water supplies from a mountain range in Central Asia could erupt into regional conflict, Chinese researchers have warned.

Global warming and retreating glaciers in the Tianshan range – the “water tower” of the region – have raised the spectre of water shortages that will affect “the relationship between countries in Central Asia,” the researchers warned in a report on the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ website.

Central Asia is a dry, landlocked hinterland and Tianshan is the tallest and biggest mountain range in the region. About 2,500km long and up to 350km wide, the range winds through numerous countries including Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and the Xinjiang region in China.

(Via: http://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy-defence/article/2059862/water-conflicts-central-asia-pose-threat-chinas)

Rising temperature in most places on the planet not only led to droughts and famines but has caused unrest among the people. Countries may fight one another because of competition for resources. In our modern world, it is disheartening to witness people dying of thirst and hunger in famine-ridden and war-torn nations when modern groceries and supermarkets in developed countries are fully stocked with all the basic household supplies and food.

Humans have mainly relied on technology in their daily tasks and in part raised energy consumption too. Aside from that, we mess with the world’s natural ecosystems by clearing land for agricultural, residential or commercial purposes. We change the land and marine ecosystem that in turn cause more harm than good. We are heading into an unsustainable future and we may find it harder to survive given the earth’s extreme weather conditions and limited resources. If we don’t act now while we still can, that is likely the future that is waiting for the rest of us – living on a planet that can no longer support our needs and possibly result in our species likely extinction.

The blog article The Planet Is Slowly Dying See more on: https://www.SEMP.us

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Africa: A Nation Of War, Famine And Disease

As kids, we’ve been told time and again that life in Africa is hard. Our elders will often tell us to finish our food because people are starving in Africa but our immature self will reply, “Why? Will the people in Africa no longer suffer from hunger if we eat all our food?” Such an immature logic our younger self has back then. What our elders wanted to emphasize was for us to be thankful for our blessings because many others have none.

Africa fits the picture to a T. This vast continent is comprised of various nations plagued by poverty, hunger, suffering, and political unrest. Aside from that, many of today’s deadliest diseases had their humble beginnings here. To name a few, there are HIV/AIDS and Ebola. They’re both deadly diseases that have yet no known cures. But today, the picture remains the same. Africa is still ravaged by famine and wars.

Have you heard about the famine in the horn of Africa region? Currently, famine has been declared in several African nations and the situation continues to worsen despite government and humanitarian efforts. Despite our modern world and conveniences, millions still suffer and die from thirst and hunger because they lack the resources to improve their lives and catch up with the progress other nations in the world are making.

South Sudan, Nigeria, Somalia and Yemen have been facing famine conditions since February 2017. A total of 20 million people are threatened by food insecurity brought on by armed conflicts and the climatic impacts of El Niño. The SDC, which already operates in these four countries, has released additional funding to deliver emergency aid and to expand its development assistance activities.

The situation is especially serious in South Sudan where almost five million people are already facing hunger. In Nigeria too, over five million people have no food security and suffer from malnutrition. In 2015 and 2016, the Horn of Africa was hit by a major drought which was exacerbated by El Niño, causing serious crop failures and livestock losses. Since then, more than 11 million people in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia are suffering from serious malnutrition.

(Via: http://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/famine-africa-and-yemen)

Even with the sharp increase of donors to African nations hit by famine, it is still not enough to keep everyone safe and taken cared of. Regional political tension makes it difficult for the government and other humanitarian groups to access remote areas that need help. Moreover, donor funding is also stretched out as conflict in other parts of the world likewise needs help and support from these non-profit organizations. Africa’s famine does not also get the attention it needs from the international media that could help raise awareness to the problem and increase support from the public.

Major political events in the US and Europe have preoccupied western media over the past year. Chief among these has been Donald Trump’s rise to US president and his continuing efforts to establish a credible domestic and foreign policy agenda. 

Before that, the inability of the European Union to agree on a plan to host an influx of refugees gained the media’s attention along with the United Kingdom’s referendum on Europe. Now a succession of national elections across Europe – in France, Germany and the UK among others – looks set to dominate front page news.

The western media’s focus on momentous events at home has come at the expense of reporting on events unfolding in the global South. Among the events which have been eclipsed by the media’s preoccupation is the famine that’s unfolding in Africa.

