FUTURE DEVELOPMENT: The world needs better convening that fosters collective action

Rasmus Heltberg and Anna Aghumian

COVID-19 has exposed and accelerated many trends of globalization. Development actors find themselves up against a host of risks and challenges that no organization can resolve on their own.

Addressing the health and economic fallout from the pandemic, vaccine development, climate change, financial contagion, infectious diseases, forest and biodiversity loss, overfishing, antimicrobial resistance, governance of artificial intelligence, and many other risks and challenges call for effective collaboration across national and organizational boundaries.

International development organizations need to collaborate and act collectively to develop effective solutions. Convening, when successful, achieves such collective action.

Convening is the art and science of fostering collective action. We define convening as “bringing together relevant actors to act collectively to address common challenges” (Figure 1).

Source: World Bank. 2020.

Development leadership requires strong convening capabilities. Because of mandate and capacities, some organizations are more obvious conveners on certain topics. These organizations stand to gain in reputation and stature as leaders of development. The G-20 Eminent Persons Group recognized the World Bank’s convening role when it suggested the World Bank play a coordinating and facilitating role among multilateral development banks on global public goods, and help make the multilateral development banks work more as a “system” with harmonized practices and procedures.

While many organizations can organize events and conferences, fewer can do so in a way that leads to change. To convene successfully requires advanced organizational capabilities and deliberate efforts.

Much convening fails. The world would be a better place if collective action were easy. International organizations routinely organize events to discuss important social, environmental, or public health problems. Too many events, however, have loosely defined goals and accomplish little besides meeting fatigue and wasted time and travel costs.

In a recent evaluation, we found that the World Bank often makes strong and relevant convening contributions. We reviewed many examples of effective World Bank convening efforts, including on malnutrition, river blindness, financial inclusion, open data, poverty measurement and development microdata, and standards for banks and private sector investors.

The World Bank has expanded its convening efforts as the development agenda grew larger and more demanding, and in response to high demand. High demand for the World Bank’s convening was a consistent theme across the hundreds of interviews we conducted with leaders from governments, the private sector, multilaterals, and civil society.

For example, all the nine Financial Intermediary Funds (FIFs) the World Bank has established since 2013 originated in multilateral fora such as G-7/G-8, G-20, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the World Economic Forum, and the United Nations General Assembly. External partners typically ask the World Bank to host FIFs to benefit from its convening power and to use its systems and support services, thereby forgoing the alternative of creating new organizations from scratch. The World Bank influences FIFs during the design and setup stages—leading on building consensus among the founding partners, mobilizing financing, establishing the fund, and so on. Once FIFs are established, the governing bodies of the FIF-financed partnerships assume control. The World Bank is a voting member in only 6 of 24 FIF governing bodies, giving it little influence over the strategic direction of most FIFs.

Looking across successful and less successful initiatives, we found that the World Bank tends to be more effective when the initiative has potential to add significant value in addressing an important problem, crisis, or urgent need; there is strong demand for the World Bank’s engagement; issues align with core goals and mandates; it has adequate resources, established expertise and experience, and data and knowledge work that can inform and persuade; it engages with clear objectives; senior champions are engaged; it embeds the topic in select country programs; and it sustains efforts over time.

The World Bank is frequently strong in these factors but not always. Where it did not achieve success, this was often because it was spread too thin. This is not surprising: Staff and managerial resources are finite, and country programs can absorb only so many global priorities at a time.

New issues and new demands arise often, and there is a large pool of prior commitments. Some examples from recent years include new engagements and priorities on debt relief, debt transparency, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), disruptive technology, Mobilizing Finance for Development, financial inclusion, disability, forced displacement, ocean plastics, female entrepreneurship, road safety, and gender-based violence. In fact, it is hard to identify any single area of development in which the World Bank does not participate.

The multiplication of agendas strains internal capacity. The World Bank satisfies requests to convene on hundreds of relevant and ambitious initiatives but does not always adequately resource these initiatives or follow up on major convening events with action. In our interviews, leaders from some partner organizations expressed frustration with what they perceive at the World Bank’s drifting priorities because new priorities sometimes supersede ongoing initiatives in which these external partners have already invested. Yet, paradoxically, strong demand from partners for the World Bank’s engagements—backed up by trust funds which finance 64 percent of all global engagement budgets—is often why the World Bank finds it hard to be selective.

Therefore, the World Bank has helped launch many new initiatives. But to achieve impact at a scale commensurate with the problem, the World Bank needs to focus. The World Bank could be a more powerful agent for global change by engaging in stronger and more ambitious convening efforts on fewer priority issues and sustaining its engagements long enough to see results. Sustained engagement over many years is usually a necessary though insufficient condition to generate transformative results. Long-lived flagship programs build staff expertise and external networks and reputation over time.

Some parts of the World Bank use explicit criteria to decide on the entry, role, types of contributions, funding, and exit of major global convening efforts. Criteria may include relevance to corporate priorities, links to the organization’s operational work, whether the proposed role leverages the organization’s comparative strengths, and whether the convening effort is likely to lead to a clear public good or global collective action.

COVID-19 could be a game changer. It is the single largest development disaster in our lifetime. Amid the disruption and crises brought on by the pandemic, business as usual is clearly not effective. People grasp that we need to focus our minds on finding solutions to the most pressing development challenges, and that only by joining forces can we hope to be successful.

For example, the World Bank’s convening through analytics, financing, and policy dialogues helped place climate change at the center of the international development agenda. This was made possible by a long-term focus on climate change backed up by consistent leadership, sustained prioritization, internal incentives, resources equal to the challenge, and dedicated operational work at the country level.

The world needs better convening, not more convening. It is not the number of events that count. Rather, what counts is effectiveness in fostering collective action to deliver the shared understanding, solutions, and implementation needed to address key social, economic, and environmental issues.

The World Bank can strengthen its convening effectiveness by more deliberately scoping the initiatives it engages in, as well as its role and contributions; creating monitoring and management systems to make convening initiatives more results-oriented; and ensuring more consistent links between its global work and its country programs.

40 percent of Amazon could now exist as rainforest or savanna-like ecosystems

Stockholm Resilience Centre

A larger part of the Amazon rainforest is at risk of crossing a tipping point where it could become a savanna-type ecosystem than previously thought, according to new research. The research, based on computer models and data analysis, is published in the journal Nature Communications.

National Geographic Society

Rainforests are very sensitive to changes that affect rainfall for extended periods. If rainfall drops below a certain threshold, areas may shift into a savanna state.

"In around 40 percent of the Amazon, the rainfall is now at a level where the forest could exist in either state -- rainforest or savanna, according to our findings," says lead author Arie Staal, formerly a postdoctoral researcher at the Stockholm Resilience Centre and the Copernicus Institute of Utrecht University.

The conclusions are concerning because parts of the Amazon region are currently receiving less rain than previously and this trend is expected to worsen as the region warms due to rising greenhouse gas emissions.

Staal and colleagues focused on the stability of tropical rainforests in the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania. With their approach they were able to explore how rainforests respond to changing rainfall.

"By using the latest available atmospheric data and teleconnection models, we were able to simulate the downwind effects of disappearance of forests for all tropical forests. By integrating these analyses over the entire tropics, the picture of the systematic stability of tropical forests emerged," says Obbe Tuinenburg, former assistant professor at the Copernicus Institute of Utrecht University and visiting scientist at the Stockholm Resilience Centre.

The team explored the resilience of tropical rainforests by looking at two questions: what if all the forests in the tropics disappeared, where would they grow back? And its inverse: what happens if rainforests covered the entire tropical region of Earth?

Such extreme scenarios could inform scientists about the resilience and stability of real tropical forests. They can also help us understand how forests will respond to the changing rainfall patterns as greenhouse gases in the atmosphere rise.

The researchers ran the simulations starting with no forests in the tropics across Africa, the Americas, Asia and Australia. They watched forests emerge over time in the models. This allowed them to explore the minimum forest cover for all regions.

Staal said, "The dynamics of tropical forests is interesting. As forests grow and spread across a region this affects rainfall -- forests create their own rain because leaves give off water vapour and this falls as rain further downwind. Rainfall means fewer fires leading to even more forests. Our simulations capture this dynamic."

The team ran the models a second time, this time in a world where rainforests entirely covered the tropical regions of Earth. This is an unstable scenario because in many places there is not enough rainfall to sustain a rainforest. In many places the forests shrank back due to lack of moisture.

Staal says, "As forests shrink, we get less rainfall downwind and this causes drying leading to more fire and forest loss: a vicious cycle."

