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China Risks 1.6 Million Deaths in Virus ‘Tsunami’ If Covid Zero Is Abandoned: Study

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China Risks 1.6 Million Deaths in Virus ‘Tsunami’ If Covid Zero Is Abandoned: Study

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China risks a “tsunami” of coronavirus infections resulting in 1.6 million deaths if the government abandons its long-held Covid Zero policy and allows the highly-infectious omicron variant to spread unchecked, according to researchers at Shanghai’s Fudan University.

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US deaths from COVID hit 1 million, less than 2 1/2 years in

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The U.S. death toll from COVID-19 hit 1 million on Monday, a once-unimaginable figure that only hints at the multitudes of loved ones and friends staggered by grief and frustration.

The confirmed number of dead is equivalent to a 9/11 attack every day for 336 days. It is roughly equal to how many Americans died in the Civil War and World War II combined. It's as if Boston and Pittsburgh were wiped out.

"It is hard to imagine a million people plucked from this earth," said Jennifer Nuzzo, who leads a new pandemic center at the Brown University School of Public Health in Providence, Rhode Island. "It's still happening and we are letting it happen."

Some of those left behind say they cannot return to normal. They replay their loved ones' voicemail messages. Or watch old videos to see them dance. When other people say they are done with the virus, they bristle with anger or ache in silence.

"'Normal.' I hate that word," said Julie Wallace, 55, of Elyria, Ohio, who lost her husband to COVID-19 in 2020. "All of us never get to go back to normal."

Three out of every four deaths were people 65 and older. More men died than women. White people made up most of the deaths overall. But Black, Hispanic and Native American people have been roughly twice as likely to die from COVID-19 as their white counterparts.

Most deaths happened in urban areas, but rural places - where opposition to masks and vaccinations tends to run high - paid a heavy price at times.

The death toll less than 2 1/2 years into the outbreak is based on death certificate data compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics. But the real number of lives lost to COVID-19, either directly or indirectly, as a result the disruption of the health care system in the world's richest country, is believed to be far higher.

The U.S. has the highest reported COVID-19 death toll of any country, though health experts have long suspected that the real number of deaths in places such as India, Brazil and Russia is higher than the official figures.

The milestone comes more than three months after the U.S. reached 900,000 dead. The pace has slowed since a harrowing winter surge fueled by the omicron variant.

The U.S. is averaging about 300 COVID-19 deaths per day, compared with a peak of about 3,400 a day in January 2021. New cases are on the rise again, climbing more than 60% in the past two weeks to an average of about 86,000 a day - still well below the all-time high of over 800,000, reached when the omicron variant was raging during the winter.

The largest bell at Washington National Cathedral in the nation's capital tolled 1,000 times a week ago, once for every 1,000 deaths. President Joe Biden on Thursday ordered flags lowered to half-staff and called each life "an irreplaceable loss."

"As a nation, we must not grow numb to such sorrow," he said in a statement. "To heal, we must remember."

More than half the deaths occurred since vaccines became available in December of 2020. Two-thirds of Americans are fully vaccinated, and nearly half of them have had at least one booster dose. But demand for the vaccine has plummeted, and the campaign to put shots in arms has been plagued by misinformation, distrust and political polarization.

Unvaccinated people have a 10 times greater risk of dying of COVID-19 than the fully vaccinated, according to the CDC.

"To me, that is what is just so particularly heartbreaking," Nuzzo said. Vaccines are safe and greatly reduce the likelihood of severe illness, she said. They "largely take the possibility of death off the table."

Angelina Proia, 36, of New York, lost her father to COVID-19 in April 2020. She runs a support group for grieving families on Facebook and has seen it divided over vaccinations. She has booted people from the group for spreading misinformation.

"I don't want to hear conspiracy theories. I don't want to hear anti-science," said Proia, who wishes her father could have been vaccinated.

Sara Atkins, 42, of Wynnewood, Pennsylvania, channels her grief into fighting for global vaccination and better access to health care to honor her father, Andy Rotman-Zaid, who died of COVID-19 in December 2020.

"My father gave me marching orders to end it and make sure it doesn't happen again," Atkins said of the pandemic. "He told me, 'Politicize the hell out of my death if I die of this.'"

Julie Wallace and her husband, Lewis Dunlap, had cellphone numbers one digit apart. She continues paying to keep his number. She calls it just to hear his voice.

"It's just so important to hear that sometimes," she said. "It gives you a little bit of reassurance while also tearing your heart out."

Some have offered solace in poetry. In Philadelphia, poet and social worker Trapeta Mayson, created a 24-hour poetry hotline called Healing Verse. Traffic to the Academy of American Poets' poets.org website rose during the pandemic.

Brian Sonia-Wallace, poet laureate of West Hollywood, California, has traveled the country writing poems for hire. He imagines a memorial of a million poems, written by people who don't normally write poetry. They would talk to those who are grieving and listen for points of connection.

"What we need as a nation is empathy," said Tanya Alves, 35, of Weston, Florida, who lost her 24-year-old sister to COVID-19 in October. "Over two years into the pandemic, with all the cases and lives lost, we should be more compassionate and respectful when talking about COVID. Thousands of families changed forever. This virus is not just a cold."

___

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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US deaths from COVID hit 1 million, less than 2 1/2 years in

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The U.S. death toll from COVID-19 hit 1 million on Monday, a once-unimaginable figure that only hints at the multitudes of loved ones and friends staggered by grief and frustration. The confirmed number of dead is equivalent to a 9/11 attack every day for 336 days.

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extinction, in biology, the dying out or extermination of a species. Extinction occurs when species are diminished because of environmental forces (habitat fragmentation, global change, natural disaster, overexploitation of species for human use) or because of evolutionary changes in their members (genetic inbreeding, poor reproduction, decline in population numbers).
(Read E.O. Wilson's Britannica essay on mass extinction.)
Rates of extinction vary widely. For example, during the last 100,000 years of the Pleistocene Epoch (about 2.6 million to 11,700 years ago), some 40 percent of the existing genera of large mammals in Africa and more than 70 percent in North America, South America, and Australia went extinct. Ecologists estimate that the present-day extinction rate is 1,000 to 10,000 times the background extinction rate (between one and five species per year) because of deforestation, habitat loss, overhunting, pollution, climate change, and other human activities-the sum total of which will likely result in the loss of between 30 and 50 percent of extant species by the middle of the 21st century.

Although extinction is an ongoing feature of Earth's flora and fauna (the vast majority of species ever to have lived are extinct), the fossil record reveals five unusually large extinctions, called mass extinction events, each involving the demise of vast numbers of species. These conspicuous declines in diversity are referred to as mass extinctions; they are distinguished from the majority of extinctions, which occur continually and are referred to as background extinction. Ranked in descending order of severity, they are:

1. Permian extinction (about 265.1 million to about 251.9 million years ago), the most dramatic die-off, eliminating about half of all families and about 90 percent of all species, which included some 95 percent of marine species (nearly wiping out brachiopods and corals) and about 70 percent of land species (including plants, insects, and vertebrates).

2. Cretaceous-Tertiary ( K-T), or Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg), extinction (about 66.0 million years ago), involving about 80 percent of all animal species, including the dinosaurs and many species of plants. Although many scientists contend that this event was caused by one or more large comets or asteroids striking Earth, others maintain that it was caused by climatic changes associated with the substantial volcanic activity of the time.

3. End-Triassic extinction (about 201.3 million years ago), possibly caused by rapid climate change or by an asteroid striking Earth. This mass extinction event caused about 20 percent of marine families and some 76 percent of all extant species to die out, possibly within a span of about 10,000 years, thus opening up numerous ecological niches into which the dinosaurs evolved.

4. Devonian extinctions (407.6 million to about 358.9 million years ago), which included 15-20 percent of marine families and 70-80 percent of all animal species. Roughly 86 percent of marine brachiopod species perished, along with many corals, conodonts, and trilobites.

In essence, mass extinctions are unusual because of the large numbers of taxa that die out, the concentrated time frame, the widespread geographic area affected, and the many different kinds of animals and plants eliminated. In addition, the mechanisms of mass extinction are different from those of background extinctions.

Many species have become extinct because of hunting and overharvesting, the conversion of wetlands and forests to croplands and urban areas, pollution, the introduction of invasive species, and other forms of human-caused destruction of their natural environments. Indeed, current rates of human-induced extinctions are estimated to be about 1,000 times greater than past natural (background) rates of extinction, leading some scientists to call modern times the sixth mass extinction. This high extinction rate is largely due to the exponential growth in human numbers: growing from about 1 billion in 1850, the world's population reached 2 billion in 1930 and more than 7.8 billion in 2020 and is expected to reach about 10 billion by 2050. As a result of increasing human populations, habitat loss is the greatest factor in current levels of extinction. For example, less than one-sixth of the land area of Europe has remained unmodified by human activity, and more than half of all wildlife habitat has been eliminated in more than four-fifths of countries in the paleotropics (the Old World tropics that span Africa, Asia, and Indonesia). By 2020 several ecological studies had reported dramatic decreases in wildlife populations worldwide and increases in the numbers of threatened and endangered species, especially among terrestrial mammals and vertebrates.

In addition, increased levels of greenhouse gases have begun to alter the world's climate, with slowly increasing surface temperatures expected by the middle of the 21st century to force many species to migrate toward the poles and up mountain slopes in order to remain in habitats with the same climate conditions. Most ecologists, conservation biologists, and climate scientists worry that global warming will contribute greatly to species extinctions. For example, one study released in 2015 that examined 130 extinction models from previous studies predicted that 5.2 percent of species would be lost as a result of global warming alone with a rise in average temperatures of 2 °C (3.6 °F) above temperature benchmarks taken before the start of the Industrial Revolution. The study also predicted that about 16 percent of Earth's species would be lost if surface warming increased to about 4.3 °C (7.7 °F). Changes in ocean temperatures and increasing ocean acidification also threaten many marine species, especially corals and mollusks with external shells.

Overexploitation from hunting and harvesting also has adversely affected many species. For example, about 20 million tropical fish and 12 million corals are harvested annually for the aquarium trade, depleting natural populations in some parts of the world.

All these factors have increased the numbers of threatened species. Almost one in four mammal species, including four of the six remaining species of great apes, and one in eight bird species were considered at significant risk of extinction at the start of the 21st century. In addition, the World Wildlife Fund noted in a 2016 report that vertebrate populations overall declined by 58 percent between 1970 and 2010.
John L. Gittleman

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Extinction, in biology, is the dying out or extermination of a species. It occurs when species are diminished because of environmental forces (natural or human-made) or because of evolutionary changes in their members. Learn more about mass extinctions and modern extinctions.

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https://humanappealusa.org/appeals/orphan-sponsorship?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIuODC5fLk9wIVrD2tBh14XAN3EAAYASAAEgI9O_D_BwE

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Human Appeal’s orphan sponsorship programme supports over 16,000 children around the world. Find out how you can sponsor an orphan from just £35 a month.

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https://impactful.ninja/best-charities-for-helping-orphans/

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Funding a charitable project or alternative or sponsoring an orphaned child is among the noblest decisions you could make. However, not all charities operate in the same way or have the same reach. Therefore, it is crucial to understand each person's unique characteristics and donate to one that resonates with your own values.
The best charities for helping orphans include global organizations such as World Orphans, Worldwide Orphans, and Orphans International Worldwide (OIWW). Others, like Lumos, Love Without Boundaries, and SOS Children's Villages, provide individualized help to orphans or look after specific aspects.
Supporting children's lives and empowering them to become happy and solid adults is an amazing mission, but identifying the right charity to do so is crucial. Below is a list of reliable charities that work towards protecting and empowering orphaned children. We have included a little more about their backgrounds, programs available, and channels through which you can help.

These Are the 10 Best Charities for Helping Orphans

Below are our favorite charities for helping orphans:

World Orphans

Worldwide Orphans

Orphans International Worldwide

SOS Children's Villages

Lumos

Empower Orphans

Love Without Boundaries

Miracle Foundation

Orphan Life Foundation

Coptic Orphans

(At the end of this article we'll also share our six-step approach on how you can select the best charity to support. And we'll give you an overview of how you can find out how to best support your chosen charity.)
World Orphans: Best Christian Charity For Orphans Worldwide

World Orphans is a charity that aims to help orphans in over nine countries through the Evangelical Church's engagement. This organization revolves around the principles of the Scripture and aims at bringing forward the ideals of the Gospel of Christ.

The charity publishes yearly financial reports, and it is a member of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA). It claims to use 12% of the funds towards overhead costs, accounts, and admin work, while 88% of donations are dedicated directly to the cause.

Countries Where World Orphans Operates

Programs & How You Can Help

The organization encourages donors to start a campaign. Indeed, just by raising $50, donors can provide education, food, medical care, and spiritual guidance to a child. Campaigns include running, walking, and coaching for a cause.

Another program the charity proposes is World Orphans Journey Trips, during which volunteers can learn, serve, and defend the cause. These trips can be in-person or, more recently, virtual.

Alternatively, you can opt to donate, volunteer, or attend one of the events organized by World Orphans.

Worldwide Orphans: Best for Culturally-Relevant Help

Founded in 1997 by pediatric infectious disease and adoption specialist Dr. Jane Aronson, Worldwide Orphans (WWO) has been implementing new strategies and methods over time. Today, it has helped over 8,000 children in countries around the world.

The aim of this charity is to improve the lives of children who are vulnerable because orphaned or as a consequence of an adverse economic, political, or family environment. Unlike other charities, WWO aims at understanding the specific needs of children in these areas, providing culturally relevant solutions.

Countries Where WWO Operates

So far, WWO has been helping children in several countries, including Ethiopia, Haiti, Vietnam, the US, and Bulgaria.

Programs & How You Can Help

Among the most successful programs launched by WWO is Element of Play®, a trademarked program that aims to rehabilitate children within their communities, supporting them to become solid adults.

You can support this or other initiatives launched by WWO by making a donation or fundraising. If you prefer to donate something different from money, you can opt to join the Matching Gifts, Wire & Stock Transfers, or Legacy Gifts options.

Orphans International Worldwide (OIWW): Best for International Reach

Founded in 1999 by Jim Luce, Orphans International Worldwide (OIWW) has grown to be one of the broadest reach initiatives. Today, this charity works to end orphanages worldwide, giving children the option to stay with their extended families instead.

This charity's mission is to empower orphans to become solid, properly functioning adults with equal opportunities and chances as everybody else. They do so through an environment that is fully international, intercultural, and thoroughly connected to the internet.

Countries Where OIWW Operates

OIWW strives to have a worldwide reach and promote activism. The movement initiated by the charity has made it one of the most influential ones on an international scale.

Additionally, the project has been extremely helpful in providing emergency response and family care to the victims of natural disasters, such as in the area hit by the 2004's tsunami in Sri Lanka and Indonesia and during Hurricane Jeanne in Haiti.

Programs & How You Can Help

The company revolves around three main concepts: family-care, movement, and accountability. This allows it to provide data-driven feedback on the actions taken while looking after every child's individual needs.

Helping this charity can be done through donating, sponsoring a child, fundraising, or partnerships.

SOS Children's Villages: Best for Community-Building

SOS Children's Villages is a slightly alternative charity that has been developed upon the revolutionary concept to offer refuge, love, and compassion to the orphaned children as a consequence of WWII. It was introduced in 1949 by Hermann Gmeiner in Tyrol, Austria.

The concept has been expanded and developed since then, and today this non-profit organization has created over 570 villages around the world.

In these communities, at least one adult takes the responsibilities and roles of a parent for all the children living there. In this way, the children can create an emotional attachment and benefit from an extended family's love and care.

SOS Children's Villages is a worldwide project and one of the most renowned and applauded by organizations, individuals, and families.

Countries Where SOS Children's Villages Operates

SOS Children's Villages operates in over 125 countries worldwide, providing long-term education, healthcare, and family care to children who can no longer count on parental support.

Programs & How You Can Help

There are many ways in which you can participate in this international project; the main ones include:

Donating

Sponsoring a child

Becoming a corporate partner

Becoming an institutional partner

Through philanthropy

Lumos: Best for Individualized Help

Funded and managed by author J.K. Rowling, Lumos boasts an alternative concept to other charities. It aims at helping those children who, because orphaned, have been living in institutions.

According to the charity's research, there are over 5.4 million children in institutions today, 80% of which still have a living parent. Additionally, Lumos has gathered over 300 pieces of research that show the long-term damage and harm living in an institution can cause to children.

The main cause of such damage is the fact that children live with many others and are cared for by shift workers. Such an environment prevents them from creating valuable emotional connections with those around them, creating a substantial gap in their upbringing.

Lumos, an organization that was conceptualized in 2004 by J.K. Rowling, has been working to provide children around the world with long-term family love and care.

Countries Where Lumos Operates

Currently, Lumos is operating in the following countries:

Programs & How You Can Help

The initiative specified several ways in which you can offer help. Some of these include donating, fundraising, campaigning, or becoming a corporate partner. Philanthropy and signing up for the charity's newsletter are also ways to support the charity's effort. Watching the documentary Finding the Way Home by Lumos can also offer you all the information needed to make a more conscious choice.

