Mission Impossible, Codename: Globalization, By The Environment and Health Expert

Sunday, May 13, 2007

Article:

Global Environment Facility:
Abstract from: http://www.gefweb.org/default.aspx

Biodiversity

Biodiversity conservation constitutes one of the GEF’s greatest priorities. Since 1991, the GEF has invested nearly $7.6 billion in grants and cofinancing for biodiversity conservation in developing countries. As the financial mechanism for the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the GEF helps countries fulfill their obligations under the CBD.
The following four strategic priorities define and guide the work of the biodiversity focal area:
Catalyzing Sustainability of Protected Area Systems at National Levels
Mainstreaming Biodiversity Conservation in Production Landscapes/Seascapes and Sectors
Capacity Building for the Implementation of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety
Generation, Dissemination, and Uptake of Good Practices for Addressing Current and Emerging Biodiversity Issues
The strategic emphasis for the biodiversity focal area is on in situ conservation and sustainable use (Strategic Priorities One and Two); and furthering the impact of the GEF's catalytic role across the portfolio. In addition, the GEF biodiversity Strategic Priorities support the CBD's current work programs and reflect the current thinking within the conservation community.
GEF and the UN Convention on Biological Diversity
The GEF is the “institutional structure entrusted with operation of the financial mechanism of the CBD.” Through enabling activities, national biodiversity strategy and action plans, and other obligations under the CBD, it provides financial support. This support is consistent with the CBD guidance to help developing and countries in transition conserve and sustainably use biodiversity.

Climate Change

GEF projects in climate change help developing countries and economies in transition to contribute to the overall objective of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The projects support measures that minimize climate change damage by reducing the risk, or the adverse effects, of climate change.
Climate change mitigation. The GEF supports projects that reduce or avoid greenhouse gas emissions in the areas of renewable energy, energy efficiency, and sustainable transport.
Climate change adaptation. The GEF supports interventions that increase resilience to the adverse impacts of climate change of vulnerable countries, sectors, and communitie
As the financial mechanism of the Climate Convention, GEF allocates and disburses about $250 million dollars per year in projects in energy efficiency, renewable energies, and sustainable transportation. Moreover, it manages two special funds under the UNFCCC — the Least Developed Countries Fund and the Special Climate Change Fund.

International Waters

The GEF international waters focal area targets transboundary water systems, such as river basins with water flowing from one country to another, groundwater resources shared by several countries, or marine ecosystems bounded by more than one nation. Some of the issues addressed are:
transboundary water pollution
over-extraction of groundwater resources
unsustainable exploitation of fisheries
protection of fisheries habitats
invasive species
balancing competing uses of water resources
Because water does not respect national boundaries, multicountry actions are necessary to foster sustainable development of these large systems which cover most of the earth. The GEF helps countries to collaborate with their neighbors to modify human activities that place stress on these transboundary water systems and interfere with downstream uses of those resources. In this way, water use conflicts can be prevented, security improved, and sustainable resource use fostered in support of global goals.
International Waters in the GEF Operational Strategy
GEF international waters projects help countries to deal with concerns in all types of transboundary water systems, ranging from river basins, lake basins, and groundwater systems, to coasts and large marine ecosystems where most fisheries are harvested, to the open ocean.
The focal area supports projects that help countries:
Learn to work together on their key transboundary concerns
Set priorities for joint action
Implement those actions if a political commitment to sustainability is shown
The GEF plays a catalytic role in helping nations making full use of policy, legal, and institutional reforms and investments necessary to address these complex concerns about transboundary water resources.

Future Perfect; Environment and Health Expert 6:28 AM

My reflection:

Global Environment Facility is an international organization which operates to provide conservation finance to set up funds to protect the global environment. Since 1991, the Global Environment Facility has provided more than $6.2 billion in grants and generated over $20 billion in co-financing from other sources. This has supported over 1,800 projects that produce global environmental benefits in 140 developing countries and countries with economies in transition.[1]

This article is formed by abstracts from different aspects of Global Environment Facility’s work. Their work are made efficient by globalization and they deal with the environmental consequence of globalization such as biodiversity, international water, climate change as mentioned in the article I have chosen. They also deal with the land degradation, ozone depletion etc. Under each category, the article include how much Global Environment Facility has spent to solve the environmental problems, what strategy they have applied to solve them and moreover, briefly some information on the projects conducted by Global Environment Facility to deal with the environmental challenge.

