We will continue with our exploration of the sustainable development journey in this part.
Our Pressing Problems
Because in nature, as well as in our global systems, everything is interconnected, to achieve the 17 SDGs (see Part I), all our initiatives must be sustainable as well—ecologically, economically, and culturally. The various intertwined problems and challenges that we face, include Safety and Equal Rights for Women, Wars and Conflicts (that create refugees and internally displaced people), Poverty, Hunger, and Homelessness, Access for People with Disabilities, People Experiencing Racism and Discrimination and, let’s not forget the rapidly accelerating Climate Change, one of the most challenging issues of our times. Please note that the issues described below do not correspond to the 17 goals in the same exact order, yet they do impact our progress towards these lofty goals and ideals that we would love to see materialize.
1. Safety and Equal Rights for Women. Women and Girls make up over 50% of the world’s population. As a student, every now and then, I was asked to accompany girls and women that our family knew when they needed to go places in the city. As a young man, I didn’t realize why I was being asked to accompany them; I was unaware of the safety concerns they and their families felt. But over the years, this issue has received wider publicity, not just in India but also in many regions of the world. I long to see a day when girls and women can walk, jog, run, live, travel, and work in safety anywhere they wish, just like men. Girls and women should feel safe and respected by all of us, including men.
According to the 2014 Nobel Peace Laureate, Malala Yousafzai, prior to Covid-19, nearly 130 million girls in the world were out of school, and as a result of the pandemic, an additional 20 million girls might have had their education cut short. Ms. Yousafzai adds that educating girls has many positive impacts, like lifting themselves and their families out of poverty, becoming leaders in their communities, and making our communities more resilient in the face of climate change.
Recently, on March 8, 2024, 180,000 women marched in Mexico City to protest violence against women in the country where, on the average, 10 women are murdered each day). Four years ago, millions of women in Mexico protested the country’s ongoing gender-based violence with the Un Día Sin Nosotras or A Day Without Us strike on 9 March 2020. They stayed home from work and school to protest the country’s high rates of femicide and gender-based violence.
Preventing violence against women is a serious social challenge in many countries, including in the United States of America. My wife has worked for nonprofits that help women in IPV and DV (intimate partner violence and domestic violence) situations. An article published by Commondreams.org on April 6, 2020, made a case that the Covid-19 lockdowns and resulting economic hardships further increased IPV and DV cases in much of the world. The article included reports of increased domestic violence reports from various U.S. news media. The U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres has also expressed concerns about reports of alarming increases in domestic violence and urging all governments to incorporate protections for abuse survivors in their response plans for the Covid-19 public health crisis. He explained in his video address on April 5, 2020, “Over the past weeks as economic and social pressures and fear have grown, we have seen a horrifying global surge in domestic violence.”
Needless to say that when state-sponsored restrictions are placed on women (like in Afghanistan after the U.S. pull out) or on women’s reproductive rights in some countries, we all suffer as human societies everywhere. It is a disgrace to the whole global human family.
2. Improving Access to Services for People with Disabilities is another crucial issue. In the U.S., the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which celebrated 30 years in July 2020, has made many places more accessible for people with disabilities. Even as I write this article, our medium-sized city of Eugene, located in the Western United States, is modernizing its sidewalks to make it friendlier and safer for wheelchair-bound citizen, pedestrians with disabilities, and also for bicycle users. Whereas, during my last visit to my hometown of Indore (M.P.) and elsewhere in India, I saw that many footpaths were completely unusable, either because of moped parking or unauthorized use by the street venders, or a poor design that did not take into account the needs of the disabled, and of course, lack of proper maintenance. Obviously, a lot more work needs to be done in this field, especially in the developing nations and in rural regions in most countries. Wheelchairs, accessible ramps, and other aids for persons with disabilities are employed in a very limited quantity in many parts of the world.
Almost 66 % of the people with disabilities have not been able to find gainful employment. The U.N. Flagship Report on Disability and Sustainable Development Goals mentions the need to improve the lives of over one billion people with disability (that’s fully 15% of the world’s population). In December 2019, two resolutions were adopted in the General Assembly for continuing the work to advance the rights of persons with disabilities in the implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of the SDGs.
In India, as in numerous other countries, many nonprofits and NGOs have taken initiatives to help improve the lives of people with disabilities. Groups like the Maharogi Seva Samiti in the state of Maharashtra that began in the early 1950s and has been serving thousands of people—mostly, leprosy patients as well as people with disabilities like blindness, deafness, and mobility issues. These residents, as a result, have meaningful and productive lives in their five residential communities in Maharashtra. In Eugene, Oregon, Mobility International (MIUSA), a nonprofit organization founded in 1981, trains international women with disabilities in leadership roles to serve their diverse communities.