Finally the researchers explored what happens if emissions keep rising this century along a very high-emissions scenario used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Overall, the researchers found that as emissions grow, more parts of the Amazon lose their natural resilience, become unstable and more likely to dry out and switch to become a savanna-type ecosystem. They note that even the most resilient part of the rainforest shrinks in area. In other words, more of the rainforest is prone to crossing a tipping point as emissions of greenhouse gases reach very high levels.

"If we removed all the trees in the Amazon in a high-emissions scenario a much smaller area would grow back than would be the case in the current climate," says co-author Lan Wang-Erlandsson of the Stockholm Resilience Centre.

The researchers conclude that the smallest area that can sustain a rainforest in the Amazon contracts a substantial 66% in the high-emissions scenario.

In the Congo basin the team found that the forest remains at risk of changing state everywhere and will not grow back once gone, but that under a high emissions scenario part of the forest becomes less prone to crossing a tipping point. But Wang-Erlandsson adds 'This area where natural forest regrowth is possible remains relatively small."

"We understand now that rainforests on all continents are very sensitive to global change and can rapidly lose their ability to adapt," says Ingo Fetzer of the Stockholm Resilience Centre. "Once gone, their recovery will take many decades to return to their original state. And given that rainforests host the majority of all global species, all this will be forever lost."

The academics found that the minimal and maximal extents of the rainforests of Indonesia and Malaysia are relatively stable because their rainfall is more dependent on the ocean around them than on rainfall generated as a result of forest cover.

The study only explored the impacts of climate change on tropical forests. It did not assess the additional stress of deforestation in the tropics due to agricultural expansion and logging.

800 million children still exposed to lead

Norwegian University of Science and Technology

As many as 800 million children have dangerously high lead values in their blood. The neurotoxin can cause permanent brain damage.

The huge international numbers come from a new report from Pure Earth and UNICEF. Pure Earth works to solve pollution problems that can be harmful to humans.

"A child's earliest years of life are characterized by rapid growth and brain development. This makes children particularly vulnerable to harmful substances in the environment," says Kam Sripada, a postdoc at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) who has contributed to the report.

Sripada collaborates with international organizations to research social health inequalities, especially among children.

"Exposure to lead during pregnancy and early in life can lead to a child never reaching his or her potential," she says.

Sripada works at NTNU's Center for Global Health Inequalities Research (CHAIN) in collaboration with the Norwegian Institute of Public Health and UNICEF.

Lead is an element, but also a powerful neurotoxin that can cause damage at a level as low as five micrograms of lead per decilitre of blood. Lead poisoning can be acute, and can cause everything from stomach pain to brain damage, coma and death.

But lead poisoning can also come on slowly, because it accumulates in the body over a long period of time. The most common symptom is lethargy due to anaemia. High lead levels can attack blood and bone marrow, the nervous system and the kidneys.

Lead poisoning can also contribute to a lower IQ and behavioural problems that can last a lifetime.

"Lead is a health threat to children in every single country in the world. However, children in low- or middle-income countries are the most vulnerable, especially in South Asia and among marginalized groups in general. There are major social differences when it comes to lead exposure and other environmental toxins that we need to address," says Sripada.

A lot of the lead comes from lead-acid batteries that are not responsibly recycled. The number of motor vehicles has tripled in low- and middle-income countries in the last 20 years, which in turn has led to a sharp increase in lead-containing batteries. About half of the batteries are not properly recycled or recovered.

Water pipes, industry, paint and a number of household products such as canned foods, contaminated spices, make-up and toys also contribute. Lead that was previously used in gasoline is still found in the soil to this day.

Indirectly, countries can suffer enormous income losses as the children grow up with these sources of lead exposure. As adults, they often are not able to contribute optimally to the societal economy.

"This is a report with global significance," says NTNU Professor Terje Andreas Eikemo, who heads CHAIN.

Both the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States believe that the situation requires international measures, such as more information and strengthening of the health care system in several countries.

"This report shines the spotlight on lead as an important global environmental and health problem that is especially tied to children's health and development," says Heidi Aase, who heads the NeuroTox study at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health.

The NeuroTox study examines relationships between environmental toxins in the mother's womb, including lead, and various measures of brain development. ADHD, autism and cognitive functions are considered in a large sample of Norwegian children. Environmental toxins found in the mother's body during pregnancy can affect the baby's development.

CHAIN will use the NeuroTox study to study relationships between socio-economic factors, such as income, education and living conditions, and levels of lead and other environmental toxins in pregnant women and their children.

"The UNICEF report and other studies show that poverty is associated with higher lead levels and an increased risk of harmful effects on health. We'll investigate whether this picture applies to pregnant women and children in Norway as well," says Aase.

The research results from NeuroTox and CHAIN can also be used in different ways internationally, such as to prevent social inequality in health including the harmful effects of environmental toxins.

The average blood levels of lead in children from low- and middle-income countries in the UNICEF report are far higher than in Norwegian children. Nevertheless, the report has calculated that many Norwegian children may have lead levels above the limit that we know has harmful effects on brain development.

"This is concerning," says NeuroTox researcher Gro Dehli Villanger.

Studies show that damage to the brain and nervous system can occur at far lower lead levels than the limit used in the report.

"As of today, no value limit has been established that is considered safe and therefore the number of children affected could be much higher both in Norway and in other countries," says Villanger.

THE GREEN ROOM (Episode 5): Clean Coal and Sustainable Development: Harnessing Clean Coal Technology to Mitigate Harmful Emission

GREEN ROOM: LIVE WEBINAR TRANSCRIPT

Tune in to the Green Room with your questions as we host Professor Byron E. Price. He currently works at Medgar Evers College of the City University of New Y...

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Summary of the Discussion

The discussion kicked off with a brief introduction of our distinguished speaker, Professor Price by our amiable moderator Dr. Jason McSparren.

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LISTEN TO PODCAST

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Professor Byron Price works at Medgar Evers College of the City University of New York as a Professor of public policy and administration. He was the Director of the Barbara Jordan Institute of Policy Research. Prof. Price has visited over 40 countries.

ABOUT THE MODERATOR

Dr. Jason J. McSparren is an educator, researcher, and administrator with a PhD. in Global Governance and Human Security from Massachusetts Boston.He is also a Pre-Doctoral Fellow (2017-18) for the West African Research Association (WARA).

POWER POINT PRESENTATION

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Q&A

Dr. McSparren: Public Policy and Administration program. Dr. Price focuses Research on Social Public Policy. His research interest and some of the themes that he's covered, he is an extensive empirical work regarding the United States justice system with an important contributions to Public Policy issues such as prison privatization, Social justice issues school-to-prison pipelines, additionally his work covers a governance and International Development as well. And that's one of the topics that we're going to be talking about here today. Dr. Price is also known for his student mentorship and also as a philanthropist recently, Dr. Price led a group of 14 Suny College of the City University of New York students to a trip to South Africa where they covered six cities as part of a global public administrations course. Professor Price, called that the study the study abroad trip for the office of International Education and not only did he lead the students, but he also spearheaded a fundraising and donate a portion of his own salary raising more than $12,000 for the students to join him on this fantastic experience trip abroad.

Today, Dr. Price is here to talk with us about Clean Coal Technology in a presentation he titles Clean Coal and Sustainable Development: Harnessing Clean Coal technology to mitigate harmful emissions. As you all know coals are hydrocarbon fuel therefore, emit greenhouse gases as a result there have been efforts to create Clean Coal Technologies through a number of different processes. Coal is widely used around the world, especially in terms of the developing world. It is going to take time to phase out coal-fired electric plants and there a different research projects out there looking for ways Carbon Dioxide Removal which is termed CDR strategies in some of these strategies are called ‘Carbon Capture and Storage’ very often CCS strategies and these are emerging and that's we're going to hear a little bit about today. Some of these CDR methods are direct air caption enhanced weathering in carbon sinks where the carbon is extracted from the air and then relocated to the ground. Dr. Price is here to tell us about a process that removes the toxins from coal, toxins such as Arsenic and sulfur and Mercury so that the coal Burns cleaner and is an interim strategy in the pursuit of negative greenhouse gas emissions, which is one of the sustainable development goals and goals of countries around the world. So ladies and gentlemen in the audience. Can we please warmly welcome Dr. Byron Price to the green room today? Dr. Price hello.

Prof. Price: Hello Dr. MacSparren. Thanks for having me and thanks for the kind introduction and I have to correct just real quick. I raise $20,000 on behalf of the students to South Africa.

Dr. McSparren: That's wonderful. Okay, it's okay.

Prof. Price: Thanks for this great opportunity.

Dr. McSparren: Certainly.