The Global Environment Facility is just one of the many international environment organizations which are set up to deal with the increasing environmental challenges. For example, there are also the UN Environment Programme (UNEP); the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC); the Forest Stewardship Council; International Union of Forest Research Organizations and so on. The UN Environment Programme mainly focus on promoting sustainable development and environmental policies in developing countries with local governments. Using the UN Environment Programme as example, the UNEP has also been active in funding and implementing environmentally related development projects. Recently, it published Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change which both showed the urge impotency to do something about climate change and suggested some methods about how to deal with them.

Why there are so many international environment organisations? Firstly, this is because of the growing communications between nations. Due to globalisation which result in increasing migration, trade, transportation and culture communication, more and more countries as coming together as one. They are also coming to face similar challenges, such as the environmental one. Some environmental problems such as the international water which will cross boundary know nothing about the border, will affect many countries together and can not be solved by one country’s effort. Hence, there is a need of international organisations to operate different countries around the world towards the same goal. Secondly, due to globalisation, increasing in pollution by increasing industry activities, trades, transportations are inevitable. Hence there is an increase in need of international organisations as the environmental challenge is becoming more and more serious.

Hence, we can see that international organisations are result forms of gloablisations to solve the problem caused by gloablisation.

[1]Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Environment_Facility

Signing off,
Li shihan

Future Perfect; Environment and Health Expert 6:25 AM

Monday, May 7, 2007

Article

Choking Sand Storms Head for South Korea: Agency
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SOUTH KOREA: February 23, 2007
http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/40474/story.htm

SEOUL - South Korea said a pall of sand mixed with toxic dust from China could make its way to the Korean peninsula late on Thursday, starting a seasonal event blamed for scores of deaths and billions of dollars in damages.

The sand storms have been growing in frequency and toxicity over the years because of China's rapid economic growth and have led to increased tension with neighbours South Korea and Japan.
"There is an increasing possibility that yellow dust will appear some time between Thursday night and Friday," South Korea's Meteorological Administration said in a posting on its Web site.

The dust, which originates in the Gobi Desert in China, picks up heavy metals and carcinogens such as dioxin as it passes over Chinese industrial regions, before hitting North and South Korea and Japan, meteorologists say.

Dry weather and seasonal winds in China hurl millions of tonnes of sand at the Korean peninsula and Japan each spring.

South Korea used to have yellow dust storms about four days a year in the 1980s, nearly eight days a year in the 1990s and over 12 days a year since 2000, the Environment Ministry said.

The state-sponsored Korea Environment Institute said the dust kills up to 165 South Koreans a year, mostly the elderly or those with respiratory ailments, and make as many as 1.8 million ill.

Annual economic damage to South Korea from the storms is estimated at between 4.2 trillion won to 5.5 trillion won ($4.47 billion to $5.86 billion), according to the institute.

When a storm hits, skies turn a jaundiced hue. Schools shut down and warnings are issued for the young, elderly and those with respiratory ailments to stay inside. Commercial aviation can grind to a halt.

Hynix Semiconductor Inc., the world's second-biggest maker of computer memory chips, said it has to step up its filtration systems to keep the air clean at its sensitive production lines in South Korea.

China is likely to suffer more severe sandstorms than normal this spring because of an unusually dry winter, the country's media reported in January.

Beijing, which had 17 sandstorms in the spring of 2006, has pledged to hold a sandstorm-free Olympics in 2008 and has begun campaigns to repair denuded land and rein in over-grazing and over-logging.

South Korea said in December it has reached a deal with Mongolia and China to set up more monitoring stations for dust storms. Environmentalists said it will take a huge amount of money to contain desertification in China's arid regions.

South Korean stores, knowing the problem will not disappear soon, offer special scarves, hats and other accessories for the yellow dust season.

By Jon Herskovitz and Jack Kim

Future Perfect; Environment and Health Expert 10:30 PM

MY REFLECTION:

The article mainly talks about one type of cross boundary pollution, air pollution. Pollution does not respect boundaries. It can drift by air or sea or be imported as waste aboard ships, from one jurisdiction to another. It is inevitable. Some countries may not need to be responsible for those pollutions but with increasing globalization of pollutions, they have to spend money to deal with problems that are not triggered by their own.