3. Wars and Armed Conflicts destroy people’s normal lives as well as infrastructure. During A Peacewalk through Central America (January-April, 1985), we talked with thousands of ordinary citizens in Nicaragua whose lives were forever changed by the Contra-War of the 1980s, which was supported by the U.S. government. A photographer friend of mine, Paul Dix, documented the impact of war on common people in his bilingual Spanish-English book, Nicaragua: Surviving the Legacy of U.S. Policy.
Other long-drawn wars and conflicts (for example, the wars in Ukraine, Gaza and the Middle East, Afghanistan, El Salvador, Guatemala, Iraq, South Sudan, and Yemen) have similarly caused tremendous hardship and loss of lives, and tens of millions of refugees. The civil war in Syria has created over seven million refugees. Currently, there are close to 90 million refugees and displaced persons in the world. And, it is worth noting that the numbers of climate refugees are expected to increase by tens of millions during the next few decades. Millions of war and economic refugees from Africa, the Middle East, and Afghanistan have tried to reach Europe, but too many have lost their lives or have been denied entry. Unfortunately, many governments seem to have abandoned the refugees and the human rights guaranteed to them in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted the General Assembly of the United Nations on 10 December 1948.
4. Racism and Discrimination. Many of us in the United States have been sensitized to the systemic racism issues raised by George Floyd’s murder by Minneapolis (Minnesota) police officers in late May 2020, and the protests that followed all over the country. The history of the U.S. is full of prejudice, social injustices, and systemic racism against Blacks, Native Americans, Hispanics, and Asian Americans. In the 1960s, the iconic civil rights leader, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., asked for meaningful economic reforms to level the playing field for Blacks (and communities of color), but they have yet to materialize sufficiently. Globally, similar situations exist for many indigenous people and others in a number of countries. From Australia to China, from Canada to South Africa, we all know too well how many governments have discriminated against their people of diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds. They barely survive, without sufficient economic resources or political power for decades or more.
5. Climate Change is perhaps the most critical problem in our world today. Climate crisis is here and now. We need bold and ambitious policies to tackle this accelerating crisis. The atmospheric CO2 levels have been increasing continuously over the decades. They reached 417 ppm in May 2020, the highest monthly reading ever.
The World Meteorological Organization’s (WMO) Greenhouse Gas Bulletin, released Monday, Oct. 28, 2024 reported that all three main greenhouse gases reached record atmospheric levels in 2023. The report says that in 2023, the average atmospheric concentration of CO2 was 420 ppm, an increase of 150% since the pre-Industrial Revolution days. Methane was at 256% higher and Nitrogen Oxide levels at least 125% higher. (Common Dreams, 29 Oct. 2024).
July 2024 was the hottest month on record, with global surface temperature being 2.3°F (1.28°C) above the 20th century average! And, it was the globe’s 14th month in a row of record warmth. There is a 77% chance that 2024 would be the hottest ever. (NOAA release, dated August 12, 2024). And the National Center for Environmental Information (NCEI) reports that Sept 2024 was the second hottest Sept. on record (Sept. 2023 was the hottest ever with 1.75°C above the 1850-1900 average Sept. temperature). NCEI gives 99.8% probability that 2024 would be the hottest ever. CO2 levels are now surging to 426 ppm in June 2024 (and 422 in Sept. 2024) at the Mauna Loa observatory based in Hawaii.
In fact, many of the hottest months and years in recorded history have occurred during the last two decades. The average global temperature has already increased by 1.1° Celsius. The Paris Climate Accord hoped to limit the temperature change to 1.5°C (and 2°Celsius, in worst case scenario). But it seems totally unlikely that our (half-hearted) efforts so far will yield that result.
In Oct. 2024, the U.N. Emissions Gap Report concluded that current policies put the world on course for as much as 3.1°C of warming. “Greenhouse gas pollution at these levels will guarantee a human and economic train wreck for every country, without exception,” U.N. Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell said in a statement of the current 2030 trajectory. Many climate scientists would agree that a 3.1°C average temperature rise is certainly outside of the safe margins for human existence on this planet.