Empower Orphans: Best for Youth Empowerment

Founded in 2006, Empower Orphans is a project born from an old tradition started by the founder's grandparents. Indeed, Neha Gupta would visit the local orphanage, together with her whole family, and deliver meals to orphaned children.

Neha started the initiative when she was nine years old, and she continued to work for the wellbeing of orphans both in India and in her hometown in the US since then. Today, the non-profit organization has positively impacted over 30,000 children in India and continues to create positive change in several countries.

Countries Where Empower Orphans Operates

Programs & How You Can Help

The main way to support this initiative is by donating. This can help the charity support healthcare, education, mentorship, and activism projects.

Love Without Boundaries: Best For Medical Help

Love Without Boundaries is an international organization that aims at providing all the basic needs children need to grow healthy, strong, and functioning. One of the charity's main aims is to provide individualized medical care to orphaned needs who need special care to regain their health.

The charity is able to provide such care through the help of donors, who can subscribe to monthly donations, sponsorships, and support.

Countries Where Love Without Boundaries Operates

Programs & How You Can Help

The best way to support this charity is by sponsoring a child. You will be able to find out the amount needed to support each child's care or nutrition and decide on the help you will be able to offer. Naturally, you can also donate, fundraise, or volunteer.

You will also find the help you need on the charity's website if you wish to adopt a child.

Miracle Foundation: Best Charity Operating in India

Founded in 2000, Miracle Foundation has grown to be one of the best performing organizations, especially when it comes down to reviewing the methods used in orphanages and protecting children's rights.

Miracle Foundation is proudly in partnership with UNICEF, working with over 300 orphanages and helping over 15,000 children. They have also introduced an innovative system to identify and examine their progress and results, the Thrive Scale™.

Through the results obtained, Miracle Foundation can evaluate the systems used and implement a start-to-end process to protect and empower children throughout the process of finding a suitable home and family.

Countries Where Miracle Foundation Operates

Miracle Foundation is an Austin, TX-based organization, but it also has offices in New Delhi. It mainly operates in various locations in India, including:

New Delhi

Patna, Bihar

Gandhinagar, Gujarat

Ranchi, Jharkhand

Pune, ‎Maharashtra

Chennai, Tamil Nadu

Programs & How You Can Help

The charity encourages interested people to donate, fundraise, or volunteer in one of the initiatives launched.

Orphan Life Foundation: Best Charity Operating in Burkina-Faso

While the Orphan Life Foundation has been operating in Africa for years, the non-profit organization started focusing its efforts on villages in Burkina-Faso in 2016. This is after one of the members had visited a school that the charity had been helping and was touched by an eye-opening experience.

While also operating in the US, the charity aims at providing children in Burkina-Faso with education opportunities, holistic care, and health and medical support. Orphan Life Foundation also offers foster home and shelter services, facilitating the adoption process in a place where paperwork can make it impossible for a vulnerable child to find a family.

Countries Where Orphan Life Foundation Operates

The charity's headquarters are in Lacey, WA. However, it mainly operates in Burkina-Faso, in smaller villages such as Didyr.

Programs & How You Can Help

You can get involved in Orphan Life Foundation by sponsoring a child, volunteering, fundraising, or contributing to the purposely-launched Global Pandemic Relief Fund.

The charity also operates several projects, including:

HIV and Aids Program

Pencil for Poor Program

Pennies for Poor Program

Shelter for Shy Program

Clean Water for Children

Desk for Children Project

Roof for Rookies Project

Coptic Orphans: Best Christian Charity Operating in Egypt

Coptic Orphans is a charity based on catholic religious principles and aims to help children in communities all around Egypt. Founded in 1988, the charity has been expanding its reach steadily over time.

Today, it has offices in Canada, the US, UK, Australia, and Egypt, which has helped over 55,000 children. It aims to empower children around the country through education, training, medical care, and spiritual guidance.

Countries Where Coptic Orphans Operates

Coptic Orphans mainly operates across Egypt, but it does so through dedicated teams in the US, as well as in the UK, Canada, and Australia.

Programs & How You Can Help

You can support this charity through a range of channels: you can become a sponsor, attend one of the events hosted by the Coptic Orphans charity, or even just sign up for their newsletter. There are also several programs you can leverage to get involved with the work the company does.

These include:

Pray for the Children

Donate to the Children or Sponsor a Child

Give a Tablet

Leave a Legacy for the Children

Volunteer - you can do so in Egypt or in one of the offices

Dedicate or host an event for the children

Meet the urgent needs of a fatherless family in Egypt

How Can You Select the Best Charities to Support?

The charities on this list are, we deem, the best charities for helping orphans. But don't just take our word for it! You might want to do your own due diligence for each of these - as you should. Or for a particular charity that you may have in mind.

Either way, check out our six-step approach to select the best charity to support:

1. Check out the charity website and their mission. Charities that are worthy of your donations are transparent in their mission and their figures. Familiarise yourself with their history, mission, and values. The website is the best place to start. And while you are on it, also check out their mission to see how clearly you align with it.

2. Check if the charity has measurable goals. An effective charity has clear goals. You want to know your donation will help the charity reach its goals. But if it doesn't have targets, it's likely to fail or squander your gift. The charity should be able to account for its spending and supply evidence of the work they do.

3. Assess the successes or goals the charity has achieved. You wouldn't invest in a business if it kept missing its targets. In the same way, charities are like this too. If no one is assessing the progress a charity makes in reaching its targets, the chances are not making positive change.

4. Check the charity's financials and stats. Trustworthy organizations will publish financial statements and reports each year. Some might be exempt from having to do so, but they should be able to provide them to public members who are interested in donating.

5. Double-check the charity's independent ratings. Two great places for this are Charity Navigator, the largest database on charities that analyze their financial health, accountability, and transparency, and Charity Watch, which details the amount of money spent on charitable activities versus overheads.

6. Locate sources who work with or benefit from the charity. Word of mouth and first-hand experience of a charity's work lets you know the charity's quality. If you're able to do so, check out the charity for yourself or speak to someone familiar with it. This way, your donation will go to the right place.

How You Can Support Your Favorite Charity?

After you've made your decision, it's time for you to decide on how you'd like to help the charities you've chosen. Check how you can help - each charity runs specific programs that have unique aims. Find out what the aim of such programs is and whether they are right for you.

Here are a few ways you can help your chosen charity:

Donate money. You can find donation pages on the website of most charities. Your donation can be a one-time payment, or you can set it to be deducted regularly at different intervals. You can mostly pay via credit card, but some charities also take PayPal or Bitcoin payments.

Buy their official merchandise. The charities can also raise money by selling merchandise. So, you can support them by buying the mugs, shirts, caps, pens, pencils, and any other such items they may be selling. Ideally, you should buy as much as you can to share and spread the word about the charity's activities.

Donate a percentage of your online purchases. If you bought anything on sites like Amazon lately, you'd find a prompt asking you to donate to your favorite charities through their Amazon Smile program. You can set this up so that your chosen charities will get a fraction of your online purchases.

Engage in volunteer work. As you've seen from our descriptions above, some charities engage in a lot of local and grassroots programs. You can help by taking on and organizing the program in your local area.

Help their fundraising efforts. You can spread the word about the charity in your workplace, school, church, etc., and hold creative fundraising drives on social media or offline within your small circles.

Share their stories. Most charities have compelling stories that you can share with your audience to attract more people to the cause.

Final Thoughts

While donating money, or labor, to a charity for helping orphans is a great initiative, it is crucial to identify what charity works better for your goals. Indeed, each of them runs specific programs and initiatives that make it unique.

Whether you prefer to help orphans in a specific area of the world or wish to leverage the international reach that some charities have, it is crucial to ensure that the organization you have picked is legitimate. You can ensure this by researching thoroughly before committing to a donation.

Stay impactful,

PS: Finally, I want to leave you with a thought-provoking TED talk from Dan Pallotta, a leading philanthropic activist and fundraiser, about what is wrong with the way we think about charities - and what we can do about it:

Sources

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10 Best Charities for Helping Orphans (Complete 2022 List) - Impactful Ninja

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Funding a charitable project or alternative or sponsoring an orphaned child is among the noblest decisions you could make. However, not all charities operate in the same way or have the same reach. Therefore, it is crucial to understand each person's unique characteristics and donate to one that resonates with your own values.

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Conflict brings hunger. In Gaza, a mother and child in a camp for displaced persons Photo: Natalia Cieslik/World Bank

While the entire Hunger Notes website is devoted to helping our readers learn more about hunger and poverty, this department focuses specifically on learning resources of various types.

Hunger and poverty facts Brief fact sheets on hunger worldwide and in the United States.

Hunger quizzes Information and questions on key hunger issues, such as how many people are hungry and what does long-term hunger feel like. [When you take one of these quizzes, Hunger Notes makes a small donation ($.10 to $.02) to anti-hunger organizations. As many people take the quizzes, the donations add up.]

Hunger Notes special reports There are key issues affecting poor people. Hunger Notes has tried to follow several of the most important:

John Rimui grows tomarillo, also known as 'tree tomatoes', an egg-shaped edible fruit. The fruits are high in vitamins and iron. Leshau, Nyandarua County, Kenya. 2013. ©IFAD/Susan Beccio
Hunger pictures and stories Hunger Posters
Material that can be downloaded and printed.

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Learn About Hunger - World Hunger Education - World Hunger News

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Conflict brings hunger. In Gaza, a mother and child in a camp for displaced persons Photo: Natalia Cieslik/World Bank While the entire Hunger Notes website is devoted to helping our readers learn more about hunger and poverty, this department focuses specifically on learning resources of various types.

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There is more than enough food produced in the world to feed everyone on the planet. Yet as many as 828 million people still go hungry.

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Global hunger crisis in 2022

After steadily declining for a decade, world hunger is on the rise, affecting nearly 10% of people globally. From 2019 to 2022, the number of undernourished people grew by as many as 150 million, a crisis driven largely by conflict, climate change, and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Children Suffer from Severe Acute Malnutrition

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What is hunger?

Hunger is more complicated than empty bellies. It's a multifaceted problem with many root causes and far-reaching impact. The first step to ending the global hunger crisis is to understand what it is and why it exists in a world of plenty.

Who does hunger affect?

An overwhelming majority of the world's hungry people reside in the developing world, where extreme poverty and lack of access to nutritious food often leads to malnutrition. Women and children are particularly vulnerable.

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Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC)

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What Causes World Hunger?

How we fight hunger

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The world's hungriest countries

These countries need immediate life-saving help.

There is more than enough food produced in the world to feed everyone on the planet. Yet as many as 828 million people still go hungry.

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Global hunger crisis in 2022

After steadily declining for a decade, world hunger is on the rise, affecting nearly 10% of people globally. From 2019 to 2022, the number of undernourished people grew by as many as 150 million, a crisis driven largely by conflict, climate change, and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Children Suffer from Severe Acute Malnutrition

Of Child Deaths Worldwide Are Due to Hunger & Related Causes

Children Die Each Day from Illnesses Caused by Dirty Water and Unhygienic Living Conditions.

What is hunger?

Hunger is more complicated than empty bellies. It's a multifaceted problem with many root causes and far-reaching impact. The first step to ending the global hunger crisis is to understand what it is and why it exists in a world of plenty.

Who does hunger affect?

An overwhelming majority of the world's hungry people reside in the developing world, where extreme poverty and lack of access to nutritious food often leads to malnutrition. Women and children are particularly vulnerable.

Show Photo Credit

Action Against Hunger, Madagascar

Close Photo Credit

Show Photo Credit

Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC)

Close Photo Credit

What Causes World Hunger?

How we fight hunger

Previous Photo Next Photo

The world's hungriest countries

These countries need immediate life-saving help.

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World Hunger Facts & Statistics | Action Against Hunger

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Show Photo Credit Action Against Hunger, Afghanistan Close Photo Credit There is more than enough food produced in the world to feed everyone on the planet. Yet as many as 828 million people still go hungry. Donate Now After steadily declining for a decade, world hunger is on the rise, affecting nearly 10% of people globally.

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These are ways protect endangered animals

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These are 10 of the BEST organizations to help endangered animals

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10 of the Most Famous Endangered Species

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©Sergey Uryadnikov/Dreamstime.com

They're known as "charismatic megafauna" for a reason. These endangered animals ooze star power, a factor that conservationists have capitalized on in order to fund projects to protect them (and, often by default, the other organisms that share their complex ecosystems). People are far more likely to donate money to save an adorable otter or a magnificent tiger than they are to contribute funds to preserve the limbless worm skink or the Gerlach's cockroach. However, skinks and roaches are integral participants in their ecosystems as well and just as deserving of assistance as their flashier compatriots. You might then consider the animals on this list the A-listers whose box-office draw finances the continued existence of the lesser-known character actors who inhabit the same environments. But if the concept of trickle-down conservation sticks in your craw, then get to work on that "save the Gerlach's cockroach" crowdfunding campaign. I'd donate. Maybe.
(Read E.O. Wilson's Britannica essay on mass extinction.)

vaquita (Phocoena sinus)

Vaquitas, the rarest and smallest of all cetaceans (members of a certain order of aquatic mammals), inhabit only the waters in Mexico's Gulf of California. There were nearly 600 vaquitas in 1997, but estimates of how many survive as of 2022 range from just 10 to 18 of the porpoises. The vaquita's natural range is rich in fish and shrimp, and therefore it is also rich in fishing boats. The gill nets used by the locals are meant to capture the totoaba, a fish whose swim bladder can fetch $20,000 each in China, where it's viewed as a delicacy. The average vaquita is 4.9 feet long, which makes it similar in size to the totoaba. This is problematic because vaquitas can become entangled in these nets and drown. Gill nets were banned by the Mexican government in 2015 but are still used illegally, despite social programs and restrictions intended to deter their use.

Asian elephant (Elephas maximus)

The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species estimates that the current population of Asian elephants, which inhabit 13 countries, is about 40,000-50,000. That number may be far lower; some regions inhabited by the lumbering pachyderms are inaccessible because of the terrain or political volatility. Over 50 percent of the population is concentrated in India. The burgeoning human population there-and elsewhere in Asia-creates conflicts for space and resources. And, while the tusks of Asian elephants are much smaller than those of their African counterparts, the Asian species is still poached for its ivory, meat, and skin.

Javan rhinoceros (Rhinoceros sondaicus)

At first glance, the Javan rhinoceros's fleshy folds of skin appear to be plated armor, complementing the keratinous horn adorning the skull of this lumbering species. Its population faces many threats: natural disasters, habitat loss, disease, and, notably, poaching for its horn. In 2010 the last of continental Asia's Javan rhinoceroses was killed in Vietnam. Today the Javan rhinoceros inhabits Ujung Kulon National Park, which sits on a remote peninsula on the eastern side of the Indonesian island of Java. Historically, the single-horned beasts were found across wide swaths of South Asia and Southeast Asia too. The northern white rhino is nearly extinct, and the Javan rhino, whose population numbers no more than 75 individuals of all ages, appears to be treading a similar path.

gorilla (Gorilla beringei and Gorilla gorilla)

Depending on whom you ask, there are either two species of gorilla, the eastern ( Gorilla beringei) and western ( Gorilla gorilla), or three subspecies, the eastern lowland, western lowland, and mountain gorillas. Regardless of whom you ask, all gorillas are endangered. There could be more than 300,000 gorillas left in the wild, and they're listed as critically endangered. Habitat encroachment and poaching for bushmeat, trophies, and supposed magical talismans have led to substantial losses. Because their social structure is so complex and because they reproduce slowly-females giving birth only once every four years at best-the removal of even a few individuals from a gorilla troop can catastrophically impact its ability to sustain itself.

orangutan (genus Pongo)

Bornean orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus) in a tree© guenterguni-E+/Getty Images

Orangutan is Malaysian for "person of the forest." Though morphologically orangutans may resemble melted Muppets more than people, their sophisticated cognitive abilities are very human indeed. Like gorillas and chimpanzees, they have been known to use tools. Threatened largely by logging and capture for the exotic pet trade, orangutans-restricted to the Southeast Asian islands of Borneo and Sumatra-number about 120,000 per the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. A 2011 survey revealed that more than 50 percent of the original Bornean orangutan population had been killed in the previous 40 years. Unlike other great apes, orangutans are usually solitary or live in groups of fewer than three, making them difficult to track and study.

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international union for conservation of nature

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Falling Stars: 10 of the Most Famous Endangered Species

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This Encyclopaedia Britannica Science list features 10 well-known endangered animal species.

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Species List | Endangered, Vulnerable, and Threatened Animals | WWF

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Species List | Endangered, Vulnerable, and Threatened Animals | WWF

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WWF is committed to saving endangered species. Learn more about the species we are working to protecting from becoming endangered or extinct.

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You Are Here: Endangered Species Home "

Ensuring an Effective Endangered Species Act

The ESA provides a broad and flexible framework to facilitate conservation with a variety of stakeholders. Learn about the tools in place that help us work with our diverse network of partners to deliver meaningful conservation.

