Stars of the Sea

Starfish are fantastical creatures: they look like inhabitants of the heavens and the scientific name that identifies them, "asteroidea", only furthers that image. The shapes and colors of these mysterious beings capture the imagination.

The name asteroidea encompasses some 1,500 species grouped in several families. They are part of the echinoderms, which also include other mysterious ocean residents, such as the sea cucumbers, which are close relatives of the sea stars.

One Internet site dedicated to starfish states that they have inhabited the Earth for some 500 million years, a history that is corroborated by the great number of star fossils that have been found.

A large portion of the asteroidea species have five tentacles extending out from a center, creating their lovely star shape. However, some species have many more arms, even dozens of them, such as the crown-of-thorns, which some studies indicate can affect coral reefs.

The nucleus or central disk of the sea star is where the mouth is located. They are an animal species with a primary nervous system, meaning they do not have a brain. In order to process what is occurring around them, stars have sensors that can detect light and touch.

One of the most amazing characteristics of the sea stars is their regenerative capacity, which enters into action when they lose one of their arms. And there are some species that can even regenerate from a single tentacle.

On the Internet, sea stars have generated a great quantity of information. You can study their characteristics on the web, contemplate their different shapes, or even find answers to the most basic question: just what IS a sea star?

Starfish Science
Sea Stars, gallery and descriptions
Starfish, Asteroidea
Crown-of-Thorns: Questions and Answers
Echinodermata
Star Fossils
Asteroidea Family
REEF: Echinoderms

World Food Summit

The World Food Summit is under way this week (May 10-13) in the Italian capital with the aim of reinforcing they key commitment made by the world's governments: by the year 2015, the number of people suffering hunger will be reduced by half.

This global summit, which was originally scheduled for November 2001, bears the subtitle "five years after", in reference to the promises made in 1996, when 185 countries signed the Rome Declaration and a Plan of Action.

At that first World Food Summit, it was proposed that the global community must act to alleviate the hunger experienced by more than 815 million people, and that by 2015 the number of people in that situation would be reduced to no more than 400 million.

Five years later there is great concern that the goal will not be met. The number of hungry people is falling only very slowly. This year's Summit does not seek to reformulate the objectives that were established, but rather to produce tools to be able to achieve the goal. Of course, this requires the political will of all countries around the world.

The Summit is organized by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), based in Rome, and which recently presented the report titled "World Anti-Hunger Program", in which it states that investments of 24 billion dollars annually will be necessary to reduce the number of hungry people by half in time for the 2015 deadline.

At a preparatory meeting for the World Food Summit of the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean, the region's representatives endorsed the idea of creating an international coalition to combat hunger.

World Food Summit: Five Years Later
UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
FAO: Anti-Hunger Program
Goals of the World Food Summit
1996 World Food Summit
Rome Declaration on World Food Security
FAO Latin American and Caribbean Conference for World Food Summit
World Food Program
International Fund for Agricultural Development
FAO: The State of Food Insecurity in the World

World Environment Day

World Environment Day, celebrated every June 5 around the planet, is dedicated this year to an important issue: we must give the Earth a chance. The planet must be allowed some respite from the damaged caused by human activities.

"Our planet is still in need of intensive care," said United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan in his World Environment Day address.

At the web site of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) on World Environment Day 2002, it is made clear that in spite of the progress made in recent years, many of the human activities that hurt the planet in the 20th century persist today.

"Poverty, pollution, and population growth; rural poverty and rapid urbanization; wasteful consumption habits and growing demands for water, land and energy continue to place intense pressures on the planet's life support systems, threatening our ability to achieve sustainable development," said Annan.

A recently released UNEP report, Global Environment Outlook, states that within a few years 70 percent of the world's land surface could be seriously damaged by infrastructure projects, resource exploitation and the expansion of… civilization.

The World Environment Day theme - Give the Earth a Chance - is closely linked with the crucial meeting convened for this year in South Africa, the World Summit on Sustainable Development, also known as Rio+10, where it is hoped that the world's governments will agree on measures for confronting the most urgent environmental problems.

World Environment Day has also been tied this year to the commemoration of International Year of Mountains.

The city chosen to host the celebration of World Environment Day 2002 is Shenzhen, China. However, around the world public and private institutions are holding environment-related events, many of which are aimed to raise public awareness about protecting the Earth.

World Environment Day was established by a UN resolution 30 years ago, in 1972. It is a member of a family of more than 50 special days set aside by the international forum as a means to call attention to issues that affect all peoples and nations.

UNEP: World Environment Day
World Environment Day: Shenzhen Official Site
Message from Kofi Annan
UNEP: Global Environment Outlook (GEO)
World Summit on Sustainable Development 2002
International Year of Mountains