Environmentalists have urged Germans to eat half as much meat as they currently do, in order to meet climate goals.
Meat packaging in Germany
The organisations said as they presented the “Meat Atlas 2018’’ in Berlin on Wednesday, January 10, 2018 that, without a reduction in meat consumption and animal numbers, it would also be impossible for Germany to ensure the conservation of many other flora and fauna.
“Less and better is the solution,’’ said Hubert Weiger, director of the German Association for the Environment and Nature Conservation (BUND).
“This year, the German federal government has to set the guidelines for a sustainable reorganisation of the keeping of animals.’’
The groups are demanding an obligatory identification system for meat and the disposal of the nitrate surpluses caused by the overproduction of manure.
They also want a limit of two cattle or 10 pigs per hectare of land, but in general the number of pigs bred for meat needs to drop by several million, they said.
Industry statistics showed that in 2016 Germans consumed an average of 59 kg of meat per capita, an increase of 1.5 kilos on the 2017, but not much less than they consumed 10 years ago.
The German Society for Nutrition also recommends that people should only eat half this amount.
The “Meat Atlas’’ has been published each year since 2013 by BUND, the Heinrich Boell Foundation and the French newspaper Le Monde Diplomatique.
The Federal Ministry of Environment says it will start sensitising communities on the effects of land degradation across the country.
Desertification and land degradation are said to be serious challenges that can lead to hunger and poverty
Mr Bala Gukut, the Deputy Director, Drought and Desertification Amelioration Department, disclosed this to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday, January 10, 2018 in Abuja.
He said that the federal government had set up a working committee on March 9, 2017 to work out a report aimed at achieving land degradation neutrality project by 2030.
He added that the government would be setting up another committee to handle the awareness exercise for effective implementation of the project.
“The committee will ensure that the exercise gets to all the communities at the local government level.
“The committee is expected to split the members into various teams to ensure that their efforts are effective and to come up with positive results.
“The land degradation project is what I call `top bottom approach’, meaning that the committee will start the awareness creation from local to the federal levels.
“We will begin from the people, plan with them, go with them and work with them; this will help us to know what they are doing to preserve their land.
“With that, we can bring in our scientific ideas, introduce it to them and tell them to use the practice this will enable effective implementation of the project,’’ Gukut said.
According to him, implementation is the key approach of any project; the committee will let them know the implication of degraded land.
“They will also educate them on how they can manage their land, the kind of activities they do that can damage their land.
“The committee will also let them know what can be done to avoid such damage, these are the kind of awareness we want to start with,’’ he said.
Gukut said that Nigeria was among the first countries that sent her report to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) on the land degradation and neutrality.
He noted that about 110 countries were currently participating to achieving land degradation neutrality by 2030.
According to him, we don’t know the exact number of countries that have sent their report to the UNCCD, but the UNCCD said Nigeria was one of the first countries that had completed and submitted its report.
The Federal Ministry of Water Resources is intensifying its public awareness campaign on the effects of climate change on water resources development in the country.
Suleiman Adamu Kazaure, Water Resources Minister
Mr Mukaila Babarinde, the Head of Climate Change Unit in the ministry, made this known in an interview with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Wednesday, January 10, 2018.
He said that geographical phenomena such as volcanic eruptions, global warming and change in weather patterns were some of the consequences of climate change.
He also said that indiscriminate drilling of boreholes could cause landslide, while industrial activities could induce changes in weather.
He said that the outcomes of climate change included diseases, premature deaths and intense droughts.
Babarinde said the impact of climate change was increasing becoming unbearable, as agricultural and cropping seasons no longer followed particular patterns.
He said that in order to address these climate change-induced challenges, there was a need to develop practical adaptation programmes that would enhance the capacity of the society to cope whenever changes occurred.
He said that this would be achieved through the training of stakeholders and people at the community levels to understand the effects of climate change.
Also speaking, Mr Richard Inyamkume, the Senior Programme Officer, Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation Initiative (CCMAI), urged the Federal Government to initiate plans to mitigate the causes of climate change.
He said that such policy was necessary in efforts to reduce the huge negative impacts of climate change, which might affect more Nigerians in 2018 and beyond.
“Climate change impact on communities in Nigeria is relatively huge and may affect more Nigerians in the coming years, if we do not take proper steps to mitigate its causes,’’ he said.
NAN recalls that the House of Representatives recently passed a bill to provide a legal framework for mainstreaming climate change responses and actions into public policy formulation and implementation.
The bill also proposed the establishment of a council to coordinate climate change governance and support adaptation strategies, while mitigating the adverse consequences of climate change in the country.
The Zambian Government on Tuesday, January 9, 2018 placed a temporary suspension on issuance of passports and national identity cards in Lusaka, the country’s capital, following an outbreak of cholera.