Humpback Chub Reclassified from Endangered to Threatened: Collaboration by Partners Has Improved Conservation Status

Thanks to the hard work of state, regional, Tribal and federal agencies, as well as private partners, significant progress has been made conserving and recovering the humpback chub...
News Release

What's in Your Backyard?

Learn about the endangered and threatened species in your area and what is being done to help recover them.

An Integrated Framework for Conservation

The Species Status Assessment was developed to enhance conservation success under the ESA. This framework is based on the best available scientific and commercial information, and it delivers the foundational science for informing all ESA decisions...

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.authors[].name
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service/Endangered Species, Sarah Leon

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
You Are Here: Endangered Species Home " The ESA provides a broad and flexible framework to facilitate conservation with a variety of stakeholders. Learn about the tools in place that help us work with our diverse network of partners to deliver meaningful conservation.

# data[].attributes.body
We need to stop animal extinction because every animal matters

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Species List | Endangered, Vulnerable, and Threatened Animals | WWF

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Species List | Endangered, Vulnerable, and Threatened Animals | WWF

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
WWF is committed to saving endangered species. Learn more about the species we are working to protecting from becoming endangered or extinct.

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https://www.worldvision.org/clean-water-news-stories/global-water-crisis-facts
https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/ehep/82-2/
https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/drinking-water

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Global water crisis: Facts, FAQs, and how to help

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
There's nothing more essential than clean water, yet a global water crisis means people are struggling to get the quantity and quality of water they need.

# data[].attributes.body
https://faunafacts.com/endangered-species/

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
endangered species, any species that is at risk of extinction because of a sudden rapid decrease in its population or a loss of its critical habitat. Biodiverse regions that require protection on the grounds that they host a significant number of endangered species are called hot spots.
(Read E.O. Wilson's Britannica essay on mass extinction.)
Previously, any species of plant or animal that was threatened with extinction could be called an endangered species. The need for separate definitions of "endangered" and " threatened" species resulted in the development of various categorization systems, each containing definitions and criteria by which a species can be classified according to its risk of extinction. As a rule, a range of criteria must be analyzed before a species can be placed in one category or another.

Often such categorization systems are linked directly to national legislation, such as the United States Endangered Species Act (ESA) or the Canadian Species at Risk Act (SARA). In addition, regional agreements, such as the European Union's Habitats Directive (Council Directive 92/43/EEC), and international conservation agreements, such as the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS) or the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), are connected to species- assessment systems. One of the most-recognized independent international systems of species assessment is the Red List of Threatened Species, created by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Human beings and endangered species

Roughly 99 percent of threatened species are at risk because of human activities alone. By the early 21st century it could be said that human beings ( Homo sapiens) are the greatest threat to biodiversity and are the major drivers of biodiversity loss. The principal threats to species in the wild are:

Although some of these hazards occur naturally, most are caused by human beings and their economic and cultural activities. The most pervasive of these threats is habitat loss and degradation-that is, the large-scale conversion of land in previously undisturbed areas driven by the growing demand for commercial agriculture, logging, and infrastructure development. Because the rates of loss are highest in some of the most biologically diverse regions on Earth, a perpetual battle is waged to manage destructive activities there while limiting the impact that such restrictions may have on the well-being of local communities. The relative importance of each threat differs within and among taxa. So far, incidental mortality from ecological disturbance, temporary or limited human disturbance, and persecution have caused limited reductions in the total number of species; however, these phenomena can be serious for some susceptible groups. In addition, global warming has emerged as a widespread threat, and much research is being conducted to identify its potential effects on specific species, populations, and ecosystems.

Conflicts between human activities and conservation are at the root of many of these phenomena. Such controversies are often highly politicized and widely publicized in the global press and through social media. For example, habitat loss and species loss have resulted from the unregulated exploitation of coltan (the rare ore for tantalum used in consumer electronics products such as mobile phones and computers) in Kahuzi-Beiga National Park, one of the Democratic Republic of the Congo's premier forest parks. The park is also home to much of the population of the threatened Eastern Lowland gorilla ( Gorilla beringei graueri). Mining has increased gorilla mortality by reducing the animal's food resources and leading many people displaced by the mining to kill gorillas for their meat. In addition, the mountain gorilla ( G. beringei beringei), a close relative of the Eastern Lowland gorilla, is also at risk of extinction. However, authorities cite poaching, disease, and crossfire between warring political groups in the vicinity of Virunga National Park as the primary sources of its population decline.

Another example of a widely publicized wildlife controversy involves the relatively recent declines in amphibian populations. Known to be important global indicators of environmental health, amphibians have experienced some of the most serious population declines to date of all groups that have been assessed globally through the IUCN Red List process ( see below). Amphibians (a group that includes salamanders, frogs, toads, and caecilians [wormlike amphibians]), being particularly sensitive to environmental changes, are severely threatened by habitat destruction, pollution, the spread of a disease called amphibian chytridiomycosis, and climate change.

Beyond these notable examples, many of the world's birds are also at risk. The populations of some bird species (such as some albatrosses, petrels, and penguins) are declining because of longline fishing, whereas those of others (such as certain cranes, rails, parrots, pheasants, and pigeons) have become victims of habitat destruction. On many Pacific islands, the accidental introduction of the brown tree snake ( Boiga irregularis) has wreaked havoc on many bird populations.

Many fishes and other forms of aquatic and marine life are also threatened. Among them are long-lived species that have life history strategies requiring many years to reach sexual maturity. As a result, they are particularly susceptible to exploitation. The meat and fins of many sharks, rays, chimaeras, and whales fetch high prices in many parts of the world, which has resulted in the unsustainable harvest of several of those species.

Moreover, freshwater habitats worldwide are progressively threatened by pollution from industry, agriculture, and human settlements. Additional threats to freshwater ecosystems include introduced invasive species (such as the sea lamprey [ Petromyzon marinus] in the Great Lakes), the canalization of rivers (such as in the streams that empty into the Everglades in Florida), and the overharvesting of freshwater species (as in the case of the extinct Yunnan box turtle [ Cuora yunnanensis] in China). While an estimated 45,000 described species rely on freshwater habitats, it is important to note that humans are also seriously affected by the degradation of freshwater species and ecosystems.

Against this backdrop of threats related to urban expansion and food production, the unsustainable harvest of animal and plant products for traditional medicine and the pet trade is a growing concern in many parts of the world. These activities have implications for local ecosystems and habitats by exacerbating population declines through overharvesting. In addition, they have cross-border repercussions in terms of trade and illegal trafficking.

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Endangered species | Definition, Causes, Examples, & Facts

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Endangered species, any species that is at risk of extinction because of a sudden rapid decrease in its population or a loss of its critical habitat. Previously, any species of plant or animal that was threatened with extinction could be called an endangered species.

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Data: Average daily LI COVID-19 cases spike 85% in 2 weeks

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IGNORE ALL ADDS

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COVID-19 indicators are surging on Long Island, with an 85% spike in average daily new cases over the past two weeks and the seven-day positivity rate hitting nearly 10%.

The Island averaged 1,555 new cases a day over the seven days ending Monday, and 838 cases a day over the seven days ending April 25.

Some medical experts are tracing the jump largely to the decision by New York State to drop a mandate requiring masks in schools that started March 2 and a Florida federal judge's decision in late April that ended mandatory face coverings on airplanes and other forms of public transportation.

"How many times do we need to be taught the same lesson: Every time you take the masks off the numbers go up," said Dr. David Battinelli, physician-in-chief at Northwell Health.

What to know

Long Island has seen an 85% spike in average daily COVID-19 cases over the past two weeks.

The seven-day positivity average has hit nearly 10% - about 1,500 cases a day.

Some Long Island medical experts trace the jump to dropping mask mandates in schools and ending mandatory face coverings on airplanes and other forms of public transportation.

"It's what we've been talking about forever: When you do lift all the behaviors, whether it be social distancing, masking, less of a push on the need for vaccines and boosters, you're going to see cases go up," he said.

Both Nassau and Suffolk counties are now considered to have medium levels of spread by the CDC, up from low.

The seven-day positivity average on Long Island hit 9.96% in test results from Monday. That is the highest level since Jan. 26 when the region was coming out of the initial record-breaking omicron surge.

The latest wave is being fueled by the BA. 2 12.1 subvariant of the omicron variant.

Medical experts said that is a vast undercount because many people are doing home tests whose results are not reported to the state.

"What we are seeing because of these choices is just this huge wave" of cases "at a time when the wave should be controlled," said Sean Clouston, an associate professor of public health at Stony Brook University.

"Just a ton of cases in the schools, and it's totally 100% preventable, because we've prevented it already," he said. "It's quite frustrating."

With COVID-19 cases going up across the Island, so are the number of people hospitalized with the disease. Suffolk's hospitalizations of COVID-19 patients doubled in less than two weeks, from 78 to 161 patients between April 27 and May 8.

Nassau went from 133 patients to 154. Northwell's number nearly doubled, from 135 to 263 between March 31 and May 10.

The state stopped counting negative antigen results April 4, so it no longer uses any rapid tests to calculate its positivity rates, because counting only positive but not negative results would lead to an inflated percentage of positive tests, health department officials have said.

Battinelli said he was especially concerned about the mask mandate being dropped on public transportation after the Florida federal judge's decision, which he added, is a big factor in the jump in numbers.

"The airport thing to me is very concerning because you're mixing literally millions and millions of people from all over the place," he said.

That mandate never should have been lifted, Battinelli said, and he would like to see it reimposed.

Doing so in schools would be harder, according to Battinelli, because there would be a lot of resistance, but he thinks it should be an option, and students and staff should be encouraged to mask up again.

Last month, the U.S. Department of Justice Department filed an appeal seeking to overturn the judge's order at the request of the CDC.

Clouston said he believes the mask mandate for schools should be reimposed.

"Wearing a mask at school is pretty easy," he said. "It would save hundreds of people from having to go to the hospital."

Many of the people who are hospitalized and have COVID-19 are not severely ill because they came into the hospital for other reasons initially, Battinelli noted.

But in New York State, 21 people including five in Suffolk and three in Nassau died on Monday of causes linked to the virus, according to the state.

Still, Battinelli noted that the number of people hospitalized or dying is not increasing nearly as rapidly as the number of new cases.

The groups most impacted by the growing number of cases are the vulnerable: people who are not vaccinated, the elderly, or those with underlying health conditions, experts said.

"It means that wherever they go they are at much higher risk," Clouston said.

Battinelli said he doesn't expect the case numbers to drop soon, that is, unless masking is brought back.

"You're going to see this for quite a long period of time," he said.

Sign up to get text alerts about COVID-19 and other topics at newsday.com/text.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Data: Average daily LI COVID-19 cases spike 85% in 2 weeks

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
COVID-19 indicators are surging on Long Island, with an 85% spike in average daily new cases over the past two weeks and the seven-day positivity rate hitting nearly 10%. The Island averaged 1,555 new cases a day over the seven days ending Monday, and 838 cases a day over the seven days ending April 25.

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New Paper Shows Why Face Masks Are Essential In Curbing Covid-19

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Why face masks are important during Covid

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Why face masks are important during Covid

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IGNORE ADDS

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New Paper Shows Why Face Masks Are Essential In Curbing Covid-19

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A new study helps illustrate why masks are important and which variety is best.

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San Diego County Sees Increase in COVID-19 Cases

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DO NOT CLICK ON ANY ADDS

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San Diego County Sees Increase in COVID-19 Cases

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NBC 7’s Priya Sridhar spoke with a UC San Diego health expert on what will happen with a possible surge.

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Global water crisis: Facts, FAQs, and how to help

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There's nothing more essential than clean water, yet a global water crisis means people are struggling to get the quantity and quality of water they need.

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San Diego County COVID Cases Up More Than 20% Compared to Last Week

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Ignore adds

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At San Diego County COVID testing sites, workers have turned to self swabs. Here, workers in San Ysidro help a patron. Photo credit: County News Center

The number of positive COVID-19 tests recorded in the past week increased by more than 800, the San Diego County Health and Human Services Agency reported Thursday.

A total of 4,996 cases were noted during the past week compared to 4,110 cases identified the previous week.

The HHSA reported 907 new COVID-19 infections on Thursday, the second highest total over the previous seven days. In addition, the county tallied 14 more deaths.

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The new numbers raise the county's cumulative totals to 768,368 infections and 5,271 deaths.

The number of COVID-positive patients in San Diego County hospitals remained at 110, according to the latest state data, the same as the previous day.

In addition, San Diego's hospitalization numbers have fallen out of the second place position in California - behind Los Angeles County - as Santa Clara County surpassed it this week.

The number of those patients in intensive care as of Thursday increased by six to 20. The total number of available hospital beds in county ICUs decreased by 10 to 252.

As of this month, the county only reports COVID-19 data on Mondays and Thursdays.
- City News Service

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With the generous support of readers like you, Times of San Diego publishes timely and accurate news coverage for a better-informed community. Helps us grow with a monthly contribution.

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San Diego County COVID Cases Up More Than 20% Compared to Last Week

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The number of positive COVID-19 tests recorded in the past week increased by more than 800, the San Diego County Health and Human Services Agency reported Thursday. A total of 4,996 cases were noted during the past week compared to 4,110 cases identified the previous week.

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Human trafficking is the business of stealing freedom for profit. In some cases, traffickers trick, defraud or physically force victims into selling sex. In others, victims are lied to, assaulted, threatened or manipulated into working under inhumane, illegal or otherwise unacceptable conditions. It is a multi-billion dollar criminal industry that denies freedom to 24.9 million people around the world.

Sex trafficking is the crime of using force, fraud or coercion to induce another individual to sell sex. Common types include escort services, pornography, illicit massage businesses, brothels, and outdoor solicitation.
Recognizing the signs

Labor trafficking is the crime of using force, fraud or coercion to induce another individual to work or provide service. Common types include agriculture, domestic work, restaurants, cleaning services, and carnivals.
Recognizing the signs

25 Human Trafficking Business Models

Globally, there are two general categories of human trafficking: sex trafficking and labor trafficking. Polaris's groundbreaking typology report dug deeper to break those broad categories down into what they truly are in North America- 25 distinct business models, each with their own very specific way of operating.
Read the Report

Recognizing potential red flags and knowing the indicators of human trafficking is a key step in identifying more victims and helping them find the assistance they need.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Human trafficking is the business of stealing freedom for profit. In some cases, traffickers trick, defraud or physically force victims into selling sex. In others, victims are lied to, assaulted, threatened or manipulated into working under inhumane, illegal or otherwise unacceptable conditions.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
endangered species, any species that is at risk of extinction because of a sudden rapid decrease in its population or a loss of its critical habitat. Biodiverse regions that require protection on the grounds that they host a significant number of endangered species are called hot spots.
(Read E.O. Wilson's Britannica essay on mass extinction.)
Previously, any species of plant or animal that was threatened with extinction could be called an endangered species. The need for separate definitions of "endangered" and " threatened" species resulted in the development of various categorization systems, each containing definitions and criteria by which a species can be classified according to its risk of extinction. As a rule, a range of criteria must be analyzed before a species can be placed in one category or another.

Often such categorization systems are linked directly to national legislation, such as the United States Endangered Species Act (ESA) or the Canadian Species at Risk Act (SARA). In addition, regional agreements, such as the European Union's Habitats Directive (Council Directive 92/43/EEC), and international conservation agreements, such as the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS) or the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), are connected to species- assessment systems. One of the most-recognized independent international systems of species assessment is the Red List of Threatened Species, created by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Human beings and endangered species

Roughly 99 percent of threatened species are at risk because of human activities alone. By the early 21st century it could be said that human beings ( Homo sapiens) are the greatest threat to biodiversity and are the major drivers of biodiversity loss. The principal threats to species in the wild are:

Although some of these hazards occur naturally, most are caused by human beings and their economic and cultural activities. The most pervasive of these threats is habitat loss and degradation-that is, the large-scale conversion of land in previously undisturbed areas driven by the growing demand for commercial agriculture, logging, and infrastructure development. Because the rates of loss are highest in some of the most biologically diverse regions on Earth, a perpetual battle is waged to manage destructive activities there while limiting the impact that such restrictions may have on the well-being of local communities. The relative importance of each threat differs within and among taxa. So far, incidental mortality from ecological disturbance, temporary or limited human disturbance, and persecution have caused limited reductions in the total number of species; however, these phenomena can be serious for some susceptible groups. In addition, global warming has emerged as a widespread threat, and much research is being conducted to identify its potential effects on specific species, populations, and ecosystems.

Conflicts between human activities and conservation are at the root of many of these phenomena. Such controversies are often highly politicized and widely publicized in the global press and through social media. For example, habitat loss and species loss have resulted from the unregulated exploitation of coltan (the rare ore for tantalum used in consumer electronics products such as mobile phones and computers) in Kahuzi-Beiga National Park, one of the Democratic Republic of the Congo's premier forest parks. The park is also home to much of the population of the threatened Eastern Lowland gorilla ( Gorilla beringei graueri). Mining has increased gorilla mortality by reducing the animal's food resources and leading many people displaced by the mining to kill gorillas for their meat. In addition, the mountain gorilla ( G. beringei beringei), a close relative of the Eastern Lowland gorilla, is also at risk of extinction. However, authorities cite poaching, disease, and crossfire between warring political groups in the vicinity of Virunga National Park as the primary sources of its population decline.