The oceans are where much of the atmospheric heat gets stored; so, ocean warming is an indicator of global warming. The oceans, with their vast quantity of water, warm slowly, but the consequences of warming oceans are many. Intense storms—typhoons and hurricanes—cause destruction and damage in coastal regions, mostly impacting low-income communities in countries like Bangladesh, India, Puerto Rico, the Philippines, and other island nations. Warmer ocean water has less dissolved oxygen which then harms marine life and reduces fisheries. Also, coral reef die-off is another well-known fact. The water temperatures recorded in the Gulf of Mexico was in close to 90° F in some places in early October. We must minimize our emissions of greenhouse gasses (carbon dioxide and methane are the two most important ones) that we generate by using fossil fuels. True, much of our livestock is also responsible for producing substantial amounts of methane. Many researchers have concluded that a drastic cut in meat production and consumption is in order if we want to limit the impact of climate catastrophy.
“No single country in the world is adequately protecting children’s health, their environment & their future,” says a recent report from UNICEF and the World Health Organization (A Future for the World’s Children?, The Lancet, 18 Feb 2020).
However, any serious discussion of these intertwined problems and challenges that we face today will remain incomplete if we don’t mention the mixed blessings of our modern electronic and online technologies.
Recent innovations and advances in computers and the Internet have helped businesses, individuals, and societies by expanding our information technologies and communications capabilities. At the same time, automations of tasks, emails, websites, computer-aided designs, and other information technologies have taken many conventional jobs away from millions of workers. For example, various smartphone Apps and computer applications have allowed online businesses like Expedia, Travelocity, Uber, and Airbnb to take away traditional jobs in travel and commercial sectors.
During the last two decades, online giants like Amazon, Google, Apple, Facebook, Meta, and YouTube have gained tremendous economic powers and caused havoc in local economies everywhere. Countless main street businesses, bookstores, and print media outlets have been forced into closures causing economic hardships to hundreds of millions. And now, the very concepts of democracy, truth, and reliable news as well as privacy, are being challenged by the existence of these social media (digital technology) giants and the use of AI to create content that may cross borders of reality.
SDGs and Covid-19 Pandemic
Even before COVID-19, progress on some of the SDGs was behind schedule. But the pandemic has put us further behind in reaching these targets on time. Poverty, food-insecurity, unemployment, and homelessness increased rapidly in much of the world during and after the pandemic that began in early 2020. Developing nations felt that the developed world, where the Covid-19 vaccines were first developed, were left to the mercy of the pandemic, in an unfair way, and they were not allowed to manufacture the vaccine locally, under the guise of “intellectual property rights.” (see Note at the end of this article).
According to the report, the Sustainable Development Goals Report 2020, released on 7 July 2020, by the U.N. Department of Economic and Social Affairs, the global efforts to improve the lives of people through the SDGs by 2030 have been seriously impaired by the COVID-19 pandemic. Not enough progress had been made earlier but COVID-19 has proved to be an unprecedented crisis, causing a serious setback to SDG progress, especially in the world’s poorest and most vulnerable populations. David Beasley, the executive director of the World Food Program (the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize winner), said that the global hunger problem has worsened drastically during 2020 as a result of the pandemic and wars. The number of people on the brink of starvation is now close to 270 million. Similarly, the World Bank’s recent report, Poverty and Shared Prosperity 2020, released on 7 October 2020, projected that the pandemic would push up to 115 million people into extreme poverty in 2020, and an additional 23 to 35 million in 2021. It further stated that the wars and conflicts have displaced almost 80 million people in the world, and the climate change will drive 68 to 132 million people into poverty by 2030.
In the United States, Blacks, Native Americans, Hispanics, and communities of color were hit the hardest by COVID-19. The economic crisis resulting from the pandemic truly turned the clock back, especially for these communities in the U.S. They are the frontline workers, and therefore, were more exposed to the virus. On top of that, they were more likely to have limited access to health services and to live in low-income neighborhoods. In the U.K., African, and Asian immigrant communities similarly suffered disproportionately.
While the air quality improved temporarily during the pandemic lockdown of 2020-2021, in terms of an indirect ecological impact of the pandemic, human societies increased the use of single-use plastics tremendously. All kinds of throwaway plastics are now being used with the hope that they will help curb the spread of the virus. Hundreds of millions of test kits, takeout containers, plastic bags, shopping bags, single use masks, hand gloves, etc. were used and discarded. Plastic recycling has decreased. And, the pandemic put the climate recovery movement on the back burner.
The Progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals, a Report of the Secretary-General, prepared for the 79th U.N. General Assembly, and dated May 2, 2024, states the current state of affairs. Here are a few key findings from the summary of this most recent report:
“Firstly, if we are to achieve the SDGs, we need peace. The conflicts and violence that are causing untold death, destruction, displacement and disruption across the world must end and a new period of international relations that respects the principles of the UN Charter must begin.”