Lusaka, Zambia
Minister of Home Affairs, Stephen Kampyongo, said the suspension was necessitated by the escalating cases of cholera in the city.
According to him, the suspension is also in line with the government’s ban on public gatherings in some parts of the city.
He said the issuing office would only attend to emergency travels.
“There is no need to panic as this will be temporal to allow for efforts to prevent the spread of cholera,’’ he told reporters during a news briefing.
The cholera outbreak which mainly affected Lusaka since Oct. 2017 has prompted the government to ban public gathering as well as defer opening of schools.
According to figures from the health ministry, cholera cases in Zambia have surpassed 2,800, while the toll presently stands at 64.
Zambian President Edgar Lungu expressed optimism that the measures put in place by the government to contain the water-borne disease were adequate but highlighted the need to clean up cities to improve hygiene.
The 2018 Management Retreat for Directors and Heads of Agencies and Projects of the Federal Ministry of Environment holds in Kaduna, Kaduna State from Monday, January 8 to Wednesday, January 10, 2018.
The event has “Re-dedication to the implementation of Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) and Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs)” as its theme.
The retreat is being held with the aim of strategically aligning key activities of the Ministry with the ERGP as well as with the NDCs implementation as captured in the Paris Agreement, and other relevant protocols.
The retreat is likewise a strategic meeting to prepare the Ministry to work cohesively and coherently towards delivering on the mandates of the Buhari Administration for the environment sector.
Minister of State for Environment, Ibrahim Usman Jibril, speaking at the eventDirector-General and CEO of the National Biosafety Management Agency (NBMA), Dr Rufus EbegbaThe Conservator-General, National Parks Service, Alhaji Ibrahim GoniDr. Adeshola Olutunde Adepoju, Executive Director for the Forestry Research Institute of Nigeria (FRIN)Director, Department of Climate Change, Dr Peter TarfaNational Project Coordinator, Nigeria Erosion and Watershed Management Project (NEWMAP), Alhaji Salisu DahiruDirector-General, National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA), Sir Peter IdaborDirector-General, National Environmental Standard & Regulation Enforcement Agency (NESREA), Dr. Lawrence AnukamDirector, Department of Forestry. Osakuade Tolu Michael
The Country Manager of Harvestplus, Dr Paul Ilona, says over one million small holder farmers grow bio-fortified food crops in Nigeria.
Bio-fortified crops in Africa
Ilona disclosed this recently in Ibadan, Oyo State, during an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN). Harvestplus is an international agriculture organisation.
He said that no fewer than six million people consumed more nutritious foods from bio-fortified crops in the country through the efforts of Harvestplus to address malnutrition.
“Our On-farm yield increases from bio-fortified crops estimated at 20 per cent over local varieties, over 8,000 persons are estimated to be employed directly or indirectly by investors in the bio-fortified sector.
“We trained over 200 extension agents now, continuously rolling out trainings on good agricultural practices and quality processing of bio-fortified products.
“We were able to include bio-fortification into four key policy documents of the Ministries of Agriculture, Health, Budget and National Planning aimed at creating enabling environment for investors.
“Also, bio-fortification was included in budgets of federal and four state governments; over 20 international and local NGOs are mainstreaming bio-fortification into their livelihood programmes,” he said.
Ilona said that the inclusion of bio-fortified foods into the Home-Grown School Feeding Programme (HGSFP) of the government was one of its latest achievements.
According to him, Harvestplus developed and released six varieties of vitamin A cassava in partnership with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and the National Root Crop Research Institute in Umudike.
Ilona said that Harvestplus it also developed and released eight varieties of vitamin A maize in partnership with IITA and the Institute for Agricultural Research, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Kaduna State.
The country manager said that his organisation released two varieties of orange sweet potato, rich in vitamin A, in partnership with the International Potato Centre (CIP).
He said that Harvestplus developed over 25 innovative vitamin A cassava and maize based food products, 10 of which were now fully commercialised.
“Our current advocacy efforts are led by 15 advocates in the academia, 17 traditional rulers, 21 women leaders, 25 policy makers and 26 celebrities,” he said.
Ilona described bio-fortification as a natural process different from food fortification.
“Their concepts are similar, but their applications differ. In food fortification you introduce new essential nutrients into foods, but in bio-fortification, the plant produces its nutrient directly and naturally,” he said.
NAN reports that Harvestplus improves nutrition and public health by developing and promoting bio-fortified food crops that are rich in vitamins and minerals.
It provides global leadership on bio-fortification evidence and technology; the staple crops are naturally bio-fortified and not genetically modified.
Weather and climate-related disasters cost the U.S. a record $306 billion in 2017, the third-warmest year on record, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said on Monday, January 9, 2018.