Another example of a widely publicized wildlife controversy involves the relatively recent declines in amphibian populations. Known to be important global indicators of environmental health, amphibians have experienced some of the most serious population declines to date of all groups that have been assessed globally through the IUCN Red List process ( see below). Amphibians (a group that includes salamanders, frogs, toads, and caecilians [wormlike amphibians]), being particularly sensitive to environmental changes, are severely threatened by habitat destruction, pollution, the spread of a disease called amphibian chytridiomycosis, and climate change.

Beyond these notable examples, many of the world's birds are also at risk. The populations of some bird species (such as some albatrosses, petrels, and penguins) are declining because of longline fishing, whereas those of others (such as certain cranes, rails, parrots, pheasants, and pigeons) have become victims of habitat destruction. On many Pacific islands, the accidental introduction of the brown tree snake ( Boiga irregularis) has wreaked havoc on many bird populations.

Many fishes and other forms of aquatic and marine life are also threatened. Among them are long-lived species that have life history strategies requiring many years to reach sexual maturity. As a result, they are particularly susceptible to exploitation. The meat and fins of many sharks, rays, chimaeras, and whales fetch high prices in many parts of the world, which has resulted in the unsustainable harvest of several of those species.

Moreover, freshwater habitats worldwide are progressively threatened by pollution from industry, agriculture, and human settlements. Additional threats to freshwater ecosystems include introduced invasive species (such as the sea lamprey [ Petromyzon marinus] in the Great Lakes), the canalization of rivers (such as in the streams that empty into the Everglades in Florida), and the overharvesting of freshwater species (as in the case of the extinct Yunnan box turtle [ Cuora yunnanensis] in China). While an estimated 45,000 described species rely on freshwater habitats, it is important to note that humans are also seriously affected by the degradation of freshwater species and ecosystems.

Against this backdrop of threats related to urban expansion and food production, the unsustainable harvest of animal and plant products for traditional medicine and the pet trade is a growing concern in many parts of the world. These activities have implications for local ecosystems and habitats by exacerbating population declines through overharvesting. In addition, they have cross-border repercussions in terms of trade and illegal trafficking.

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Endangered species | Definition, Causes, Examples, & Facts

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Endangered species, any species that is at risk of extinction because of a sudden rapid decrease in its population or a loss of its critical habitat. Previously, any species of plant or animal that was threatened with extinction could be called an endangered species.

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What Is Recycling & What to Recycle | Waste Management

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What Is Recycling & What to Recycle | WM

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Have you ever wondered what is recycling or what can you recycle? Learn how to recycle the right way with our tips, bust popular recycling myths, and become an expert recycler.

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Resources to understand America's long history of injustice and inequality

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The video of George Floyd's death at the hands of police in Minneapolis triggered protests around the world. It brought renewed attention to the high-profile deaths of black Americans during the past decade and ongoing concerns about systemic racism in the criminal justice system.

Floyd's killing, in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, which has disproportionately infected and killed black people, has exposed long-standing racial inequities in every aspect of American life and forced a deep reckoning across society. Corporations are pledging to combat systemic racism in their companies. Some cities are considering proposals to reduce funds to police departments. And activists have renewed calls to remove Confederate monuments, with some even toppling the statues themselves.

As former vice president Joe Biden prepared to announce his running mate, Black leaders pushed for him select a Black woman. Biden named Sen. Kamala D. Harris (D-Calif.) on Aug. 11, making her the first woman of color on a major-party presidential ticket. Harris has since been working to galvanize Black communities and progressive voters.

To help provide context to the issues driving the debate among people attending marches and rallies or those having more quiet conversations with their families and friends, we've compiled deeply reported stories, videos, photo essays, audio and graphics on black history, progress, inequality and injustice.

Sign up for the About US newsletter for candid conversations about identity in 21st-century America.

When did slavery begin in America? Historians are trying to find out as much as possible about Angela, the first African woman documented in Virginia. Her arrival in Jamestown in 1619 marked the beginning of a subjugation that left millions in chains.

University of Virginia confronts its Jeffersonian roots in a memorial to enslaved laborers. Thomas Jefferson founded the university in 1819, designed the campus and laid out an ambitious academic agenda. The Memorial to Enslaved Laborers acknowledges the estimated 4,000 enslaved people who lived and worked at the university from 1817 to 1865.

What does it mean to Daniel Smith to be the living son of an enslaved person in the 21st century? Looking back, he can now see his parents as followers of the "twice as good" philosophy - the futile belief that black people must perform twice as well as whites just to be considered equal. And beneath the sunny message of how extraordinary the Smith children were lay Abram Smith's stories of slavery with their frightening symbols of brutality.

"Jim Crow" first appeared in the North. An early civil rights struggle in Massachusetts featuring a young Frederick Douglass shows the forgotten northern origins of racial separation.

Historians believe that as many as 300 black people were killed, and 40 square blocks of what was known as Black Wall Street were destroyed by fire. A century after a race massacre, Tulsa finally digs for suspected mass graves. The work comes nearly seven months after a team of forensic anthropologists and archaeologists, led by the Oklahoma Archaeological Survey at the University of Oklahoma, announced that they had found "possible common graves" at two sites in Tulsa.

The four days in 1968 that reshaped D.C.: On April 4, 1968, shortly after 8 p.m., word reached the District that the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. had been slain in Memphis. His assassination ignited an explosion of rioting, looting and burning that stunned Washington and would leave many neighborhoods in ruins for 30 years.

Juneteenth celebrates "a moment of indescribable joy": It has its roots in the long-awaited moment of emancipation in Texas, where more than 250,000 enslaved black people received news on June 19, 1865 - more than two years after President Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation - that they were free.

Why Americans don't learn about Tulsa, or Juneteenth: The legacy of two moments in history that many Americans are just beginning to learn.

The quest to identify black Americans' roots: From exploring sunken vessels of the Middle Passage to reconstructing museum exhibits that chronicle slavery, African Americans are breaking down the barriers that separate them from their ancestors and are reconnecting with a lineage once lost.

'Historically Black': An eight-episode audio miniseries that brings black history to life through personal heirlooms and their stories.

"The textbooks were pretty whitewashed. We never talked about the conditions of slavery or why it persisted." A range of critics - historians, educators, civil rights activists - want to change how schools teach the subject. The evidence of slavery's legacy is all around us, they say, pointing to the persistence of segregation in schools, the gaping racial disparities in income and wealth, and the damage done to black families by the U.S. criminal justice system.

25 million students are in school districts that aren't integrated, or are too homogenous to integrate. Over the past couple of decades, integration took hold across the country in smaller school districts whose student bodies had been predominantly white. But in many big cities and across the South, students remain in districts that are deeply segregated.

Coming of age in a city coming apart: Renaissance Academy had seen too many of Baltimore's black boys derailed or destroyed by the mayhem around them. If they could help it, Khalil Bridges would not be one of them. In him, they saw promise, a young man who could graduate in June and go on to find success. Can he make it when others are dying?

Protest and activism

How the Black Lives Matter movement went mainstream: As consensus grows about the existence of systemic racism in American policing and other facets of American life, longtime organizers of the Black Lives Matter movement are trying to extend its momentum beyond the popularization of a phrase. Activists sense a once-in-a-generation opportunity to demand policy changes that once seemed far-fetched, including sharp cuts to police budgets in favor of social programs, and greater accountability for officers who kill residents.

"The moment I was first placed under arrest at a sit-in, I felt free." Congressman John Lewis (D-Ga.) was a student leader in the civil rights movement, organizing sit-ins and serving as one of the original 13 Freedom Riders. From 1963 to 1966, Lewis was chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). He has served in Congress from 1987 until his death in July. Photos: Remembering John Lewis

"We have the responsibility to bring some level of concrete change to this moment." Al Sharpton and Martin Luther King III hope to re-create the power of the 1963 March on Washington. After months of spontaneous local protests, will a national march speak to a new generation?

Perspective: "Sixty years ago, I participated in the civil rights movement to bring about the same kind of changes being sought by Black Lives Matter activists today." Joyce Ladner says racist violence in the South was the catalyst for her generation, and she's angry that 60 years later black men and boys are still being killed by police and vigilantes.

Minorities make up nearly half of the under-30 population nationwide. The number of young people of color living in the Midwest has surged over the past decade, as the older white population has nearly stalled. Forty percent of the nation's counties are experiencing such demographic transformations - a phenomenon fueling the Black Lives Matter protests that have swept the country.

Opinions: Voices of the Movement: This audio series from the "Cape Up" podcast brings you the stories and reflections of some of the leaders of the civil rights movement, and their lessons on where we go from here.

Perspective: This is why Colin Kaepernick took a knee: Two knees. One protesting in the grass, one pressing on the back of a man's neck. Choose. You have to choose which knee you will defend. There are no half choices; there is no room for indifference. There is only the knee of protest or the knee on the neck.

Voices of Protest: From veterans of the civil rights movement to college students protesting for the first time, many say they were moved to take part because this moment feels different. The Washington Post reached out to readers to ask them why they participated in the protests and what they hope will come out of it.

Income inequality

The Chicago metropolitan area has remained one of the most segregated regions in the United States since 1990. Some 50 years ago, policies like the Fair Housing Act and the Voting Rights Act were enacted to increase integration, promote equity, combat discrimination and dismantle the lingering legacy of Jim Crow laws. But a Washington Post analysis shows that some cities remain deeply segregated - even as the country itself becomes more diverse.

"The only way African American businesses are going to survive is we have to own our own stuff." The coronavirus recession could wipe out minority-owned businesses, fueling displacement from historic ethnic neighborhoods.

In the first quarter of 2020, 44 percent of black families owned their home, compared with 73.7 percent of white families. Mary Pherribo's decision to buy a home in 1936 changed the trajectory of her family's finances for generations. Today, that pattern of homeownership and generational wealth building is broken for many black families.

An abrupt change to the census deadline could result in an undercount of Latino and Black communities. The decennial census is not just about the count, but also allocating federal resources and apportioning congressional seats. "As Covid continues to rip through those communities, it is a very challenging thing to see communities that absolutely need resources that could be left out."

3 out of 4 neighborhoods "redlined" on government maps 80 years ago continue to struggle economically. In the 1930s, government surveyors graded neighborhoods in 239 cities, color-coding them green for "best," blue for "still desirable," yellow for "definitely declining" and red for "hazardous." The "redlined" areas were the ones local lenders discounted as credit risks, in large part because of the residents' racial and ethnic demographics.

The black-white economic divide is as wide as it was in 1968. The wealth gap is even more pronounced among less-educated Americans. A white household whose head has only a high school diploma has almost 10 times the wealth of a black family with the same education.

Only 1 percent of venture capital money goes to companies founded by black entrepreneurs. Black entrepreneurs said complaining about race discrimination, let alone hiring a lawyer and taking action, would amount to a career death sentence.

Nationwide, home values in predominantly African American neighborhoods were the least likely to recover from the Great Recession. Across the country, blacks are less likely to own homes; those who did were more likely during the housing bust to slip underwater; and as a result, a larger share of black wealth has been destroyed in the years since then.

Perspective: The rate of black unemployment is consistently about twice that of both the white rate and the overall rate. The Federal Reserve could help make the job market fairer for black workers.

The dangers of internalizing racism: Racism hurts. A growing body of research shows it negatively affects the mental and physical health of its victims. Like any burden, it wears the bearer down. Sometimes it makes you feel like lashing out. Sometimes it makes you feel as if you are drowning.

Black and Latinx Americans are two to three times more likely than white Americans to be uninsured. The coronavirus has laid bare the staggering costs of decades of disinvestment and inadequate care of minority communities across the country and the desperate need to collect and measure the impact of the disease as it pertains to race. Explore chronic health rates in your community.

Black Americans die younger than white Americans. The protests over the deaths of black men and women at the hands of police have turned attention to other American institutions, including health care, where some members of the profession are calling for transformation of a system they say results in poorer health for black Americans because of deep-rooted racism.

"I had to read an article about black motherhood that wasn't a horror story." Women of color have the highest rates of maternal death. Black mothers are among the most at risk no matter their socioeconomic or educational status. How were pregnant black women navigating the dreaded numbers? How were they experiencing joy? How were they scrolling past the scary headlines and instead sharing stories of uplift?

How to balance activism with your mental health: George Floyd's death is a traumatic experience for black people all across America and the world. But it's retraumatizing, too, because black people deal with racism every day. We asked community organizers how that manifests itself in their daily lives and in the work that they do.

What can a scholarship do to address a historic injustice? For Morgan Carter and her family, reparations changed the frame of a tortured past. The Florida legislature passed a law in 1994 allowing descendants of the Rosewood massacre to go to college in the state tuition-free. The law is regarded as the first instance of a legislative body in the United States giving reparations to African Americans.

The Deltas helped pave the way for African American women in politics. Women at Howard University formed the Delta Sigma Theta sorority in 1913 and faced racism in the suffrage movement but refused to walk away.

More Black women are running for Congress in the 2020 cycle than ever before. One hundred years after women gained the right to vote, they remain underrepresented in the halls of power. Women of color make up about one-fifth of the U.S. population but a far smaller share of major elective offices.

3 in 4 black adults say they are certain to vote in November. Black Americans say racism and police conduct are the most important issues in their choice of candidates for president, are sharply critical of President Trump on both matters and see increasingly high stakes in the outcome of November's election.

"Wading into racial politics energizes Democrats." American politics has arrived at this moment of racial reckoning deeply polarized and with a party structure shaped profoundly by the politics of race. From calls to defund the police to the issue of reparations to ideas for more race-conscious policies, the possible agenda to address racial issues is expansive and challenging - and potentially still more wrenching - than the country is prepared to address.

Opinions: "To be white in America ... means to have to block the advances of other groups." Jonathan Metzl talks to Opinion writer Jonathan Capehart about how people are "dying of whiteness" rather than support policies they view as also helping minorities.

At Howard, the story of black Americans was not relegated to a single African American Studies department. It was central to everything. Sen. Kamala D. Harris made history becoming the first woman of color to be on a major-party presidential ticket. When anyone challenges her racial identity, Harris points to her four years at Howard University. See her career in photos.

Policing and criminal justice

Black Americans are disproportionately killed by police. Black Americans account for just 13 percent of the U.S. population, but more than a quarter of police shooting victims. The disparity is even more pronounced among unarmed victims, of whom more than a third are black. Search The Post's police shooting database.

In urban areas, police are consistently much whiter than the people they serve. A University of Maryland criminologist found that crime rates in minority neighborhoods are lower when local police and government diversity matches the community.

"His greatest fear was that I would become a traitor." This is the struggle of black police officers, then and now. They sign up for a job that offers a path to a middle-class life and a chance to honor their communities by pledging to protect them, but they can face questions of loyalty from neighbors who are skeptical of law enforcement.

Opinions: Incarceration rates of African Americans in general remain 5.6 times greater than those of white Americans. Black people are about 12 percent of the U.S. population, but one-third of the inmate population.

Opinions: "Why I can't watch the police videos anymore": A 2017 National Institutes of Health study noted that the psychological impact on black people of the proliferation of videos of us as victims of police lethality is that we see our lives as "disposable, and undeserving of dignity and justice."

No arrests were made in the homicides of more than 18,600 black men and women. Black victims, who accounted for the majority of homicides, were the least likely of any racial group to have their killings result in an arrest.

"I'm not just the guy in the video." Former NFL player Desmond Marrow's arrest was caught on a video that went viral in April 2018. As he revisits the scene of where the incident occurred, he reflects on the ways the encounter had an impact on him.

The first black president: The Obama victory helped fulfill one of the great ambitions of the civil rights struggle by showcasing the ability of extraordinarily talented black Americans to lead and excel in all facets of American life. Explore a virtual museum of Obama's presidency.

My father taught me about Black food and identity. Now that he's gone, cookbooks fill the gap. Cookbooks prompted me to consider the legacy of food beyond its role as a survival mechanism. For people who have so often struggled at the margins, food remains an important means for providing care.

Tour through the National Museum of African American History and Culture: Underground, a stark path winds chronologically and unflinchingly from slavery through civil rights and beyond. Aboveground, bold, busy galleries celebrate some of the cultural contributions African Americans have made to the country and the world.

"We don't often get the layers we need to tell our stories in contemporary ways." The Washington Post spoke to several black writers about their experiences in the television industry. Most remain cautiously optimistic about whether these companies will eventually look inward. It's not just the dearth of opportunity the writers say has hurt them - though that is certainly the first hurdle - but also the lack of upward mobility once they're in the room.

