ABIDJAN, Cote d'Ivoire (PAMACC News) - Early intervention and strong political will to fight against environmental harzards have helped Ivory Coast avert what would have been a damaging toxic dumping tragedy, says a United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) audit report.The audit report presented today at the Bamako COP 2 assembly in Abidjan, lauded the timely intervention of the Ivorian government with measures to mitigate what would have been the worst environmental disaster in the country.“It is reassuring to see that with early intervention and strong political will, a disaster like the chemical contamination incident in Côte d’Ivoire can be mitigated over time,” UN Environment Deputy Executive Director Ibrahim Thiaw said.“This independent and scientific environmental audit of the sites gives us access to a vault of best practices and pitfalls of the disaster response, and allows us to learn from a tragedy like this,” he added.The UNEP regional director for Africa Juliette Biao Koudenoukpo noted that though there was general lethargy in most African countries to implement the Bamako Convention on preventing Africa from becoming the dumping ground for toxic waster, the example from Ivory Coast shows that innovative pathways can bring lasting solutions once there is a clear political will."We are proud of the measures put in place by the government of Ivory Coast to fight against toxic waste dumping and environmental pollution," she noted. It should be recalled that national and international civil society organisations decried the illegal dumping of toxic waste in and around Abidjan, Ivory Coast, six years ago, by a multinational company, Trafigura.Different organisations had published reports including documentation of various illnesses people in the areas where such dumping were taking place have been suffering from as a result of the dumping of toxic waste in their communities.But the good news is that the Ivorian government reacted promptly to ward off what experts say would have been the worst environmental disaster in the entire West Africa.The UN Environment thus conducted an independent audit of the sites affected by the 2006 waste dumping from the Probo Koala in various parts of Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.According to the audit, multiple innovative actions were put in place just on time by the government.The audit noted that in reality on 19 August 2006 the Probo Koala, chartered by shipping firm Trafigura, offloaded 528 cubic metres of liquid waste in the port of Abidjan. The waste was then transferred onto tanker trucks operated by a local contractor and dumped in 12 different locations around Abidjan.Hours after the dumping, residents reported being overwhelmed by a strong smell and experiencing detrimental health effects such as respiratory difficulties and skin irritations.As a precautionary measure, the Ivorian government ordered the closure of schools in affected areas and the destruction of fruits and vegetables grown near dumping sites.Livestock raised in proximity to some sites was also culled while fishing was banned in the bays of the Ébrié Lagoon.In other measures the government provided medical assistance and facilities to over 100.000 people affected just weeks immediately following the…

2018 Kurt Schork Awards in International Journalism The Kurt Schork Memorial Fund (KSMF) is now accepting submissions for its 2018 awards in international journalism. Since its inception in 2002, the Kurt Schork Memorial Fund has sought to support those journalists Kurt most admired, the freelancers and local reporters whose work is often poorly paid, mostly unsung and all too often fraught with danger. Today, the three annual awards, for freelance and local journalism and, since 2017, for news fixers, are recognized worldwide as a mark of excellence and have an established track record for brave reporting on conflict, corruption and injustice. The 17th annual call for awards is therefore now split into three categories: a Local Reporter award that recognizes the often over-looked work of journalists in developing nations or countries in transition who write about events in their homeland. a Freelance award for those journalists who travel to the world’s conflict zones, usually at great personal risk, to witness and report the impact and consequences of events. A News Fixer award rewarding local journalists and/or experts, hired by a visiting foreign reporter or news organization, whose guidance and local knowledge materially benefited the content, impact and reach of the stories submitted. Each award is for $5,000 and will be presented at a prestigious ceremony in London in late October or November 2017. Since 2009, the awards ceremony has been hosted at the Thomson Reuters Foundation’s main offices in Canary Wharf, London. The deadline for entries is midnight (GMT) on Wednesday, May 31. If you would like to apply, or make a nomination for the newly introduced News Fixer award, please visit the 2018 entry form page which provides definitions for each of the award categories and will guide you through the application process. Some of the main detail is also included below: 2018 Submission criteria Three separate articles must be submitted, including when journalists are nominating fixers for the new award. The submitted articles must have been published between June 1, 2017 and May 31, 2018. Accepted media: any print-based medium, such as newspapers and magazines, or established online publications. Blogs, personal websites and social media pages or channels are not accepted. Articles can encompass war reporting, human rights issues, cross-border troubles, corruption or other controversial matters impacting on people’s lives. Judges will be looking for professionalism, high journalistic standards, and evidence of dedication and courage in obtaining the story. Because of problems with scanned entries and failed links in previous years, we require that each article be provided as a text file – MS Word (.doc or .docx) or similar text format (.rtf), or a PDF of a text file. You may supply a URL link to your article(s), or a scan (as a PDF or JPG file) as supporting evidence of the publication context, but your entry will be disqualified if you do not also submit the required text files. The awards panel will take into account nominations for fixers who have received more than one recommendation…

