Donna Al-Sudairi - Air, Water and Land Pollution

The persistent fight against pollution is something that has always been occurring in some form in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia but it is now more important that it ever was, for the country is now facing serious dangers concerning all three types of pollution that are probably more serious than they ever were. Water pollution is aparent in the pollution of the Red Sea and several swamps in the western region particularly, land pollution is occuring due to industrialization and reconstruction, and air pollution is extremely high due to dust (afer all,the country is 90% desert) and the religious season of Hajj which brings with it pilgrims from all over the world. Saudi Arabia recongnizes this critical time and is aware of the consequences, it is investing a great deal of capital and effort to ensure the resolution of such crises and to contribute to the global concern of climate change due to such pollution.

Pauline Guillonneau - Natural and cultural heritage

Natural and cultural heritages have been a big concern for the past two decades. There is a worldwide movement of awareness of our planet's degradation. Measures are therefore been taken, both at the citizen level (in our day to day life) and at the political level (with world organizations and transnational agreements). One important organization for natural and cultural sites protection worldwide today is the World Heritage, a branch of the widely known: the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). What is natural and/or cultural territory to be taken care of, according to the World Heritage? Indeed, there is a total of 679 cultural sites, 174 natural sites and 25 considered both natural and cultural properties to be protected.

Stefan Paduraru - Food and agriculture

The issue of Genetically Modified Organisms is one of the most divisive debates within the talks on the future of environmental protection. On the one hand, many fear the consequences of these new biological strains and the threat they carry of contaminating our food supply. On the other hand, they can play a vital role in the quest of finding enough resources in order to feed an ever increasing population. In my paper i argued that they would have, if used under strict scientific supervision and if properly investigated, a beneficial role on the planet's future, allowing for a better allocation of our natural endowment and alleviating some of the pressure on the supply side of agricultural products.

Sebastiano Lustig - United Nations Environment Programme

Founded in June 1972,right after the United Nation Conference on the Human Environment, The United Nations Environment Progamme (UNEP) coordinates United Nations environmental activities. Defining itself as ‘’the voice for the environmental within the United Nations system.It is an advocate,educator,catalyst and facilitator,promoting the wise use of the global environment for sustainable development.’’ UNEP plays a key role in fighting global warming. The paper will focus on the structure of this complex organization and on its weakeness.

Felipe Jorge - 1971 Ramsar Convention on Wetlands

The Convention on Wetlands, signed in Ramsar, Iran, in 1971, is an intergovernmental treaty which provides the framework for national action and international cooperation for the conservation and wise use of wetlands and their resources. There are presently 158 Contracting Parties to the Convention, with 1822 wetland sites, totaling 168 million hectares, designated for inclusion in the Ramsar List of Wetlands of International Importance….The Convention's mission is the conservation and wise use of all wetlands through local, regional and national actions and international cooperation, as a contribution towards achieving sustainable development throughout the world (Ramsar.org).
Wetlands are important because they provide quintessential ecosystem services, such as: biodiversity, flood abatement, water quality improvement, and carbon storage management; other functions include recreation and cultural identity.

Lewis Sanders IV - UN Millennium Development Goals

A Critical Examination of the UN Millennium Development Goals

Due to a growingly interdependent world encompassed by sweeping globalization processes, the need for progressive development in the impoverished countries of today’s world should be a critical concern for the highly developed Western world. For this reason, global society’s moral consciousness began a progressive journey in the early days of September 2000, when 189 member states of the United Nations conceived a series of normative international development targets dubbed the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. These goals are targeted at the poorest countries of the world and were accented by the United Nations Millennium Declaration.
Still, the problems postulated by these goals are interrelated and most affected by poverty-related issues. Though collective efforts are needed to meet all of these goals by 2015, fulfilling the first goal immediately would have the largest impact on the achievement of the other goals. Yet, is this possible to achieve? The answer lies within a critical evaluation and critique of the first goal of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals.

Zoja Surroi - Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

The topic I’ve chosen to elaborate is the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The IPCC is an epistemic community that assesses global scientific research done on Climate Change, and in accordance, publishes reports every 5-6 years, which include suggestion of what steps should be taken to prevent the risks that this issue imposes. Therefore, the intergovernmental panel holds great responsibility since it gauges if the world should react or not to an issue that can be potentially fatal.
This paper therefore, deconstructs the IPCC by validating its structure, methods, and its probable political influences that result from being created and linked to governments and moreover if all of these factors have resulted in the IPCC being a political-scientific panel rather than a scientific one.