Today the causes of famine are largely man made even though below average rain fall has exacerbated local food production in the Horn of Africa over the past 18 to 24 months. However, in Sudan, Niger, the Central African Republic and Nigeria military conflict over the past three to four years has disrupted food production, displaced millions and created conditions which prevent the delivery of humanitarian assistance (assuming it was available).

The Western world failed to keep track of African events that they weren’t able to intervene on time to prevent such a widespread famine from happening.

Why has western development policy failed to recognise the signs that a famine has been unfolding in Africa? Why has it failed to provide humanitarian aid in a timely manner?

The answer to these questions is twofold. Firstly western governments have failed to engage in sustained dialogue with African states to discuss the consequences of policies that rely on force, which displace populations and which disrupt markets and set back development.

Secondly it appears that western governments and tax payers are no longer interested in Africa. Their interests are far more insular, a situation reflected in the domestic issues that dominated the US election and the UK Brexit referendum.

(Via: http://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/famine-creeps-in-on-africa-while-the-world-s-media-looks-elsewhere-57706)

All across the horn of Africa, approximately 40 million people are currently suffering from this famine that is even larger, more serious, and more widespread than the famine of the 1980s. Too little humanitarian assistance was sent too late that death was inevitable for many who weren’t able to survive the early onslaught of the famine. We can expect this severe food crisis to go on as humanitarian support is making little progress in getting to the bottom of this complex issue.

For many of us living in the comfort of our modern homes full of modern amenities in a sprawling modern metropolis, it is hard for us to comprehend the extent of hunger and suffering that is ravaging this part of the globe. The numbers are terrifying and they are not just statistics, they are actual people trying their best to cope despite their limited resources. If only more people, especially the leaders of more progressive nations, make their pledges and extend a helping hand to our suffering brothers and sisters, we can put an end to this famine and help uplift their lives and teach them to be self-supporting so they no longer need to rely on others for help all the time.

Africa: A Nation Of War, Famine And Disease is courtesy of Semp.us

source https://www.semp.us/africa-a-nation-of-war-famine-and-disease/

The Future Looks Bleak For The US EPA

The environment is self-sustaining on its own. After all, everything in the natural environment has survived for millions of years without man’s help. If you think of it, man’s greatest contribution to this planet involves its ultimate destruction. We are so good at destroying things. We even manage to wipe out one species to the next because of poaching and illegal hunting. But now, the environment needs our help because of the irreparable damage we have caused Mother Nature.

However, for any conservation effort to truly work, it needs sufficient funding that no private organization can actually provide, only the government. And besides, it is also the state’s responsibility to enforce conservation measures to salvage what is left of the environment. However, things are going from bad to worse for the US when it comes to promoting environment-friendly programs considering the many budget cuts the Trump admin imposes soon after assuming the presidency. President Trump focuses on defense and national security aside from his personal vendetta of wiping the nation of illegal immigrants. What’s not a part of his agenda are the arts along with the youth’s education and the environment among others.

“Catastrophic”, “very dangerous”, “every bit as bad” as expected and just plain “weird”.

The reactions to the effect of the first 100 days of Donald Trump’s presidency on the environment and climate change were perhaps predictable.

After all, the 100th day of his term of office on Saturday will see a mass Climate March in protest against his policies, just a week after the March for Science, largely inspired by his dismissal of hard evidence about global warming.

But there has been the occasional glimmer of hope.

For example, Mr Trump has not, so far, decided to withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement on climate change as he had promised during the election campaign.

And, er, the rusty-patched bumblebee became the first bumblebee to be recognised as an endangered species, meaning it will now receive protection from the federal government.

But that’s pretty much the point where the good news runs out as a timeline set up by the National Geographic following Mr Trump’s election makes clear.

(Via: https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/donald-trump-100-days-president-climate-change-global-warming-nature-catastrophic-dangerous-weird-a7701906.html)

The threat of climate change is just a hoax for President Trump. He does not believe that the survival of the human race is facing enormous environmental threats mostly because of our own doing.

On January 20, 2017, Donald Trump stood on the steps of the U.S. Capitol and was sworn in as the 45th president of the United States. One hundred days later, Trump has already launched an almost unending series of attacks against some of America’s most fundamental environmental protections, from seeking to significantly limit the federal government’s ability to regulate water pollution to crippling the Environmental Protection Agency.

Contrary to his own claims, Trump has not done more in his first 100 days than any president in history. But when it comes to the actions he has taken, they have overwhelmingly been aimed at rolling back environmental protections and undoing environment and climate-related laws passed by President Obama. Of the 69 actions Trump has taken as president during his first 100 days, almost half — 33 of them, to be exact — have been related to the environment.