"Am I going to have the experience that I want, which is to be free of race and to enjoy this moment? Or will race tap me on the shoulder?" Motorists still fear encountering racist police officers or wandering into towns where they're not welcome. Social media also gives a sense of what domestic travel looks like through the eyes of a person of color, chronicling stories of discriminatory encounters with such hashtags as #AirbnbWhileBlack and #TravelingWhileBlack.

Black chefs say discrimination and restricted upward mobility make it difficult for them to achieve success. Edouardo Jordan went to culinary school to be a chef, he said, not to be a black chef. To avoid being pigeonholed early in his career, he strayed from the Southern fare he found most familiar and instead pursued Italian and French cuisines - two of the most popular in fine dining.

In 'Black Panther,' a superhero who finally looks like me. "Black Panther" brings to life Marvel's greatest black superhero. For The Post's David Betancourt, this has been a long time coming.

Perspective: "I know the freedom of moving through a world that magically removes many barriers from my life and shields me from harm - all because of my ability to pass as white." Even as I continue to reap its benefits, I am ashamed of the white privilege I carry around because I know it comes at the expense of others who have every right to the same opportunities, advantages and freedoms.

"Publishing is still a business that is owned by white men": Post Reports host Martine Powers talks with N.K. Jemisin, Jasmine Guillory and Lauren Wilkinson about challenging narrow perceptions of race in literary genres.

"What we say about race, what we do about race, in each moment, determines what - not who - we are." Historian Ibram X. Kendi has daring, novel ideas about the nature of racism - and how to fight it.

Redefining the n-word: As the National Football League wrestled with banning the word on the field, a team of Washington Post journalists examined the history of this singular American word, its spread through popular culture and its place in the vernacular today.

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Resources to understand America's long history of injustice and inequality

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The video of George Floyd's death at the hands of police in Minneapolis triggered protests around the world. It brought renewed attention to the high-profile deaths of black Americans during the past decade and ongoing concerns about systemic racism in the criminal justice system.

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https://www.texasdisposal.com/blog/the-real-cost-of-littering/

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Littering - or what littering means to us today - is actually a rather modern problem. It wasn't until roughly the 1950s that manufacturers began producing a higher volume of litter-generating products and packaging made of materials like plastic. You couldn't toss a styrofoam cup out of your window back then because there weren't many styrofoam cups in existence to throw away.

Still, the incidences of littering grew swiftly in those short few decades. Increases in littering and illegal dumping contribute to air pollution, land pollution and ocean pollution . For example, approximately 8 million tons of plastic waste finds its way into our oceans every year.

It can be difficult to fully comprehend the monumental effects throwing a cup out of a window or dropping food packaging on the ground can have. The following facts about littering aim to shed light on what littering is, why people litter, how litter affects the environment and what you can do to prevent littering and encourage others to do the same.

What is littering?

Littering is the improper disposal of waste products. While it can happen by mistake (as in an unsecured object flying out of the bed of a truck), littering continues to be largely a deliberate act.

Whether it happens intentionally or unintentionally, littering has environmental consequences.

What are the most common types of litter?

Cigarette butts

Fast food packaging (bags, cups, serving items)

Food packaging (wrappers, boxes, film, styrofoam/expanded polystyrene)

Alcoholic beverage containers (beer & single-serve wine)

Tire and vehicle debris

Plastic bags

Plastic bottles

Construction waste

The KAB study also found that, since the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been an increased incidence of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), with an estimated 207 million PPE gloves and masks littering roadways and waterways.

Why do people litter?

Laziness or carelessness

Lack of access to trash receptacles

Lenient law enforcement

Presence of litter already in the area

People who litter out of laziness or carelessness often believe that someone else (a maintenance worker or park employee) will come along and pick up the litter and dispose of it properly. Others may not have been educated on the impact of littering and therefore litter because they don't know it causes harm, while still others may live in an area where littering is an accepted part of the culture. This type of littering behavior is often the hardest to combat.

Effects of littering on the environment

Even if you don't litter, have you ever stopped to ask yourself exactly why is littering bad? Other than just being unsightly, litter has serious consequences for the environment and your community. Keep these in mind the next time you see plastic bottles on the ground.

1. Litter is one of the causes of pollution

2. Litter can kill wildlife

3. Litter facilitates the spread of disease

Improperly discarded trash is a breeding ground for bacteria and diseases. Litter can spread diseases, viruses and parasites through two methods, direct and indirect contact.

Germs can be transmitted directly by physically coming into contact with litter. This can happen by picking up, touching or by accidentally injuring themselves on improperly disposed of trash.

Bacteria and parasites can also be transmitted to humans indirectly through an affected vector. Vectors are animals or insects that come in contact with contaminated litter and then transmit those contaminates to humans.

4. Litter is costly

Litter along the highway must be picked up and disposed of daily in order to keep drivers safe. This costs taxpayers money and diverts funds from other projects like road repair. For example, the Arkansas Department of Transportation reported that it spent on litter pickup in 2021; Texas paid an estimated in 2014 and Pennsylvania paid an estimated in 2019.

All of that adds up. Keep America Beautiful estimates that the US spends 11.5 billion annually in litter costs. Businesses pay $9.1 billion of those costs; states, cities and counties pay $1.3 billion; educational institutions pay $241 million.

There are hidden costs of litter, too. Surveys have shown that homeowners, realtors and business owners believe that litter significantly decreases a property's value and deters visitors. And since littered areas encourage more littering, the problem tends to compound quickly.

How to prevent littering: Solutions & ideas

To decrease littering in your community, it's important to educate the public on what littering is and how it affects our environment. Here are three ways we can fight back against litter today.

1. Become an environmental steward

Attend and set up organized cleanups: Working to clean up your community is not only beneficial to the environment, but will make your community beautiful. Check out these clean-up groups on Meetup to find an organized litter cleanup walk in your community.

Clean one littered area: If you can't regularly attend meetups, focus on one particular area. Remember: people tend to litter more in an area that already has large amounts of litter, so cleaning up litter in one specific area can have a positive impact.

Take up a new hobby: The Swedish practice of plogging, plalking, or pliking is a great way to clean up litter. Plogging is the act of picking up litter while out on a run while plalking and pliking are the walking or hiking alternatives to plogging. Just make sure whatever mode of movement you choose that you bring appropriate plogging supplies .

Adopt a highway: If you own or operate a business, consider adopting a highway ; adopted highways are more regularly cleaned. You can also often adopt areas around your community.

Make sure items in your garbage carts and vehicles are secured: Does the lid of your garbage bin regularly fly open in the wind? Do you frequently travel with unsecured items in the back of a truck? Securing your garbage carts and cargo can help you avoid unintentional littering.

Don't underestimate the small things: Even educating yourself on ways to prevent littering and reduce waste can have a big impact in the long run. For example, you can learn how to recycle electronics or research types of composting and apply what you know over time, then talk about what you learn with your friends and family.

2. Increase the number of public waste disposal cans

One of the reasons that people litter is due to a lack of public garbage cans, or overflowing cans that do not get emptied regularly. By increasing the number of available trash receptacles and the frequency they get cleaned, communities can help deter littering. To help increase the number of garbage cans in a certain area:

Reach out to local businesses or put an extra waste receptacle outside your own business if you have one.

Call the leasing office of your apartment complex if you notice there is not an adequate number of trash receptacles.

Speak up when your community is organizing an event to ensure that enough waste collection services will be provided.

Contact school districts and local governments and encourage them to invest in their community's health by reducing the likelihood of litter.

3. Impose stricter laws and regulations

An effective barrier to littering is strong anti-litter laws and regulations. Both individuals and businesses are more likely to follow litter laws when there are serious legal or financial consequences.

Texas Disposal Systems is committed to help end littering

As one of the largest independently owned solid waste collection, processing and disposal companies in the nation, TDS is committed to the safe and responsible disposal of waste.

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Littering: What It Is & How It Affects The Environment | TDS

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Learn the facts about littering including what it is, types of littering, how it affects the environment, why people litter and how to prevent it.

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https://www.wfp.org/ending-hunger

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Ending world hunger is one of the greatest challenges of our times. Across the globe, up to 783 million people do not have enough food and more than 40 million people in 51 countries are at ‘emergency’ or worse levels of hunger. Parts of Yemen, South Sudan, Ethiopia and Nigeria may be

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Inclusive Housing Program

The Inclusive Housing Program reveals forms of housing discrimination and uses policy advocacy, community organizing, and legal action to ensure that all Long Islanders, regardless of their race, will have access to the neighborhood of their choice.

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The United States produces too much waste.

Natural resources are continually extracted to produce goods that are used in the U.S. - often only briefly - before they are thrown into landfills, incinerators or the natural environment. This system of consumption and disposal results in the waste of precious resources and pollution that threatens our health, environment and the global climate.

Because the costs of this system fall on society at large - not on the producers and consumers who drive it - there are few direct incentives for change.

To protect public health and the environment, conserve natural resources and landscapes, and address the mounting crisis of climate change, America should move toward an economic system characterized by zero waste. To achieve that goal, federal, state and local governments should enact policies and programs that incentivize shifting to a "circular" or "closed-loop" economy in which less is consumed and all materials are reused, recycled and composted in a continuous cycle.

The U.S. produces more than 12% of the planet's trash, though it is home to only 4% of the world's population.

In 2018 alone, the U.S. threw out over 292 million tons of municipal solid waste (MSW) - the materials discarded by homes, businesses and institutions, such as universities and libraries.

Americans throw out 4.9 pounds of trash per person every day - that's nearly 1,800 pounds of materials per American every year.

The majority of waste (62%) discarded by homes and businesses in the U.S. is ultimately dumped into landfills or burned in incinerators.

More than 91% of plastic was landfilled or incinerated in 2018.

Every 15.5 hours, Americans throw out enough plastic to fill the largest NFL stadium in the country, AT&T Stadium (the home of the Dallas Cowboys), and the pile grows larger every year.

Our trash leads to even more waste than we see. The products we use and dispose of are created by processes like mining and manufacturing, which generate far more, and far more dangerous, waste.

America's garbage largely consists of goods that are used only briefly.

Over 28% of all U.S. garbage is packaging, amounting to 82 million tons of material that is typically thrown out after a product is purchased or used.

Nondurable goods, such as clothing and newspaper, account for 17.3% of U.S. garbage, with yard trimmings (12.1%) and food (21.6%) accounting for a substantial share as well.

The remainder (19.5%) of what homes and businesses throw out is made up of durable goods, like furniture and appliances, many of which could be repaired or repurposed, or have their materials recycled for other uses.

America's linear material economy, where materials are extracted, made into goods, and disposed of, is a one-way street that creates massive environmental and public health impacts.

Global warming pollution: Roughly 42% of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions are created in the process of extracting resources, producing goods, disposing of waste, and transporting materials at every stage of that process.

Air pollution: Incinerator emissions include heavy metals and mercury, a neurotoxin that impairs brain function, as well as cancer-causing pollutants like dioxin, one of the most toxic substances known to humanity. The extraction and production activities that support the linear material economy also cause environmental degradation, air pollution and water contamination.

Water contamination: Leachate from landfills can escape into the environment and threaten drinking water supplies.

Ocean pollution: An estimated 16.5 million tons of plastic washes into the world's oceans every year. This plastic persists for hundreds of years and can kill marine animals by entangling them, poisoning them or blocking their digestive tracts. Marine debris is considered one of the great threats to biodiversity.

Wasted natural resources: It would take 321 million trees to produce the amount of paper that was landfilled or burned in the U.S. in 2018 alone. Thirty million acres of cropland, roughly the area of Pennsylvania, is farmed each year for food that is wasted in the U.S.

America's system of consumption and disposal encourages and incentivizes waste.

Society bears most of the costs and burdens of waste - not the producers and consumers who create it - removing incentives for change.

Producers have few direct incentives to build products to last, to make them easy to repair, to use less packaging, or to make their goods or packaging easy to reuse, recycle or compost. In fact, it is often beneficial for producers to make goods intended to be used once or only temporarily so that consumers continually buy more.

Producers, distributors and waste haulers have a stake in the U.S. waste system continuing to operate as it does now and have lobbied against changes.

U.S. garbage composition by product category, 2018

A zero-waste economy is possible.

Nearly all of America's trash could be composted and recycled.

Food waste and yard trimmings make up more than a third (33.7%) of U.S. garbage and are organic and easily compostable, but the U.S. lacks sufficient infrastructure.

Paper and paperboard, some of which could be composted and the rest of which could be recycled, make up nearly a quarter (23.1%) of America's trash.

Metals, glass, and plastics - another quarter (25.2%) of America's garbage - are all readily recyclable, although many types of plastic are not.

Rubber, wood, leather, and textiles make up the remainder (15.1%) of America's waste and can also be recycled into useful products. Textile recycling has made great advances in recent years.

U.S. cities and states, as well as other countries, are already taking strides toward creating zero waste.

Eleven states have passed bans on single-use plastic bags, seven states have passed bans on expanded polystyrene containers, and more are considering bans on other single-use foodware, packaging and more.

Several states have banned recyclables from landfills, and in 2020 Vermont became the first to ban all compostable materials from landfills.

Thanks to a variety of policies and programs, such as making manufacturers responsible for disposing of packaging, Germany now recycles 67% of household waste.

In July 2021, Maine became the first state in the U.S. to pass a law establishing producer responsibility for packaging and paper products, shifting responsibility for the costs of recycling away from the taxpayer and onto the corporations responsible for producing those products.

U.S. garbage handling, 2018

* "Other food management" includes animal feed, bio-based materials/biochemical processing, codigestion/anaerobic digestion, donation, land application and sewer/wastewater treatment.

ǂ "Incineration" refers to combustion with energy recovery.

America has the tools to shift away from this wasteful, polluting and costly linear system to a circular material economy that produces zero waste, conserves natural resources, and limits pollution and global warming emissions.

Efforts to reduce waste should prioritize reducing material consumption first and foremost; reusing, refurbishing and repairing everything possible; and recycling or composting all remaining materials.

By taking the following steps, the U.S. can incentivize the shift to a circular economy in which zero waste is created. These steps can be promoted through a variety of policies and programs at the local, state and national levels.

1. Set a goal to achieve zero waste.

2. Require producers to take responsibility for their products during their entire life cycle.

3. Price goods to reflect the environmental and public health impacts of their production.

4. Make recycling and composting mandatory, universally accessible and less expensive than garbage disposal.

5. Require that goods be built to last and easy to repair, reuse, recycle or compost.

6. Ban the sale of single-use items that are not easily recyclable or compostable, including packaging, plastic bags and food service ware.

7. Invest in repair, reuse, recycling and composting facilities to support a circular economy.

8. Require producers to use recycled and reused materials in new products, and encourage businesses and governments to set procurement standards for recycled materials.

9. As waste is eliminated, ensure that all remaining waste is disposed of safely.

10. Oppose the construction, expansion and subsidization of landfills, incinerators and plastic-to-fuel conversion facilities marketed as "chemical recycling."

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The United States produces too much waste. Natural resources are continually extracted to produce goods that are used in the U.S. - often only briefly - before they are thrown into landfills, incinerators or the natural environment. This system of consumption and disposal results in the waste of precious resources and in pollution that threatens our health, environment and the global climate.

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The Facts on Trash We all know that trash, especially plastic waste, is a big world problem right now. To put some numbers to it, each year the worlds' nations generate 1.3 billion tons of solid waste. That amounts to 1.2 kilograms (2.64 pounds) per person per day.

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CCR has been fighting for racial justice since our first day.

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APHA supports National Day of Racial Healing Racism is an ongoing public health crisis that needs our attention now APHA calls out police violence as a public health crisis Declarations of racism as a public health issue
WHAT IS RACISM?
"Racism is a system of structuring opportunity and assigning value based on the social interpretation of how one looks (which is what we call "race"), that unfairly disadvantages some individuals and communities, unfairly advantages other individuals and communities, and saps the strength of the whole society through the waste of human resources."
-- APHA Past-President Camara Phyllis Jones, MD, MPH, PhD
Racism structures opportunity and assigns value based on how a person looks. The result: conditions that unfairly advantage some and unfairly disadvantage others. Racism hurts the health of our nation by preventing some people the opportunity to attain their highest level of health.

Racism may be intentional or unintentional. It operates at various levels in society. Racism is a driving force of the social determinants of health (like housing, education and employment) and is a barrier to health equity.

To achieve health equity and create the Healthiest Nation in One Generation, we must address injustices caused by racism. We must support actions at all levels to ensure equal opportunity for all.

How do we do that? Through racial healing (#RxRacialHealing). That means using a healing and heart-centered approach to get rid of the false belief that any people are superior to others based on their skin color.