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Favourite Quote

“Hydrogen provides a huge opportunity to reach deep down in terms of some of the most carbon intensive Industries”

— Professor Byron Price

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Top Comments

Enjoyed the Program. Great job Dr. Byron Price!- J.D Rolle

"Glad to be here”-Emmanuel Majidadi

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School is the best place to teach biodiversity: Expert

Mariecar Jara-Puyod

The inter-connectivity of life must be taught at a young age so that biodiversity – the variety of flora and fauna – will flourish leading to sustainability and sustainable development, said an educationist in Dubai.

The learning is going to be achieved through a “re-framing” in such a way that young minds are not only going to understand but more importantly inculcate within them that they are intrinsic to the ecosystem through which life at least thrives, Brett Girven further said on Sunday.

The Arbor School (Dubai) principal explained eco-literacy, adding: “An eco-literate student (knows and understands) that all living things in an ecosystem are interconnected through a network of relationships that depend on the web of life to be sustainable.”

Saying “the school is the best place to teach biodiversity and sustainability, he cited how the school administration is approaching eco-literacy for their pupils and students between the ages of three and 18. For instance, in the school pond, toddler pupils are introduced to the reality that the fish, algae and turtles can live together in a common habitat: “We do not want us to be a zoo nor a botanical garden. But, we do have a pond where our youngest (pupil) at three years old will see that in there are fish, algae and turtles.”

Girven was among the guest speakers, alongside Al Ain Zoo-Environment, Health & Safety Department director Amna Al Otaiba, Al Ain Zoo-Conservation Programmes Unit head Hessa Alqahtani, and Dubai Desert Conservation Reserve-Conservation manager Greg Simkins, at the Emirates Environment Group (EEG)-organised “The UAE: A Biodiversity Haven.”

The panel discussion was held in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs) 13 to 15.

EEG chairperson Habiba Al Mar’ashi stated in her welcome address before the virtual audience: “Biodiversity is in crisis. There is an irreversible decline of genetic and species diversity and disintegration of ecosystems at global, regional, and local scales. According to an article from the World Economic Forum (WEF), anthropogenic activities have led to the loss of 83 per cent of all wild mammals and half of plants. Scientists are concerned that human activities are putting increased pressure and affecting biodiversity immensely.”

Mar’ashi mentioned the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) of which the EEG is an accredited non-government organisation: “UNEP states that we are losing species at 1,000 times greater than at any time in recorded human history and one million face extinction, we risk facing a sixth mass extinction in Earth history.”

Hence, the need for discussions to help raise awareness on the importance of biodiversity and the risks that face humanity.

UNSDG 13 is taking action against climate change. UNSDG 14 is “life under the sea” or the fast-depleting marine life because of overexploitation, climate change and environmental degradation, through which three billion people heavily rely on. UNSDG15 is “life on land” and protecting everything therein to at least slow down biodiversity loss.

Al Ain Zoo’s Al Otaiba and Alqahtani reported on the progress their team is attaining since the park was established in 1968 by UAE Father, the late Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan, as a pioneer and leader in the conservation of animal and plant life not only in the UAE and the region but across the globe.

Al Otaiba said: “COVID-19 has cleared the ozone. We hope that for years, we will benefit from this. Al Ain Zoo is home to local plants. We are in a desert environment wherein the most critical is water. The availability of water is a challenge. We are treating water to preserve plants.”

Alqahtani spoke on how the park management and personnel have been managing its ppp “collection of animals” which comprise 30 per cent of global endangered species not only across the seven emirates but throughout the Arabian Peninsula and the African Sahara-Sahel Ecosystem. They are guided by standards set forth by international bodies on zoos and wildlife preservation.

The park plays host to migratory birds such as the Pale Crag Martin (of the swallow family originally from Northern Africa, Southwestern Asia, and Pakistan) and the Crested Honey Buzzard (a relative of the eagle).

Food and climate change; the impact

The food production set-up has evolved in recent decades, increasing the availability of food. Experts say this can easily be underestimated by the enormous impact that food production has created to support human societies trying to reach today’s nutritional needs, as we deal with the world’s rapidly growing population.

However, they note that feeding the population generates environmental costs, such as loss of biodiversity, extensive land use, use of large amounts of freshwater, pollution of the air, waste and pollution by nitrogen and phosphorus in the soil.

Dr Christophe Ngendahayo, NCDs and climate health trainer with the World Organization of family doctors (WONCA), says climate change refers to the increase in average rates of temperatures over an extended period of time.

He says this is due to emitted air pollutants, also called greenhouse gases.

Farming methods and other human activities, he says, contribute to changing the earth’s climate, leading to increasing greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere.

“Conversely, the changing climate, in return, presses excessive heat to plants and hampers crop production,” he says.

He further explains that climate extreme events and rise in temperature threatens food production.

Projected increases in temperatures, changes in precipitation patterns, changes in extreme weather events and reductions in water availability, may all result in reduced agricultural productivity, causing drought, malnutrition, and migration, Ngendahayo says.

Meanwhile, increasing evidence indicates that the rise in concentrations of carbon dioxide have adverse effects on the composition of the main cereal crops such as rice and wheat, including reduced protein levels, a variety of B complex micronutrients, and vitamins.

“Climate and other environmental factors change also reduce the overall yield of vegetables and legumes, which has important implications for the prevention of non-communicable diseases,” he says.

Effects on health

Experts say the global pollution, climate change, biodiversity loss, altered biogeochemical cycles, changes in land use and resource scarcity are decreasing the quality of the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the food we eat; exposing us to new diseases.

Ngendahayo says it also diminishes our access to freshwater and other resources; and increases incidence of natural disasters.

All of these results, he says, have negative consequences for our nutrition, mental health, and susceptibility to injury and illness today.

For instance, he says, air pollution kills more than malaria, tuberculosis and AIDS.

He points out that three great pandemics plague the modern world; obesity, malnutrition, and climate change due to their effects on human health and natural systems on which human beings depend.

Climate change and the global rise in temperature will result in an increased incidence of infectious diseases; for example, more floods will result in more waterborne diseases and increased temperature will favour the transmission of mosquito-borne pathogens.

The same substances in the atmosphere that are responsible for air pollution are also responsible for climate change. And climate change will have a negative impact on air pollution; for example, by increasing incidences of forest fires which also affect our health.

Way forward

Ngendahayo says public health, agriculture professionals, economists and other experts have great capacity to improve human nutrition as well as control of climate-sensitive infectious diseases.

He says that it is also ideal to prepare your own practice for possible disasters by assessing and planning for threats such as extreme heat, flooding, or storms.

In addition to this, the medic says use forms of transport that involve physical activity, such as cycling and walking, have the dual benefit of reducing emissions and protecting against multiple diseases.

Besides, switching to renewable energy sources and away from fossil fuels, such as coal, could greatly reduce the health and environmental impacts of fossil fuel-related air pollution.

Ngendahayo says reducing meat consumption, especially beef, and consuming fish, chicken, egg, and dairy products in moderation can help minimise livestock and conserve the environment. 

Avoid buying food with excess packaging, and when it is necessary to use packaging, opt for a reusable bag.

“Avoid burning agricultural wastes, avoid food wasting and practice full use of food to offset the impact of climate change on scarcity of food,” he adds.

Ngendahayo says it’s ideal to start planting vegetable gardens at home or in the neighbourhood, and that planting brings people closer to food; increases access to food and keeps the environment green.

“Be active in advocating for effective evidence-based health policies and engaging with media and stakeholders to raise awareness of planetary health,” he urges.

Northern Hemisphere summer was hottest on record, scientists say

 Denise Chow

The Northern Hemisphere just sweltered through its hottest summer on record, according to data released Monday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The period from June through August was 2.11 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than average in the Northern Hemisphere, while globally, this August ranked as the second-hottest since record keeping began in 1880.

The worrying milestones come as historic wildfires and extreme weather events in the U.S. have sharpened focus on global warming and the catastrophic impacts of climate change.

August was particularly steamy for the planet. Average global land and ocean surface temperatures last month surpassed the 20th-century average of 60.1 degrees by 1.69 degrees. This makes it the second-warmest August on record, trailing only August 2016, according to scientists at NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information.

Some regions, however, felt the August heat more acutely. Last month ranked as the hottest August on record in North America, while it was the third hottest in Europe and the fourth hottest for South America and Oceania.

One-third of the U.S. faced at least a moderate level of drought conditions in August, and California suffered through a record-setting heat wave last month, after temperatures in Death Valley hit a sizzling 130 degrees.

Selected significant climate anomalies and events in August 2020 @NOAA

BREAKING: @NOAA reports that the #NorthernHemisphere just had its hottest summer on record and #August 2020 ended as 2nd hottest for the globe. Get more: https://t.co/aT3LTrMn7G #StateoftheClimate #climate pic.twitter.com/WKHSiOYbba

— NOAA Satellites - Public Affairs (@NOAASatellitePA) September 14, 2020

Southeastern China, parts of northern Russia and western Australia also experienced above-average temperatures last month, NOAA scientists wrote in their latest assessment.