Dark clouds over the Miami skyline before the arrival of Hurricane Irma
The report from the federal agency underscores the economic risks of climate change, even as President Donald Trump’s administration casts doubts on the causes of it and has started withdrawing the U.S. from a global pact to combat it.
NOAA said western wildfires and hurricanes Harvey, Maria, and Irma contributed to making 2017 the costliest year on record.
The previous record was $215 billion in 2005, when hurricanes Katrina, Wilma, and Rita slammed the U.S. Gulf Coast.
Average annual temperatures for the contiguous U.S. were 54.6 degrees Fahrenheit (12.6 degrees Celsius), 2.6 degrees Fahrenheit above the 20th century average and the third warmest since record keeping began in 1895, following 2012 and 2016, the agency said.
Scientists have long concluded that carbon dioxide and other emissions from fossil fuels and industry are driving climate change, leading to floods, droughts, and more frequent powerful storms.
Trump’s administration has promised to boost U.S. oil, gas and coal production.
A women-only, extra-wide parking spaces appears to have sparked debate on sexism on social media in China.
A women-only parking slot in China
The parking spots at the Jiande and Tonglu highway service areas in east China’s Zhejiang Province are 1.5 times the size of normal spaces, with the color and icon indicating “women only.”
“It’s significantly larger, and I find it a very considerate design,” said Yang Xin, a female driver who recently got her driver’s license.
Weibo, China’s top microblogging site, has been awash in debate over women’s parking spaces, with many contending that the spots perpetuate the stereotype that women are bad drivers.
“This is utterly sexism. Parking depends on driving skills, not gender,” said Weibo user “youyouzizi.”
Yet many female netizens were on board with the spots, saying they just showed concern for those in need, and calling them an example of gender discrimination was an overreaction.
According to a survey on Weibo, 63.7 percent of 1,700 respondents said it was a good idea to designate female-only parking spaces.
Fang Hongying, manager of Jiande highway service area, said that the women’s only parking spots were launched in October 2017, and that driving skills were only part of the reason behind them.
“The women’s parking spaces are closer to exits and monitoring systems, which is more convenient for female drivers to take a break or go shopping in the main building, and much safer, especially at night,” she said.
“If it could be called a parking space for new drivers, the discrimination label could be shrugged off,” said Chen Jianguo, associate professor of sociology at North China Electric Power University.
A number of priority seats, corridors and subway carriages for women have appeared in public venues in Chinese cities in recent years.
Women’s security check channels have been opened at airports in cities like Beijing, Shenzhen, Wuhan and Guangzhou, as security staff explain that the special lane can improve efficiency and protect the privacy of female passengers.
Two Chinese-produced vaccines, a Bivalent Oral Poliomyelitis Vaccine (BOPV) and a Hepatitis “A” Vaccine (HAV), have received prequalification by the WHO.
Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director General of the World Health Organisation (WHO). Photo credit: FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP/Getty Images
The move indicates that the WHO has given the vaccines its stamp of approval for the safety and efficacy, and UN procuring agencies may now source them.
Mr Fabio Scano, an officer in the WHO Representative Office in China, said: “Prequalification of BOPV is very good news for the Global Polio Eradication Initiative.
“Following the switch from trivalent OPV to BOPV in 2016, most countries are going to cure polio with the combination of inactivated polio vaccine and BOPV and China will be a sufficient supplier of this essential vaccine.”
The country now has four vaccines prequalified by the WHO.
“We are very pleased to see China’s innovation and production capacity bring lifesaving vaccines to the world through the WHO prequalification program,” said Scano.
An ecologist, Mr Richard Inyamkume, says those burning bushes are retarding the nation’s agricultural production.
Bush burning
Inyamkume, who is the Senior Programme Officer, Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation Initiative (CCMAI), an NGO, said this on Tuesday, January 9, 2017 in an interview with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja.
“Those who set bushes on fire around the country should know that they are deeply causing serious harm to agriculture and by extension, our national economy.
“People should be informed that whenever bushes are set ablaze, both physical and chemical properties of the soil are destroyed, particularly if the fire is intense.
“It is worthy to note that essential soil nutrients such as phosphorus, nitrogen, sulphur and others are destroyed as a result of the intense heat from the fire,’’ he said.
The ecologist said that the nutrients were supposed to make the soil fertile to support plant growth and enhance crop yields.
Inyamkume underscored the need for the citizens to collectively protect the environment so as to promote the overall well-being of the country.
“When bushes are set ablaze, soil moisture is seriously affected.
“It also further exposes the soil to erosion; so, when rains start, erosion becomes a major threat and concern to all of us.
“This is so because the soil becomes less stable whenever it is exposed to the negative impact of bush burning,’’ he said.
