Global Compact International Yearbook Ausgabe 2010

Agenda
News Around The World
Partrnership
Bill and Melinda Gates Make 10 Billion Dollar Pledge
Bill and Melinda Gates have announced that their foundation
will commit 10 billion U.S. dollars (about 7.1 billion euros) to
investigating, developing and providing vaccines to the poorest
nations in the world. In a joint statement, the couple said
that strengthening public and private investment in vaccines
over the next decade could help to drastically reduce the rate
of child mortality in developing countries. They also called on
governments and private individuals to close critical financing
gaps in research funding and immunisation programmes for
children. The newly announced financing is in addition to the
4.5 billion U.S. dollars (about 3.2 billion euros) that the Gates
Foundation has already invested in its health programmes for
the investigation, development and provision of vaccines.
Environment
Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico
They have set parts of the slick on fire and are using chemical
dispersants on the oil. Aid workers have set up booms to try
to protect the Louisiana coastline. BP was able to cap one of
the riser pipes, sealing off one of the three leaks, and has also
inserted a Riser Insertion Tube tool that allows the oil to be
pumped into a tanker. A 13-meter-high containment dome has
been lowered onto the seabed, 1,500 meters below sea level,
with a plan to funnel the oil to the surface, but efforts so far
have been unsuccessful. Workers will next try to inject shredded
rubber into the borehole and seal it with concrete. But no
matter what steps are taken, the disaster in the Gulf is already
one of the worst manmade environmental catastrophes ever.
The oil will destroy a massive part of the ecosystem, wiping
out large numbers of species and plants, primarily marine
life. This is leading to the collapse of one of Louisiana’s most
important sources of revenue: the fishing industry. Toxin
levels in the food chain are expected to rise, and the oil slick
is now threatening the coasts of Florida and Cuba as well. It
is hard to imagine when the landscape will recover from this
disaster, but studies of the Exxon Valdez spill show that the
effects of the oil are still in evidence twenty years later. BP
has promised to take full responsibility for the oil spill and to
accept legitimate claims for damages. In May, one month after
the drilling rig explosion, the costs are already approaching
$ 625 million – before any claims have been settled.
Human Rights
Almost 40 Percent of US Food Wasted
On April 20, 2010, eleven people died in an explosion on the
Deepwater Horizon drilling rig. The platform sank two days
later. One month after the disaster, an untold amount of oil is
still streaming from the damaged pipe in the Gulf of Mexico.
The drilling rig was under contract to the BP oil company.
BP has made numerous attempts to manage the catastrophe.
Almost 40 percent of the food purchased in the United States
ends up as rubbish. A study by the Bethesda, Maryland National
Institute of Diabetes and Digestive Kidney Diseases
(NIDDK) found that over the past few years, more food has
been going to waste. In 2003, each U.S. consumer had an average
of 3,750 calories available per day, with around 2,300
of these consumed and 1,450 thrown away. That means that
39 percent of the available food supply went to waste. This
vastly exceeds the 27 percent that the U.S. Department of Agriculture
estimated after its own interviews with consumers
and producers. End-consumers are responsible for the lion’s
share of this waste. In a study by sociologist Jeffery Sobal in
Tompkins County, New York, production accounted for 20
percent of food waste, distribution another 20 percent, and
consumers were responsible for the remaining 60 percent.
Experts posit that lower prices are one reason for the rising
amount of wasted food. Tristram Stuart, author of the book
“Waste: Uncovering the Food Scandal”, writes of the amount of
food wasted in the U.S.: “if food wasted by consumers and the
food industries of the UK is estimated and added to that [U.S.]
total, there would be enough food to satisfy the needs of the
world’s hungry between three and seven times over”.
Global Compact International Yearbook 2010 191