Globalization is double edged sword. It does bring both benefit and problems to our world, depending what is being globalized and to what extent people benefit from it. Facing the problem showing in the article, the globalization of pollutions is certainly not a good thing. As the article described, there are scores of deaths and billions of dollars in damages due to the sand pollution in China pass over to South Korea and Japan. Moreover, it also increases the tension in neighbor countries’ relationship. There are also many other pollutions which are able to cross border. For example, there are garbages from the Chinese mainland washes up on Kinmen's shore which is in Taiwan. Contaminated seawater from China also travels to Japan, South Korea and Hong Kong through the Yellow and East China seas. Further more, there are reports saying that pollution from Asia is helping generate stronger storms over the North Pacific. Satellite measurements have shown an increase in tiny particles generated from coal burning in China and India in recent decades. Comparing 1984-1994 with 1994-2005 they found an increase of 20 percent to 50 percent in deep convective clouds. In addition, smoke from burning jungles in Indonesia spread across wider portions of Southeast Asia last Novermber testing the relationship between the neighbours.

Moreover, globalisation worsen the problem to some extent. Tasking the examples mentioned in the articles, Why Bei jing has to suffer at least 6 sand storms per year? This also has something to do with the globalisation in China. As there are more and more foreign investments in China, there are less spaces for houses, factories and morden facilities. People have to cut down the trees resulting more soil can not be hold by the root of the trees in raining days. They begin to move with wind and thus there are increasing amount of sand. Moverover, increasing factories globally inreases the amount of contaminated water, polluted air and toxin chemicals emitted. This in term results in worsen pollution state in original country. Then due to the natural factors, such as wind, rain etc, those pollutions are transformed to other countries resulting in pollution globalisation.

Then how to solve the cross boundary pollution problem? I think the only way to tackle these problems is through joint efforts in which all parties share responsibility for reducing pollution. It may not be fair to those countries who do not trigger the problem but suffer the consequences, like Singapore in the issue of Indonesia Smoke. However, since those pollutions have come to their own countries, governments have the responsibility to reduce them for the sick of their people. They may set up funds to build clear up facilities, filtration systems etc for treatment of the pollution. In addition, neighbour countries may come into agreement to join force to solve the problem. For example, South Korea has reached a deal with Mongolia and China to set up more monitoring stations for dust storms. Moreover, international organizations can also be set up to solve the cross boundary problems. For example, the Environmental Protection Department (EPD) has set up a Cross-boundary and International Division to put a sharper focus on our efforts to deal with regional and international pollution issues. The EPD’s efforts to reduce trans-boundary pollution reflect the idea that environmental protection is a shared responsibility.

Hence, in conclusion, globalization of cross boundary pollutions is certainly a disadvantage of the globalization. However, it has to use the force of globalization to control the situation and lessen the problem.

Sign off,
Li shihan
Environmental and health expert

Future Perfect; Environment and Health Expert 10:26 PM

Saturday, April 28, 2007

My Reflection:

The abstract of the article mainly talks about the trends in the global spread of HIVs, some causes of the trend, international organizations that are set up to prevent and care for the infected people and their effectiveness. It brings out the fact that despite there are increasing funds for prevention and treatment of HIVs, it continues to intensify in most regions. The increasingly mobile global migration can be blamed as one of the reasons for the spread of HIVs. Moreover, the health consequence of the globalization is more likely to affect poor women than poor men. In the article, it is also argued that even though there are increasing amount of money being spent to prevent and treat, the shortfalls in both money and number of people they reach out is limited only to a small number of people.

Firstly, I agree that HIVs is a kind of global diseases which post challenge in most countries around the world. HIV infection rates and prevalence continue to increase world wide. It is expanding and intensifying globally. For example, as the article mentioned, in sub-Saharan Africa, Eastern Europe and Central Asia, account for approximately 79% of new infections between 1998 and 2003. In addition, there is estimation that by the year 2015, there will be an around 16 million children orphaned by HIVs in Africa alone. This kind of global diseases can be said to be speed up by globalization to some extent. Globalization is defined as: “the drive towards an economic system dominated by supranational trade and banking institutions that are not accountable to democratic processes or national government” (From www.globalisationguide.org/01.html) It can be shown through increasing economic, social, and technological exchange between countries around the world. As people are moving across the borders in search of new economic and education opportunities, or in search of lives free from political conflict and violence, they may bring together their viruses that causes HIVs, and often, they meet the virus at their destinations. Hence in another words, increasing globalization makes spread of HIVs easier.

