World Leaders Urged to Confront Urban Poverty
October 9, 2008
Nasidi Adamu Yahaya, Daily Trust (Abuja)
OneWorld.net's take: The world population of urban slum dwellers has reached the 1 billion mark, reports a Nigerian newspaper following the United Nations' Monday announcement that urbanization of poverty may be one of the greatest challenges to development today.A slum is defined as an area "where people live without one or more of life's basic necessities: clean water, sanitation, sufficient living space, durable housing, or secure tenure," writes Kai N. Lee for the environmental think tank, the Worldwatch Institute. Key factors driving urbanization are high population growth, rural poverty, and conflict that forces people to relocate to cities. Life in urban slums is typically characterized by a lack of infrastructure that makes inhabitants ever more vulnerable to disease and environmental hazards like flooding, explains Kai.
Rapid urban growth also has implications for global warming. While cities cover only 0.4 percent of the Earth's surface, they generate the bulk of the world's carbon emissions, according to Worldwatch. But if designed well, cities can be a force for environmental good. "There are efficiencies of scale," says architect Michael McDonough in the book Massive Change, noting particularly the positive effects of mass transit, green buildings, and freeing up natural space by consolidating people. "The surprise is that New York City is one of the most environmentally efficient cities on the face of the planet because of its density," he adds.
Over the past half-century, the world’s urban population has increased nearly fourfold, from 732 million in 1950 to 3.15 billion in 2005, explains Worldwatch. About 1 billion of those people -- or nealry one third of the world's urban population -- are believed to currently be living in slum conditions. And by 2030, according to the UN's human settlement program, that number is likely to double.
Africa: Urban Slum Dwellers Worldwide
Nearing One Billion - UN
From: Daily Trust (Abuja)October 6, 2008
Nasidi Adamu Yahaya
The number of urban slum-dwellers worldwide has broken the one billion mark, making it clear that the urbanization of poverty is arguably one of the biggest challenges facing development today, executive director of UN-Habitat, has said.
Mrs Anna Tibaijuka said in a televised message to mark the World Habitat Day in Abuja yesterday that "no longer can we turn a blind eye to the plight of slum-dwellers living in life-threatening conditions. Nor can we hide from the fact that urban poverty and urban inequalities are on the rise around the world, in developed and developing countries alike.
"We have both a moral and an ethical responsibility to make our cities more harmonious by making them more inclusive. It is a societal imperative that we fight urban poverty and squalor if we are to secure urban safety and security," she said.
Mrs Tibaijuka stated that it was no coincidence that climate change is now coming to the forefront of international debate at the same time and at virtually the same pace as the world becomes urbanised.
She said cities consume upwards of 75 per cent of all energy and contribute to an equally substantial amount of greenhouse gas emissions, noting that they must therefore, be an integral part of any mitigation efforts.
"Reducing cities' contribution to climate change and vulnerability to the effects thereof, must be viewed as a historical opportunity to improve the living conditions of all men and women, including the most vulnerable sectors of our urban populations. Both adaptation and mitigation efforts require improved land-use planning, more robust infrastructure and smarter construction. I can think of no better initiative than to combine these efforts to make our cities and towns greener, safer and more equitable", Mrs Tibaijuka said.
In his speech, Minister of state for Environment, Housing and Urban Development, Chief Chuka Odom, said the theme of this year's world habitat day, "harmonious cities" was meant to draw attention to the different problems of rapid urbanisation, especially its widespread impacts on the total environment.
He said "to put the scale of the problem in proper perspective, a well researched World Bank study identifies 42 slums in Lagos metropolis. This report which implied that there are more slums than well managed neighbourhoods in Lagos, mirrors to a large extent, the situation in many other Nigerian cities."
Climate Will Add $100B to Development Costs
Daniel Nelson, OneWorld UKOctober 10, 2008 - LONDON, Oct 10 (OneWorld) - Failure to factor climate change into the Millennium Development Goals was a major mistake, Lord Nicholas Stern told a meeting in London this week.
"We mustn't make that mistake again," emphasized the former adviser to the British Government on the economics of climate change and development who also headed the Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change. Because a hostile climate made successful economic growth efforts more costly in developing countries, he said, the cost of achieving the global anti-poverty and healthcare goals might be $100 billion more than expected.
Climate change and development were the two most important problems of the 21st century, he told an audience of several hundred at the London School of Economics, and next year's climate negotiations in Copenhagen would be the world's most important gathering since the Second World War.