“The 2024 progress assessment reveals the world is severely off-track to achieve the 2030 Agenda.”
“… only 17 % of SDGs targets are on track to be achieved, nearly half are showing minimal or moderate progress, and progress on over a third has stalled or even regressed.”
“…since 2019, national efforts have faced severe global headwinds. The COVID-19 pandemic, a growing number of conflicts, geopolitical and trade tensions and the ever-worsening effects of climate change have combined to leave the SDGs in peril. And massive shortcomings in our global economic and financial systems, coupled with historical injustices and a weakening of global solidarity, means that developing countries and the world’s most vulnerable people are bearing the brunt.”
“The (Covid-19) pandemic and other factors led to 23 million more people living in extreme poverty and 123 million more suffering from hunger in 2022 compared to 2019, widening the gap in per capita income growth between the poorest and richest countries.”
“Carbon dioxide levels have surged to 150% above pre-industrial levels. Public funding for oil, coal, and gas production and consumption more than doubled from 2021 to 2022 and tripled since 2015, hindering progress towards a net-zero transition. Ocean acidification is on the rise and will persist if CO2 emissions continue to climb. Species extinction risk is worsening…”
“All the while, violent organized crime and illicit arms trafficking continue to plague numerous countries, posing paramount security threats. And with the Russian invasion of Ukraine now in its third year, a brutal war now taking place in Gaza and the conflict in Sudan yet to show signs of easing, the number of forcibly displaced people worldwide has reached an unprecedented 110 million. Between 2022 and 2023, civilian casualties in armed conflict increased by 72%.”
“What’s more, governments remain united behind the 2030 Agenda. This was one of the key takeaways from the SDG Summit in September 2023. It is essential that we protect this commitment by taking the critical steps needed to deliver transformative progress between now and 2030, at much greater speed and scale.”
Essentials of Sustainable Development
More concerted efforts are needed worldwide for us to meet the U.N. SDGs. Since the world’s resources are finite, we have to reduce our resource consumption as much as we can in our own lives and increase society’s resource allocation for improving the lives of the marginalized communities.
Our efforts, as well as any new development projects, should consider these broad principles, commonly known but often overlooked during the decision-making process:
- Choosing, whenever possible, locally controlled or locally organized, ecologically sound development projects over large projects that are financed by big banks and administered from far away, as they are unlikely to be sustainable. For example, small organic farms that produce diverse edibles for local or regional consumption are sustainable and preferable to big, industrial monoculture farms (agribusinesses) that serve big markets elsewhere. Most likely, such big projects may not offer any direct benefits to local populations.
- Supporting environmental justice for low-income communities. In developed nations, these are likely to be Black, Hispanic, and other communities of color. In developing countries, low-income communities are likely to be slum-dwellers, refugees, and immigrants, or rural, tribal, and other historically marginalized communities. We should make sure that these communities are included in our environmental policy decision-making, and that they will have community support, good land, clean air, and adequate water sources if any are displaced as a result of development projects.
- Protecting wildlife and wilderness, as well as protecting earth’s ever-shrinking forests from development. A number of successful African conservation projects (for example, the Green Belt movement in Kenya) have shown that employing local community members living in the area where such conservation projects are undertaken as paid project workers is absolutely essential for project sustainability.
- Building healthy communities by implementing sound public transportation options and sensible land-use laws. (See Designing Healthy Communities by Dr. Robert Jackson, in the References section). It is imperative that we build walkable cities and invest in good public transit systems and bicycle paths, and that we protect our forests and farmlands from urban sprawls. An automobile-based transportation system is inherently unsustainable. Strip developments and urban sprawls make little sense. Bicycles offer one of the most efficient modes of transport. Many European cities like Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Bonn, as well as some Asian cities like Hong Kong, offer highly successful examples of sustainable transportation systems for urban areas. These include efficient mass-transit systems, frequent intercity trains, pedestrian areas in city centers, free bus ride zones, bicycle paths, etc. It is interesting to note that some U.S. cities had made public buses free for all riders during the current COVID-19 crisis!
- Minimizing greenhouse gas emissions that increase the effects of climate change by holding developers and manufacturers accountable for their emissions; and investing in a clean, renewable energy economy. Climate change invariably and disproportionately impacts poor and marginalized communities.