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (PAMACC News) - Africa could see its energy shortfall significantly improved with the launch of a map showing the continents rich resource potentials and opportunities for investors in especially renewable energy exploitation. The new Atlas launched today January 30th,2018 in Abidjan, Cote D’Ivoire,by the UN Environment and African Development Bank shows energy exploitation hot spots in the continent and some opportunities up for grabs for investors in the sector. Prepared in cooperation with the Environment Pulse Institute, United States Geological Survey and George Mason University, the Atlas consolidates the information on the energy landscape in Africa. It provides information in the form of detailed ‘before and after’ images, charts, maps and other satellite data from 54 countries through visuals detailing the challenges and opportunities in providing Africa’s population with access to reliable, affordable and modern energy services. “The Atlas makes a strong case that investments in green energy infrastructure can bolster Africa’s economic development and bring it closer to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals,” said Juliette Biao Koudenoukpo, Director and Regional Representative, UN Environment, Africa Office. “It is an important policy guide for African governments as they strive to catalyze national development by making use of their energy resources,” she added. The Atlas shows both the potential and the fragility of the continent’s energy resources which are at the heart of Africa’s socio-economic development. It highlights some success stories of sustainable energy development around the continent, but it also puts the spotlight on major environmental challenges associated with energy infrastructure development. The report accompanying the launch notes that Africa is endowed with enormous renewable and non-renewable resources that can be tapped by investors to boost economic development and fight against poverty. Investments in green energy infrastructure can bolster Africa’s economic development and bring it closer to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals , the report says. Energy consumption in Africa is the lowest in the world, and per capita consumption has barely changed since 2000 shows.Some useful findings contained in the Atlas include; that the poorest African households spend 20 times more per unit of energy than wealthy households when connected to the grid. It also revealed that Africa has the world’s lowest per capita energy consumption: with 16 per cent of the world’s population (1.18 billion people out of 7.35 billion) it consumes about 3.3 per cent of global primary energy. With current trends, it will take Africa until 2080 to achieve full access to electricity. Of all energy sources, Africa consumes most oil (42 per cent of its total energy consumption) followed by gas (28 per cent), coal (22 per cent), hydro (6 per cent), renewable energy (1 per cent) and nuclear (1 per cent). Africa is the world’s seventh largest coal producer and accounts for 94 per cent of Africa’s coal production. Africa’s renewable energy resources are diverse, unevenly distributed and enormous in quantity — almost unlimited solar potential (10 TW), abundant hydro (350 GW), wind (110 GW) and geothermal energy sources (15 GW). Nearly…

EARTH MEANDERS DEEP ECOLOGY ESSAY Our one shared living biosphere is collapsing and dying. Continued being depends urgently upon reconnecting with nature through global embrace of an ecology ethic whose individual affirmative outcomes for natural ecosystems are sufficient in sum to sustain global nature. A primary ethical measure of a person is the degree to which their lifestyle positively or negatively impacts nature. "Ecology is the meaning of life. Truth, justice, equity, and sustainability are the ideals whereby ecology is maintained." – Dr. Glen Barry "A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise.” – Aldo Leopod, The Land Ethic, A Sand County Almanac. "To cherish what remains of the Earth and to foster its renewal is our only legitimate hope of survival." – Wendell Berry "To the question: Wilderness, who needs it? Doc would say: Because we like the taste of freedom, comrades." – Edward Abbey, The Monkey Wrench Gang Let’s start from the self-evident premise that Earth is a living organism. Like cells aggregating to tissues, and onward into organisms and populations; species and ecosystems are the lower level parts of the biosphere in sum. Old forests, natural waterways, oceans, soils, wetlands, and the atmosphere are the organs that together constitute a living Earth. Big old trees in large, connected and ecologically intact old-growth forests stabilize global climate and power the biosphere, making Earth habitable. Water is the elixir of life without which organic life is not possible. Soils take millennia to accumulate, providing the basis for plants, food growth, and ultimately wildlife and humanity. Wetlands and oceans, the atmosphere and climate, together constitute the environment needed by all life. Such natural ecosystems – and the cyclic homeostasis of their interactions – provide the basis for all life and are thus godlike and worthy of veneration. Modern lifestyles have forsaken the ethical framework necessary to perpetuate 3.5 billion years of natural evolution. Ancient flows of energy and nutrients between air, land, water and ocean ecosystems - that maintain our one shared biosphere - are ending. Earth is being killed by human industrial growth caused ecosystem loss, abrupt climate change, over-population, nationalistic perma-war, and inequity and injustice. Global biosphere collapse, the end of being, is upon us. Ecologists have been warning of global ecosystem collapse and abrupt climate change for decades. So many of the "natural disasters" we see in the daily news are in fact symptoms of this decline. However, much nature remains, and lag times when natural loss inevitably collapses the whole are unknown. And Earth is amazingly tough and regenerative (but not infinitely so). There may be a brief window of opportunity to transition together to global ecological sustainability, otherwise together we face biosphere collapse and the end of being. But it will require a revolutionary change in mindset – an "ecology ethic" which will be herein defined – to be nearly universally accepted. And fast. A habitable global environment…