Failure in tackling either climate change or development would result in failure in tackling the other: "We must have a low carbon growth path that leads to the eradication of poverty. We are talking about de-carbonizing economies."
Staying on the current path of greenhouse gas emissions, said Stern, meant a high probability of catastrophe, with wars a likely result.
He thought that a global deal to reduce emissions on the scale necessary was possible, though rich countries had to accept responsibility for their historic contribution to climate change, and developing countries had to show leadership.
The global target was an average of two tons of CO2 equivalent per head (compared with a current average of 10-12 tons in Europe).
"If we wait 10 or 15 years the position will be much worse than it is now. Delay in this area is extremely dangerous."
- Lord SternTo achieve this target, deforestation had to be stopped fairly quickly. But the halt had to be effected as part of development efforts within local communities.In addition, all possible technologies had to be tested and analyzed. "We can't tie our hands behind our back. We can't throw out any technologies, in my view," whether carbon capture and storage or nuclear.
Many environmental groups oppose those options for reasons of both human safety and potential environmental side effects, however, arguing that less controversial energy sources can supply enough energy to reduce CO2 emissions to the necessary levels.
"Priority should be given to investments in renewable energy and energy efficiency, which have the greatest potential to provide energy security and reduce emissions," said Greenpeace in a May study entitled "False Hope: Why carbon capture and storage won't save the climate." Friends of the Earth and the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation are among the many other groups that have made similar arguments in recent months.
An understanding between the United States and China would be a key factor in climate negotiations, said Stern. He said soundings with members of both the Obama and McCain teams in the United States had been positive, and he hoped the winner of the presidential election would meet the Chinese leader early next year to discuss climate policy.
Stern stressed the importance of rapid action. "If we wait 10 or 15 years the position will be much worse than it is now," he commented. "Delay in this area is extremely dangerous."
But "if we are far-sighted" the development of low-carbon technologies and infrastructure could drive economic growth. The development of biofuel cars in Brazil and windfarms in Germany showed that it was possible to move fast, he added.
When the Immigration Authorities Come to Town
Raj Jayadev, New America Media
October 9, 2008 - OneWorld.net's take: A rise in arrests of undocumented immigrants -- from less than 2,000 in 2003 to over 26,000 this year -- reflects a new trend in U.S. immigration law enforcement that civil rights advocates say will breed fear and threaten due process in immigrant communities.U.S. immigrant taken into custody during raid by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer. © New America MediaThe U.S. Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was formed after 9/11 to prevent future terrorist attacks on the United States through strict enforcement of immigration laws. An ICE enforcement operation in California last week was the latest in a string of high profile immigration raids. In August, 481 workers from a Mississippi electrical equipment factory were taken to a detention center in Louisiana. The raid of a meat-packing plant in Postville, Iowa in May led to the arrest of nearly 400 immigrants.
The influx of migrant workers from Latin America is largely a result of free trade agreements that drive down labor standards and undermine the rights of workers. Many rural workers in Mexico have been forced to migrate to find jobs because the small farms they tilled could not compete with large U.S. agricultural corporations, states One World UK's migration guide.
When ICE Comes to Your Town
From: New America Media
by Raj Jayadev
October 8, 2008Editor's Note: Immigrant communities in the San Francisco Bay Area, as well as in the rest of the nation, are on notice: a new era of immigration enforcement has begun, and immigration agents could be anywhere.
SAN JOSE, Calif. - Eloy, Ariz., is nothing like San Jose. More than a thousand miles away, placed in the middle of the desert, it is a blazingly hot, desolate and unremarkable town, roughly an hour and a half south of Phoenix. It is so secluded that Greyhound doesn't even go there.
Eloy is also host to one of the largest immigration detention centers in the country, and for many is the last stop before deportation.
But now, a week after the largest immigration enforcement operation in California history, which brought in more than 1,000 people, and was a sort of coming out party for Immigration and Customs Enforcement's new San Jose Fugitive Operation Team, the distance from San Jose and Eloy already seems significantly shorter.
An estimated 436 people were arrested by ICE from the San Francisco Bay Area - many likely headed to Eloy - and immigrant communities here are on notice: they are in a new era of immigration enforcement, and ICE could be anywhere.
