OMNI
UNCCD UNITED NATIONS CONVENTION TO COMBAT DESERTIFICATION ANTICIPATING UNWDCD WORLD DAY TO COMBAT DESERTIFICATION JUNE 17, #3. April 19, 2020
Compiled by Dick Bennett for a Culture of Peace, Justice, and ECOLOGY.
(#1, June 17, 2012; #2, Sept. 13, 2015)
UNWDCD WORLD DAY TO COMBAT DESERTIFICATION.17 June, World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought, is observed each year to promote public awareness of international efforts to combat drought and desertification and their disastrous consequences. The importance of this UN agency grows each day with its international New Deal campaign to stop rising temperature, drought, depletion of water, soil erosion, and related and increasing problems. See Green New Deal, which encompasses world drought and whose global scope synchronizes with the UN. --Dick
See OMNI’s Temperature newsletters
OMNI TEMPERATURE, HEAT, CLIMATE CATASTROPHE #2
OMNI’s Climate Refugee newsletter #1 is in preparation. [Will one of you interested in refugees take on the compiling of it and henceforth? I have fallen behind.]
Warmer temperatures and shifting storm tracks are drying up vast stretches of land in North and South America. | more… |
|
“The parched West is heading into a global warming-fueled megadrought that could last for centuries.” Originally published: Inside Climate News by Bob Berwyn (April 16, 2020). Also published in the April 17 issue of the journal Science. Posted Apr 18, 2020 by Eds. of mronline.org. The American West is well on its way into one of the worst megadroughts on record, a new study warns, a dry period that could last for centuries and spread from Oregon and Montana, through the Four Corners and into West Texas and northern Mexico. Several other megadroughts, generally defined as dry periods that last 20 years or more, have been documented in the West going back to about 800 A.D. In the study, the researchers, using an extensive tree-ring history, compared recent climate data with conditions during the historic megadroughts. [OMNI’s Climate Book Forum is fortunate to have as a member of the committee, Malcolm Cleveland, tree-ring scientist. –D]
They found that in this century, global warming is tipping the climate scale toward an unwelcome rerun, with dry conditions persisting far longer than at any other time since Europeans colonized and developed the region. The study was published online Thursday and appears in the April 17 issue of the journal Science.
Human-caused [Anthropocene] global warming is responsible for about half the severity of the emerging megadrought in western North America, said Jason Smerdon, a Columbia University climate researcher and a co-author of the new research.
“What we’ve identified as the culprit is the increased drying from the warming. The reality is that the drying from global warming is going to continue,” he said.
We’re on a trajectory in keeping with the worst megadroughts of the past millennia.
The ancient droughts in the West were caused by natural climate cycles that shifted the path of snow and rainstorms. But human-caused global warming is responsible for about 47 percent of the severity of the 21st century drought by sucking moisture out of the soil and plants, the study found.
The regional drought caused by global warming is plain to see throughout the West in the United States. River flows are dwindling, reservoirs holding years worth of water supplies for cities and farms have emptied faster than a bathtub through an open drain, bugs and fires have destroyed millions of acres of forests, and dangerous dust storms are on the rise.
A similar scenario is unfolding in South America, especially in central Chile, a region with a climate similar to that in western North America. Parts of the Andes Mountains and foothills down to the coast have been parched by an unprecedented 10-year dry spell that has cut some river flows by up to 80 percent.
In both areas, research shows, global warming could make the droughts worse than any in at least several thousand years, drying up the ground and shifting regional weather patterns toward drier conditions. This is bad news for modern civilizations that have developed in the last 500 years, during which they enjoyed an unusually stable and wet climate. And assumptions about water availability based on that era are not realistic, said climate scientist Edward Cook, another co-author on the study who is also with the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory.
[concluding text] The only real long-term solution is to halt greenhouse gas pollution….
It’s like with the coronavirus pandemic, we have to flatten the curve of global warming. We do that by removing the emissions.