The new figures suggest that the planet is continuing to warm at an accelerated pace. Globally, the five warmest Augusts have all occurred since 2015, and the 10 warmest Augusts on record have occurred since 1998, according to NOAA.

The above-average temperatures also shrank Arctic sea ice to its third-lowest level for August, agency scientists said. Satellite observations revealed that Arctic sea ice last month covered an average of 1.96 million square miles, which was more than 29 percent below average.

Humans wiping out wildlife at an 'unprecedented' rate, WWF report finds

Luke Denne

Agriculture is one of the main causes of global biodiversity and habitat loss, according to a new WWF report.

Amanda Perobelli / Reuters file

Humans are wiping out wildlife at a “unprecedented” rate with wildlife populations down by 68 percent on average since 1970, according to a new World Wildlife Fund report published on Thursday.

Unsustainable agriculture and deforestation are two of the main drivers, and urgent action is required to reverse the trend, the Living Planet Report 2020 said.

“Our planet is flashing red warning signs,” said Marco Lambertini, Director General of WWF International, an NGO that focuses on preserving nature.

“From the fish in our oceans and rivers to bees which play a crucial role in our agricultural production, the decline of wildlife affects directly nutrition, food security and the livelihoods of billions of people.”

The findings underline the fact that the planet faces twin crises in biodiversity and the climate and the two are intrinsically linked, according to the report. A warming climate puts up to a fifth of all species at risk of extinction in the next century with those in the biodiverse tropics most at risk.

The seriousness of the climate crisis was further underlined Wednesday as joint U.S. and U.K. studies, published in the Cryosphere Journal, identified how Antarctica’s massive Thwaites Glacier could be at risk from rapid melting after larger than expected warm ocean cavities — that could erode it from underneath — were identified.

The melting of Antarctica's Thwaites Glacier has increased rapidly over the last 30 years and now accounts for 4 percent of the rise in global sea levels. James Yungel/NASA file

The glacier has been dubbed the “doomsday glacier” due to its enormous size — as large as the state of Florida — and its ability to raise sea levels by over 25 inches alone if it were to suffer rapid collapse.

Historically low sea ice levels allowed the research teams to map the sea bed — from a ship and an airplane — leading them to identify the warm water channels reaching the underside of the glacier.

They found that the ocean is both deeper, and the warm water channels wider, than previously thought.

“For the first time we have a clear view of the pathways along which warm water can reach the underside of the glacier, causing it to melt and contribute to global sea-level rise,” said lead author Dr Kelly Hogan from the British Antarctic Survey.

Ice loss from Thwaites has increased rapidly in the last 30 years and now accounts for 4 percent of the rise in global sea levels.

Why globalization will survive the coronavirus crisis

Why globalization will survive the coronavirus crisis, according to economist Jeffrey Sachs

Economist and bestselling author Jeffrey Sachs says a geopolitical cold war with China would be a “dreadful mistake.” He explains how globalization will persist as societies and workplaces move online, and urges policymakers to come together to tackle issues like climate change. Sachs says the U.S. economy won’t have a “v-shaped” recovery because of the country’s failure to contain the pandemic.

MON, AUG 10 20208:40 AM EDT

Letter from economists: to rebuild our world, we must end the carbon economy

Jeffrey Sachs, Joseph Stiglitz, Mariana Mazzucato, Clair Brown, Indivar Dutta-Gupta, Robert Reich, Gabriel Zucman and others

The carbon economy amplifies racial, social and economic inequities, creating a system that is fundamentally incompatible with a stable future

‘If we fail to act now, the present moment may merely be a preview of what is to come.’ Photograph: Bebeto Matthews/AP

From deep-rooted racism to the Covid-19 pandemic, from extreme inequality to ecological collapse, our world is facing dire and deeply interconnected emergencies. But as much as the present moment painfully underscores the weaknesses of our economic system, it also gives us the rare opportunity to reimagine it. As we seek to rebuild our world, we can and must end the carbon economy.

Even as climate breakdown looms around the corner, the pressure to return to the old carbon-based economy is real – and all the more dangerous, given the fundamental instability of an economy rooted in injustice. Sources of large-scale human suffering, such as crop failures, water shortages, rising tides, wildfires, severe weather, forced migration and pandemics, go hand-in-hand with a warming world. For example, exposure to airborne pollution heightens the risk of complications from diseases like Covid-19, and deforestation and rising temperatures make the emergence of future infectious diseases more likely. When these consequences manifest, it is no accident that they are disproportionately felt by communities of color, low-income communities, the most vulnerable nations and peoples, and other historically marginalized groups.

It is Black people in America, for instance, who bear some of the highest rates of exposure to polluted air. The carbon economy amplifies and begets racial, social and economic inequities, creating a system that is fundamentally incompatible with a stable future. If we fail to act now, the present moment may merely be a preview of what is to come, as we are forced into ever-more-painful situations and tradeoffs. It is naive, moreover, to imagine that we can simply nudge the fossil fuel industry – an industry that has lied about climate change for decades, actively opposed serious climate solutions and continues to plan for a fossil fuel-dependent future – into good behavior.

Instead, we should recognize that the present moment creates an opportunity to bring about a better future for ourselves and our children. By taking on the carbon economy, we can begin charting a pathway towards economic recovery while building a fairer, more sustainable world in the process.

Governments must actively phase out the fossil fuel industry. Bailouts and subsidies to big oil, gas and coal companies only further delay the essential energy transition, distorting markets while locking us into a future we cannot afford. Instead, a coordinated phaseout of exploration for and extraction of carbon resources allows governments to redeploy funds towards green technology, infrastructure, social programs and good jobs, spurring an economic transition that benefits people and the planet.

Institutions of financial power must end their fossil fuel investments and funding. When our largest banks, most influential investors and most prestigious universities place bets on the success of the fossil fuel industry, they provide it with the economic and social capital necessary to maintain the dangerous status quo. Instead, these institutions should divest from fossil fuel companies and end financing of their continued operations while reinvesting those resources in a just and stable future.

People must build political power to advocate for a fairer economic system. If we attempt an economic rebuilding whose guiding principle is a return to “business as usual” we will simply substitute one crisis for another. Instead, we must recognize that when crises strike, the disaster amplifies along society’s fault lines, and that when we don’t prepare for disasters, the costs of inaction fall most heavily on the most vulnerable. A green recovery can and must uplift those who need it most, at home and around the world, creating a more resilient and regenerative society in the process.

By achieving a large-scale economic transformation that dismantles the carbon economy and brings about a greener world, we have an opportunity to begin the process of economic recovery while working to undo the injustices at the heart of our modern system. As the undersigned experts in economics, we call on our policymakers to recognize the role that meaningful climate action has to play in rebuilding our world – to recognize that a healthy economy and society require a healthy planet.

This letter has been signed by more than 100 economists. See the full list of signatories here

Record melt: Greenland lost 586 billion tons of ice in 2019

Greenland lost a record amount of ice during an extra warm 2019, with the melt massive enough to cover California in more than four feet (1.25 meters) of water, a new study said.

After two years when summer ice melt had been minimal, last summer shattered all records with 586 billion tons (532 billion metric tons) of ice melting, according to satellite measurements reported in a study Thursday. That's more than 140 trillion gallons (532 trillion liters) of water.

That’s far more than the yearly average loss of 259 billion tons (235 billion metric tons) since 2003 and easily surpasses the old record of 511 billion tons (464 billion metric tons) in 2012, said a study in Communications Earth & Environment. The study showed that in the 20th century, there were many years when Greenland gained ice.

“Not only is the Greenland ice sheet melting, but it’s melting at a faster and faster pace,” said study lead author Ingo Sasgen, a geoscientist at the Alfred Wegener Institute in Germany.

Last year’s Greenland melt added 0.06 inches (1.5 millimeters) to global sea level rise. That sounds like a tiny amount but “in our world it’s huge, that’s astounding,” said study co-author Alex Gardner, a NASA ice scientist. Add in more water from melting in other ice sheets and glaciers, along with an ocean that expands as it warms — and that translates into slowly rising sea levels, coastal flooding and other problems, he said.

While general ice melt records in Greenland go back to 1948, scientists since 2003 have had precise records on how much ice melts because NASA satellites measure the gravity of the ice sheets. That's the equivalent of putting the ice on a scale and weighing it as water flows off, Gardner said.

As massive as the melt was last year, the two years before were only on average about 108 billion tons (98 billion metric tons). That shows that there’s a second factor called Greenland blocking, that either super-charges that or dampens climate-related melting, Gardner said.

