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IUCN
MEDIA BRIEFS
IUCN
Media Briefs explain key conservation and sustainable development
issues for journalists. The Briefs offer reliable facts
and figures on phenomena such as species extinction or climate
change, and provide an overview of related IUCN activities.
Requests for
additional information should be addressed to:
IUCN Communications
Unit
Rue Mauverney 28
CH-1196 Gland
Switzerland
Tel: +41 22 999 0205
Fax: + 41 22 999 0020
E-mail: press@iucn.org
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Protected Areas / Sustainable
Livelihoods / Oceans /
Species / Water & Wetlands
/ Climate Change
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PROTECTED AREAS: THE PROTECTED 10%
From a mere handful in 1900, the number of protected areas grew
to over 44,000 covering more than 10% of the earth's land surface
at the end of the past century. These areas serve a multitude of
purposes - as reservoirs of biological diversity, sources of clean
air and water, buffers from storms, sinks for carbon or places to
escape and reconnect with nature. (...)
Full
Protected Areas Media Brief - PDF Document -
282KB
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SUSTAINABLE LIVELIHOODS: WHAT MAKES A LIVELIHOOD
SUSTAINABLE?
The international community has set an ambitious goal: to halve
the number of people living on less than one US dollar a day by
the year 2015. As laudable as the goal may be, the key to finding
the way out of poverty for today's poor may be not just about putting
some extra dollars in their pockets.
Today, 53 per cent of the world's six billion people still live
off the land. The majority of the world's poor people continue to
live in rural areas and depend heavily on natural ecosystems for
their livelihoods. (...)
Full
Sustainable Livelihoods Media Brief - PDF Document
- 48KB
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OCEANS BLUES
Commotion: "A condition of turbulent motion". Our ocean
generates incredible power. At one extreme, undersea disturbances
such as earthquakes can trigger tsunamis (huge tidal waves) that
often cause destruction and despair in coastal communities. For
example, the greatest tsunami on record measured over 70m above
sea level when it pounded Siberia's Kamchatka Peninsula in 1737.
(...)
Full
Ocean Blues Media Brief
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PDF Document - 42KB
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A NATURAL - AND UNNATURAL - PROCESS
The World is, and always has been, in a state of flux. even the
land beneath our feet is constantly on the move. Over hundreds of
millions of years, continents have broken apart, oceans appeared,
mountains formed and worn inexorably. (...)
Full
Species Extinction Media Brief
- PDF Document - 157KB
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ARE
WE RUNNING OUT OF WATER?
Currently, humanity uses an estimated 30% of the available 13,000
km3 of fresh water per year, of which over 70% for agricultural
purposes. Total water withdrawal is projected to increase to 40%
for the year 2025, leaving 2.8 billion people in water stressed
or scarce countries. (...)
Full
Water & Wetlands Media Brief
- PDF Document - 38KB
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IS
THE CLIMATE CHANGING?
An increasing body of observations indicates a warming world and
other changes in the climate. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change concluded that most of this warming is attributable to human
activities. The warming observed over the last 100 years is unusual
and unlikely tobe enterely natural in origin. (...)
Full
Climate Change Media Brief
- PDF Document - 40KB
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