[OMNI can be proud as the 2006 origin of the CCTF or Climate Change Task Force. Some years later it aligned with the Citizens’ Climate Lobby, which is laser focused on revenue neutral carbon fee and dividend. Our local chapter added chapters, and in July of 2017 the Arkansas Citizens’ Climate League was incorporated as a 501 (c) 3 organization local chapter of CCL: CCL now has a bill before the House, HR. 763. Thanks to Robert McAfee for details.]
[On 5-27-19 the NADG published a map from the USDA showing the counties designated as primary victims of the disastrous recent floods and the counties designated as contiguous disaster counties. A similar map showing the primary and secondary states to be affected by the drought would be useful. Agriculture and drinking water of Western Arkansas, we can suppose, will be affected, and refugees are predictable. –D]
The remainder of this newsletter gives space to the good work by the United Nations and its UNCCD UNITED NATIONS CONVENTION TO COMBAT DESERTIFICATION and WDCD WORLD DAY TO COMBAT DESERTIFICATIONThe importance of this UN agency grows each day with its international New Deal-style, large scope campaign to stop soil erosion and related work. --Dick
UNCCD News Alert 11-12-19 |
|
|
|
UNCCD is launching an online contest for the Desertification and Drought Day 2020 theme and slogan. Submissions can be made in any United Nations language: English, Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish. The competition aims to raise the public's awareness about the relevance of desertification and drought in their daily lives. It will also promote public engagement in the issues of desertification and drought during the internationally-agreed observance day. The contest is open to everyone over 18 years old. Those under 18 years old can also apply with their parent’s consent.
The submitted theme and slogan should be accompanied by a brief statement of not more than 300 words, explaining the theme and slogan. The winner will receive a monetary prize and more.. Read further here |
|
|
| | · More than 11 million saplings were planted during the "Breath for the Future" campaign in Turkey. #GeleceğeNefes |
|
|
For more information on the Alert, contact
Wagaki Wischnewski
Public Information and Media Officer
UNCCD Secretariat
Tel: +49 (0)228- 815 2820 |
|
|
|
| About the UNCCD
The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) is the sole legally binding international agreement on land issues. The Convention works with partners to promote good land stewardship. Its 197 Parties aim to achieve land degradation neutrality (LDN) through voluntary national targets. By achieving LDN, we will secure the health and productivity of the land, mitigate the effects of drought and make people and ecosystems more resilient to climate change |
|
|
|
|
|
UNCCD News Alert 4 July 2018
UNCCD Secretariat newsbox@unccd.int via mail217.atl101.mcdlv.net |
| 4:03 AM (15 hours ago) | | |
|
UNCCD News Alert JULY 4, 2018 |
|
|
| | 1st Global Land Degradation Neutrality Forum
The Republic of Korea and UNCCD are organizing this 1st Forum on 4-5 July 2018 in Seoul.
The Forum will provide an opportunity to explore and discuss insights and experience on how the global community can strengthen partnerships to support achieving LDN.
2018WDCD global observance in Ecuador |
|
|
| |
|
Sent to OMNI Climate Book Forum Committee 6-13-18
UNCCD Secretariat newsbox@unccd.int via mail190.atl121.mcsv.net |
| 4:24 AM (9 hours ago) | | |
|
|
| 1:48 PM (0 minutes ago) | | |
to bcc: Alberto, bcc: Art, bcc: Aubrey, bcc: Gladys, bcc: Jeanne, bcc: Joyce, bcc: Lolly, bcc: malcolm, bcc: Marvin, bcc: Peg, bcc: Shelley, bcc: Terry |
|
![https://ssl.gstatic.com/ui/v1/icons/mail/images/cleardot.gif]() UNCCD News Alert |
|
|
| | 2018 WDCD message from UNCCD Executive Secretary Ms. Monique Barbut
This year on World Day to Combat Desertification, we think about the real value of land. Not just its economic value. Land is worth so much more than that. It defines our way of life and our culture – whether we live in the city or the villages. It purifies the water we drink. It feeds us. It surrounds us with beauty... The message and other information about the World Day to Combat Desertification are available fromhere.