Fernando Scodro - 1992 Rio de Janeiro UN Conference on Environment and Development (Earth Summit)

The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development owes its existence to the United Nations General Assembly’s Resolution 44/228. Adopted on the 22nd of December of 1989, this document decides to convene a conference which should “elaborate strategies and measures to halt and reverse the effects of environmental degradation in the context of increased national and international efforts to promote sustainable and environmentally sound development in all countries.”
The conference was more effective in the precedents it set, such as NGO participation, and willingness to talk about climate change and its effects on developing countries. The weakness of the Rio Declaration, Agenda 21 and the Statement on Forests did not undermine the impact these documents had on the world stage. The other two documents associated with the conference, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Convention on Biodiversity, had a deeper impact on the world community with the binding character of its Protocols and commitments.

Sinan Akanay - Causes and effects of Desertification

According to article 1 of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), desertification means land degradation in arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas resulting from various factors, including climatic variations and human activities. As a matter of fact, desertification is one the most worrying and challenging problems we are facing today and in the future. While climate change is one of the reasons for desertification worldwide, the main cause of it remains human activity. The paper focuses on some of the main causes and sometimes global effects of desertification.

Allison So - Global Environmental Facilities (GEF

The Global Environmental Facilities was organized in 1991 as an initiative to assist funds for developing countries focusing specifically on environmentally-friendly development. Many controversies stirred upon the intention of this organization, mainly questioning if it serves good or bad to a country’s development. The paper addressed to examples of the different role of Global North and Global South interacts with the GEF. The paper further discusses the relating idea of the Globalization phenomenal that exist side by side with the evolvement of the GEF.

Anne Jakobsen – Virguna National Park

The 1972 World Heritage Convention strives to protect both cultural and natural sites. One of these natural sites is Virunga National Park in The Democratic Republic of Congo. It has been on the Danger List since 1994 due to the refugees populating the park because of the Rwandan Civil War, it now again under tremendous threat do to the recent uprisings in the Kivu province. The Park contains tremendous value due to its mountain Gorillas, Hippos, Flora, Fauna, and several other types of vegetation that contributes to its unique biodiversity. The paper discusses the relationship between humans and the environment in relation to Virunga National Park and the World Heritage Convention’s mission.

Welcome!

In a world with more devastating natural disasters; in a world with rising oceans; in a world with melting polar caps, a debate about the environment is inevitable. The PO 231 World Politics class is taking an initiative to contribute to this ongoing discussion by making Environmental Protection the central topic of the course.

On October 18^th and 21^st, the class will be presenting their papers all of which addresses the issues with topics that analyze not only specific processes and institutions such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate change and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change but also broader socio-economic issues related to Environmental Protection such as Food and Agriculture, Natural and Cultural Heritage and Development.

More specifically, the Conference will be separated into two different parts. During the first day we will be looking at global issues with and hearing the following presentations:

Air, water and land pollution	Donna AL-SUDAIRI
Biological diversity	Edward WHITE
Climate change	Courtney QUINNEY
Desertification	Sinan AKANAY
Development	Anthony CONNOR
Food and agriculture	Stefan PADURARU
Human rights and security	Natan BOGIN
Natural and cultural heritage	Pauline GUILLONNEAU
Tourism	Volker ARRINGER
Transport	Keith RIORDAN

During the second day we will be focusing on the global processes that have started as a response to the Environmental problem and hearing the following presentations:

United Nations Environment Programme	Sebastiano LUSTIG
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change	Zoja SURROI
Global Environmental Fund (1991)	Tsz Lun (Allison) SO
Agenda 21 (1992)	Linda KNAYER
Millennium Development Goals (2000)	Lewis SANDERS
1971 Ramsar Convention on Wetlands	Felipe JORGE
1972 UNESCO World Heritage Convention	Anne JAKOBSEN
1992 Rio de Janeiro UN Conference on Environment and Development (Earth Summit)	Fernando SCODRO