Water, water, everywhere...

Water, it's everywhere we are.
Why?
Because *we* are 55-70% water.

Everything on earth needs water to survive, clean/ healthy water.
Some things have interesting ways of obtaining it, but *everything* requires water.
And the earth itself needs water.
Water is kinda like the blood of the planet, it carries nutrients and waste products through the system and it ties the entire body of the earth together.

We'll discuss loads more about water in other posts, but for *today*, plan something special... enjoy a glass of water and consider what would happen to our own health and that of the earth without clean/ healthy water.

...and here's a link to the U.N. site for World Water Day... there is loads of info there and ideas for planning and/or participating in events!

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Human Rights Week! Article #1

Human Rights Day / Week - a celebration we should make last all year...

The U.N. says it so well...

"   Human Rights Day is observed every year on 10 December. It commemorates the day on which, in 1948, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In 1950, the Assembly passed resolution 423 (V), inviting all States and interested organizations to observe 10 December of each year as Human Rights Day.

This year, Human Rights Day calls on everyone to stand up for someone's rights! Disrespect for basic human rights continues to be wide-spread in all parts of the globe. Extremist movements subject people to horrific violence. Messages of intolerance and hatred prey on our fears. Humane values are under attack.

We must reaffirm our common humanity. Wherever we are, we can make a real difference. In the street, in school, at work, in public transport; in the voting booth, on social media.

The time for this is now. “We the peoples” can take a stand for rights. And together, we can take a stand for more humanity.   "

U.N Human Rights Day.

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War has been fought over environmental resources for as long as humans have existed... don't you think it's time for that to stop?

The UN declared Nov. 6

International Day for Preventing the Exploitation of the Environment in War and Armed Conflict

Here is a link to the resolutions (and statements) the UN made during it's introduction: http://www.un.org/en/events/environmentconflictday/documents.shtml ;
including:

• Resolution A/RES/56/4  declaring 6 November the International Day for Preventing the Exploitation of the Environment in War and Armed Conflict 
• Statements made by members of the UN General Assembly during the introduction of the draft resolution (A/56/L.8) on the Observance of the International Day for Preventing the Exploitation of the Environment in War and Armed Conflict (A/56/PV.37, pp. 21-26)  

Policy Reports

• Women and Natural Resources: Unlocking the Peacebuilding Potential 
• Greening the Blue Helmets (Executive Summary)
• Protecting the Environment During Armed Conflict: An Inventory and Analysis of International Law 
• From Conflict to Peacebuilding: The Role of Natural Resources and the Environment

Policy Briefs

• High-Value Natural Resources and Post-Conflict Peacebuilding 
• Assessing and Restoring Natural Resources in Post-Conflict Peacebuilding 
• Land and Post-Conflict Peacebuilding 
• Water and Post-Conflict Peacebuilding 
• Natural Resource Programming in Post-Conflict Situations 

Guidance Notes

• Natural resource management in transition settings – UNDG/ ECHA Guidance Note: This guidance note aims to help UN Country teams and UN Missions understand the negative and positive roles that natural resources can play in peace consolidation. It provides practical guidance to assist in thinking through how natural resource management principles and practices can feed into transitional analysis and planning frameworks.
• The EU-UN partnership on Land and Natural Resource Conflicts has developed a number of practical guidance notes and training materials on land and conflict, extractives and conflict, renewable resources and conflict, capacity-building for natural resource management and conflict prevention in resource-rich economies.

Technical Reports/Assessments

• Relationships and Resources: Environmental governance for peacebuilding and resilient livelihoods in Sudan 
• Taking Root: The cash crop trade in Darfur 
• Local Level Agreements in Darfur: A review with reference to access and management of natural resources 
• Haiti - Dominican Republic: Environmental Challenges in the Border Zone 
• On the Hoof - Livestock Trade in Darfur
• Livelihood Security: Climate Change, Migration and Conflict in the Sahel (Executive Summary)
• Environmental Assessment of Ogoniland
• Post-Conflict Environmental Assessment of the Democratic Republic of Congo 
• Sierra Leone: Environment, Conflict and Peacebuilding Analysis 
• Assessment of Energy, Water and Waste Reduction Options for the Proposed AMISOM HQ Camp in Mogadishu, Somalia and the Support Base in Mombasa, Kenya 

UN Resolutions and Declarations

• Protection of the environment in areas affected by armed conflict (UNEP/EA.2/Res.15)
  UN Resolution on Environmental Sustainability in Mali Peacekeeping Operations [S/RES/2100 (2013)]
• Environment and Security: a Global Agenda for UNEP [UNEP/GC.23/INF/21] 

Books and Case Studies

• Publications on Environmental Peacebuilding

Celebrate what Makes you YOU! It's International DNA Day!

Similar to how letters form words, bases form the genetic code that creates genes.

International DNA Day April 25.
Today, in 1952, James Watson, Francis Crick, Rosalind Franklin, Maurice Wilkins, et al published papers in Nature (the journal) on the structure of DNA. 
It is also the day (in 2003) that the Human Genome Project was declared nearly complete and "the remaining tiny gaps [were] considered too costly to fill."

DNA stands for deoxyribonucleic acid.
The bases can be thought of like letters in an alphabet; as letters can be combined to create many words, the sequences of bases create the language of the genes.