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	Amnesty calls on all parties to the conflict in Syria to end deliberate attacks on civilians by Amnesty International, agencies   June 2015   Amid surging violence in Aleppo, John Ging, Operations Director of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) expressed “outrage” at all attacks against civilians in Syria, as well as indiscriminate attacks.   Briefing UN Security Council members about the recent upsurge of violence in Aleppo and other areas in the country, where “shelling and aerial bombardment, such as the use of barrel bombs, have reportedly been used extensively in recent days, leaving many dead and injured civilians, including children.”   On May 31, at least 70 civilians were killed in Syria’s northern Aleppo province by barrel bombs dropped from government helicopters.   John Ging highlighted that all obligations under international humanitarian law must be respected in all circumstances by all parties, in particular “the obligation to distinguish between civilian populations and combatants, and emphasized the prohibition against indiscriminate attacks, attacks against civilians and civilian objects.”   He reiterated that all parties to the conflict must take all steps necessary to ensure the protection of civilian lives.   May 2015   Sheer terror and unbearable suffering has forced many civilians in the city of Aleppo in Syria to eke out an existence underground to escape the relentless aerial bombardment of opposition-held areas by government forces, according to a new report published by Amnesty International today.   ‘Death everywhere’: War crimes and human rights abuses in Aleppo details the horrendous war crimes and other abuses being committed in the city by government forces and armed opposition groups on a daily basis, and concludes that some of the government’s actions in Aleppo amount to crimes against humanity.   The report paints a particularly distressing picture of the devastation and bloodshed caused by barrel bombs - packed with explosives and metal fragments - which have been dropped by government forces on schools, hospitals, mosques and crowded markets. Many hospitals and schools have sought safety by moving into basements or underground bunkers.   “Widespread atrocities, in particular the vicious and unrelenting aerial bombardment of civilian neighbourhoods by government forces, have made life for civilians in Aleppo increasingly unbearable. These reprehensible and continual strikes on residential areas point to a policy of deliberately and systematically targeting civilians in attacks that constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity,” said Philip Luther, Director of Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Programme.   “By relentlessly and deliberately targeting civilians the Syrian government appears to have adopted a callous policy of collective punishment against the civilian population of Aleppo.”   Attacks using barrel bombs - oil barrels, fuel tanks or gas cylinders packed with explosives, fuel, and metal fragments dropped from helicopters - killed more than 3,000 civilians in Aleppo governorate last year, and more than 11,000 in Syria since 2012. Last month local activists recorded at least 85 barrel bomb attacks in Aleppo city that killed at least 110 civilians. Yet the Syrian government has failed to acknowledge a single civilian casualty caused by such attacks, with President Bashar al-Assad categorically denying that barrel bombs had ever been used by his forces in a media interview in February 2015.   Survivors of the eight barrel bomb attacks documented in this report described harrowing scenes of carnage in the aftermath of the explosions making clear the true horror of these attacks.   “I saw children without heads, body parts everywhere. It was how I imagine hell to be,” a local factory worker said describing the aftermath of an attack on al-Fardous neighbourhood in 2014.   A local surgeon said the level of injuries he had seen caused by barrel bombs was unprecedented: “Barrel bombs are the most horrible and hurtful weapon… [We deal with] multi-trauma, so many amputations, intestines out of the body, it’s too horrible,” he said.   One barrel bomb attack struck a crowded market in the Sukkari neighbourhood in June 2014 while 150 people were waiting in line to receive food baskets from a humanitarian distribution point nearby. An eyewitness described the aftermath of the attack as “pure horror”, saying the attack had targeted civilians: “There was the man who ran the ice-cream shop, the man who ran the sandwich shop, the man who ran the toy store... They were all killed,” he said.   The report also details the terrifying ordeal for civilians living in the shadow of this deadly and persistent threat.   “There is no sun, no fresh air, we can’t go upstairs and there are always airplanes and helicopters in the sky,” said one doctor whose field hospital is among those forced underground.   “We are always nervous, always worried, always looking to the sky,” a teacher from Aleppo told Amnesty International.   Another resident described Aleppo as “the circle of hell”: “The streets are filled with blood. The people who have been killed are not the people who were fighting,” he said.   “The fear and desperation among Aleppo’s civilians is clear. Many feel abandoned and have lost all hope for the future,” said Philip Luther.   “More than a year ago the UN passed a resolution calling for an end to human rights abuses, and specifically barrel bomb attacks, promising there would be consequences if the government failed to comply. Today, the international community has turned its back on Aleppo’s civilians in a cold-hearted display of indifference to an escalating human tragedy.   “Continued inaction is being interpreted by perpetrators of war crimes and crimes against humanity as a sign they can continue to hold the civilians of Aleppo hostage without fear of any retribution. A referral of the situation in Syria to the International Criminal Court would send a signal that those ordering and committing these crimes can be brought to justice and could help stem the spiral of abuses,” said Philip Luther.   