In the summer, there are generally two factors in Greenland's weather, Gardner said. Last year, Greenland blocking — a high pressure over Canada that changes the northern jet stream — caused warm southern air to come up from the United States and Canada and flow into Greenland, forcing more melting.

In 2017 and 2018 without Greenland blocking, cooler Arctic air flowed from open ocean into Greenland, making summer milder, he said.

This year, Greenland’s summer melt has been not as severe, closer to normal for recent times, said Ruth Mottram, an ice scientist at the Danish Meteorological Institute, who wasn’t part of Sasgen’s research.

Mottram and several other outside scientists said Sasgen's calculations make sense. In her own study this month in the International Journal of Climatology, she found similar results and also calculated that Greenland coastal regions have warmed on average 3 degrees (1.7 degrees Celsius) in the summer since 1991.

“The fact that 2019 set an all-time record is very concerning,” said New York University ice scientist David Holland, who wasn’t part of either study

A Continent on the Brink

Alistair Bunkall,

Defence and Security correspondent

There is nowhere in Africa where the waters are rising as fast as Saint-Louis.

The colourful city on Senegal's northern border with Mauritania was once celebrated as the Venice of Africa, but the sea that surrounds it is now closing in so fast that ten metres are lost to the incoming tide each year.

Along the crumbled seawall, houses teeter at impossible angles, completely uninhabitable.

They will fall into the sea any day and then the frontline will move inland another few metres.

The waves of the southern Atlantic are drowning the old French colonial capital and taking lives with them.

More than 100 million people live along the west African coast - four million of those have been displaced, forced to live in temporary camps away from the shoreline.

You can draw a viable line of extremism from coast to coast across the African continent and connect it to climate change.

"When droughts come and wipe out herds of cattle, that leaves people susceptible to be swayed to follow extremists who come into their communities and then pretend they can provide for them," Mohamed Chambas, the UN special representative for the Sahel, told Sky News.

"We know that is false, they cannot. They lead them to death and destruction. But this [climate change] is certainly one of the triggers, important factors to conflict in the Sahel."

Most of those countries in the Sahel region find themselves in the grip of vicious conflict as militants battle weak governments.

France has more than 5,000 troops fighting insurgents in Mali, a former colony.

They are backed up by a tiny British contingent that transport troops and equipment around in Chinook helicopters, but it's not enough.

The UN peacekeeping force in Mali is struggling to keep control. It is regularly attacked by militants and is often described as the UN's "most dangerous mission".

The death toll in the country is rising rapidly, more than 4,000 were killed in 2019.

A few hundred British soldiers were set to join the UN mission in Mali this summer, but the deployment has been delayed because of coronavirus.

They will deploy by the end of this year, all being well.

Few think it will be "peace-keeping" in the traditional sense – it could prove to be the riskiest British operation in many years.

Across the Sahel, there are small numbers of British, American and other European forces training West African militaries - but it is a slow process against an evolving enemy.

We witnessed a large multi-national exercise and saw how Nigerian, Cameroonian and Moroccan forces are learning counter-terrorism drills from their Western allies.

They are fighting an enemy that is moving freely across borders in spaces that few can still live in. 

It is a war against extremism and the elements, and the truth is, they're not winning it.

Warming Greenland ice sheet passes point of no return

Laura Arenschield

Even if the climate cools, study finds, glaciers will continue to shrink

Nearly 40 years of satellite data from Greenland shows that glaciers on the island have shrunk so much that even if global warming were to stop today, the ice sheet would continue shrinking.

"We've been looking at these remote sensing observations to study how ice discharge and accumulation have varied," said Michalea King, lead author of the study and a researcher at The Ohio State University's Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center. "And what we've found is that the ice that's discharging into the ocean is far surpassing the snow that's accumulating on the surface of the ice sheet."

King and other researchers analyzed monthly satellite data from more than 200 large glaciers draining into the ocean around Greenland. Their observations show how much ice breaks off into icebergs or melts from the glaciers into the ocean. They also show the amount of snowfall each year -- the way these glaciers get replenished.

The researchers found that, throughout the 1980s and 90s, snow gained through accumulation and ice melted or calved from glaciers were mostly in balance, keeping the ice sheet intact. Through those decades, the researchers found, the ice sheets generally lost about 450 gigatons (about 450 billion tons) of ice each year from flowing outlet glaciers, which was replaced with snowfall.

"We are measuring the pulse of the ice sheet -- how much ice glaciers drain at the edges of the ice sheet -- which increases in the summer. And what we see is that it was relatively steady until a big increase in ice discharging to the ocean during a short five- to six-year period," King said.

The researchers' analysis found that the baseline of that pulse -- the amount of ice being lost each year -- started increasing steadily around 2000, so that the glaciers were losing about 500 gigatons each year. Snowfall did not increase at the same time, and over the last decade, the rate of ice loss from glaciers has stayed about the same -- meaning the ice sheet has been losing ice more rapidly than it's being replenished.

"Glaciers have been sensitive to seasonal melt for as long as we've been able to observe it, with spikes in ice discharge in the summer," she said. "But starting in 2000, you start superimposing that seasonal melt on a higher baseline -- so you're going to get even more losses."

Before 2000, the ice sheet would have about the same chance to gain or lose mass each year. In the current climate, the ice sheet will gain mass in only one out of every 100 years.

King said that large glaciers across Greenland have retreated about 3 kilometers on average since 1985 -- "that's a lot of distance," she said. The glaciers have shrunk back enough that many of them are sitting in deeper water, meaning more ice is in contact with water. Warm ocean water melts glacier ice, and also makes it difficult for the glaciers to grow back to their previous positions.

That means that even if humans were somehow miraculously able to stop climate change in its tracks, ice lost from glaciers draining ice to the ocean would likely still exceed ice gained from snow accumulation, and the ice sheet would continue to shrink for some time.

"Glacier retreat has knocked the dynamics of the whole ice sheet into a constant state of loss," said Ian Howat, a co-author on the paper, professor of earth sciences and distinguished university scholar at Ohio State. "Even if the climate were to stay the same or even get a little colder, the ice sheet would still be losing mass."

Shrinking glaciers in Greenland are a problem for the entire planet. The ice that melts or breaks off from Greenland's ice sheets ends up in the Atlantic Ocean -- and, eventually, all of the world's oceans. Ice from Greenland is a leading contributor to sea level rise -- last year, enough ice melted or broke off from the Greenland ice sheet to cause the oceans to rise by 2.2 millimeters in just two months.

The new findings are bleak, but King said there are silver linings.

"It's always a positive thing to learn more about glacier environments, because we can only improve our predictions for how rapidly things will change in the future," she said. "And that can only help us with adaptation and mitigation strategies. The more we know, the better we can prepare."

THE GREEN ROOM (Episode 4): Niyi Osundare on "What the Earth Said"

GREEN ROOM: LIVE WEBINAR TRANSCRIPT

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Summary of the Discussion

There were peculiar beliefs trailing our African heritage that forbids certain human interference with nature. We were told stories of forbidden forests, trees that must not be cut down, animals exempted from poaching, and rivers esteemed as sacred. Our ancestors' farmlands would compulsorily be left fallow at some particular time of the year as tradition demands. Due to the dearth of scientific reasoning, we never asked why but followed these instructions to the letter. So far, so good, our adherence paid off as we barely recorded cataclysmic natural disasters.

For satisfactory answers and an in-depth analysis into this mysterious fact, find out more by downloading the audio, video or transcript of the webinar.

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LISTEN TO PODCAST

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ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Professor Niyi Osundare is a prolific poet, dramatist and literary critic. He gained degrees at the University of Ibadan (BA), the University of Leeds (MA) and York University, Canada (PhD, 1979)

ABOUT THE MODERATOR

Tosin Gbogi is an assistant professor of English at Marquette University, specializing in popular cultures, Africana literatures, and critical race and ethnic studies.

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Q & A

Tosin Gbogi: I think we will start the conversation now and I would like to open the conversation with a question on place and childhood and by this. I mean that you know you of course grew up in Ikere Ekiti, and we find this in your poetry. I remember that I traveled through that place. I think 2016 sometimes down 16, I was looking for the for the Rocks which one is Olosunta

Prof. Osundare: They saw you (laughs)

 Tosin Gbogi: very good one. In the eyes of the earth for example one finds references to Oke Ubo, Abusoro, to Oke Eniju to Oke to Ogbese Odo and to Oke Roku. We also see like just said I will hear Olosunta we see and hear Oranle and we hear Eshidale.  Now my question then is this how did the Ikere of your childhood or the Nigeria of your childhood shape the way we think about the earth and the writing that you do, they are eco- poetic activism.

