Bill and Melinda Gates have pledged $10 billion in a bid to save millions of lives during the next decade with vaccines. The funds will support efforts to provide vaccinations for diseases such as measles, diphtheria and polio, and develop new vaccines.
Vaccines already get more financing from the Gates Foundation than any other cause, and Mr. Gates said no money would be shifted away from other projects, like improved crops, assistance to small businesses and, on the domestic front, schools and libraries. Instead, he and Warren Buffett will increase their annual gifts to the foundation, and about 30 percent of all spending, up from 20 percent, will be for vaccines.
A report assembled by the Rights and Resources Initiative and conservation partners argues the failure to reach a concrete initiative at the UN climate talks in Copenhagen demonstrates the West does not have an adequate plan to implement or enforce Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation, its program for curbing deforestation.
Though REDD has attracted billions in pledges, critics say corruption in heavily forested nations could lead to indigenous peoples being deprived of their rights — one reason the report recommends indigenous forest populations should be tasked with monitoring the forests.
It would seem like fairly simple logic: If you want to help protect the environment, help save the forests. Huge amounts of carbon dioxide are stored in plants and the soil beneath them. So, clearing forests using slash-and-burn techniques only succeeds in releasing harmful CO2 and methane gas into the atmosphere.
Read more on: Der Spiegel (Germany) (English online version)
The Hope for Haiti Now global telethon is also an extraordinary digital album including performances by lots of famous artists, along with a bonus track from Jay-Z, Bono, the Edge and Rihanna. You can also own the two-hour telethon video.
All proceeds from album and video sales will go to the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund, Oxfam America, Partners in Health, Red Cross, UNICEF, United Nations World Food Programme and Yele Haiti Foundation.
That’s what former Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton both asked as the devastating impact of the earthquake in Haiti became clear. This question brought them to a place they both know well, the Oval Office. There they met with President Obama and agreed to lead a major fundraising effort for relief: the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund.
There were no saving graces in the devastation. The earthquake leveled schools, hospitals, the cathedral, U.N. peacekeeping headquarters, countless homes and the presidential palace. It destroyed a prison, allowing inmates to escape, the last thing needed in a country reeling in chaos, grief and trepidation.
Every now and then, a disaster strikes with such consequence that nations around the world confront their common humanity. Such is the case with the earthquake in Haiti, the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere. As the magnitude of the destruction became more apparent with each hour, the estimates of fatalities varied wildly, ranging from horrific to cataclysmic. Read more
Cameroon star forward Samuel Eto’o, whose side is one of the 12 teams being sponsored by Puma at the African Nations Cup finals which start in Angola on Sunday, took part in the unveiling of the new uniform.
German sportswear giant Puma has teamed with the United Nations Environmental Programme to support the 2010 International Year of Biodiversity. Puma has created African Unity Kits teams can use during the 2010 World Cup finals in South Africa and will donate funds from sales to support biodiversity projects in Africa.
The UN declared 2010 the International Year of Biodiversity (IYB). Throughout the year countless initiatives will be organized to disseminate information, promote the protection of biodiversity and encourage organizations, institutions, companies and individuals to take direct action to reduce the constant loss of biological diversity worldwide.