MORE ON RACISM AND HEALTH

Racial Equity fact sheet (PDF)

Letter from APHA to the House of Representatives in support of H.R. 1280, the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2021 (PDF)

Letter to President-elect Joe Biden urging swift repeal of ban on trainings that address racial and sex stereotyping (PDF)

Communities recognizing racism as a public health crisis ( The Nation's Health)

APHA webinar series: Advancing Racial Equity

APHA webinar series: The Impact of Racism on the Health and Well-Being of the Nation

From APHA Press: Racism: Science and Tools for the Public Health Professional

Racial Equity sessions at the APHA 2020 Annual Meeting & Expo (PDF)

Webinar: A Tale of Two Pandemics: How COVID-19 and Racism Intersect With Intimate Partner Violence

APHA policy statement: Addressing Police Violence as a Public Health Issue

Racism is undeniably a public health issue (APHA's Georges Benjamin in Popular Science)

" We need to change things so that we value all people equally."(Benjamin on PBS News Hour)

Ending police violence requires public-health based approach ( The Nation's Health)

Rooting out systemic racism in America: A Q&A with Keon Gilbert ( The Nation's Health)

Letter to Congress in support of H.R. 7120, The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2020 (PDF)

Dozens of Cities Dub Racism a Public Health Crisis (Bloomberg CityLab)

Aggressive Policing and the Mental Health of Young Urban Men ( American Journal of Public Health)

Racism can shape decisions to practice in underserved communities ( The Nation's Health)

Testifying before the Helsinki Commission, Gail Christopher details innovative approach toward eliminating racism and facilitating healing in the United States

Programs work from within to prevent black maternal deaths: Workers targeting root cause - Racism ( The Nation's Health)

Achieving environmental justice in the 21st century: The way forward (APHA/National Environmental Health Partnership Council webinar)

Historic lynching tied to mortality today ( The Nation's Health)

Why ending police violence is a public health issue: A Q & A with APHA's Georges Benjamin ( The Nation's Health)

APHA's Georges Benjamin on Severe weather disasters, health & structural racism: a critical intersection

From CNN: Charlottesville, hate crimes are public health issue, experts say

AJPH editorial: " Black Lives Matter: A Commentary on Racism and Public Health"

RESOURCES AND TOOLS

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APHA supports National Day of Racial Healing Racism is an ongoing public health crisis that needs our attention now APHA calls out police violence as a public health crisis Declarations of racism as a public health issue "Racism is a system of structuring opportunity and assigning value based on the social interpretation of how one looks (which is what we call "race"), that unfairly disadvantages some individuals and communities, unfairly advantages other individuals and communities, and saps the strength of the whole society through the waste of human resources."

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In most of the world, including North America, we do one of two things with our ordinary garbage: burn it or bury it. Neither one is good for us or for the environment. Burning garbage in incinerators releases dangerous gases and dust (particulate matter) which contribute to global warming and pollute lakes, forests, oceans and cities half a world away from where they originated. Most incinerators in industrialized countries now remove large quantities of particles and pollutants, thus ensuring cleaner air. But the bulk of what they remove ends up in a landfill.

This site concentrates on landfills, in part because this improvement in incinerator technology has increased the pressure on landfills, and in part because a much higher proportion of garbage in North America is sent to landfills than to incinerators.

Burying garbage also causes both air and water pollution, and simply transporting it to the sites consumes an increasing amount of valuable fossil fuels, which produces more pollution and other problems.
Buried in a landfill, the typical plastic trash bag takes 1,000 years to degrade, giving off toxins as it does. These biodegradable bags - available in various sizes - decompose quickly and safely with their contents.
As a result, alternatives to the burn-or-bury option are increasingly attractive. Composting heads that list of alternatives (see Cities Embrace Composting Programs).

Is Your Landfill Full? Space Issues

It might seem that yard waste and food scraps must be amongst the more benign things you could send to your local landfill. These things are not toxic; how could they contribute to pollution? As for space, how much can these things take up? Besides, unlike an old toaster they decompose, which means that they take up less space next year than they do when they're thrown away.

All of this sounds perfectly reasonable. Unfortunately, much of it is either wrong or misleading.

The Sad Saga of the Unwanted Garbage

Source: Wholistic Environmental Consulting, Ltd.
Garbage would not make most people's short-list of top comedic fare. But in the early spring of 1987 Johnny Carson made it part of his nightly monologue and the whole world laughed.

The occasion was a barge loaded with over 3,100 tons of Long Island garbage which wandered the world for three months looking for a final resting place before finally slinking back home. There it languished for another three months while suits were filed and court injunctions handed down. The garbage was finally incinerated and buried in the same landfill it would have gone to had it never left New York.

The Mobro 4000 and its hapless tug the Break of Dawn left Long Island on March 22, bound for Morehead, N.C. It's fragrant cargo was to be used for methane production. Brainchild of Alabama businessman Lowell Harrelson, the plan called for hauling plentiful Long Island garbage to less crowded environs, there to harvest methane and spread the composted waste on southern fields. Not such a bad idea perhaps, except that apparently little of it had been cleared with officials.

The governor of North Carolina banned the barge from unloading, as did Florida, Alabama, Texas and Louisiana. The hunt for a dump then went international. News reports from the time carry accounts of the homeless barge forlornly circling Grand Isle, Louisiana, which measures under 8 square miles in area, including surrounding water. Cuba, Mexico and Belize all rejected the offer of Long Island trash. The barge eventually turned around and made its way back up the coast.

The legal battle lasted nearly as long as the journey itself. A month into the Mobro's wanderings, EPA officials made arrangements to inspect the decaying load and help determine its fate. But the barge ducked the appointment, instead heading for Mexican waters. American officials were apparently concerned that the garbage might be dumped at sea, which would have violated US law.

When the barge finally headed back north, environmental organizations sued. When it reached Long Island in July, Queens Councilwoman Claire Shulman sued to keep it from docking. New York State Supreme Court judges signed a restraining order halting plans to incinerate the garbage.

In the meantime, charges that some of the garbage came not from Long Island, as originally advertised, but from New York City itself, some of it even from Manhattan, had made the load even less palatable to potential dumping sites. Though it was supposed to contain primarily office refuse, rumors circulated that it might contain diapers and hazardous medical waste.

The Coast Guard weighed in, insisting that the barge would stay put until the constituents sorted things out. When that dispute was resolved, local residents protested, burning effigies of city officials in the streets. The garbage was finally incinerated in early September and the ashes were buried in the Ipswich landfill, the one originally designated to receive them.

The whole things would never have happened if Long Island hadn't been facing a landfill crisis. Because its garbage dumps were polluting groundwater, New York State passed legislation in 1983 ordering all landfills on the Island closed by 1990. Incinerators pollute the air, while trucking trash off the island costs twice as much as putting it into landfills. It's clear why Long Island officials jumped at an offer to take some of the stuff off their hands.

The extended episode is widely credited with launching the modern age of recycling and of focusing public attention on the shrinking space available in landfills.

Across most of North America, yard and food waste make up over a quarter of all the ordinary garbage we throw away. That's 25% by weight. In the U.S., that 25% is almost equally divided between yard waste (32.6 million tons, or 12.8% of all MSW) and food scraps (31.7 million tons, or 12.5%). And then there's all the other organic stuff that could be composted: all the clothing, towels, and bedding made of organic fibers, plus wood, old furniture and sawdust. Then there's paper, which at 83 million tons accounts for another 30% of municipal solid waste. As of 2006, the latest year for which figures are available, over 64% of the yard waste we throw away was recovered and composted, as was 54.5% of the paper and cardboard. Only 2.6% of food waste reached a compost heap.

In other words, well over fifty percent of our ordinary garbage could be composted, but most of it isn't.

This ordinary garbage, or Municipal Solid Waste (MSW), is household and business trash as opposed to chemical or industrial waste. It's the stuff most of us put in our trashcans at home, at school, or at work, to be picked up and hauled away: paper, packaging, food scraps, old toys, old chairs, old microwaves, lamp shades, blue-jeans and books. It includes trash from offices and restaurants. In the majority of cases across North America, it ends up in a landfill. This is in spite of the fact that 24 states, at least one province, and hundreds of municipalities now ban yard waste from landfills.

Landfills also accept certain types of commercial and even industrial waste which is one reason why the mix in them can become so toxic.

What's up in Canada?

National statistics on municipal solid waste in Canada are so hard to come by that one Saskatchewan report devoted a whole section to detailing why. Different provinces use different measurement units (cubic yards, tonnes) and there's no consistent tracking method for identifying and recording whether waste entering a landfill comes from a municipal, commercial or industrial source. Some Canadian landfills lack scales; there's no information about what gets dumped in any units. That section of the report, titled "Measurement Challenges," bears the subtitle, "Or, why I am completely bald."

Despite the hair-pulling discrepancies and omissions, some things are clear. First, the eastern provinces are doing best at waste diversion, which includes composting, recycling and programs that keeps garbage out of landfills or incinerators. See " Is composting organic waste spreading?" in EnviroStats, Statistics Canada's quarterly magazine on environmental issues (and quite readable, despite the title). Prince Edward Island has "a mandatory province-wide source-separated waste program," while Nova Scotia bans all organic waste from its landfills. Both have extensive curbside pick-up programs for organic waste, which then gets composted.

Parts of Ontario do quite well, but the plains provinces - Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta - lag seriously behind. Residents of Alberta, according to Statistics Canada (fondly abbreviated to StatCan) 2006, generated over a thousand kilograms per person in garbage in 2005; the province hopes to more than halve this, to 500 kilograms per capita by 2010. Nova Scotia, which started below Alberta's 2010 goal at 430 kilograms per capita, aims to reach 300 for 2010, for both residential and business sources. (" Measuring solid waste: Statistics: Canada's surveys and results " - PDF, p.21.)

So, how are we in the United States doing compared to other countries? Not so well. The Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development, which includes just about every industrialized nation on earth, tracks key environmental indicators for its 30 member countries, including generation and disposal of municipal solid waste. Compared to other industrialized nations, the U.S. fares poorly and Canada even worse. In 2005, Canada came dead last in a list of seventeen "peer countries" in terms of kilograms of MSW generated per person, as reported by the Conference Board of Canada. The United States came in fifteenth.

Source: "Environment: Municipal Waste Generation" Conference Board of Canada.

Even more significant, whereas the per-capita weight of MSW generated in the U.S. has increased by only a few percent between 1990 and 2008, Canada's per-capita MSW output has increased by about 40% in the same time period. (See the graph below.)
Municipal Solid Waste:

Source: OECD "Key Environmental Indicators"

New York City and Long Island have not had any garbage barge crises recently, but they have hardly solved their garbage problems. As of 2007, New York City was exporting its garbage to five other states: New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and South Carolina.

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Of course, that's not the end of the story. A fair amount of New York City's garbage also goes to landfills in northern parts of its home state, most of it by truck. Since most major roads in New York State are toll roads, drivers prefer back roads which pass through numerous small towns. Residents have not been happy with this procession of garbage trucks rumbling by in the wee hours. In May of 2008, the governor banned NYC garbage trucks from these small byways, a decision that distressed the drivers and the companies they work for. ("Truckers upset as New York governor bans trash haulers from back roads.")

The Big Apple is not alone in its struggles to find dumping spots for its garbage. The sad tale of Toronto (see the box below) illustrates the many complications and permutations that attend garbage disposal in the modern age.

The bottom line is this: establishing a landfill is an enormous and enormously expensive undertaking. It is harder and harder just to find a suitable site for a new one, especially near a major city. Reducing the amount of trash that reaches landfills and incinerators has become an urgent matter in many areas across North America. Hence the ban on yard waste, one of the easiest things to divert. We need to compost more and throw away less.

Where to put the garbage? A case study.

Toronto's landfill woes, a national embarrassment in Canada, are probably less well-known in the United States. Toronto, located in the densely-populated Golden Horseshoe region of Canada, has seen its landfill options shrink as its population burgeons. The city proper has a population of 2.5 million, making it the fifth most populous city in North America. The Greater Toronto Area (GTA) has a population of 5.5 million, and the Golden Horseshoe holds 8.1 million, or a quarter of Canada's population.

When the City's Keele Valley Landfill closed in 2002 filled to capacity, the city started trucking all of its solid waste to Michigan for disposal, a trip of 418 kilometers or about 260 miles one way. As a result, "the cost for waste disposal jumped from $18 per tonne to $53 per tonne." (" Human Activity and the Environment " - PDF, 2009, p.17.)

The trucking operation has been plagued by a series of accidents, legal entanglements, and embarrassments. In 2004, a senior civil engineer named Tony O'Donohue revealed that Toronto was sending sludge - partially treated biosolids including human and medical waste - and not just the solid waste that had been claimed. This was a year after the driver of a sludge truck died when he tried to open a jammed door by hand, and was buried by the suddenly-released load which carried him into the pit. The death rated a meager one-hundred-forty-seven words (link no longer active) in the Toronto Globe and Mail.

Meanwhile, opposition in Michigan was mounting. In 2004, the governor signed legislation allowing the state "emergency powers to close its border to waste in the event of imminent and substantial health, safety and environmental threats." A couple years later, one of its senators sought federal legislation to halt the influx of garbage, (2006). That same year, the Department of Homeland Security became concerned with un-inspected loads crossing the border (2006). Then in 2007, Michigan residents filed a class-action suit over the stench from the landfill, largely a result of sludge dumping which was thereafter banned.

When Toronto bought Green Lane Landfill Site only 200 kilometers from Toronto near London, Ontario, that city got up in arms. The Oneida and Chippewa tribes of the Thames Nation, whose lands border the site, brought suit before settling for an undisclosed amount. The Munsee, another First Nation, are pursuing an independent settlement.

Is Your Landfill Leaking? Pollution Issues

"Landfill liners are temporary and chlorinated benzene in PCBs can cause leaks in certain liners." - Great Lakes Binational Toxics Strategy, May 16, 2000 Toronto Meeting Minutes.

The environmental impact of landfills is a complicated issue. As pointed out above, composting household and garden waste helps prevent landfills from becoming overfilled which lessens the danger that they will leak into water tables or waterways. It also saves the gas or other fuel that would be used to transport those wastes and prevents that much carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and particulate matter from entering our atmosphere. This is not a minor concern; large cities must sometimes truck garbage hundreds of miles. (See the section above for the painful details.)

Space is not the only issue. Municipal landfills can pollute air, water and soil. And yard and table waste actually contribute significantly to all of these pollution problems. Why? First, because they are wet. Secondly, because they are organic.

Wet Garbage = Water Pollution

Wet garbage, including yard waste which is 50 to 70 % water, adds to the toxic stew of chemicals - household cleaners, antiperspirants, nail polish, paint and so on - that mix in a landfill. In old, unlined landfills, this leachate, diluted and made more mobile by rainwater, percolated down to the bottom of the fill. There, it would sink into the soil, spreading downwards and outwards in a characteristic brush-stroke shape known as a plume, contaminating soil and water as it moved. (See the Washington State U. Extension publication called " Fertilizing with Yard Trimmings " - PDF, pp.2-3.)

Closing a landfill or capping it with cement does not stop its plume from advancing. Modern, sanitary landfills are usually lined to prevent such pollution and the leachate is drawn off and treated. However, it is naive to assume that a liner will never fail. In 1987, the EPA estimated that eventually any liner would leak (US EPA Federal Register, Aug 30, 1988, Vol.53, No.168). In 2000, a joint Canada/U.S. group working to monitor and reduce PCBs in the Great Lakes wrote that &quot;landfill liners are temporary and chlorinated benzene in PCBs can cause leaks in certain liners.&quot; That it would not do so immediately isn't reassuring. The longer a landfill is capped and abandoned, the less likely it is to be adequately monitored and a leak detected.

Organic Garbage = Air Pollution

Air pollution may seem an unlikely consequence of landfills, but in fact it is a major problem. The primary culprit is anything organic such as yard and food waste.

Waste at landfills is usually compressed to save space. Each day's deposit is covered with a layer of dirt to discourage insects and rodents and to help shed rain and thus minimize leachate. So far, so good. But the result is an almost oxygen-free environment. When organic materials decompose in such anaerobic conditions they produce methane, a greenhouse gas.

Since composting produces carbon dioxide, another greenhouse gas, it's reasonable to suspect that the compost/landfill choice is a classic six-of-one, half-dozen-of-the-other situation. The first produces carbon dioxide, the second produces methane. What's the difference between them? Is it really worth the time and effort to keep organics out of landfills?

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It does matter where the stuff degrades and how. CO2 is a major pollutant and a major problem. But methane is worse. According to the EPA, methane "remains in the atmosphere for 9-15 years" and "is over 20 times more effective in trapping heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide (CO2) over a 100-year period." Methane is twenty times more potent than carbon dioxide.

As recently as 2003, the highest producer of methane was landfills (EPA). They're still one of the top three sources, the others being cows burps, or enteric fermentation, and leakage from the production of natural gas. Landfills have dipped to second place, largely because an increasing number of them have systems in place to collect the methane, which is either burned off or used to produce electrical power.

In 2006, the EPA reports that US landfills emitted almost 6 teragrams of methane, equal to over six and a half million U.S. tons. This is equivalent to about 125.7 teragrams of CO2 in its effect on global warming or 138,560,531 tons.

Flaring methane - burning it as it is collected from the landfill - may seem both wasteful and horribly polluting. And it is. But if you bear in mind that methane is so much more dangerous to the environment than carbon dioxide, then the practice that converts CH4 to CO2 appears in a different light.