Prof Osundare: I also say that the happiest years of my life where the years I was born 1947 and 1966 when Nigeria experienced her first coup d’état. Particularly 1960- 1966 Understood conveniently on our necks at this time. There were problems but we know better somehow there was most sanity and then after that things began to really fall apart. I have seen a little bit of the world and I can compare coaches and I will say that an African culture is extremely strong and Yoruba is part of it. There is a depth to Yoruba culture and language and relationships between other cultures and other languages in the country and on the continent and now our planet. For example every citizen had its own organization through all of the different activities. The kind of songs that went with dancing. My father was a farmer I grew up on the farm another. We'll call it Ara oko. I just want to put it that way a very proud Ara oko indeed and then the region was respecting indigenous religion one of the problems. One of the causes of a crisis in Africa today I think is the Takeover of our indigenous selves by Islam and Christianity Yoruba Culture, Yoruba cosmology are really rooted in the this plus That kind of plastic that has access to it happened that when this religion came. Oh, no. Oh, it's a weak now that has caused a lot of problem.  All the artworks because in Africa culture and religion. The artists have to do is leave him each of the Orisa were thrown out because they were called Idols as our Idols a Catholic practice. Those idols were civilized. Respect for the forest disappeared as I saw him one of the invitations to this program. There were secret forests in those days the imbrue God intends for the furnace has its own some time researching now the forest what actually made the trees had its own identity. So I grew up with all the songs Egungun Festival, Osanyin Festival, and Osun of course. All this things contributed to the way I saw the world. I have never encountered anything more poetic than those. So when you talk about poetry you'd only go out is surrounded by it naming ceremony, Marriage ceremony, Ekun Iyawo there were all there Okay? Yeah. Yeah. Take another look at Wole Soyinka’s Works another look at Chinua Achebe’s works. A lot of what we do without the culture and of course without diminishing the impact of what has come from abroad in doing this and that not this instead of that.  “Me loluwa wi” as the Yoruba say the sky is wide enough for a thousand birds to fly without clashing unless some are unnecessarily greedy.  I think I'm stronger because I have added Western ways of doing things and so on to my own Yoruba ways of doing them.  Now I have to substitute what’s coming from our side they reached the Poetry of it. It is in our backyard which is bedroom. It's in the kitchen. It's in the song we sing to welcome the new moon, is the song when we see a beautiful flower.

Tosin Gbogi: Thank you very much for that response, In your recent work you moved towards a new kind of the color value called differential Aesthetics and I was thinking because in that paper you were talking about art and politics and how Western understanding of Aesthetics would you know mean that you know, you don't combine both, you know, I kind of think that you also find It is selected poems in 2002 selected poems. So I was so this kind of material that you put in your poetry, some critics consider this essentialism. How do you balance the how do you respond to that?

Prof. Osundare: Thank you Very much, yes differential Aesthetics Yeah This is an idea, It's not just theory it is a principle that rules my Enterprise even my creative Consciousness, differential. A Chinese poet writes differently from an American poet, An Indian poet writes differently from an Australian we are all writing poetry but from different cultural and social and political background. Yes German Harwich (name), also said let the thousand flowers bloom, but what I say with many of the so-called critics and theories especially in the western part of the world is let my flower bloom and takes over the whole earth. You should concur one little Village in France, some little village in America. I would say well now I have a little that covers all literature written everywhere every time in the world. That is ignorance it is first cousin of stupidity no critics African writers are always had for this problem with the critics especially Western critics.  Socrates Aristotle, Plato those of course a great writers, those are a Great Fairy. Those are great thinkers. I'm happy that I know them. I know their Works. There are correspondences. I mean look at the ancient Hebrew culture and ancient Yoruba cultural, there are similarities because we are just human beings so problems arise when you compose your own theoretical and aesthetic judgment or what coming from other places.

Just one example, And I stand to be corrected Yoruba doesn't have and doesn't rely on any rhyming pattern which must come terminally in the poem a ABAB CD then it is not poem. Who told you that. What about what I called system rhythm mechanism. Yoruba is music, Igbo is music, Edo, Urhobo. Music is Africa. Go to the Congo they are doing music and poetry which birth appreciated those forms of music different types of different aesthetically and emotionally from this so I'm saying that yes let a thousand flowers bloom. Write enough poetry but have enough intelligence, have enough humility to know that not everybody in the world should create a poem or so do this sculpture or should do the painting that will match your own expectations and your own prejudices. Yes, differential aesthetics. In Yoruba you don’t say “Mo fe ka ewi but you say Mo fe kewi” I want to chant poetry, I want to sing poetry, I want to perform poetry. This is very important aspect call system rhythmicality.  The music in it, how do we rarely handle it?

Tosin Gbogi: Thank you very much for that wonderful. I would like to bring in Dr. Chigbo Anyaduba who is an assistant professor in the University of Winnipeg.

Dr. Anyaduba: Thank you very much Tosin and thank you Professor.

Prof. Osundare: You're welcome.

Dr. Anyaduba: I particularly want to thank you for the incredible work you have been doing especially for the art.  Some of your poems that I have been privileged to read have inspired me a lot so quickly regarding the subject of poetry and environment. I thought that one of the things your poems have done for me is to connect me much more to the world that I live in especially to the so-called natural environment or natural world. And even when some of these poems maybe morning humans that Devastation of the environment or cautioning against urination of the Earth or prophesying Doom against violence to the natural world. I see you manage to feel that sense of being included with awareness. So I need to go Consciousness, you know about environment.  And I found it very fascinating the way yourself classified your work today into four movements, you know from paying homage to the Earth to morning the violence. Don't read the Earth and then to kind of the S retaliation or the consequences as you put it of human violence on the earth and then to admonition, you know, I'm still expecting the last poem. The first question concerns the General matter about writing and And we know that the people responsible especially for the destruction of the earth are not  usually the ones who suffer the consequences at least the immediate consequences at the moment, right the Niger Delta in Nigeria to distill it has specifically the victims of the despoliation going on. They are the ones who have suffered from Earth's retaliation, right? So my question is Why does Earth not discriminates in its retaliation why do victims of the kinds of capitalist destruction of the environment still by represented as victims when he retaliates, you know your Katrina poems as an example in this regard, right? And my second question is a more General one, in all the years that you've been writing I think over 40-50 years. Now you'd be in writing all these cautionary walks, you know cautioning against environmental pollution in Nigeria. And in other parts of the world at the same time, the more you seem to write the more intensified the human violence against the world has Been I remember the you know, the roots have become worse and we harvest more corpses from Nigerian Roots more trees have been murdered and Iroko trees of my childhood that were the wonder of my childhood before it disappeared now, I grew up in Anambra states, right? So in all these years you still continue to write and lament these outcomes. How could your lines your poems still carry, beautiful Melodies and metaphors that Inspire fancy and some form of musical pleasure in the face of this continuous destruction than witness right? What kept you going in all these years? What did you think changed or give you an inkling of a difference, To make you unwavering in your continued advocacy for and environmental justice.

Prof. Osundare: Thank you very much doctor Anyaduba.  I really appreciate it. It is a pity we are pressed for time the questions you have asked and also your comments could inspire a whole book and I really appreciate this. Why does Earth not to discriminate in its wrought?  Yes. Because nature is ruled by its own logic is like the question I ask all the  time when I see the wickedness that is being visited on people all over the world and the kind of really astonishing sufferings that we go through occasionally you ask how can God allow this to happen to his/her children.

That question we ask all the time but at the same time People say “Orun n yabo kii se wahala enikan” that is when the sky Is going to fall that is not the responsibility of only one person. In fact haven't finished the irony terrible irony about this is those who desolate the Earth those who plunder the Earth are In the position because of the wealth they have acquired, the loot they have scooped. They are in a position to protect themselves against the ravages and the consequences. So this are the illogicalities are facing. It is usually the homeless and the poor people who suffer, I must tell you that I have no answer to that because Katrina nearly killed my wife and me here everything we had on, you know was destroyed and also created two most terrible sinners in the world, you know, so what we should be doing is asking questions. Why should a few people do this and put the rest of us in Jeopardy? It is important for us to talk. It is important for us to work. That's what that 16 years old Swedish girl is asking us to do, no, we're not going to allow you to do this to us. Finally. Remember one or two statement is about we are just been doing this for so long and remember and one of my discussions with Chinua Achebe about three years before he died. We talked about this too. You know, I was teaching the novelist as teacher in our hopes and impediment and I asked Prof. and he laughed and he said we have been doing this for so long. What are we going to do? We cannot stop and there it “Ti ina o ba tan laso eje ki n tan leekanna” that is as long as there are lice in the hems of your garment there must be blood stains on your fingernails with the we have those fingernails, So we have to keep at it. Resilience this is it, In fact, one of the poems I was going to read this because I was pressed for time is titled stubborn hope and I have stolen that phrase from Dennis Brutus the great anti apartheid South African poet. I think one of his collections stubborn hope yes, our hope has to be stubborn. There is no giving up because we didn't inherit to this Earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children.

