December Sustainable Development

Read the articles selected in December 2016

In Italia esiste un forte divario di genere nell’istruzione, dice l’indagine Pisa

by Flavia Belladonna

Source: http://www.asvis.it/, 7 December

In Italy persists the gap between North and South in students’ competence in science, math, and lecture, sharpened between genders in particular in math with 20 points against women, worsened if compared with men even in the lecture. This gap is widening in the disadvantaged classes.

Stratospheric solar geoengineering without ozone loss

by David W.Keith, Debra K. Weisenstein, John A. Dykema & Frank N. Keutch

Source: green.harvard.edu

Emissions reductions are central to fight global warming, but also solar geoengineering can help to cool the planet. Researchers by Harvard SEAS have discovered that injecting calcite particles instead of sulfuric acid, in the stratosphere, as initially conceived for light-reflecting aerosols, can prevent ozone damage.

Incredibly thin Arctic sea ice shocks researchers

by Richard Monastersky

Source: Nature, 14 December

An expedition in Norway’s Svalbard archipelago in January 2015 to collect data from Arctic ice found it very different from 10 years ago when a thick multi-year layer grew over years. Now the ice is much thinner and younger, breaks up more easily and moves faster under the effect of storms, winds, and warm water.

Building greener cities: nine benefits of urban trees

Source: http://www.fao.org/

Trees in the cities modify the landscape, improving the well-being of people and providing animals with a favorable habitat. They cool the air helping to conserve energy and reduce carbon emissions and work as filters for urban pollutants, providing food and playing a key role in disaster risk reduction and in climate change adaption.

International Migrants Day 18 December

Source: http://www.un.org/

In front of this unprecedented level of human mobility, and the political and international crisis of our times, the United Nations reaffirm the New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants, that assumes the responsibility for the safety of people on the move, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Health at a glance: Europe 2016

Source: http://www.asvis.it/, 24 November

Life expectancy and quality of care have generally increased in most EU countries since 1990, but with large socio-economic and geographic disparities. A wide range of chronicle diseases persists, that could be avoided with more effective prevention policies.

Clean energy for all Europeans-unlocking Europe’s growth potential

Source: http://europa.eu/, 30 November

Consumers are on the center of the European project toward a clean energy. This industrial opportunity, that involves research development and 300 billion euros investment, means a better choice of supply for consumers, more price comparison tools and the possibility to produce and sell their own electricity.

Wind and solar are better together

by Ben Jervey

Source: Scientific American, 5 December

In Australia and in Texas some companies are developing solar-wind farms since this combination empowers the production of clean energy and cuts production and batteries’ costs in all seasons and weather conditions and can save money on grid connections, site development, and approvals.

How clean is solar power?

Source: The Economist, 10 December

An argument carried out by skeptics of clean energy is that solar panels require a lot of electricity to be made, but the amount of fossil energy needed to make them depends on where and when they have been produced and their environmental effects too.

Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee of the Regions

Source: http://www.asvis.it/, 22 November

EU, a frontrunner in the pace to the SDGs, is committed after the principle of subsidiarity to integrate them in the European political priorities, keeping alive the European project with a long-term vision to turn the challenges of 2030 Agenda into opportunities of growth and development.

World contraceptive use 2016

Source: http://www.asvis.it/

225 million of women in the world, almost in Africa, don’t have access to contraception and would like to have the possibility to have healthier children and ensure them an education. Family planning is an object of the Programme of Action of the International UN Conference on Population and Development.

UN names former astronaut Scott Kelly as “Champion for Space ”

Source: http://www.un.org/, 21 November

Space agencies and government representatives, astronauts and academics gathered at the High-Level Forum on Space in Dubai to highlight the potential of space science and technology to the implementation of 2030 Agenda and to enhance this place where nations act for the common good of humankind.

Arctic resilience report

Source: Scientific American, 28 November

Human activities and global warming are changing the Arctic in its geophysical, ecological and socio-human system, with a series of interlinked effects on the global scale. Diverse actors determine the Arctic destiny, in spite of the unicity of this region living a transition toward a not entirely foreseeable final.

Ocean acidification: a natural experiment

Source: The Economist, 3 December

A phenomenon that worries scientists is the ocean acidification, as an effect of rising carbon emissions. Its systemic consequences are only in part known and are the object of a study in a natural laboratory on the coast of Papua New Guinea, where volcanic activity is releasing carbon dioxide from submarine vents.

International Day of Persons with disabilities

by Ban Ki-moon

Source: http://www.un.org/

Ten years ago on the 3rd December, the U.N adopted the Convention on the rights of persons with disabilities, fully integrated into the framework of Human Rights and recently in the 2030 Agenda for a sustainable and inclusive Development shared and underwritten by our university in its mission.

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Pubblicato il : 20/12/2017
Modificato il : 04/04/2019

December Sustainable Development

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