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Microplastics in Soil – Small Size Big Impact on U.S. and Chinese Agriculture
›Collecting plastic fragments was a game he played while helping his parents farm when growing up in rural Shandong Province, says Dr. Zhao Kaiguang, who is now an associate professor of Environment and Natural Resources at The Ohio State University: “I wanted to collect the most, but did not realize the serious negative implications of leaving plastic in the soil.”
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Pay More Attention to the United Nations Universal Periodic Review
›“To attack the most vulnerable—babies, children, pregnant women, and those already suffering from illness and disease, and health workers risking their own lives to save lives—is an act of unconscionable cruelty,” says a Joint Statement from UNICEF, UNFPA, and WHO in response to the ongoing war in Ukraine. To monitor human rights abuses such as this and improve human rights conditions around the world, the United Nations (UN) General Assembly established the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) in 2006. The UPR produces purposeful engagement by all 193 UN member states participating in the periodic reviews. Despite the UPR’s potential to advance human rights—and by extension improve human security—this novel human rights mechanism receives little attention among scholars and policymakers. This lack of interest in the UPR needs to change. More research could shed light on its role in improving human rights outcomes in conflict-free countries as well as in countries experiencing conflict like in Ukraine, Syria, and Ethiopia.
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Gender Inequality in Mexico’s Fractured Public Health System
›Dot-Mom // From the Wilson Center // Guest Contributor // April 20, 2022 // By Samantha Kane JiménezIn recent years, Mexican women have experienced a significant downgrade in the quality and accessibility of public healthcare – and not due to the COVID-19 pandemic – said Irene Tello, Executive Director of Mexican impunity watchdog Impunidad Cero, at a recent event hosted by the Wilson Center’s Mexico Institute. The expert panel agreed that the greatest barriers for Mexican women seeking medical attention lie in the current government’s nearsighted health policies and mismanagement of the public health sector.
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#BringBackOurGirls: Ecofeminism, Climate, and Conflict
›On the night of April 14, 2014, a group of militants attacked the Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok, Nigeria. They kidnapped 276 female students, ranging from ages 15 to 19 years. An armed group called Boko Haram claimed responsibility for the kidnapping.
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Harnessing the Power of ‘Other’: Cities Where Human Mobility is not a Threat
›“This is not the refugee wave we have been used to, people we were not sure about their identity, people with unclear pasts, who could have been even terrorists. In other words, there is not a single European country now which is afraid of the current wave of refugees.”
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What Next for Climate Security? Implications From IPCC Working Group II 6th Assessment Report
›The recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 6th Assessment Report (AR6) from Working Group II (WG2): Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability presents the stark implications of climate change. At today’s warming level of 1.1°C, a wide range of impacts to people and nature are attributed to human-caused climate change, including hindering progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), damaging infrastructure and economic activities, harming human health and causing excess deaths, and increasing humanitarian needs. Some impacts, like those on sensitive ecosystems, are already irreversible. The more vulnerable are hit harder, due to pre-existing structural conditions that increase their exposure and sensitivity to hazards.
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#DontMuteDC: Go-Go and Social Justice in the District of Columbia
›In April 2022, as Washington awoke from its COVID slumber, The Kennedy Center turned to long-time community activist Ron Moten to organize a tribute to the city’s endemic sound, Go-Go. Moten has fought numerous battles against gentrification, displacement, and for social justice. He learned over the years that the loss of distinctive cultures stands at the heart of the dislocations occurring in cities across the nation. This embrace led to the establishment three years ago of a particularly potent urban social action group, #DontMuteDC. That movement’s story offers several important lessons about the power of the arts to mobilize support for social change.
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The Climate Solutions That Play Double-Duty
›Finance for climate action is growing—however, much of this money is being invested in wealthier nations, while the regions where funds are needed most are often overlooked and underfunded by both public and private institutions. The good news for funders is that there are climate solutions that not only significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but also create cascading social and public health benefits for communities on the frontlines of the climate crisis. For those looking to get the biggest return on their investment—for both people and planet—we offer two particularly promising solutions: ramp up funding for clean cooking and electricity where they matter most.
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