In addition to barrel bombs, the report also documents three missile attacks by government forces including a devastating attack on a children’s art exhibition at Ain Jalut School in April 2014.   “I saw things there I can’t describe. There were parts of children, blood everywhere. The bodies were in shreds,” a geography teacher who witnessed the attack said.   Amnesty International is calling on all parties to the conflict in Syria to end deliberate attacks on civilians and civilian buildings or infrastructure, as well as the use of imprecise explosive weapons such as barrel bombs or mortars in populated areas.   Abuses by armed opposition groups   Armed opposition groups in Aleppo also committed war crimes by using imprecise weapons such as mortars and improvised rockets fitted with gas canisters called “hell cannons” in attacks that killed at least 600 civilians in 2014. Residents said attacks by armed opposition groups are often “completely random”. “You never feel secure or safe, ever. You never know – you could be hit at any time,” said one resident of al-Jamaliya neighbourhood.   Torture and other abuses   The report also documents widespread torture, arbitrary detention and abduction by both government forces and armed opposition groups.   One former detainee, a peaceful activist arrested by government forces in 2012 for videotaping a protest, described being forced into a car tyre, beaten with cables that cut into his skin and listening to the screams of others being tortured at night. “Around 5 to 6am, you could hear only the women scream. At 7am, the women stopped, and then you heard the men. The screaming was scheduled,” he said. He was held at Aleppo Central Prison which was shelled by both sides and where hundreds of prisoners were starved and some were summarily executed.   A man held by an armed opposition group in Aleppo described having been severely beaten, given electric shocks and hung from his wrists for extended periods before eventually being released.   Amnesty International is calling on the government to end arbitrary arrests and detention and enforced disappearances, and for armed groups to end abduction of civilians and hostage-taking. All parties must end torture and other ill-treatment and treat all detainees humanely.   Humanitarian access   In addition to enduring brutal attacks from both sides, the people of Aleppo are living in dire conditions and struggle to obtain the most basic supplies including food, medicine, water and electricity. In opposition-held areas food is extremely expensive and residents have resorted to planting their own vegetables as well as rearing rabbits and cats which have become the “fast food in Aleppo”, according to one resident. Amnesty International is calling on all sides to allow unhindered humanitarian access to agencies delivering aid in Aleppo and across Syria.   http://www.amnesty.org/en/articles/news/2015/05/syrias-circle-of-hell-barrel-bombs-in-aleppo/ http://www.hrw.org/news/2015/03/22/syria-rebels-car-bombs-rockets-kill-civilians http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/HRC/IICISyria/Pages/IndependentInternationalCommission.aspx http://www.icrc.org/en/where-we-work/middle-east/syria http://www.ifrc.org/syria-crisis Visit the related web page
	Feeding People on a Stressed Planet will require a ''Revolution'' by American Geophysical Union, agencies USA   Feeding People on a Stressed Planet will require a ''Revolution'', writes Brian Bienkowski, for Environmental Health News.   Two renowned scientists—Stanford''s Paul Ehrlich and UC-Berkeley''s John Harte — argue that feeding the planet goes way beyond food. Revolutionary political, economic and social shifts are necessary to avoid unprecedented chaos.   How do you make sure billions of people around the world have access to food? You start a revolution.   At least that’s what two leading U.S. scientists argue in a new report. Feeding people will require cleaner energy, smarter farming and women’s rights, but also a “fundamental cultural change,” according to Paul Ehrlich, president of the Center for Conservation Biology at Stanford University, and University of California, Berkeley, professor and researcher John Harte.   “What is obvious to us is ... that if humanity is to avoid a calamitous loss of food security, a fast, society-pervading sea-change as dramatic as the first agricultural revolution will be required,” they wrote in their report published last week in the International Journal of Environmental Studies.   The amount of humans on Earth is growing—projections point to an extra 2.5 billion people by 2020. But tangled within the problem of more hungry mouths is environmental degradation, social injustice and humans pushing toward the very boundaries of the planet when it comes to resources such as food, water and energy, according to Ehrlich and Harte.   For many people across the world growing, buying or finding food is a daily struggle. More than 800 million people are estimated to be malnourished, according to the United Nations. Billions don’t have stable, secure access to food.   “Some people say the whole problem is too many people and other people say it’s misdistribution of the crops we grow,” Ehrlich said in an interview. “They’re both right but this can’t be fixed by dealing with only one end of the problem.”   Scientists for too long have been looking at how to feed the world in “fragments,” Ehrlich said.   “Some look at solving food problems with crops grown in higher temperatures; some look at reducing waste,” he said. “It’s crystal clear that none of the things that need to be done are being done on a scale that would be helpful.”   It’s not just about pumping out more crops or reducing the amount of people. “Planning for a sustainable and effective food production system will surely require heeding constraints from nature,” Ehrlich and Harte wrote.   They argue that economic equality, population growth and environmental health are all linked. Governments must address the whole system to avoid future famine.   This means limiting greenhouse gases that warm the planet, avoiding biodiversity losses and reducing populations, they say. It means cutting back on all of the pesticides and antibiotics used to grow food. It means moving climate change to the top of political agendas and ending incentives to pull fossil fuels out of the ground.   