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement was established in 2003, as the largest investigative arm of the Department of Homeland Security. In order to expand ICE's field efforts, it created Fugitive Operation Teams to locate, arrest and remove "fugitives" from the United States. ICE defines a fugitive as "an alien who has failed to report to a Detention and Removal Officer after receiving notice to do so."
In 2003, there were eight Fugitive Operation Teams in the country. ICE now has 95 teams across the country, and expects to have more than 100 by the end of the year.
This year ICE is in the process of deploying teams in Birmingham, Ala., Columbus, Ohio, Charleston, S.C., Colorado Springs, Colo., Des Moines, Iowa, Fort Worth, Texas and two in New York City. In California, ICE is adding new teams in San Bernardino, San Diego, San Jose and Ventura County.
As of August, Fugitive Operations Teams have arrested 26,945 people this year. In 2003, they arrested less than 2,000.
Craig Meyer, ICE's assistant field office director in San Francisco, says the recent three-week statewide enforcement "surge," and the first assignment of the new San Jose Fugitive Operation Team, was a major success. "To have a team in San Jose means we can be out there more often, and have more flexibility to cover Northern California," says Meyer.
While Meyer says they did not track the number of arrests in San Jose, he estimates that they may target between 4,000 and 6,000 people in that city. Meyer says ICE opened a San Jose office in June to target the large number of undocumented immigrants there.
Virginia Kice, Western Regional communications director for ICE, adds that for security reasons they cannot give out descriptions of how large the San Jose ICE team is. But according to a 2007 report by the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General (OIG), teams have an average of seven members.
The report, titled "An Assessment of United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Fugitive Operations Teams," also points to significant increases in arrest goals. The goal of each team in 2003 was 125 people; by 2006 that number jumped to 1,000 per team. These increased objectives are consistent with the Office of Detention and Removal Operations Strategic Plan, "Endgame," indicating that the national aim of the Fugitive Operations Teams is to "eliminate the backlog of fugitive aliens by the end of 2012."
Despite an increase in arrests, the OIG report presented several critiques of the Fugitive Operation Team model. Among other conclusions, the reports states that the "fugitive alien apprehensions reported did not accurately reflect the teams' activities...the teams performed duties unrelated to fugitive operations, contrary to Office of Detention and Removal Operations Policy..." and that "the removal rate of fugitive aliens could not be determined."
The review also points out the fact that these arrests are only a drop in the bucket, and that the number of people in this country who may end up in their case log may be "growing at a rate that exceeds the teams' ability to apprehend." Considering that there are now an estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States according to the Pew Hispanic Center, the potential case log could be enormous.
Angie Junck, staff attorney for San Francisco's Immigrant Legal Resource Center, is not surprised by the new San Jose Fugitive Operations Team and the surge tactics. She says immigrant communities in cities with new teams need to be particularly vigilant in protecting their rights.
Junck says local enforcement plans are a fallout from failed national immigration talks around comprehensive immigration reform. "This all started when, in order to have a conversation around paths to legalization, legislators had to couple the discussion with enforcement. Even though the legalization process did not occur, this is the resulting enforcement effort," she says.
Junck warns that at a local level, "these enforcement increases are going to create an atmosphere of fear and terror, and will threaten due process for all in the community."
The ILRC, where Junck works, has created Know Your Rights cards that explain due process rights such as the right to remain silent and the right to an attorney, community raid networks and triage centers to help families respond to an arrest. According to Junck, "ICE has a history of violating people's rights by racially profiling, threatening, and using unlawful interrogation techniques while picking up their targets."
While Kice is quick to say that Fugitive Operation Team go after individual targets, Junck says they often arrest whomever they may come across during an operation. Meyer of ICE calls these "collateral arrests" and admits, "If we go to a place, we are going to check everyone's identifying documents, and enforce the law."
This accounts for the discrepancy of numbers: In last week's "surge," ICE reported 436 arrests, and said that 185 of these were immigration fugitives. The vast majority were collateral apprehensions - individuals who were not initially targeted by the Fugitive Operations Teams.
Junck says local immigrant communities need to educate each another about their rights, and keep a watchful eye on cooperation between ICE and local law enforcement.
For now, Meyer says, ICE has no active relationship with law enforcement in San Jose. "We notified them of our operation for courtesy," he says, "but they did not assist."
When asked if ICE will be employing more statewide surge tactics, he says that they do not know of any upcoming plans. Either way, he expects the new San Jose Fugitive Operations Team to be busy.
