The UNESCO Courier - Volume 2019, Issue 3, 2019

Humanity is in a state of debit. Year after year, it consumes more resources than nature can provide. This over-consumption has a direct effect on the climate. To better understand the issues at stake, the Belgian philosopher and biologist Bernard Feltz sheds light on the complex relationships between humans and nature and then focuses on the ethical aspects of climate change management.

Climate denial has increased the risk of catastrophic global change. Should international criminal law be used against those who promote this dangerous trend? Economic and political leaders can no longer pretend it is business as usual. Whether they actively induce environmental harm or just ignore the existential threat against the survival of the human species, states and corporations must be held accountable for their actions or inaction regarding climate change

More and more citizens and nongovernmental organizations around the world are going to court to seek climate change justice. The unprecedented extent of these disputes deserves to be highlighted. This relatively recent type of litigation is forging public opinion, and constitutes a form of pressure on states and industries that is forcing them out of their inertia.

There is a tendency in the public debate on climate change to present the use and development of green technologies as a miracle solution or panacea. We often forget one aspect: it is crucial to ensure that their development goes hand in hand with social justice. “The realization that it is not just global warming that we are dealing with, but global warming in an unequal and unjust world, has yet to sink in,” according to Thiagarajan Jayaraman. Without equality and equity – in other words, without peace and security – we cannot effectively fight climate change, the Indian climate policy expert insists.

A billion trees have been planted in recent years in the Pakistani province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, about fifty kilometres from Islamabad, the country’s capital. The landscape has been transformed, and so has society. The fight against global warming and the fight against poverty are one and the same.

The availability of solar-powered water pumps and solar lamps have had a life-changing effect on rural communities in Kenya, providing clean drinking water and lighting while eliminating hardships, health hazards and habits that contribute to climate change. The government’s commitment to invest in clean energy has been bolstered by private companies to bring about real change, especially for those who need it most.

Non-state actors, with cities at the forefront, must be the first to sow the seeds of a carbon-free society. To avoid the nightmare of climate change, we must reduce our carbon emissions further than called for by the Paris Agreement of 2015. This requires coordinated actions at the international level and concrete initiatives such as electric transport, the decarbonization of housing and a large-scale transition of energy.

Ninety-four megacities around the world have come together to form the C40 network. Their aim is to share their experiences of combating climate change and its effects, and to set ambitious goals for the reduction of carbon emissions.

If rich countries can adapt to rising temperatures “with the flick of a thermostat”– to use the metaphor of the South African Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmond Tutu – developing countries face far more dramatic challenges. A reflection on a shared solidarity informed by an ethical consciousness.

Educating on climate change and sustainable development issues is a necessity. In Latin America, there are some promising experiments being carried out that deserve to be replicated, both in the entire region and on other continents. There are some aspects, however, that are being neglected.

Apathetic and soporific. These words describe the state of public opinion and the media’s attitude to climate change, according to French-Danish conceptual artist Thierry Geoffroy, alias Colonel. Little by little, his slogans – that wavered between “Before it’s too late” and “Tomorrow is too late” – were reduced to a simple “Too late”. Paradoxically, it is in despair that he finds some consolation.

Every Friday since March 2019, Arshak Makichyan has been demonstrating alone in Moscow’s Pushkin Square. His placard displays slogans like “Global warming equals hunger, war and death”. This young violinist in Russia’s capital is leading a solitary and tenacious fight on behalf of the entire planet.

French photographer Yan Bighetti de Flogny was in Pakistan when, in the course of a conversation with a hotel owner, he learned of the existence of Ibn Battuta, the fourteenth-century Moroccan explorer. Unfairly little-known, Ibn Battuta is “perhaps the greatest traveller who has ever lived”, as an article in the Courier of August- September 1981 tells us.

Is artificial intelligence (AI) on the verge of becoming completely autonomous? The answer will depend on us alone. It is up to us to define the future of humanity, in harmony with this technological tool that we sometimes perceive as a terrifying monster.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is being harnessed to tackle two of the most challenging problems today – the flagrant proliferation of fake news and the increasing invasion of individual privacy. Factmata, which uses AI to fight disinformation and D-ID, which protects identities from facial recognition systems using AI, were two of the ten winners of the 2019 Netexplo awards, presented at UNESCO Headquarters in April.

Several millennia old, the fortified city of Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, retains traces of the presence of the Zoroastrian, Sassanian, Arabic, Persian, Shirvani, Ottoman and Russian peoples. The modern city, born from the first oil boom in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, has an equally eclectic cultural heritage. Because of its bay and its proximity to caravan routes, the city has always been crossed by multiple currents. The result is an extraordinary harmonious diversity, reflected both in its architecture and its cosmopolitan spirit.

Twenty-five years after attaining democracy, South Africa has taken giant strides towards forging a united nation. But overcoming racism and realizing Nelson Mandela’s vision of a nation that belongs to all who live in it, remains a wonderful ideal – which still requires a lot of work, according to Justice Jody Kollapen. Both an arbitrator and a victim of racist cases (he was refused a haircut as recently as in October 2003!), this human rights defender maintains that there is enough goodwill to build on Mandela’s vision.

1 March 1869 is the date of a discovery that changed the course of science in the world. On that day, Dmitry Mendeleev completed his work on the periodic table of elements, which would play a fundamental role in the future of chemistry – but also in physics, biology, astronomy and geochemistry. Even more interesting is that he revolutionized the ideas of what is now termed sustainable development.