- Protecting our waterways by reducing agricultural and industrial run-off and resulting pollution of our rivers, protecting fish and other aquatic life in our lakes, streams, and rivers, as well as in coastal areas. We must reform our food production systems because soil erosion and agrochemicals used in our conventional agriculture are causing serious problems. Pesticide use is wiping out insect populations and ecosystems around the world, and at the same time, threatening food production. Similarly, deforestation (much of it is for raising cattle for meat production) is an ecological culprit.
- Adapting biologically sound, organic farming techniques, and reducing our meat consumption. According to a study commissioned by the Center for Biological Diversity, a conservation organization, and conducted by researchers at the University of Michigan and Tulane University, if Americans were to cut their consumption of animal-based foods by half, it could prevent 1.6 billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. A recent report released by the Rodale Institute,Regenerative Agriculture and the Soil Carbon Solutionshows us how regenerative agriculture has the potential to repair and actually reverse some of the threatening impacts of our climate crisis.
- Minimizing use of plastics; using them only when absolutely essential. Plastics are everywhere—from rainwater, to the peaks of the Rocky Mountains, from roadsides to the farmland soil that produces our food. Recent reports estimate that on the average, each of us ingests a credit card’s worth of plastic each week. The micro-plastics that form when these plastic products break apart over time, pose threats to human health, and they also jeopardize the health of our planet. It goes without saying that humanity must drastically reduce its manufacture and use of plastic products.
- Educational institutions can help train students—who will likely be involved as technicians, engineers, managers, or decision makers during their careers—to ask important questions like: Is this project truly sustainable? Is it culturally appropriate? What are the ecological issues that the project might cause? Who will benefit from the project? Who will suffer when the project is implemented? Does it put an undue burden on low-income communities near the project site?
Unfortunately, not every developing country has strong environmental laws that are strictly adhered to, and even in the U.S., especially during the Trump administration (2016-2020), environmental laws and protections were drastically watered down.
* * *
Needed: A Multi-level, Decentralized Approach
A while ago, I was sitting on our front porch soaking the warmth of morning sun and sipping a cup of chai (spiced tea made with fresh ginger root, cardamom, and a touch of plant-based milk) when I noticed a little spider building its web. The morning sunlight was shining on the web under construction, and I could clearly see the repeated, precise, mechanical movements of the tiny spider’s legs. I was in total awe of the spider’s dedication and efforts to build its bug trap. It knew instinctively that it needed to work for the next meal that would land in its web. Perhaps, we can take our inspiration and lessons from these tiny spiders as we work on the SDGs.
A number of NGOs are worthy of mention for their initiatives. One such NGO is Embracing the World, established under the guidance of Amma, a world-renowned humanitarian and spiritual teacher from India. The organization has charitable and educational activities in many fields—from medical hospitals to spiritual well-being programs, from tree-planting and clean communities projects that involve youth to educational institutions for young men and women, and from pension plans for widows to orphanages for children and soup kitchens for the needy. In addition to its work in India, it has programs and projects in a number of other countries.
Obviously, national governments alone cannot be counted on as the sole providers of SDGs. Tens of thousands of institutions and NGOs, both large and small are needed all over the world to carry forward the tasks of hunger and poverty elimination, climate justice and environmental protection, educating girls and disadvantaged youth, and providing equal opportunities for all, and thus to achieve these 17 SDGs that the U.N. Even if they are only partially achieved by 2030 or 2040, they are still worth their while.
We need a multi-pronged and multi-level approach. While we reduce our resource consumption and increase energy efficiency, simultaneously, we also need to change our social, economic, and governmental practices to make them more compassionate and considerate—for the common good. We need to look at more than just monetary values.
Preservation of cultural values, social systems, traditional societies, ecological communities, and individual privacy and freedom are equally important because they all contribute to our sense of happiness and satisfaction.
No doubt, the task is difficult and the journey that lies ahead for us is a long and arduous one. But if governments and institutions worked together with people, with selflessness, compassion, and understanding, these SDGs will not seem to be too ambitious. If we can put people ahead of profits, we can devise a workable plan of action for a peaceful and prosperous world. The U.N. SDGs do not leave anyone behind, especially, the low-income and marginalized communities. We all need to do our part in creating a hopeful world for all. As a life-long learner, I strongly feel that public education must be a key element of all approaches we adopt.
Let the dignity of human life and equality among all serve as a guiding light on our journey toward sustainable development, human rights, and peaceful co-existence. Together let us make the world a better home for all.
