When the sun sets tonight around the world, more than 400 maternity clinics that long labored in darkness will have light. Reliable, robust, and easy to use ?Solar Suitcases? will provide light and power for midwives and doctors to deliver babies, conduct c/sections, treat pregnancy complications, and care for newborn babies in 25 countries. For many mothers and babies, that light may mean life.
If you care about environmental issues, health issues, economic issues, or development issues – or if you just care about the future – then you should know about today’s report from Working Group I of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
Today, 1.3 billion people in the world don’t have access to electricity. According to the International Energy Agency, more than four-fifths of these people live in rural areas and more than 95 percent live in sub-Saharan African or developing areas in Asia.
Power Africa builds on the great leadership shown by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who launched the Sustainable Energy for All initiative two years ago, with the objective of ensuring universal access to modern energy services – not just electricity, but clean fuels for cooking and heating – by 2030.
President Obama explained why it’s so important to cut the pollution that causes global warming.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said climate change “is a humanitarian issue, a development issue, and an issue of security and stability.”
Today marks the 40th time that the world has come together to raise awareness of critically important issues on World Environment Day. This year’s theme, Think Eat Save: Reduce Your Foodprint, zeroes in on an issue that all people, from all walks of life, from all the countries in the world, can relate to and understand.
The United Nations Rio+20 Conference last year called for urgent action to put the world on a more equitable and sustainable development path.
Every Earth Day, I’m reminded of the proverb, “We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.”
“Last Stand: Ted Turner’s Quest to Save a Troubled Planet,” serves in part as Turner’s dramatic and forceful argument for why the UN matters in the 21st century — and why it is irreplaceable.