When do landfills stop producing methane? No one really knows. A number of sources now suggest that landfills continue to produce methane in dangerous amounts well past the point at which it is economical to collect it and long after the 30 year period that the EPA requires closed landfills be monitored.

Burning off the methane at landfills produces CO2, still a greenhouse gas, but not as bad as methane. In terms of making a long-term dent in global warming - quickly - landfill improvements offer one of the best opportunities around.
Related Articles:
Composting Toilets: What They Are + Top Picks for 2023
5 Best Biodegradable Garbage Bags in 2023 for Different Uses
The Best Biodegradable Soap Options You Must Try in 2023

Related Questions

What products to compost

Hello,

You will be able to source all of the essential elements in order to build a great compost pile without having to look too far! As long as your carbon to nitrogen ratio is optimal (25-30:1) your compost pile will be breaking down properly. Here are some lists of acceptable additions:

Carbon Rich Material "Browns"
Cardboard (free of dyes)
Corn stalks
Fruit waste
Leaves
Newspaper
Peat Moss
Saw dust
Stems & twigs
Straw

Nitrogen Rich Material "Greens"
Alfalfa/Clover/Hay
Algae
Coffee grounds
Kitchen food waste
Garden waste
Grass clippings
Hedge clippings
Manures
Vegetable scraps
Weeds (that have NOT gone to seed)

​Things to Avoid
Meats
Bones
Fats/oils/grease
​Diseased plant material
Colored paper
Coal/charcoal
Cat/dog waste
Manures from carnivorous animals
Onions
Garlic
Citrus peels

As for the rhododendron and holly leaves, you can definitely put them in your compost pile. However, it is a good idea to really chop or shred them up, as they take much longer to break down due to their fibrous and waxy make up. It really depends on how quickly you are trying to create usable compost. It might be a good idea to have a separate pile going that you incorporate those leaves into and another pile that you do not. That way you can have a pile you know will rapidly break down into garden goodness and have yet another ready to use later on. Good luck!

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In most of the world, including North America, we do one of two things with our ordinary garbage: burn it or bury it. Neither one is good for us or for the environment. Burning garbage in incinerators releases dangerous gases and dust (particulate matter) which contribute to global warming and pollute lakes, forests, oceans and cities half a world away from where they originated.

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A Year of War in Ukraine: The Roots of the Crisis

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Here’s a guide to how the biggest war in Europe since World War II came about, and what’s at stake for Russia and the world.

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https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwiR94vMqNj3AhW2JkQIHetOBDIQFnoECD4QAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fclimate.nasa.gov%2Fresources%2Fglobal-warming-vs-climate-change%2F&usg=AOvVaw0hXD6SVFfC6L6Vq7qiZ1Kl

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Racial Justice | American Civil Liberties Union

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The Racial Justice Program (RJP) fights to eradicate racial injustice in the U.S. and works to foster a society in which people of color and communities of color have full access to the rights and benefits of American society. Working with affected communities, RJP litigates, advocates, and educates…

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There are no diplomatic or bilateral relations between Ukraine and Russia. The two countries have been in a de facto state of war since 24 February 2022, although Russia has invaded the Crimea and Donbas regions of Ukraine in February 2014. Following the Ukrainian Revolution of Dignity in 2014, Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula was occupied by unmarked Russian forces, and later illegally annexed by Russia, while pro-Russia separatists simultaneously engaged the Ukrainian military in an armed conflict for control over eastern Ukraine; these events marked the beginning of the Russo-Ukrainian War. In a major escalation of the conflict on 24 February 2022, Russia launched a full-scale invasion of the Ukrainian mainland across a broad front, causing Ukraine to sever all formal diplomatic ties with Russia.

Relations between the two countries became hostile after the 2014 Ukrainian revolution, which was followed by Russia's annexation of Crimea from Ukraine, and the war in Donbas, in which Russia backed the separatist fighters of the Donetsk People's Republic and the Luhansk People's Republic. The conflicts had killed more than 13,000 people by early 2020, and brought Western sanctions on Russia. Numerous bilateral agreements have been terminated and economic ties severed.

Throughout 2021 and 2022, a Russian military build-up on the border of Ukraine escalated tensions between the two countries and strained their bilateral relations, eventually leading to Russia initiating a full-scale invasion of the country. Ukraine broke diplomatic relations with Moscow in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Streets bearing the names of Russian figures and monuments symbolising Russian and Ukrainian friendship were removed from various locations across Ukraine. In March 2023, the Ukrainian parliament banned toponymy with names associated with Russia.

Russia

Ukraine

Flag

Coat of Arms

Population

146,171,015 (including Crimea)[10]

41,319,838 (excluding Crimea)[11]

Area

17,125,191 km ² (6,612,073 sq mi)[12]

603,550 km ² (233,030 sq mi)[13]

Population density

8/km ² (21/sq mi)

73.8/km ² (191/sq mi)

Time zones

11

1

Exclusive economic zone

8,095,881 km ² (3,125,837 sq mi)

147,318 km ² (56,880 sq mi)

Largest city

Moscow (pop. 12,197,596; 20,004,462 Metro)

Kyiv (pop. 2,900,920; 3,375,000 Metro)

Government

Federal semi-presidential
constitutional republic

Unitary semi-presidential
constitutional republic

Main religions

71% Orthodox[14]
15% non-religious
10% Islam
2% other Christian
<1% Catholic
1% other religion

34% Orthodox Church of Ukraine[15]
27.6% Orthodox unaffiliated
13.8% Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate)
8.2% Ukrainian Greek Catholic
0.7% Protestant and Evangelical
0.4% Roman Catholic
0.6% other
8.8% non-denominational
5.6% non-Religious

Ethnic group

80.90% Russians
8.75% Turkic peoples
3.96% other Indo-European-speakers (2.03% Ukrainians)
3.78% Caucasians
1.76% Finnic and Mongolian peoples and others

(2010)

77.8% Ukrainians
17.3% Russians
4.9% others/unspecified

(2001)

GDP (nominal) by the IMF

$1,829 billion[16]

$126 billion[16]

GDP (PPP) by the IMF

$4,328 billion[17]

$576 billion[17]

GDP (nominal) per capita by the IMF

$11,273 (2021)

$4,384 (2021)

GDP (PPP) per capita by the IMF

$29,495 (2021)

$13,943 (2021)

Military strength

Of the above, 28,000 are in Crimea, internationally recognized as part of
Ukraine, and 3,000 reported in eastern Ukraine.[18]: 212

Nuclear warheads

active/total

1,600 / 6,850 (2019)

0 / 0 (2019)

Both Russia and Ukraine claim their heritage from Kievan Rus' (Kyivan Rus'), a polity that united most of the East Slavic and some Finnic tribes and adopted Byzantine Orthodoxy in the ninth to eleventh centuries. According to old Rus chronicles, Kyiv (Kiev), the capital of modern Ukraine, was proclaimed the Mother of Rus Cities, as it was the capital of the powerful late medieval state of Rus.

After the Mongol invasion of Kievan Rus', the histories of the people inhabiting territories of Russia and Ukraine diverged. The Grand Duchy of Moscow united all remnants of Rus's northern provinces and evolved into the Russian state. The Kingdom of Galicia-Volhynia came under the domination of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, followed by the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Within the Commonwealth, the militant Zaporozhian Cossacks refused polonization, and often clashed with a Commonwealth government controlled by the Polish nobility.

Unrest among the Cossacks caused them to rebel against the Commonwealth and seek union with Russia, with which they had similarities in culture, language, and religion. This was formalized through the Treaty of Pereiaslav in 1654. Starting in the mid-17th century, much of Ukraine's territory was gradually annexed by the Russian Empire and its autonomy taken away by the time of the late 18th-century partition of Poland. Soon after, the Cossack host was forcibly disbanded by the Russian Empire and most Cossacks were relocated to the Kuban region on the southern edge of the Russian Empire.

The Russian Empire considered Ukrainians (and Belarusians) ethnically Russian, and referred to them as " Little Russians". Until the end of World War I this view was only opposed by a small group of Ukrainian nationalists. Nevertheless, a perceived threat of "Ukrainian separatism" set in motion a set of measures aimed at the russification of the "Little Russians". In 1804, the Ukrainian language was banned from schools as a subject and language of instruction. In 1876 Alexander II's secretary Ems Ukaz prohibited the publication and importation of most Ukrainian language books, public performances and lectures in the Ukrainian language, and even the printing of Ukrainian texts accompanying musical scores.

Ukrainian People's Republic

The February Revolution saw establishment of official relations between the Russian Provisional Government and the Ukrainian Central Rada (Central Council of Ukraine) that was represented at the Russian government by its commissar Petro Stebnytsky. At the same time Dmitry Odinets was appointed the representative of Russian Affairs in the Ukrainian government. After the Soviet military aggression by the Soviet government at the beginning of 1918, Ukraine declared its full independence from the Russian Republic on 22 January 1918, as the Ukrainian People's Republic which existed from 1917 to 1922. The two treaties of Brest-Litovsk that Ukraine and Russia signed separately with the Central Powers calmed the military conflict between them, and peace negotiations were initiated the same year.

The end of the Russian Empire also ended the ban on the Ukrainian language. This was followed by a period of korenizatsiya that promoted the cultures of the different Soviet Republics.

In 1932-1933 Ukraine experienced the Holodomor ( Ukrainian: Голодомор, 'Extermination by hunger' or 'Hunger-extermination'; derived from Морити голодом , 'Killing by Starvation') which was a man-made famine in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic that killed up to 7.5 million Ukrainians. During the famine, which is also known as the "Terror-Famine in Ukraine" and "Famine-Genocide in Ukraine", millions of citizens of the Ukrainian SSR, mostly ethnic Ukrainians, died of starvation in an unprecedented peacetime catastrophe. Scholars disagree on the relative importance of natural factors and bad economic policies as causes of the famine, and the degree to which the destruction of the Ukrainian peasantry was premeditated by Soviet leaders.

The Holodomor famine extended to many Soviet republics, including Russia and Kazakhstan. In the absence of documentary proof of intent, scholars have also argued that the Holodomor was caused by the economic problems associated with the radical changes implemented during the period of liquidation of private property and Soviet industrialization, combined with the widespread drought of the early 1930s. However, on 13 January 2010, the Kyiv Appellate Court found Stalin, Kaganovich, Molotov, and the Ukrainian Soviet leaders Kosior and Chubar, amongst other functionaries, posthumously guilty of genocide against Ukrainians during the Holodomor famine.

Nationalism spread following Mikhail Gorbachev's political liberalisation of the Soviet Union in the 1980's. The pro-independence People's Movement of Ukraine was founded in 1989. After the Congress of People's Deputies of Russia made the Declaration of State Sovereignty of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, the Verkhovna Rada of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic made a similar declaration on 16 July 1991.Following the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, the Declaration of Independence of Ukraine was passed on 24 August 1991 with one vote against. The subsequent 1991 Ukrainian independence referendum approved this by a nationwide majority of 92.3% and majorities in every region of Ukraine.

The basis for post-Soviet relations were set by the Belovezh Accords between the new Ukrainian leader Leonid Kravchuk and Russia's president Boris Yeltsin, alongside the Belarusian leader Stanislav Shushkevich. While the leaders agreed to formally dissolve the Soviet Union, the Russians wanted to create new suparanational structures to replace it, to the opposition of the Ukrainians. While this led to the establishment of the Commonwealth of Independent States, it did not result in any legally binding commitments. An Armed Forces of independent Ukraine were soon established: Leningrad Mayor Anatoly Sobchak said that this was "a time bomb under the future of all mankind", while political scientist John Mearsheimer advocated a nuclear-armed Ukraine to maintain peace and prevent Russia from moving to reconquer it.

After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Ukraine gained its independence and inherited the third largest nuclear stockpile in the world, along with significant means of its design and production. The country had 130 UR-100N intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) with six warheads each, 46 RT-23 Molodets ICBMs with ten warheads apiece, as well as 33 heavy bombers, totaling approximately 1,700 warheads remaining on Ukrainian territory. While Ukraine had physical control of the weapons, it did not have operational control, as they were dependent on Russian-controlled electronic Permissive Action Links and the Russian command and control system. In 1992, Ukraine agreed to voluntarily remove over 3,000 tactical nuclear weapons.

Following the signing of the 1994 Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances among the U.S., the U.K., and Russia, as well as similar agreements with France and China, Ukraine agreed to destroy the rest of its nuclear weapons, and to join the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). The memoranda, signed in Patria Hall at the Budapest Convention Center with US Ambassador Donald M. Blinken amongst others in attendance, prohibited the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom and the United States from threatening or using military force or economic coercion against Ukraine, "except in self-defence or otherwise in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations."By 1996, Ukraine transferred all Soviet-era strategic warheads to Russia.

Crimea, Sevastopol, and division of the Black Sea Fleet

The second major dispute of early years was over the fate of the Black Sea Fleet as well as its operating bases, mainly Sevastopol on the Crimean Peninsula. As a military city with an "all-Union status" in the Soviet Union, Russia viewed Sevastopol as belonging to it as the successor state to the Soviet central government. This was also the view with regards to the Black Sea Fleet, supported by Yeltsin. The 1954 transfer of Crimea by Communist Party first secretary Nikita Khrushchev was declared illegitimate by the Russian legislature in May 1992, which was in turn disputed by Ukraine's parliament. In the summer, the Sevastopol City Council voted to join Russia, though with little impact or support from Russia.

Agreements were reached to split the fleet 50/50 in August 1992 and June 1993. However, in September 1993 Russia began to use the threat of cutting gas supplies in order to achieve a better outcome on the issue. After several years of intense negotiations the whole issue was resolved in 1997. The Partition Treaty divided the fleet and allowed Russia to lease some of the naval bases in Sevastopol for the Russian Navy until 2017 (extended to 2042 with the Kharkiv Pact), and the Treaty of Friendship fixed the principle of strategic partnership, the recognition of the inviolability of existing borders, the respect for territorial integrity and a mutual commitment not to use its territory to harm the security of each other.

While the Russian share in Ukraine's exports declined from 26.2% in 1997 to around 23% in 1998-2000, the share of imports held steady at 45-50% of the total. Overall, between one third and one half of Ukraine's trade was with the Russian Federation. Dependence was particularly strong in energy. Up to 75% of annually consumed gas and close to 80% of oil came from Russia. On the export side, dependence on Russia was also significant. Russia remained Ukraine's primary market for ferrous metals, steel plate and pipes, electric machinery, machine tools and equipment, food, and products of the chemical industry. It has been a market of hope for Ukraine's high value-added goods, more than nine tenths of which were historically tied to Russian consumers.

Although disputes existed prior to the 2004 Ukrainian presidential election, including speculation about the accidental shooting down of a Russian airliner by the Ukrainian military and the controversy over Tuzla Island, relations with Russia under the latter years of Leonid Kuchma's term improved. In 2002, the Russian Government participated in financing the construction of the Khmelnytskyi and the Rivne Nuclear Power Plants. In January 2003 both countries signed a treaty over the definition of the land border between them. In December 2003, Russia secured cooperation agreement over the Kerch Strait. In 2003, Russia attempted to integrate Ukraine into a new Russian-led Single Economic Space with Russia. However, with president Viktor Yushchenko in power, several problems resurfaced, including the Russia-Ukraine gas disputes due to Ukraine's growing cooperation with the EU and bid to join NATO.

The overall perception of relations with Russia in Ukraine differs largely on regional factors. Many Russophone eastern and southern regions, which are also home to the majority of the Russian diaspora in Ukraine welcome closer relations with Russia. However further central and particularly western regions (who were never a part of Imperial Russia) of Ukraine show a less friendly attitude to the idea of a historic link to Russia and the Soviet Union in particular.

Russia has no intention of annexing any country.

Russian President Putin (24 December 2004)

In Russia, there is no regional breakdown in the opinion of Ukraine, but on the whole, Ukraine's recent attempts to join the EU and NATO were seen as change of course to only a pro-Western, anti-Russian orientation of Ukraine and thus a sign of hostility and this resulted in a drop of Ukraine's perception in Russia (although President of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko reassured Russia that joining NATO was not meant as an anti-Russian act, and Putin said that Russia would welcome Ukraine's membership in the EU). This was further fuelled by the public discussion in Ukraine of whether the Russian language should be given official status and be made the second state language. During the 2009 gas conflict the Russian media almost uniformly portrayed Ukraine as an aggressive and greedy state that wanted to ally with Russia's enemies and exploit cheap Russian gas.

Further worsening of relations was provoked by belligerent statements made in 2007-2008 by both Russian (e.g. the Russian Foreign Ministry, the Mayor of Moscow Yury Luzhkov and then President Vladimir Putin) and Ukrainian politicians, for example, the former Foreign Minister Borys Tarasiuk, deputy Justice Minister of Ukraine Evhen Kornichuk and then leader of parliamentary opposition Yulia Tymoshenko.