REFERENCES
Clark, Helen Clark, & Awa Marie Coll-Seck (Commission Co-Chairs), Anshu Banerjee, Stefan Peterson, Sarah L. Dalglish, Shanthi Ameratunga, Dina Balabanova, Maharaj Kishan Bhan, Zulfiqar A. Bhutta, John Borrazzo, Mariam Claeson, Tanya Doherty, Fadi El-Jardali, Asha S. George, Angela Gichaga, Lu Gram, David B. Hipgrave, Aku Kwamie, Qingyue Meng, … Raúl Mercer. (2020, February 18). A Future for the World’s Children? WHO–UNICEF–Lancet Commission. The Lancet, 395, 605–658. https://doi.org/10.1016/ S0140-6736(19)32540-1
Designing Healthy Communities by Dr. Richard J. Jackson (2011). John Wiley & Sons. Also available is Designing Healthy Communities, a four-part DVD series by Harry Wiland and Dale Bell, Media Policy Center. Video Project. Hosted by the author Richard Jackson, it takes a comprehensive look at the impact America’s built environment has on public health, and at the people and communities working to turn things around through innovative solutions.
International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / The World Bank. (2020). Poverty and shared prosperity 2020: Reversals of fortune. https://doi.org/10.1596/978-1-4648-1602-4
United Nations (UN). (2015). Transforming our world: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, UN General Assembly A/RES/70/1. http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/RES/70/1&Lang=E
United Nations (UN). (2017). SDG indicators: Revised list of global sustainable development goal indicators. https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/indicators/indicators-list/ (available inEnglish, Spanish, and other world languages. I read them in English.)
United Nations (UN). (2018). About the sustainable development goals. https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-development-goals/
United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. (2019). Disability and development report realizing the Sustainable Development Goals by, for and with persons with disabilities 2018. https://www.un.org/development/desa/disabilities/wp-content/uploads/sites/15/2019/10/UN-flagship-report-on-disability-and-development.pdf
United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. (2020, July 7). Sustainable Development Goals Report 2020. https://www.un.org/development/desa/publications/publication/sustainable-development-goals-report-2020
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). (2014). Sustainable development begins with education: How education can contribute to the proposed post-2015 goals. http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0023/002305/230508e.pdf
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). (2016). Regional Consultation Meeting on SDG4-Education 2030: Europe and North America Region, Paris, 24-25 October. https://www.gcedclearinghouse.org/resources/regional-consultation-meeting-sdg4-education-2030-europe-and-north-america-region-paris-24
United Nations (UN). (2024). Progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals, Report of the Secretary-General. https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/report/2024/
Notes:
To prevent the further entrenchment of vaccine apartheid and facilitate mass production of generic vaccines, over 100 countries led by India and South Africa tried to push for a temporary waiver of vaccine-related intellectual property rules at the World Trade Organization. But the U.S., E.U., the U.K. and other rich nations did not side with the pharmaceutical industry and repeatedly blocked the proposal. (Source: CommonDreams.org, 19 April 2021).
Acknowledgements:
I wish to acknowledge CommonDreams.org (a nonprofit, progressive news website with a mission to inform, to inspire, and to ignite change for the common good) as a source for a number of reports that I have used in writing this two-part article. I am a frequent visitor to their website. Also, I extend my deep gratitude to all the educators, social scientists, and researchers at various governmental and other educational and research organizations for their original research and analysis that have contributed to our understanding of these complex issues. While we have not named the team of scientists, they deserve to be recognized for their valuable research and insights.
About the Author:
Born and raised in India, Arun N. Toké received his Electrical Engineering degree from University of Indore in India, did his graduate studies in electrical and electronics engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, University of Notre Dame, and University of Vermont. He worked as a design engineer and energy auditor, and then taught at Vermont Technical College where he coauthored a textbook, “Energy, Economics and the Environment” with Dr. Russell Mills (Prentice Hall, 1984). At Aprovecho Institute in Oregon, he was the editor and publisher of CookStove News, and in 1988, he founded Skipping Stones magazine. For the last 36 years, he has been the editor and publisher of this multicultural, literary magazine for today’s youth. He has traveled extensively on three different continents and speaks four languages, including Spanish.
Arun was a founding board member and a co-president of the Interfaith Prayer Services International (IPSI) in Eugene, Oregon. He has also served on several nonprofits, including as the Human Rights Commission of the City of Eugene. He is a recipient of the 2002 Writer Award. He has been recognized by the Educational Press Association and National Association for Multicultural Education for his distinguished achievements, and by the City of Eugene with their 2011 Dr. M. L. King, Jr. Award for Community Leadership.