Dr. Anyaduba: Thank you very much.

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Favourite Quote

“Tomorrow bids us tread softly, wisely, justly, lest we trample the eye of the Earth”

— Professor Niyi Osundare

“When the sky says I am going to fall, that is not the responsibility of only one person”

— Professor Niyi Osundare

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Top Comments

"Always enlightening to hear Prof. Osundare ". - Ipadeola Tdae

Glad to join from Niyi Osundare International Poetry Festival @NOIPOFEST Team— NOIPOFEST

"Epic session tonight. An honour to put a live-face to the legend Niyi Osundare and also happy to see again the Icon Tosin Gbogi (Happy Birthday Sir).”- Olufunke Olabode

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FURTHER READING

Niyi Osundare. The Eye of the Earth (1986, winner of a Commonwealth Poetry Prize and the poetry prize of the Association of Nigerian Authors).

Niyi Osundare. 2011. City Without People: The Katrina Poems. 

Osundare makes case for why every writer should be “climate change warrior”

Prof. Niyi Osundare

Niyi Osundare, renowned poet and professor has urged writers to commit their crafts towards fight against climate change.

He spoke on August 7, 2020 at a webinar event organized by The Green Institute, a climate change advocacy organization, founded by Dr. Adenike Akinsemolu.

Tagged, “What the Earth Said”: A Reading and Conversation with Niyi Osundare, the event had in attendance scholars and students of literature as well as environmental advocates. It was hosted by Tosin Gbogi, an assistant professor of English and Africana Studies, Marquette University.

Some of the major highlights of the programme featured poetry performance by the celebrated poet from some his published works followed by discussions around their themes.

The performance centred around four theme-parts: the first on paying homage to the earth (extracted from The Eyes of the Earth and Days); the second part focused on mourning the violence done to the earth (extracted from Isle edited with Professor Slovich ); the third part (extracted from his Sequel to The Eyes of the Earth) reflected on the consequences of human actions on the earth; the fourth and final part (also extracted from his Sequel to The Eyes of the Earth) was an admonition to every human inhabiting the planet to be conscious of how their actions affect the state of our earth.

Osundare also read poems in honour of climate change activists he referred to as “earth warriors.”

One of those he specifically mentioned was Ken Saro Wiwa, writer and environmental activist, killed in 1995 by the Nigerian government over his strong protestation at the degradation of the Niger Delta region of the country caused by the activities of the multinational oil companies.

Another earth warrior he honoured was Gretta Thunberg, whose address on climate change at the United Nations inspired his poem, “How Dare You.”

Osundare furthered urged writers and artists to not shy away from partnering responsible and genuine politicians and policymakers in the fight against climate change.

London sees hottest stretch since 1960s

PA MEDIA

Central London has seen the longest stretch of high temperatures in almost six decades, as more thunderstorms are forecast across the UK.

The Met Office said temperatures surpassed 34 degree Celsius in the city for the sixth day in a row - the first time that has happened since at least 1961.

An amber storm warning is in place for much of England and Wales, including Liverpool, Bristol, Oxford and Cardiff.

Flooding, damage to buildings, travel disruption and power cuts are expected.

A yellow storm warning - meaning there is a small chance of flooding and travel disruption - has been issued elsewhere in England and Wales, as well as in parts of Scotland, for Wednesday night.

Stonehaven in Aberdeenshire saw flooding overnight. PA MEDIA

• Major incident after thunderstorms bring flooding

• South west England full to capacity, say police

• More homes without water as heatwave continues

The yellow warning applies to parts of England and Wales until Monday night next week.

The Met Office also warned of potential damage to buildings from lightning strikes or strong winds, and 30 to 40mm of rain falling in less than an hour in some places.

It comes after torrential rain and lightning lashed large parts of Scotland on Tuesday night.

Sunbathers took to Southsea beach on Tuesday. PA MEDIA

Three people have died after a passenger train derailed near Stonehaven in Aberdeenshire. It is thought the train hit a landslide after heavy rain and thunderstorms.

A major incident was also declared in Fife.

The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service said it received more than 1,000 emergency calls overnight due to the severe weather.

Ten properties in Lancashire were also affected by flooding following overnight storms, according to the Environment Agency.

However, hot weather has persisted elsewhere in the UK.

Devon and Cornwall Police warned the south west of England is "full to capacity", leading to "unprecedented demand" for 999 services.

The force said it saw an increase in anti-social behaviour and public order offences on Saturday and Sunday.

Assistant Chief Constable Jim Colwell said the weekend's events, spurred on by the hot weather, had forced officers to attend a "plethora of different incidents".

In Sussex, more homeowners had water supplies cut off or restricted on Wednesday. At least 300 householders had already been without tap water since Friday.

Steve Andrews, head of central operations for South East Water, said more than 150 million litres of extra water were being pumped into the network as the UK heatwave continues.

We Need To Work Together To Save This Planet – Prof. Osundare

Oyewumi Agunbiade

 Web News Radio Nigeria Ibadan

Prof. Niyi Osundare

The renowned African poet, Professor Niyi Osundare, has called for a synergy among artistes, activists and policy makers in the battle against eco-degradation, an act that is presently contributing to global warming, earthquakes, hurricanes, water and air pollution, wildlife extinction, and many ailments such as asthma.

Professor Osundare made the call at virtual forum organized by the Green Institute.

The poet who lamented the alarming rate of desert encroachment, poisoned seas, and the extinction of species said the reckless use and abuse of the environment gave him much concern, hence his preservative advocacies through art.

He condemned world politicians who said climate change is not real, describing such leaders as dangerous to humanity. 

Professor Osundare noted that the restraint at addressing climate change globally cannot be dissociated from those who do not believe in it.

He urged the Salvation Army of the Earth as championed by the late Nigerian writer and environmental activist, Ken Saro-Wiwa never to relent in their advocacies as the calls are gradually being heeded in the face of overwhelming repercussions of environmental degradation.

Professor Osundare therefore called for a synergy among writers, activists, and policy makers to address the ravaging trend of climate change noting that writers’ and artists’ observation and advocacy can only translate to action when policy makers reason with them. 

"Why every writer should be a climate warrior”-Niyi Osundare on Poetry and the Environment

Niyi Osundare, renowned poet and professor has called upon writers to partner with politicians and policymakers in the fight against climate change.

Prof. Niyi Osundare

The remark was made in a webinar event organized by The Green Institute, a climate change advocacy organization founded by Dr. Adenike Akinsemolu. 

The event held on the 7th of July, 2020 tagged “What the Earth Said”: A Reading and Conversation with Niyi Osundare was hosted by Tosin Gbogi, an associate professor of English and Africana Studies, Marquette University.

Click here to watch the full webinar on Youtube

In his introductory remark, Gbogi observed that “as a result of Covid-19, we are reminded that although humans are on this planet, we are not the planet”. As such, there’s no better time than now to discuss the  pertinent issue of the representation of the effects of human actions on the environment in literature in general and poetry in particular. And Niyi Osundare’s poetry was the lens through which the relationship between poetry and the environment was discussed.

Born in 1947, Prof. Niyi Osundare is the author of eighteen books of poetry, two books of selected poems, four plays, a book of essays, several monographs, academic papers, and feature articles on literature, culture, language, and politics. According to Gbogi, “His ecopoetics center both the human and non-human dimensions of our earth especially in ways that show their independence and intertwined state”. 

On why he began writing on the environment, Osundare said, he was inspired in the 1980s to write on the environment as a result of the destruction of the rainforest environment of his youth. 

The webinar was characterized by Osundare’s poetry performances of some of his selected poems which was followed by a question and answer session. The poems read ran on a four-part theme: the first part centered on paying homage to the earth (extracted from The Eyes of the Earth and Days); the second part focused on mourning the violence done to the earth (extracted from Isle edited with Professor Slovich ); the third part (extracted from his Sequel to The Eyes of the Earth) reflected on the consequences of human actions on the earth; the fourth and final part (also extracted from his Sequel to The Eyes of the Earth) was an admonition to every human inhabiting the planet to be conscious of how their actions affect the state of our earth. Furthermore, in that section, he celebrated climate change advocates whom he referred to as "Earth Warriors".

In the poems read, Osundare reflected on the intersection between poetry and the environment. His poems captured the devastation and the plunder done to the earth by scientists and policymakers. 

