News headlines in June 2019, page 8

NAIROBI, Kenya, Jun 05 (IPS) - Niklas Hagelberg is Coordinator, Climate Change Programme, UN Environment

Fossil fuels—oil, gas, coal and their derivatives—pollute the atmosphere and emit the greenhouse gases that are ramping up global heating to dangerous levels. But did you know that governments around the world are subsidizing this pollution?

UNITED NATIONS, Jun 05 (IPS) - Climate-related displacement and food insecurity is not a future possibility, but it is already happening and it's only projected to worsen without urgent action in coming years.

Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India, Jun 04 (IPS) - When we look at some of the things we take for granted in India today, there is a common thread to all of them. Every single one. They all originated from civil society.

PENANG and KUALA LUMPUR, Jun 04 (IPS) - Finance has not stopped at dominating the real economy. The tentacles of finance have reached into significant, if not most parts of society.

Gerald Davis characterises modern society, where finance is dominant, as a ‘portfolio society', in which aspects of social life have been securitized and transformed into a kind of capital or investment to be managed.

LILONGWE, Malawi, Jun 04 (IPS) - Mercy Masoo is Country Director, WaterAid Malawi

Giving birth is a life changing moment for women. It can be - when women have a safe and caring environment, positive and empowering - a moment to find a previously untapped inner strength.

ROME, Jun 03 (IPS) - The terrible feeling I had on waking up and seeing the Italian voting results at the recent European elections was that my country was suddenly full of strangers. How could the majority of Italians reconfirm a government which has been the most inefficient in history, quarrelling on everything every single day and looking with total indifference to the looming problem of how to establish the next budget without clashing with the European Union or squeezing Italian citizens? Its irresponsible debate on the Italian finances has now led to a spread (difference of value) of 290 points with the Germans.

UNITED NATIONS, Jun 03 (IPS) - Abortion has long been a contentious issue across the world, and the debate is only heating up, prompting women to stand up and speak out for their reproductive rights.

UNITED NATIONS, Jun 03 (IPS) - The plant-life on the Pacific Islands is currently under threat as protections against diseases and pests are left in the hands of under-trained personnel with limited facilities.

MADRID, Jun 03 (IPS) - How governments spend taxpayers money to subsidise fossil fuels that cause deadly air pollution – A reminder to mark 5 June World Environment Day.

Perhaps the most direct way to introduce this tough issue is what the United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres, stated just one week ahead of the 5 June World Environment Daywhich focuses this year on air pollution, caused chiefly by the use of fossil fuels both in transport, industry and even household cooking, heating, etc.

STOCKHOLM / ROME, Jun 03 (IPS) - And it really doesn't matter if I'm wrong, or I'm right.
Where I belong I'm right,
where I belong.
-- The Beatles: Fixing a hole

There are several means to make profitable use of other human beings, an endeavour that tends to turn others into tools by depriving them of their roots and self-respect. This happened in concentration - and work camps, where individuals were reduced to mere numbers.