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Reporting on the Middle East, Science, and Education for June 10, 2009 - י"ח סיון תשס"ט
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by Hillel Fendel, Arutz Sheva, 10 June 09
The Global Humanitarian Forum in Geneva issued a report last month estimating that climate change now accounts for over 300,000 deaths throughout the world each year. The report also found that climate change “seriously impacts on the lives of 325 million people.”
(IsraelNN.com) The Knesset held an Environment Awareness Day on Tuesday, while outside, several dozen people demanded more public transportation as a way of fighting Israel’s contribution to global warming.
Several different panels and discussions were held on various environmental topics in the Knesset, dealing mainly with the topic of global warming and Israel’s preparations – or lack thereof – for the new U.N. international climate agreement that will succeed the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012. Israel is currently not listed among those countries that are required to reduce their carbon dioxide emissions, but this is expected to change in 2012.
The United Nations will hold its preparatory Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December of this year.
Proponents of more government support for public transportation say that 14% of Israel’s carbon emissions come from transportation, and that much of this is caused by private vehicle use.
MKs Zev Bielski, Nitzan Horowitz, Ophir Paz, Eitan Cabel and Dov Hanin took part in the outdoor demonstration on Tuesday, which featured a two-meter tall mock weight-scale, with a large globe on one side and a pile of private cars on the other.
The organizers called on Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz of the Likud to “lead a dramatic change regarding transportation emissions. Instead of traffic jams, air pollution, an end to open spaces [which are turned into highways], and traffic accidents, the correct approach is to invest much more in the encouragement of public transportation and improvement of its infrastructures.”
The Global Humanitarian Forum in Geneva issued a report last month estimating that climate change now accounts for over 300,000 deaths throughout the world each year. The report also found that climate change “seriously impacts on the lives of 325 million people.”
Forum President Kofi Annan said that climate change “is the greatest emerging humanitarian challenge of our time. Already today, it causes suffering to hundreds of millions of people, most of whom are not even aware that they are victims of climate change… We can no longer afford to ignore the human impact of climate change. Put simply, the report is a clarion call for negotiators at Copenhagen to come to the most ambitious international agreement ever negotiated – or continue to accept mass starvation, mass sickness and mass migration on an ever growing scale.”
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