A lot of these actions have been more show than substance — many environmental regulations targeted by Trump were finalized long before he came into office, so rolling them back requires time. And many changes that involve bedrock environmental laws — the Clean Water Act, or the Clean Air Act, for instance — will likely face years of legal challenges.

(Via: https://thinkprogress.org/one-hundred-days-on-planet-trump-ca135c4a5918)

Soon after assuming office, the country discovered what President Donald Trump had in store for all Americans. Aside from pushing for extreme immigration policies and travel bans that will wipe out illegal immigrants in the US, he also signed various policies that would impose budget cuts on government agencies he does not consider important in realizing his promise of making America great again, one of which is the US Environmental Protection Agency.

It is quite obvious that President Trump is determined to abolish the EPA, albeit in a rush. Experts say that Trump will have a hard time abolishing an entire government agency and a mere executive order won’t do the job. It entails time and planning especially that Congress is yet to determine the next steps on the various functions assigned to this agency in particular. EPA has been around since the 70s to protect and promote the health of the Americans and the US environment but it might be gone soon because President Trump was clear in his intentions of entirely getting rid of it or just leave a little behind once he wins the election – and he did.

The Future Looks Bleak For The US EPA Read more on: Semp.us

source https://www.semp.us/the-future-looks-bleak-for-the-us-epa/

Recovery In The Aftermath Of Flood

Most days we live in the comfort of our own homes without a care in the world. Then, disaster strikes. All semblance of normalcy is lost and you struggle to keep your bearing as your perfect world is shattered into pieces. Floods can do that to you. We often take water for granted and forget just how powerful it is on a large scale as torrential flooding continues to ravage cities and countries year after year. The damage also depends as to how severe the flooding is. There are floods that can submerge homes under water for days and weeks and there are those that subside quickly.

The important thing about disasters is our ability to bounce back from it and pick up the broken pieces of our lives. No matter how prepared you are, not everything always goes as planned and how well you or the others recover also rely heavily on the support you get from the government.

Water levels are beginning to recede, but the biggest challenges of flood recovery are still ahead, Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale warned today.

Describing the flooding as a "large-scale disaster," Goodale said the emergency response is still in the early days.

"Recovery will not be quick or easy," he said. "As the water subsides, the human reality of what has happened will increasingly sink in as people experience the dirty, muddy damages that they have to cope with."

Updating reporters on the floods, Goodale said he and his emergency preparedness counterparts across the country will develop a strategy that aims to "build back better." That means using engineering techniques or relocation decisions that make communities less vulnerable and more resilient to floods, fires and ice storms in the future, he said.

(Via: http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/drones-flooding-garneau-military-1.4107944)

As the water subsides, the extent of the mess left behind will be revealed to you. It is backbreaking work trying to clear things up and make your home livable again. You may also run out food and potable drinking water as well as electricity for a few days or weeks, so you can expect the recovery to be a bit rough and bumpy at first.

Peters and her husband, Alan, have owned the resort on the banks of the Jacks Fork River in southern Missouri for 31 years, and they say they've never seen flooding like this.

This past weekend, the river got up to a record 28 feet, filling several of her rooms with water and sweeping a whole row of cabins downstream. As of Friday, Peters had no idea where the cabins landed.

"The whole town of Eminence is devastated," Peters said.

Heavy rains led to record flooding across southern Missouri last weekend. Officials say six people in the state died as a result of the floods.

Despite all the devastation, it is heart warming to see people trying to rebuild their lives amidst all the loss and damage. It is just a testament to how strong human nature is especially when our very survival and existence is on the line.

"We're just kind of living day by day and putting our faith in Christ that he's going to take care of us," Peters said. "We're not worrying about the future."

Despite the damage, the town of Eminence is still holding its annual Ozark Mountain Festival on Saturday. This year's event will be a fundraiser for those affected by the flood disaster, wherever the need may be. 

(Via: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2017/05/06/devastated-flood-missouri-town-begins-cleanup/312120001/)

Recovery is always the goal whenever disaster strikes. After all, who wants to live in a constant state of disarray and confusion? Nobody. We all want to get back to the life we once lived and try to fix whatever has been broken down or destroyed in our homes. The government may extend a helping hand but it’s not always the case. Even if you don’t get the help you need, try your best to recover and continue living.

