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.