Essentially, Osundare captures in vivid language how the world has transformed from a beautiful haven to a mechanical village as a result of advancement in science and technology. He lambasted the climate destruction orchestrated in the name of scientific discovery, adding that “If you use the earth as science, then you won’t have the kind of ecocide that we are having now”.

Osundare bemoaned the effect of climate change on Nigeria in particular and the world at large.

In the Nigerian context, Osundare read poems concerning the oil spillage in the Niger Delta caused by multinational companies and that has become a nightmare for the people living in the South-South region of Nigeria. The poem he read was in honor of Ken Saro Wiwa, a revolutionary and a climate change agent (one of the Earth Warriors) from the Niger Delta who was hanged in 1995 by the Nigerian Military Ruler for his activism. Besides Ken Saro Wiwa, he also read another poem titled “How Dare You” inspired by a climate change address delivered to the United Nations by another Earth Warrior, Gretta Thomberg, a Swedish teenager. Hence for Osundare, the Earth Warriors aren't only in Nigeria but all over the world.

A peculiar feature of the poems read by Osundare is that they had a globalist outlook. What this means is that while he was lamenting the destruction of the rainforest in his native hometown in Ikere Ekiti, he was also by extension mourning the destruction of other rainforests in the world such as the Amazon forests.

For those who are skeptical about the concerns of climate change activists and for those who think it’s just a hoax, Osundare cited the case of Lake Chad, noting that the fact it’s drying up is a significant instance of a change in our planet.

The crux of the event was when the renowned professor read his last poem titled “Our Earth will not Die”, extracted from his famous collection, The Eye of the Earth. The poem contained a message of hope and the reverberating tune in which the Poet rendered the repeated line, “our earth will not die” foregrounded an optimistic tone on the part of the poet. The poet believes that as long as we remain committed to keeping the earth safe for ourselves, our children would also benefit from it and their future would be safe as he told the audience that, “we didn’t inherit this earth from our ancestors, we borrowed it from our children”.

A crucial point of the conversation we can’t but mention was when he discussed his notion of differential aesthetics. He explained that he developed the term in response to Western critics fond of imposing one theoretical and aesthetic judgment on works from other people from a different culture and downplaying their aesthetic appeal because it doesn’t fit into their rules of fine aesthetics.

The event which had in attendance scholars and students of poetry also attracted the attention of numerous environmental advocates.

Dropped emissions during COVID-19 lockdown will do 'nothing' for climate change

Chelsea Gohd 

While greenhouse gas emissions plummeted as the world locked down in response to the coronavirus pandemic, such dips will do "nothing" to slow climate change unless society moves away from fossil fuels, researchers have found. 

On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared the novel coronavirus disease, COVID-19, a pandemic, which it remains today. To slow the spread of the virus, countries around the world began implementing lockdown measures that limited travel and closed down factories and businesses. In turn, Earth-orbiting satellites saw a dramatic decrease in greenhouse gas emissions. 

However, according to an international study led by the University of Leeds, unless large-scale, structural interventions — like a significant switch away from fossil fuels — are implemented, these changes will not affect Earth's climate. In fact, the researchers found, even if lockdown measures continue in some fashion around the world until the end of 2021, more than a year and half total, global temperatures will only be roughly 0.018 degrees Fahrenheit (0.01 degrees Celsius) lower than expected by 2030.

"Lockdown showed that we can change and change fast, but it also showed the limits of behavior change," Piers Forster, study co-author and director of the Priestley International Center for Climate at Britain's University of Leeds, told AFP.

"Without underlying structural change we won't make it," he said, referring to climate goals. 

Climate work to do

Scientists have identified a temperature rise to "well below" 3.6 degrees F (2 degrees C) above levels before the Industrial Revolution as a major climate target. Some countries are striving to keep temperature rise smaller, below 2.7 degrees F (1.5 degrees C). However, according to these researchers, this goal will be difficult to reach. 

"If I'm brutally honest, the world is unlikely to decarbonize at the rates required for 1.5 C, but getting anywhere close will make our children's future better," Forster said.

To see exactly how lockdown has affected emissions and climate in the long term, the researchers used open-source data to calculate exactly how the emission levels of 10 different greenhouse gases and air pollutants changed between February and June 2020 in over 120 countries. During those four months, the scientists found that production of pollutants including carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxides dropped by between 10% and 30%, a significant decrease. 

However, the researchers found that the temporary emissions drop alone wouldn't have a significant impact on climate because these lockdown efforts are temporary, as opposed to larger, long-term structural changes. 

"The fall in emissions we experienced during COVID-19 is temporary and therefore it will do nothing to slow down climate change," co-author Corinne Le Quere from the University of East Anglia said in the same statement. 

In addition to measuring the effects of this temporary lockdown, the researchers also modeled how climate would be impacted if, after this lockdown period, larger changes like reduced use of fossil fuels were implemented around the world. The team highlighted that significant, government-led changes to reduce fossil fuel use would have a lasting, positive effect on climate. 

The scientists found that if invested 1.2% of gross domestic product in low-carbon technology post-lockdown, they could cut their emissions in half by 2030 compared with if countries continued to rely on fossil fuels as they do post-lockdown. 

"The government responses could be a turning point if they focus on a green recovery, helping to avoid severe impacts from climate change," Le Quere said. 

ECO-DEGRADATION: Stakeholders Must Act Fast To Save Humanity-Prof Osundare

OYE AGUNBIADE
positivefm news

A Renowned African poet, Professor Niyi Osundare, has called for a synergy among artistes, activists and policy makers in the battle against eco-degradation, an act that is presently contributing to global warming, earthquakes, hurricanes, water and air pollution, wildlife extinction, and many ailments such as asthma.

Osundare who is the author of the popular collections “The Eye of the Earth” and “City without People” made the call at an online forum that was organized by the Green Institute, Ondo. Tagged “What the Earth Said: A Reading and Conversation with Niyi Osundare,” the event was moderated by Dr. Tosin Gbogi who is an Assistant Professor of English and Africana Studies at Marquette University.

Introducing the reading and conversation, Gbogi noted that the event could not have been more timely given the strange times we now live in.

In the poetry reading and conversation that followed, Prof. Osundare who lamented the alarming rate of desert encroachment, poisoned seas, and the extinction of species said the reckless use and abuse of the environment gave him much concern, hence his preservative advocacies through art.

The poet also condemned world leaders who say climate change is not real, describing such leaders as dangerous to humanity.

He noted that the restraint at addressing climate change globally could not be dissociated from those who do not believe in it.

Speaking on the poem “Ours to Plough not to Plunder,” Osundare also indicted local farmers and individuals, observing that bush burning and untoward farming activities on the part of the farmers contribute to environmental pollution and global warming.

Recalling his background at Ikere Ekiti, Professor Osundare noted that the plundered earth once had its harmonic rhythm and prophylactic appeals which African ancestors enjoyed, hence the need for a collective front to return the earth to its beauty.

While commending those he described as the Salvation Army of the Earth in Nigeria, the poet remembered and hailed the significant interventions and contributions of late Ken Saro-Wiwa, the late Nigerian writer and environmental activist.

Osundare urged the Salvation Army of the Earth never to relent in their advocacies as the calls are gradually being heeded in the face of overwhelming repercussions of environmental degradation as seen in president Macron of France’s recent move over the wild fire in the amazon.

While responding to a question by Dr. Chigbo Anyaduba that perpetrators of degradation hardly suffer from the havoc as seen in the Niger Delta, Osundare, himself a survivor of Hurricane Katrina, enjoined the victims to insist on ending such act, noting that a silent mouth equals a resigned destiny.

The Don called on every writer to become a climate warrior advocating the preservation of the earth. “The world won’t change except we change it,” he said.

He also called for a synergy among writers, activists, and policy makers to address the ravaging trend of climate change noting that writers’/artists’ observation and advocacy can only translate to action when policy makers reason with them.

The convener of the Green Room and the director of the Green Institute, Dr. Adenike Akinsemolu, in a remark to the poet enjoined the people to be change agents in the preservation of their respective environment by being careful in relating to nature rather than waiting for government and policy makers.

The event which was streamed live across different social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube had over one thousand participants some of who include Dr. Chigbo Arthur Anyaduba, Tolulope Odebunmi, and Gabriel Bamgbose.

Other participants include Prof. Adeleke Adeeko, James Murua, Molara Wood, Tade Ipadeola, Niran Okewole, Deji Toye, Olanike Olaleru, Oluwafunke Ogunya, Dr. James Yékú, Dr. Nathan Surh-Sytsma, Dr. Adeiza Isiaka Lasisi, Tosin Orimolade, Adeola Falayi, John Olumodi, and Mr. Tunde Laniyan, among others.

Participants cut across Nigeria, France, USA, Canada, Kenya, Uganda, and South Africa.