Join us to celebrate the World Day to Combat Desertification on 17 June! |
|
|
|
For more information on the Alert , contact Wagaki Wischnewski
Public Information and Media Officer
UNCCD Secretariat
Tel: +49 (0)228- 815 2820 |
|
|
|
|
|
| | | | | |
![https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/images/cleardot.gif]()
SenSen
Sent to Charles and Robert M of CCL, and to Jeanne and Lolly UNCCD Alert No. 12/08/2016 UNCCD Secretariat newsbox@unccd.int via mail179.suw14.mcdlv.net |
| 7:53 AM (7 hours ago) | | |
| |
| | | News updates - 1-12 August 2016
Notification: Call for Human Interest Stories (Decision 4/COP12)
As requested in Decision 4/COP12, parties, CSOs and other UNCCD stakeholders are requested to submit stories on notable implementation activities that have impacted livelihoods. Submission due date is 15 October 2016. For details, follow the link here
News: Latin America and the Caribbean engages in Land Degradation neutrality target setting
The land degradation neutrality target setting process was launched in the LAC in Buenos Aires, Argentina on the 20-21 July. The workshop helped to establish the actions needed to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. For more details please visit the page here
News: Increasing private sector forest and landscape investments could lead to landscape restoration and land degradation neutrality
The Committee on forestry and the World Forest Week met at the FAO headquarters on the 19-22 July to discuss the actions needed to increase private sector investments to combat forest and landscape degradation. More details provided here
Event: 3rd Africa Drylands Week starts
This year, the observance was held in Windhoek back-to-back with the African Drought Conference. For additional information, visit the page here
Capacity Building Marketplace: what’s new?· Celebrating the International Youth Day by the English for All Center and the UNCCD Capacity Building Marketplace (Burundi) · PhD positions at the University of Western Australia: · Vacancy of a Scientific and Technical Committee Members of CGIAR · Memorial Grants for Conservation Research (Latin America) Many more new opportunities are added to the Marketplace daily · All new vacancies added since our last update · All newly added Online training and university Courses Library News: What's New? The worst impacts of drought can be reduced, policy makers would be better informed and vulnerable, at-risk populations more resilient. If land and water resources are managed sustainably and together, ecosystems will not just survive but thrive. Opportunities for growth and development, even in regions vulnerable to drought, will open up if water is sufficiently available. Read more in the last issue of Be the first to know from today15 August 2016.
See some from the latest additions to our library collection. · MORE additions you can find in our eLibrary here |
|
|
|
| Hot off the press
The ripple effect: A fresh approach to reducing drought impacts and building resilience.
UNCCD new publication highlights the impact of current droughts as well as presenting projections for the future.
It strongly suggests that overcoming the prevailing paradigm of ‘reactive’ and ‘crisis-based’ approaches to drought and moving towards ‘proactive’ and ‘risk-based’ approaches will be indispensable to reducing the risks and mitigating the impacts of droughts, floods and other extreme weather events.
UNCCD is now working with countries and partners to proactively address the main pillars of drought preparedness and planning; drought monitoring and early warning; vulnerability assessment and drought risk mitigation measures.
The publication explains how, against this backdrop, the UNCCD is ramping up its work on drought and water scarcity issues at large.
UNCCD is supporting the organization of the African Drought Conference opened in Windhoek, Namibia today 15 August 2016
It is expected that this conference will see a draft strategy for drought management at the Africa level emerge.
The strategy can then be adjusted to fit country specific situations and implemented at national level.
You may wish to have a look at the draft White Paper, which will be further refined after the conference.
Read the publication
" The ripple effect: A fresh approach to reducing drought impacts and building resilience"
in English and French following the link here |
|
| For more information on the Alert, contact:
Wagaki Wischnewski
Public Information and Media Officer
UNCCD Secretariat
Tel: +49 (0)228- 815 2820
Email:wwischnewski@unccd.int
|
|
|
|
|
|
Copyright ©2014 United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification,
|
|
|
|
|
|
OMNI
UN AGAINST DESERTIFICATION AND DROUGHT #2, Sept. 13, 2015.
#1, June 17, 2012.
END UNCCD #3 April 19, 2020 (anticipating June 17)