However, we have to take into account that the globalization only speed up the spread of HIVs but not causes them. It also can not explain the fact that there are relatively more HIV infections in poor regions. Instead, other factors such as poverty, disease, famine, political and economic instability and weak health infrastructure cause a country to be more vulnerable to HIV viruses. The virus will cross boarder with ease and be particularly comfortable in regions with above conditions. This is because, those regions have less control over the diseases as they have to care for their political, economical problems first. Moreover, they do not have the ability to raise money and enforce policies to control the situation of HIVs. For example, in sub-Saharan Africa where the greatest numbers of people infected with HIVs exist, the governments pay little attentions to the spread of HIVs. The money they spent on HIVs is much less than that spent by European countries where HIVs infections are not as serious as their own countries.

On the other hand, even though globalization speeds up the spread of HIVs, it also gives solutions to the global health challenge. Numerous international funds have been set up in recent times to address HIVs infections. They usually send people out to talk and teach locals, set up more efficient heath institutions, infrastructures, and conduct studies on recent HIVs infection trends. For example, there are 99 projects in 56 countries funded by the World Bank to both prevent the spread and take care of those infected. Moreover, there are approximately US$330 million available for HIV/AIDS initiatives worldwide in1996, a figure which had risen to US$4.7 billion by 2003. There is also progress made. As in Africa, there is increasing number of people to use contraceptives methods to prevent spread of HIVs and those infected people are living longer than they have ever done. Treatment for HIV has also increased by 8 times. Despite all those progresses, those international organizations can not be said effective to a large extent. Most importantly, the numbers of people treated by them are limited. For example, the project financed by World Bank only reaches out to a million people which make up 23% of the infected. In addition, the Global Coalition on Women and AIDS reach less than 10% of pregnant women to prevent mother-to-child transmission, and no more than 26% of sex workers have any access to HIV prevention support. So although those programme help, it does not help most of the people.

Hence, in conclusion, the HIV/AIDS epidemic has highlighted the global nature of human health. Even though, globalization brings negative impact on speeding up the spread of dideases, it has also given rise to a trend toward finding solutions to global health challenges, like HIVs. Those global funds and international organizations may not be efficient enough, but they are making progress.

Sign off,
Li shihan
Environmental and Health Expert

Future Perfect; Environment and Health Expert 4:24 AM

Abstract from:
HIV/AIDS: global trends, global funds and delivery bottlenecks
By: Hoosen M Coovadia and Jacqui Hadingham
URL link: http://www.globalizationandhealth.com/content/1/1/13

Trends in the global epidemic

Despite increased resources being available to address the global AIDS challenge, the infection continues to spread. HIV prevalence is intensifying in most regions, with sub-Saharan Africa, Eastern Europe and Central Asia being the worst hit, accounting for approximately 79% of new infections between 1998 and 2003. Although the greatest number of people living with HIV are in sub-Saharan Africa, of equal concern is the growing epidemic in Central Asia.

The epidemiology of the disease differs between regions. It has been suggested that, due to dissimilar patterns of sexual behaviour between Africa and Asia, the extent of the spread to the heterosexual population in Asia will be circumscribed. In most of sub-Saharan Africa, HIV spreads through an intricate web of relationships from sex workers to male clients to female spouses/partners. According to Peter Piot of UNAIDS, females in Africa generally report more sexual partners than their Asian counterparts. In most of Central Asia transmission is virtually linear, from intravenous drug users to sex workers to male clients to female spouses/partners, with women tending to monogamy. The next decade will attest to the accuracy or error of this prediction. Rising prevalence is, however, not confined to developing countries, as an increase in the number of HIV infections is evident in all other regions except South and South East Asia (where inconsistencies in data collection methods have tended to skew the figures).

Several trends shape the HIV epidemiological curve

An increasingly mobile global population exacerbates the risk of HIV transmission. The increasing volume of international travel contributes to the spread of sexually transmitted infections, including HIV. Refugee populations arising from areas of conflict, estimated by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees to number 9,7 million worldwide, are at higher risk, as are internal migrants within countries, who oscillate between rural and urban milieux. According to the International Labour Organisation, at the beginning of the 21st century, 120 million workers worldwide were migrants.

Females are more at risk of contracting HIV than males. In 1997, women accounted for 41% of people living with HIV worldwide. This figure had risen to almost 50% by 2002. This gender-bias is especially apparent in sub-Saharan Africa, where the majority of those infected are women and girls. Widespread wars and regional conflicts in Africa escalate, by orders of magnitude, the risk of rape of women and girls. The low social status of women, risky sexual practices, and endemic poverty in Africa contribute to the spread of the disease. The impact on women is less marked in Asia (where 28% of those infected are women), although women's low socio-economic status renders them more susceptible to infection. Women's increased vulnerability to HIV infection is not confined to developing countries. Between 2001 and 2003, the percentage of HIV-infected who are women increased in North America from 20% to 25%, and in Oceania from 17% to 19%, suggesting that gender inequalities underpin the transmission of HIV.

