By Silia Tsigka, GLOBUS Correspondent The Covid-19 pandemic, the BLM protests, the enhanced crisis in Yemen, the oil spill in Mauritius, the alarming melting of the Greenland ice sheet, and many more incidents are only some examples of humanitarian and natural crises that have made 2020 possibly one of the most unfortunate years in recent... Continue Reading →
Covid-19 and Racism
By Angelo Balagtas, GLOBUS Correspondent The one thing coronavirus has proven: pandemics lead to a rise in detrimental, often selfish acts of behaviour, as fear begins to take hold. One such example is the host of racially charged attacks around the world, as the virus has been purportedly traced to one source: The Chinese. However,... Continue Reading →
Coronavirus: Why we aren’t all in the same boat
By Tori Keene, Editor in Chief of GLOBUS ‘Its tough, but we’re all in the same boat’. It’s a phrase most of us have probably heard, or even said ourselves at some stage during the current lockdown. To a degree, it is true; as far as we know, nobody is unable to catch covid -... Continue Reading →
The Hidden Demographic: How Elderly People Are Affected by Climate Change
By Zafirah Kensington, GLOBUS Correspondent Throughout much of the current climate change discourse, we observe a lot of attention, rightly, being given to disadvantaged groups, on the basis of how certain communities are disproportionately affected by climate change. We often view these along the intersections of race, gender and class, and how lived experiences differ... Continue Reading →
Period poverty – Whose problem, whose responsibility?
By Aada Orava, GLOBUS Correspondent “Period poverty is a situation many girls and women find themselves in when they are unable to afford the costly period products. Globally, period poverty intersects with other forms of disadvantage, including poverty and geography. It costs young girls their education. It impacts their ability to fulfil their potential and... Continue Reading →
Double Tap to Save the World: Is Social Media Revolutionising or Killing Activism?
By Aada Orava, GLOBUS Correspondent It is hardly a controversial statement to say that social media is an increasingly important device for the spread of information and political mobilization. Citizens and politicians alike are using online platforms to engage with important issues and each other. For example, a reported 53% of Americans engaged with a political... Continue Reading →
Health, Safety, and Dignity: Why Toilets Matter
By Julie Boukobza Deau, GLOBUS Correspondent “Sanitation is more important than independence,” said Mahatma Gandhi in 1947 during one of his non-violent protests against the British rule. Already decades ago, Gandhi was aware of the fact that basic sanitation takes precedence in the normative realm of human rights. Seventy years later, access to proper sanitation... Continue Reading →
Climate Denialism in the Age of Populism
By Todd Olive, GLOBUS Editor in Chief Populism is a fact of life in our world today; back in 2017, it was even named Word of the Year by Cambridge Dictionary. The Donald, as near to a human embodiment of the word as is possible, is likely to shortly be exonerated by the US Senate... Continue Reading →
Sustainable Healthcare
Sustainable Healthcare Healthcare is acknowledged as a critical component of social stability in the developed world – and an obvious contributor to the sustainability agenda… and yet, we can’t agree the best way of provisioning it. In the UK, the National Health Service (NHS) is a unique system that provides free healthcare to citizens, publicly... Continue Reading →
Dreaming in the Dying Light
Todd Olive, Editor in Chief https://twitter.com/GretaThunberg/status/1210927616229826560 2019 has been a bleak year. Overshadowed by the IPCC's October 2018 Special Report on 1.5 Degrees, progress on sustainability in all of its forms has seemed hard to come by - or even going backwards. Protests in Hong Kong, originally about the region's right to self-govern, have evolved... Continue Reading →
Hiding in Plain Sight: The Forgotten SDG
By Tori Keene, Assistant Editor Sustainability; arguably one of 2019’s buzzwords, a concept that people are becoming increasingly well acquainted with. Google Image search it, and the colour green dominates; green trees, green earths, green hands. Think about sustainability in everyday discussion, and Greta Thunberg, Tesla cars or a reusable coffee cup might come to... Continue Reading →
Factory Schools: Schooling Without Education
By Jack Bara, GLOBUS Correspondent A fundamental aspect of development is education, both in one’s personal growth, as well as the progression of society. Many individuals and cultures even revere it. However, in such an abstract form, education is vulnerable to never get questioned, nor thoroughly critiqued. This can lead to ‘modern’ schooling becoming restrictive... Continue Reading →
How Intersectional is Your Climate Justice?
By Zafirah Kesington, GLOBUS Correspondent Climate justice, as defined by the Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland and current Chair of the Elders, “insists on a shift from a discourse on greenhouse gases and melting ice caps into a civil rights movement, with the people and communities most vulnerable to climate impacts at its heart” (United Nations Sustainable... Continue Reading →
Indigenous People at the Forefront of Environmental Destruction
A Look at the Arctic Sami By Aada Orava, GLOBUS correspondent 'I don’t think that there has been a single time in the history of this country when a Sami was given a microphone in front of such a big crowd, so here it comes’. With this powerful remark, the Sami activist Ásllat-Mihku Ilmára Mika... Continue Reading →
ISDS: The Hidden Court System Blocking Sustainable Development
By Ayesha Mustafa During my time working at the non-profit Traidcraft Exchange, I contributed towards a campaign to stop a system called ISDS; a court system allowing big businesses to sue poorer countries for the implementation of progressive policy. But with talks of the inclusion of ISDS in post-Brexit trade talks, the issue needs urgent attention in the current... Continue Reading →
The Escazú Agreement: Protecting Latin America’s Environmental Defenders
By Lucy Jordan, Deputy Editor ‘Our house is on fire’. Seven months on from Greta Thunberg’s global address, and the world was awakened to the far-too-literal reality of her statement. Flames raged through the depths of the Amazon, and with their embers plastered across every newspaper, one could do little else but gawp. Beneath the... Continue Reading →
Whose ‘Sustainable Development’?
By Angelo Balagtas, GLOBUS Correspondent Born in the Philippines, raised in Singapore, and now currently studying in the United Kingdom, now, more than ever, am I hyper aware of diversity, and, therefore, the different sets of belief systems, cultures and traditions that should be respected within an inclusive society. Studying Global Sustainable Development, the question... Continue Reading →
Deforestation and the Illegal Charcoal Trade in the Horn of Africa
By Safiya Hassan, GLOBUS Correspondent In October 2018, a ship carrying 200,000 bags of charcoal was intercepted in the strategic Iraqi port of Umm Qasri, located in the Persian Gulf (Xinhua,2018). These bundles of charcoal were believed to have been sourced from the prized, and rapidly decreasing, species of Acacia, known as Acacia Bussei, and... Continue Reading →
How Female Empowerment Can Be Truly Successful for Sustainable Development
By Zafirah Kesington, GLOBUS Correspondent “Sustainable Development Goal 5: Achieve Gender Equality and Empower ALL Women and Girls” - Sustainable Development Goals, n.d. What exactly does it mean to be empowered? For one woman this may mean freedom to walk safely at night without fear of assault, or equal opportunity and equal pay in the... Continue Reading →
Will young people change the fate of humanity?
Young people are uniting in response to the the climate crisis. Will politicians listen? From GLOBUS Correspondent Aada Orava on the Youth Strike for Climate movement.