Voice of climate-by Naseem Sheikh

China has lifted more than 700 million people out of poverty in the past decades and the Chinese people have enjoyed a better standard of living, which is the biggest achievement since the founding of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in 1949, said Yongjing Zhang, associate professor of economics in the University of Ottawa’s Graduate School of Public and International Affairs. China has also made great achievements in pollution control, forest coverage, desertification control, and garbage and sewage treatment, Zhang said in a recent interview with Xinhua before the 70th anniversary of the founding of the PRC. “People in Beijing and Shanghai are seeing more days of blue sky, like this in Ottawa today,” Zhang said. Zhang added China is still on the direction of Deng Xiaoping, the architect of China’s reform and opening up since the late 1970s. “China wants its people to improve their lives.” According to China’s National Bureau of Statistics, In 2018, 121 of the 338 citi...

Cotton is considered the world's 'dirtiest' crop due to its heavy use of insecticides, the most hazardous pesticide to human and animal health. Cotton covers 2.5% of the world's cultivated land yet uses 16% of the world's insecticides, more than any other single major crop. Cotton is one of the most water and pesticide intensive agricultural commodity, is responsible for significant adverse impacts on human and animal (livestock) health, natural resources such as land and fresh water and global biodiversity. 1. Cotton production plays a primary role in degradation of agro-ecosystems by indiscriminate use of agrochemicals such as fertilizers and pesticides. In addition, adverse impacts on the communities in terms of health risks to working men and women and increase in poverty and dependency due to the high pesticides costs and indebtedness are common. 2. In many cases irrigation systems are very inefficient and therefore lead to wide spread negative impac...