Global funds

Various global initiatives and collaborations are addressing the global HIV/AIDS challenge. For example, the United Nations Millennium Development Declaration, signed in 2000 by 189 nations, encompasses eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), three of which are health related: reducing child mortality, improving maternal health, and combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases, by 2015. Many international organizations have been set up to assist in funding and implementing HIV prevention and care programmes and related health initiatives worldwide. These include the President's Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief (PEPFAR); the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria; RollBack Malaria, the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization; the Global Health Council; Médecins sans Frontiers; the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; the World Bank Multi Country HIV/AIDS Programme (MAP); the Accelerating Access Initiative and the William J. Clinton Presidential Foundation. These organizations contribute increasing amounts of money to confront AIDS and other pressing global health issues. UNAIDS reports that in 1996, approximately US$330 million was available for HIV/AIDS initiatives worldwide, a figure which had risen to US$4.7 billion by 2003. Although this represents a huge increase in funding, it is still less than half the amount of US$12 billion that is now required, and this exigency is expected to rise to US$20 billion by 2007.

Despite the large amount of aid being made available in addressing the AIDS epidemic, shortfalls in both money and numbers of people being reached are apparent. Of the estimated 6 million people in developing countries who are in need of ART, only 400,000 currently receive it. Of these, 208,000 are in Brazil alone. Even if the World Health Organization's '3 by 5' effort, which aims to provide treatment to 3 million people by the end of 2005, is successful, it will have addressed only 50% of the demand for treatment at the current level of need. The MDGs are unlikely to be met at the current rates of progress, with the worst affected countries likely to make the least headway.

Future Perfect; Environment and Health Expert 4:17 AM

Sunday, April 22, 2007

My reflection:

Bird flu is a sign of globalization, but it is inevitable. You can not prevent bird from flying from one place to another. This shows that there are actually some kind of globalization despite it is good or not, it can not be prevented. For example, the transitional frog which usually affects Singapore on November and December are come from the Indonesia. We can do nothing about this. This kind of globalization is carries out by environment factors, such as the wind, sun, rain, birds etc. Another example is globalisation of SARS, which is another kind of global diseases. The SARS starts in Guangdong in Chinese Mainland and then gradually spread across to countries like, Toronto, Vancouver, Ulan Bator, Manila, Singapore, Hanoi, Taiwan.

To some extent, the SARS and bird flu such diseases can be said to be caused by the globalization. If there is no increase in the transportation and communication due to globalization, the spread of such diseases may not be so fast. For instance, only a few decades ago, traveling abroad from the Indian subcontinent was so rare that the adventurous traveler's entire family would accompany him to the airport along with much pomp and circumstance, including occasionally a brass band, to bid him farewell. Today, people think nothing of having breakfast on one continent and dinner on another. And many people go abroad to work, either permanently or temporarily. This shows the increase in transportation due to globalization. That is why during the SARS period, people traveling from city to another and country to another is very difficult. There are strict rules and checks in different transportation stations, such as airport, harbours etc.For example, in March 2003, people in China in other cities have difficulty to go into Beijing, even not from Tianjin which is the nearest city to Beijing. They can only go in after checks from hospital and get certificate to show that they are “safe”.

Then how to manage a disease that will spread everywhere? One or two countries certainly can not solve this problem as they have limited access and right to control what is happening in other countries. That is why international committees come into places. WHO(World Health Organization) is an example. It was established on 7 April 1948. WHO's objective, as set out in its Constitution, is the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of health. WHO is governed by 193 Member States through the World Health Assembly. The main tasks of the World Health Assembly are to approve the WHO programm and the budget for the following biennium and to decide major policy questions. For example, to deal with the bird flu, the WHO has collected data of bird flu around the world as 186 human cases and 105 deaths since 2003. Samples of avian flu virus are also sent to the World Health Organization to be studied and seen whether vaccine can be produced or not.

Hence there are some kind of globalizations, which is not preventable, can be fasten by the act of globalization but also need the effect of globalization to solve the problem.

Sign off,

Li shihan

Environmental and health expert

Future Perfect; Environment and Health Expert 7:01 PM