Natural calamities are a normal part of life. We can’t avoid them no matter how hard we try. The best thing you can do is to always be prepared for the worst and not hesitate to bounce back after. Simple measures like having an emergency kit or an emergency plan can save lives and protect your property from severe water damage caused by flooding or other disasters that are just as disastrous.

The following article Recovery In The Aftermath Of Flood is courtesy of The SEMP Blog

source https://www.semp.us/recovery-in-the-aftermath-of-flood/

Overcoming The Challenges Of The African Famine

Poverty is evident all over the world. There are homeless people roaming the streets even in progressive countries, what more in struggling third-world nations that are often riddled with problems of inequality, corruption, lack of opportunities and political unrest. Unfortunately, there are many countries now in the world that fits the description. If you haven’t heard it in the news yet, famine continues to ravages several African nations.

Widespread poverty is one of the triggers of famine. Famine is often unheard of in civilized countries because the government can always intervene and prevent it from happening. However, many people die of hunger from various African places you haven’t heard of. Aside from the issue of war, climate change likewise has a big role as to why famines happen and persist in the first place.

“Where people exceed food supply, widespread hunger and famine results and many may die as we have repeatedly experienced in many countries, particularly in the Horn of Africa. The complexity of the hunger debacle in Africa also incriminates many factors apparently unrelated though intricately intertwined. Population control and management are needful. There are just some levels or limits to which new houses, schools, stadia, roads, railways, airports, markets, recreation grounds can be established.
“Each country has a fixed land space. Space determines the carrying capacity as regards food production hectares. Import of food that depends on the hard earned foreign exchange is risky when funds dry up. If the human population fills her territory, migration becomes inevitable. The days of empire expansion through the power of might is long past,” he said.
Akoroda, a professor, in his presentation, ‘From Hunger and Starvation to Sufficiency: Proffering Solutions to Africa’s Predicament’, charged Nigerian governments to endeavour to abide strictly by the Maputo Declaration for African Union countries which stipulated spending at least 10 percent of their national budgets on food and agriculture, noting that this has continued to remain a mirage due to neglect, ignorance, and inaction.
“The result of not heeding such proposition has not helped us in reducing or removing hunger fromAfrica,” Akoroda lamented.

(Via: https://www.businessdayonline.com/%E2%80%8Efood-security-dependence-food-aid-foreign-donors%E2%80%8E-will-not-help-nigeria/)

Hunger is a big problem in Africa. The land is all dried up and no crop can ever grow anymore. Water is scarce as well, so people had to rely on government rations to survive. Unfortunately, not everyone can make it so the body count keeps on increasing until now because the issues on famine haven’t been solved yet.

Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan, and Yemen are suffering from a famine that affects 20 million people. According to eVolo magazine, over 40 percent of people living in sub-Saharan Africa live in extreme poverty. In the last three decades, absolute poverty has been reduced from 40 percent to 20 percent worldwide. Unfortunately, the green revolution including clean energy, fertilizers, irrigation, and high-yield seeds that doubled grain production between 1960 and 2000 on other continents has failed multiple times in Africa due to limited markets, bad infrastructure, civil wars, and an ineffective government.

The eVolo magazine presents and discusses architecture embodying technological advances, sustainable concepts, and innovative designs. Each year, eVolo hosts a competition and awards the structures that they admire most. This year’s top prizewinners were two Polish architects, Pawel Lipinski and Mateusz Frankowski. They designed the Mashambas Skyscraper which houses a farm, an education center, and a community center.

The ingenious structure facilitates the training of subsistence farmers in modern farming techniques. Providing the farmers with inexpensive fertilizers and state-of-the-art tools enables them to increase their crop yields dramatically. The skyscraper also creates a local trading area, which helps to maximize profits. The objectives are self-sufficient farming and overcoming poverty and famine.

(Via: https://ladyfreethinker.org/new-skyscraper-farm-will-feed-village/)

Vertical farming is one of the options considered by experts to help solve the famine issues the world over. Moreover, the lack of agricultural space is no longer that big of an issue when you can plant a lot of crops on a small piece of land. The population is exploding, so the food supply should be able to catch up as well or else many people will end up hungry and sick just like what is happening now in Africa.

