Hasta La Gadget!

As we approach the second session of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA), it is important to put into perspective the challenges facing the international community ahead of this crucial meeting and the fundamental goals that underpin it.

The gathering in Nairobi will be a part of a much broader global reflection. Its landmark precedents, such as the United Nations Sustainable Development Summit, have put the world on the road to making environmental sustainability key to human development and our efforts to end poverty and hunger.

At the threshold of this journey, which starts at UNEA, lies the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its Sustainable Development Goals – a global cornerstone that marks a sharp turn in the international community’s course towards sustainable human development.

Evaluating accomplishments, measuring progress and quantifying pending objectives will be vital to the success of the Agenda 2030. The progress already made in recent years is enough to fill us with hope, but we cannot rest on our laurels, faced with the long list of unfinished tasks.

Poverty, inequality and exclusion continue to top the agendas of national governments and add complexity to planetary challenges. An abysmal distance still separates us from achieving a life of dignity for all; and every day the rapidly changing global dynamics adds new problems or exacerbates existing ones at a pace that far outstrips our ability to tackle them.

The unquestionable correlation between poverty and the environment obliges us to pay utmost attention to the role of environmental policies in tackling social inequality. Currently, the majority of people living in extreme poverty inhabit rural zones, where they rely on forests, natural resources and ecosystem services as their principal source of income. Paradoxically, global studies show that a vast proportion of these resources are subject to violent changes, degradation and unsustainable use, diminishing the capacity of ecosystems to satisfy the needs of peoples and nations.

Efforts to protect the environment are therefore also efforts to eradicate poverty. Loss of biodiversity, water scarcity, land-use changes and deforestation are not only a threat to nature, but also to the well-being of people. We must address these challenges if we are to achieve sustainable human development. To do this, we must move towards sustainable patterns of employment, production and consumption.

Neither hunger nor climate change will wait for us while we find solutions. Instead, we must take energetic, forceful decisions now if we are to turn the tide. It is time for ambitious proposals and audacious solutions. Now is the time to leave our comfort zones and accept our historic responsibility. It is the hour of new global paradigms, which will effectively change the direction towards a future that we all want.

In his report A life of dignity for all, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon wrote that, with our actions to implement the 2030 Agenda, “multilateralism is being tested.” This is an extremely accurate statement: the year 2030 is poised to become a trial for humanity, at which the strength of our political will and our ability to overcome today’s challenges will be judged.

We have a mission to foster a new global partnership, which will harness humanity’s accumulated knowledge to build momentous agreements that will guarantee the well-being of future generations. To achieve this, we must integrate the economic, social and environmental sustainability dimensions of agreements that are broad enough to cover the entire international community, but flexible enough to apply to every corner of the world.

Improving public-private partnerships and citizen participation, fostering technological development and accessibility to innovation, strengthening international cooperation, mobilizing internal resources responsibly and driving better governance – these are the key ingredients of the global political debate that are essential to achieving the environmental dimension of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

The seven cross-cutting thematic priorities of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) perfectly reflect the most urgent global issues and together constitute a guiding light for the construction of efficient environmental governance around the world. UNEA-2 offers us an opportunity to reflect on this and to agree on the steps necessary to realize the transformation we want. As we sit down at negotiating tables in Nairobi this week, a hope for a better planet and a life of dignity for us and for future generations will be our motivation.

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On May 21, 1991, nobody had really heard of Thelma, Louise or Brad Pitt yet.

Now, 25 years later, they are all a part of the American cultural zeitgeist. Thelma and Louise represent independence (and how to drive a car off a cliff in style), and Pitt represents how to succeed as a ridiculously handsome person.

To celebrate “Thelma and Louise’s” 25th anniversary, we went through some photos from the film’s California and New York premieres and cannot get enough of Susan Sarandon’s Lite Brite dress, Geena Davis’s puffy shirt, and that crazy four-year period when Pitt and Juliette Lewis were soooo in love.

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It wasn’t these emergency service teams’ finest hour.

Fists flew when the FDNY took on the NYPD in a family friendly charity football game in New York City on Saturday.

The “Fun City Bowl” fracas at MCU Park on Coney Island was caught on camera:

Two brawls broke out in quick succession after a police officer executed what onlookers labeled a “vicious” tackle on a firefighter during the final minutes of the game, the New York Post reports.

One firefighter was escorted away with blood dripping down his face. 

“They hit our quarterback out of bounds, and that’s how things started,” said FDNY coach Steve Orr. “There were a lot of hotheads there.”

Freelance photographer Angel Zayas filmed the entire incident.

“I think one of the FDNY guys exchanged words with the NYPD player and then from there, I couldn’t see what was happening, I just saw the crowds come around the player,” Zayas told NBC New York. 

But the brawl ceased almost as quickly as it had started. “At the end, they were all talking, it was like water under the bridge,” Zayas added.

The NYPD won the game 29-13. Police commissioner Bill Bratton did not allude to the fracas when he later congratulated his department’s players in a Twitter post.

The NYPD did, however, acknowledge the incident in a statement the department later issued.

“Football is a competitive sport, whether it is the NFL Super Bowl or the annual NYPD-FDNY challenge. It is part of the spirit of the sport, but it all ends on the field,” it said.

It’s not the first time that sports teams from the two services have clashed.

Their hockey teams also brawled during a charity match at Nassau Coliseum on Long Island in 2014.

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Will.i.am has a chequered history of making pieces of consumer technology that nobody
really
wants
. Now you can add to that list a pair of Bluetooth headphones.

Read more…

Katherine Johnson received a Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015 for her contribution to America’s Space Race, and soon more people will know what she did to deserve it. An upcoming book and movie both entitled Hidden Figures tell the story of NASA…