As the planet’s population grows, environmental issues will grow too, Ehrlich said.   "We need to get a grip on population," Harte added. But addressing climate change will be a “critical issue.”   “Nothing is worse for future food security than a future climate with more extreme events like droughts, floods,” Harte said.   Harte pointed to the ongoing California drought as an example. A University of California, Davis, report in June estimated that, in 2015, the drought would cost the California farm industry $2.7 billion and 18,000 jobs.   Solutions, like challenges, are intertwined Ehrlich and Harte say. But they exist. Ehrlich said a good start in addressing population growth would be full women’s rights, including access to contraceptives and abortions. For agriculture, it’s a “big shift” toward organic farming, getting rid of large industrial farms that rely on pesticides.   Harte said curbing continued climate change has two natural solutions: the wind and the sun. He said expanding wind and solar farms combined with greater efficiency in electricity use is entirely possible.   “Germany is much less sunny than most of the United States, and they’re approaching almost half of all electricity production from renewables," Harte said. "There’s no reason we can’t too.”   Underlying all this, the two say, is a fundamental shift in people’s values, including a turn away from everything being driven by financial interests. Instead, they write, society''s focus should shift to “resilience, a striving for virtue, equitable distribution, and extreme vigilance to insure that governance is working in parallel, not in opposition, to achieve these goals.”   In other words, a revolution. Ehrlich and Harte are optimistic about the solutions. But when it comes to the full-scale revolution, not so much.   “U.S. Congress is ruled by a majority that doesn’t want to listen to facts.... Most don’t believe in science,” Harte said. “They don’t understand the magnitude of the threat civilization is facing.   “If they listened to engineers and scientists and did the right thing, I’d be optimistic. There are solutions out there.”   http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/ehs/news/2015/aug/food-security-planet-planetary-boundaries-climate-change-agriculture-farming-organic-solutions-revolution   01 May 2015   American Republicans latest attempt to stymie climate research   Republicans in the U.S. House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology on Thursday voted to slash NASA spending on the branch that studies climate change issues.   According to news reports, the NASA authorization proposal, passed along party lines, would cut between $300-500 million in funding to NASA''s Earth Sciences division, which researches the planet''s natural systems and processes—including climate change, severe weather, and glaciers. The bill will now go to the full House for a vote.   The vote follows the committee''s decision to cut the [National Science Foundation]''s geoscience budget and comes after a prominent attack on NASA''s Earth sciences work during a Senate hearing.   In a statement released Thursday, the space agency''s administrator Charles Bolden said the proposal "guts our Earth science program and threatens to set back generations worth of progress in better understanding our changing climate, and our ability to prepare for and respond to earthquakes, droughts, and storm events."   Other scientists have added their own criticisms. In a letter to the committee, the head of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) said that group is "extremely concerned" about the funding cuts.   "The research performed and supported by the [NASA] division helps us understand the world we live in and provide a basis for knowledge and understanding of natural hazards, weather forecasting, air quality, and water availability, among other concerns," wrote AGU executive director Christine W. McEntee. "The applicability of these missions cannot be overstated given their impact on your constituents."   Astronomer Phil Plait, agreed that "the evisceration of Earth sciences means this bill is seriously, critically flawed."   Several Democratic lawmakers have also expressed their opposition to the spending cuts.   U.S. Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Tex.), the House committee''s ranking member, wrote this week: In addition to other problems in the bill, it cuts earth science funding by more than $320 million. Earth science, of course, includes climate science. Despite the fact that in January NASA announced 2014 was likely the warmest year since 1880, it should come as no surprise that the majority wants to cut funding for climate science. Embarrassingly, just last week, every single Republican member of this committee present voted against the notion that climate change might be caused by people.   In an analysis published by the Washington Post, Dr. Marshall Shepherd, professor of atmospheric sciences and geography at the University of Georgia and 2013 president of the American Meteorological Society, wrote:   As the former deputy project scientist for the Global Precipitation Measurement mission, I assure you that the level of cuts proposed for NASA’s earth sciences program would not only harm but end many programs. The engineering, ground systems, science, and support work of NASA earth science missions is supported by some of the most vibrant private aerospace and science-technology companies in the world.   "More importantly," Shepherd continued, "none of us has a ''vacation planet'' we can go to for the weekend, so I argue that NASA''s mission to study planet Earth should be a ''no-brainer''."   http://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-administrator-statement-on-house-authorization-bill http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-point-of-no-return-climate-change-nightmares-are-already-here-20150805 http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/summary-info/global/201507 http://www.newrepublic.com/article/122342/2015-year-record-breaking-extreme-weather http://www.ucsusa.org/our-work/global-warming/science-and-impacts/global-warming-science#.Vc0--rWpVow Visit the related web page
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