For years now, these poor African nations have relied on non-profit organizations for assistance but the increasing armed conflict in the region make it difficult for help to arrive. Also, other parts of the world are ravaged by disasters as well and are the reason why donors’ money and other resources are stretched thin and only a small portion gets to Africa. If only armed conflict won’t get in the way of help, perhaps it can save countless lives and people no longer have to suffer from hunger any longer.

The post Overcoming The Challenges Of The African Famine is available on The SEMP.us Blog

source https://www.semp.us/overcoming-the-challenges-of-the-african-famine/

Education Is The Key To Saving The Environment

We often complain about a lot of things because we don’t know any better. When it comes to environmental conservation, every effort counts. So, doing nothing while complaining all the time is not exactly a fine trait you can be proud of. The planet is deteriorating right before our very eyes. Global warming makes the world more difficult to live in for most of us. However, is it really nature’s fault or is it because of us that the world is rapidly warming? It is likely us, right?

The best way we can counteract climate change is to educate the people about it and learn what measures can be done to prevent it from progressing. We can’t stop climate change from happening because it already is a phenomenon we experience today. However, by making some lifestyle changes that help protect the world, we may be able to delay its full wrath for longer.

Kentucky’s two senators, Rand Paul and Mitch McConnell, are both “skeptical” that human behavior has caused climate change. But since 2011, when, following years of planning and collaboration by scientists and educators, the state approved its Environmental Literacy Plan, students there are taught the reverse. High schoolers, in chemistry class, learn how methane emissions alter the makeup of the Earth’s atmosphere and contribute to global warming. In a historically coal-producing state, they learn about the harmful effects of the industry; now, at public-school hosted career days, representatives from the “green economy”–from wind turbine technicians to energy-use experts–are required to be on site to offer advice.

Even though Kentucky’s voting population runs red, the state is among the most progressive in the country when it comes to environmental education. The United States, however, currently has no formalized environmental education policy (and under the current administration, is unlikely to implement one), but volunteers in 48 out of the 50 states have drafted their own plans. The results have been mixed. Earth Day Network (EDN)–the advocacy organization that emerged from the first Earth Day on April 22, 1970–surveyed the status of environmental education across the 50 states.“Some are decent, some are horrible,” EDN President Kathleen Rogers tells Fast Company. “Some have the right idea but haven’t made progress.”

(Via: https://www.fastcompany.com/40408119/could-universal-environmental-education-spur-a-green-revolution)

The new US administration seems to take the issue of climate change lightly. For them, it is just the figment of the imagination of a few and a means to ask for more money on causes that don’t really matter. Well, that’s them. For the rest of us who experience the wrath of climate change in our day-to-day, most especially during disasters, we understand that time is of the essence and we should act now or forever regret not doing anything when we still had the time.

Pakistan marked Earth Day 2017 with an aim to encourage people to promote environmental and climate education campaigns across the country. 

A number of activities were organised by WWF-Pakistan in different cities which engaged education institutes, corporate entities, civil society organisations, local communities and government departments.  Speaking on the occasion, Hammad Naqi Khan, WWF-Pakistan director general, said that education could play a pivotal role in addressing environmental problems which were increasing day by day. It can also help create public support for conservation of the earth’s resources and can be a voice for change. "With quality education, we can inspire action towards environmental protection and sensitise people to adopt green technologies", he said. He was of the view that people should switch to alternative energy, end use of plastic bags, conserve freshwater bodies and make effective and wise use of natural resources It is time to take environmental and climate issues seriously and mobilise people to develop public momentum to mitigate greenhouse emissions, increase tree cover, reduce pollution and protect endangered species.

He also emphasised that environmental education should be a compulsory subject and taught in schools across the country. 

(Via: https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/200163-Environmental-education-should-be-a-compulsory-subject)

The desire to educate the people about climate change, global warming and environmental conservation are also felt by people in other parts of the world, not only in America. For any conservation effort to work, it should be a collective effort of the majority because the issue has been so magnanimous that it has been almost impossible to solve for years and the damage just keeps adding up.

However, we can’t afford to give up since it is our future at stake. If the world becomes inhabitable, what will happen to the future generation? Are we condemning them to their future doom? So, let us be responsible in our ways and help raise awareness on various environmental issues so that the planet no longer suffers from further harm than it already does. If more people unite and make an effort to saving the world, the burden becomes lighter and the work becomes easier. Let us keep this in mind as we face the threats of climate change and many others.

Education Is The Key To Saving The Environment is courtesy of The SEMP Blog

source https://www.semp.us/education-is-the-key-to-saving-the-environment/