"While the big enforcement operations get a lot of media responses, we are out there every day, trying to meet our goal," he says.
Half of All Food Produced Worldwide is WastedSTOCKHOLM, Sweden, August 22, 2008 (ENS) - Tremendous quantities of food are wasted after production - discarded in processing, transport, supermarkets and kitchens - and this wasted food is also wasted water, finds a policy brief released Thursday at World Water Week in Stockholm.
The brief authored by the Stockholm International Water Institute, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, and the International Water Management Institute shows that the current food crisis is less a crisis of production than a crisis of waste. Tossing food away is like leaving the tap running, the authors say.
"More than enough food is produced to feed a healthy global population. Distribution and access to food is a problem - many are hungry, while at the same time many overeat," the brief states. But, it says, "we are providing food to take care of not only our necessary consumption but also our wasteful habits."
"As much as half of the water used to grow food globally may be lost or wasted," says Dr. Charlotte de Fraiture, a researcher at IWMI. "Curbing these losses and improving water productivity provides win-win opportunities for farmers, business, ecosystems, and the global hungry."
"An effective water-saving strategy requires that minimizing food wastage is firmly placed on the political agenda," she said.
In the United States, for instance, as much as 30 percent of food, worth some US$48.3 billion, is thrown away. "That's like leaving the tap running and pouring 40 trillion liters of water into the garbage can - enough water to meet the household needs of 500 million people," says the report.
The policy brief, "Saving Water: From Field to Fork - Curbing Losses and Wastage in the Food Chain," calls on governments to reduce by half, by 2025, the amount of food that is wasted after it is grown and outlines attainable steps for this be achieved.
Through international trade, for instance, savings in one country might benefit communities in other parts of the world.
"Unless we change our practices, water will be a key constraint to food production in the future," said Dr. Pasquale Steduto of FAO.
Water losses accumulate as food is wasted before and after it reaches the consumer.
In poorer countries, a majority of uneaten food is lost before it has a chance to be consumed. Depending on the crop, an estimated 15 to 35 percent of food may be lost in the field. Another 10 to15 percent is discarded during processing, transport and storage, the brief states.
In richer countries, production is more efficient but waste is greater, the report says. "People toss the food they buy and all the resources used to grow, ship and produce the food along with it."
As this wasted food rots in landfills it generates methane, a gas that causes climate change and is 21 times more potent than carbon dioxide.
The report stresses that the magnitude of current food losses presents both challenges and opportunities.
"Improving water productivity and reducing the quantity of food that is wasted can enable us to provide a better diet for the poor and enough food for growing populations," says Professor Jan Lundqvist of the Stockholm International Water Institute.
"Reaching the target we propose, a 50 percent reduction of losses and wastage in the production and consumption chain is a necessary and achievable goal," said Lundqvist.
World Water Week is hosted by the Stockholm International Water Institute, a policy institute that contributes to international efforts to combat the world's escalating water crisis.
The annual event features the award of the 2008 Stockholm Water Prize, which this year was bestowed upon Professor John Anthony Allan from King's College London, who introduced the "virtual water" concept.
Virtual water is a measurement of how water is embedded in the production and trade of food and consumer products and is the concept on which the policy brief, "Saving Water: From Field to Fork - Curbing Losses and Wastage in the Food Chain," is based.
While studying water scarcity in the Middle East, Professor Allan developed the theory of using virtual water import, via food, as an alternative water "source" to reduce pressure on the scarcely available domestic water resources there and in other water-short regions.
By explaining how and why nations such as the United States, Argentina and Brazil export billions of liters of water each year, while others like Japan, Egypt and Italy import billions, the virtual water concept has opened the door to more productive water use, said the Water Prize Nominating Committee.
National, regional and global water and food security, for example, can be enhanced when water intensive commodities are traded from places where they are economically viable to produce to places where they are not.
"The improved understanding of trade and water management issues on local, regional and global scales are of the highest relevance for the successful and sustainable use of water resources," the committee said.
The Stockholm Water Prize is a global award founded in 1990 and presented annually by the Stockholm Water Foundation to an individual, organization or institution for outstanding water-related activities. The activities can be within fields like education and awareness-raising, human and international relations, research, water management and water-related aid.
The Stockholm Water Prize Laureate receives US$150,000 and a crystal sculpture. H.M. King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden is the Patron of the Stockholm Water Prize.
From: Environment News Service