During the Russo-Georgian War, relations between Ukraine and Russia soured due to Ukraine's support for Georgia and Russian claims of Ukraine supplying arms to Georgia as well as due to new Ukrainian regulations for the Russian Black Sea Fleet, which sent vessels and marines to the war, such as the demand that Russia obtain prior permission when crossing the Ukrainian border, which Russia refused to comply with. Further disagreements over the Ukrainian position on Georgia and relations with Russia were among the issues that brought down the coalition government between the Our Ukraine-People's Self-Defense Bloc and the Bloc Yulia Tymoshenko in September 2008 (on 16 December 2008, the coalition was recreated with a new coalition partner, the Lytvyn Bloc). This rekindled controversy over the Russian military presence in Crimea.

The US supported Ukraine's bid to join NATO launched in January 2008 as an effort to obtain a NATO Membership Action Plan. Russia strongly opposed any prospect of Ukraine and Georgia becoming NATO members. According to the alleged transcript of Putin's speech at the 2008 NATO-Russia Council Summit in Bucharest, Putin spoke of Russia's responsibility for ethnic Russians resident in Ukraine and urged his NATO partners to act advisedly; according to some media reports he then also privately hinted to his US counterpart at the possibility of Ukraine losing its integrity in the event of its NATO accession. According to a document in the United States diplomatic cables leak Putin "implicitly challenged the territorial integrity of Ukraine, suggesting that Ukraine was an artificial creation sewn together from territory of Poland, the Czech Republic, Romania, and especially Russia in the aftermath of the Second World War."

During a January 2009 dispute over natural gas prices, exports of Russian natural gas through Ukraine were shut down. Relations further deteriorated when Russian Prime Minister Putin during this dispute said that "Ukrainian political leadership is demonstrating its inability to solve economic problems, and [...] situation highlights the high criminalization of [Ukrainian] authorities" and when in February 2009 (after the conflict) Ukrainian President Yushchenko and the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry considered Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's statement that Ukraine must compensate for gas crisis losses to the European countries an "emotional statement which is unfriendly and hostile towards Ukraine and the EU member-states". During the conflict the Russian media almost uniformly portrayed Ukraine as an aggressive and greedy state that wanted to ally with Russia's enemies and exploit cheap Russian gas.

After a "master plan" to modernize the natural gas infrastructure of Ukraine between the EU and Ukraine was announced (on 23 March 2009) Russian Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko told an investment conference at which the plan was unveiled that it appeared to draw Ukraine legally closer to the European Union and might harm Moscow's interests. According to Putin "to discuss such issues without the basic supplier is simply not serious".

In a leaked US diplomatic cable regarding the January 2009 Russian-Ukrainian gas crisis, the US Ambassador to Ukraine William Taylor was quoting Ambassador of Ukraine to Russia Kostyantyn Hryshchenko as expressing his opinion that Kremlin leaders wanted to see a totally subservient person in charge in Kyiv (a regency in Ukraine) and that Putin "hated" the then-President Yushchenko and had a low personal regard for Yanukovych, but saw then-Prime Minister Tymoshenko as someone perhaps not that he could trust, yet with whom he could deal.

On 11 August 2009, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev posted a videoblog on the Kremlin.ru website, and the official Kremlin LiveJournal blog, in which he criticised Yushchenko for what Medvedev claimed was the Ukrainian president's responsibility in the souring of Russia-Ukraine relations and "the anti-Russian position of the current Ukrainian authorities". Medvedev further announced that he would not send a new ambassador to Ukraine until there was an improvement in the relationship. In response, Yushchenko wrote a letter which noted he could not agree that the Ukrainian-Russian relations had run into problems and wondered why the Russian president completely ruled out the Russian responsibility for this.

Analysts said Medvedev's message was timed to influence the campaign for the 2010 Ukrainian presidential election. The U.S. Department of State spokesman, commenting on the message by Medvedev to his Ukrainian counterpart Yuschenko, said, among other things: "It is important for Ukraine and Russia to have a constructive relationship. I'm not sure that these comments are necessarily in that vein. But going forward, Ukraine has a right to make its own choices, and we feel that it has a right to join NATO if it chooses."

On 7 October 2009, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the Russian government wanted to see economy prevail in Russian-Ukrainian relations and that relations between the two countries would improve if the two countries set up joint ventures, especially in small and medium-sized businesses. At the same meeting in Kharkiv, Lavrov said the Russian government would not respond to a Ukrainian proposal to organize a meeting between the Russian and Ukrainian presidents, but that "Contacts between the two countries' foreign ministries are being maintained permanently."

According to Taras Kuzio, Viktor Yanukovych was the most pro-Russian and neo-Soviet president to have been elected in Ukraine. Since his election, he fulfilled all of the demands laid out by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in his letter written to former President Viktor Yushchenko in August 2009.

On 22 April 2010 Presidents Viktor Yanukovych and Dmitry Medvedev signed an agreement leasing the Russian Naval Forces base in Sevastopol to Russia for 25 years in return for discounted natural gas deliveries which accounted for $100 per 1,000 cubic meters. The lease extension agreement was highly controversial inside and outside of Ukraine.

On 17 May 2010, the President Dmitry Medvedev arrived in Kyiv on a two-day visit. During the visit Medvedev hoped to sign cooperation agreements in "inter-regional and international problems", according to RIA Novosti. This was also mentioned on the official inquiry at the Verkhovna Rada by the First Vice Prime Minister Andriy Klyuyev. According to some news agencies the main purpose of the visit was to resolve disagreements in the Russian-Ukrainian energy relations after Viktor Yanukovych agreed on the partial merger of Gazprom and Naftogaz. Apart from the merger of the state gas companies there are also talks of the merger of the nuclear energy sector as well.

Both Russian President Dmitry Medvedev (April 2010) and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin (June 2010) have stated they noticed a big improvement in relations since Viktor Yanukovych presidency.

On 14 May 2013 an unknown veteran of unknown intelligence service Sergei Razumovsky, leader of the All-Ukrainian Association of Homeless Officers, who resides in Ukraine under the Ukrainian flag called for the creation of Ukrainian-Russian international volunteer brigades in support of the Bashar al-Assad government in Syria to fight rebels. One of the reasons why Rozumovsky wanted to create such brigades was that he felt the government of Ukraine did not support its officer corps. Because of that, Rozumovsky intended to apply for Syrian citizenship. Some sources claim that he was a Kremlin provocateur.

On 17 July 2013 near the Russian coast of the Sea of Azov, considered internal waters of both Russia and Ukraine (no boundary delimitation), a Russian coast guard patrol boat collided with a Ukrainian fishing vessel. Four fishermen died while one was detained by Russian authorities on charges of poaching. According to the surviving fisherman, their boat was rammed by the Russians and the fishermen were fired at as well, while Russian law enforcement agencies claimed that it was the poachers who tried to ram into the patrol vessel. The Minister of Justice of Ukraine Olena Lukash acknowledged that Russia has no jurisdiction to prosecute the detained citizen of Ukraine.

According to the wife of the surviving fisherman, the Ukrainian Consul in Russia was very passive in providing any support on the matter. The surviving fisherman was expected to be released to Ukraine before 12 August 2013, however, the Prosecutor Office of Russia chose to keep the Ukrainian detained in Russia. Another incident took place on the border between Belgorod and Luhansk oblasts when an apparently inebriated Russian tractor driver decided to cross the border to Ukraine along with his two friends on 28 August 2013. Unlike the Azov incident a month earlier on 17 July 2013, the State Border Service of Ukraine handed over the citizens of Russia right back to the Russian authorities. Tractor Belarus was taken away and handed over to the Ministry of Revenues and Duties.

On 14 August 2013 the Russian Custom Service stopped all imports coming from Ukraine. Some politicians saw that as start of a trade war against Ukraine to prevent Ukraine from signing a trade agreement with the European Union. According to Pavlo Klimkin, one of the Ukrainian negotiators of the Association Agreement, initially "the Russians simply did not believe (the association agreement with the EU) could come true. They didn't believe in our ability to negotiate a good agreement and didn't believe in our commitment to implement a good agreement."

On 21 November 2013, Yanukovych suspended preparations for signing EU Association Agreement, to seek closer economic relations with Russia. On 17 December 2013 Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to lend Ukraine 15 billion dollars in financial aid and a 33% discount on natural gas prices. The treaty was signed amid massive, ongoing protests in Ukraine for closer ties between Ukraine and the European Union. Critics pointed out that in the months before the 17 December 2013 deal a change in Russian customs regulations on imports from Ukraine was a Russian attempt to prevent Ukraine from signing an Association Agreement with the European Union.

The 2014 Crimean crisis unfolded in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea in the aftermath of the February 2014 Ukrainian revolution, in which the government of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych was ousted. Protests were staged by groups of mainly ethnic Russians who opposed the events in Kyiv and wanted close ties or integration with Russia, in addition to expanded autonomy or possible independence for Crimea. Other groups, including Crimean Tatars, protested in support of the revolution. On 27 February, military men with no insignia wearing masks seized a number of important buildings in Crimea, including the parliament building and two airports. Under siege, the Supreme Council of Crimea dismissed the autonomous republic's government and replaced chairman of the Council of Ministers of Crimea, Anatolii Mohyliov, with Sergey Aksyonov.

Ukraine accused Russia of intervening in Ukraine's internal affairs, while the Russian side officially denied such claims. In response to the crisis, the Ukrainian parliament requested that the Budapest Memorandum's signatories reaffirm their commitment to the principles enshrined in the political agreement, and further asked that they hold consultations with Ukraine to ease tensions. On 1 March without declaration of war, the Russian parliament granted President Vladimir Putin the authority to use military force in Ukraine. On the same day, the acting president of Ukraine, Oleksandr Turchynov decreed the appointment of the Prime Minister of Crimea as unconstitutional. He said, "We consider the behavior of the Russian Federation to be direct aggression against the sovereignty of Ukraine!"

In mid March, after a disputed local referendum, Russia recognized Crimea as a sovereign state and proceeded to formally annex the peninsula. The Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned the Provisional Principal of Russia in Ukraine to present note verbale of protest against Russia's recognition of the Republic of Crimea and its subsequent annexation. Two days later, the Verkhovna Rada condemned the treaty and called Russia's actions "a gross violation of international law".

Ukraine responded with sanctions against Russia as well as blacklisting and freezing assets of numerous individuals and entities involved with the annexation. Ukraine started a campaign not to buy Russian products and other countries supporting Ukraine's position (e.g. the European Union, Norway, Iceland, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Albania, Montenegro, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, etc.) followed similar measures. Russia responded with similar measures against Ukraine and its supporters but did not publicly reveal the list of people or entities sanctioned.

On 19 March 2014 all Ukrainian Armed Forces (at the time besieged in their bases by unmarked soldiers) were withdrawn from Crimea. On 8 April 2014 an agreement was reached between Russia and Ukraine to return interned vessels to Ukraine and "for the withdrawal of an undisclosed number of Ukrainian aircraft seized in Crimea". Russia returned 35 ships that had been impounded during its annexation of Crimea but unilaterally suspended the return of Ukrainian Navy materials from Crimea to Ukraine proper because/after Ukraine did not renew its unilaterally declared ceasefire on 1 July 2014 in the war in Donbas. Sixteen minor ships hence did return to Ukraine.

On 15 April, the Verkhovna Rada declared the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol to be under "provisional occupation" by the Russian military The territories were also deemed "inalienable parts of Ukraine" subject to Ukrainian law. On 19 March 2014 all Ukrainian Armed Forces (at the time besieged in their bases by ununiformed soldiers) were withdrawn from Crimea. On 17 April 2014, President Putin stated that the Russian military had backed Crimean separatist militias, stating that Russia's intervention was necessary "to ensure proper conditions for the people of Crimea to be able to freely express their will".

Throughout March and April 2014, pro-Russian unrest spread in Ukraine, with pro-Russian groups proclaiming "People's Republics" in the oblasts of Donetsk and Luhansk, as of 2017 both partially outside the control of the Ukrainian government.

On 17 July 2014 Malaysia Airlines flight 17 was shot down by a Buk surface-to-air missile launched from pro-Russian separatist-controlled territory in Ukraine. All 283 passengers and 15 crew were killed.

Military clashes between pro-Russian rebels (backed by Russian military) and the Armed Forces of Ukraine began in the Donbas region in April 2014. On 5 September 2014 the Ukrainian government and representatives of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic and the Luhansk People's Republic signed a tentative ceasefire - the agreement. The ceasefire imploded amidst intense new fighting in January 2015. A new ceasefire agreement took effect in mid-February 2015, but also failed to stop the fighting.

Russia has been accused by NATO and Ukraine of engaging in direct military operations to support the Donetsk People's Republic and the Luhansk People's Republic. Russia denied this, but in December 2015, Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin admitted that Russian military intelligence officers were operating in Ukraine, insisting though that they were not the same as regular troops. Russia said that Russian "volunteers" were helping the separatists People's Republics.

In February 2015 the law "On protection information television and radio space of Ukraine," banned the showing (on Ukrainian television) of "audiovisual works" that contain "the popularization, agitation for, propaganda of any action of law enforcement agencies, the armed forces, other armed, military or security forces of the occupier state" was enacted. One year later Russian productions (on Ukrainian television) had decreased by three to four times. Early in March 2014, and prior to its independence referendum, all broadcast of Ukraine-based TV channels was suspended in Crimea. Later that month, the Ukrainian National Council for TV and Radio Broadcasting ordered measures against some Russian TV channels, which were accused of broadcasting misleading information about Ukraine. Fifteen more Russian TV channels were banned in March 2016.

In May 2015, Ukraine suspended a military cooperation agreement with Russia, that had been in place since 1993. Following a breakdown in mutual business ties, Ukraine also stopped supplying components used to produce military equipment in Russia. In August, Russia announced that it would ban imports of Ukrainian agricultural goods starting January 2016. In October 2015, Ukraine banned all direct flights between Ukraine and Russia.

In November 2015, Ukraine closed its air space to all Russian military and civil airplanes. In December 2015, Ukrainian lawmakers voted to place a trade embargo on Russia in retaliation for the latter's cancellation of the two countries free-trade zone and ban on food imports as the free-trade agreement between the European Union and Ukraine came into force in January 2016. Russia imposes tariffs on Ukrainian goods from January 2016, as Ukraine joins the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area with the EU.

Since 2015 Ukraine has banned Russian artists from entering Ukraine and also banned other Russian works of culture from Russia as "a threat to national security". Russia did not reciprocate. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov responded by saying that " Moscow should not be like Kyiv" and should not impose "blacklists" and restrictions on the cultural figures of Ukraine. Lavrov did add that Russian producers and the film industry should take into account "unfriendly attacks of foreign performers in Russia" when implementing cultural projects with them.

According to the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine the number of Russian citizens who crossed the Russia-Ukraine border (more than 2.5 million Russians in 2014) dropped by almost 50% in 2015.

Ukraine's 2017 education law makes Ukrainian the only language of primary education in state schools. The law faced criticism from officials in Russia and Hungary. Russia's Foreign Ministry stated that the law is designed to "forcefully establish a mono-ethnic language regime in a multinational state."

On 18 January 2018 the Ukrainian parliament passed a law defining areas seized by the Donetsk People's Republic and the Luhansk People's Republic as "temporarily occupied by Russia." The law also called Russia an "aggressor" state.

In March 2018, the Ukrainian border guards detained in the Sea of Azov the Russian-flagged, Crimean-registered fishing vessel Nord, accusing the crew of entering "territory, which has been under a temporary occupation". The captain of the Nord, Vladimir Gorbenko, is facing up to five years in prison.

In November 2018 Russia fired upon and seized three Ukrainian Navy vessels (and imprisoned its 24 sailors in Moscow) off the coast of Crimea injuring crew members. The event prompted angry protests outside the Russian embassy in Ukraine and an embassy car was set on fire. Consequently, martial law was imposed for a 30-day period from 26 November in 10 Ukrainian border oblasts (regions). Martial law was introduced because Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko claimed there was a threat of "full-scale war" with Russia.

During the martial law (and starting on 30 November 2018) Ukraine banned all Russian men between 16 and 60 from entering the country for the period of the martial law with exceptions for humanitarian purposes. Ukraine claimed this was a security measure to prevent Russia from forming units of "private" armies on Ukrainian soil. On 27 December 2018 the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine announced that it had extended "the restrictive measures of the State Border Guard Service regarding the entry of Russian men into Ukraine." (According to the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine) between 26 November and 26 December 2018 1,650 Russian citizens were refused entry into Ukraine. From 26 December 2018 until 11 January 2019 the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine denied 800 Russian citizens access to Ukraine.

In 2019, amendments to the Constitution of Ukraine, enshrined the irreversibility of the country's strategic course towards EU and NATO membership.

On 11 July 2019, recently elected Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy held a telephone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin following the former's appeals to the Russian leader to take part in talks with Ukraine, the United States, Germany, France, and the United Kingdom in Minsk. The leaders also discussed the exchange of prisoners held by both sides. On 7 September, Ukraine and Russia exchanged prisoners.

On 2 February 2021, Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskyy decided to shut down pro-Russian TV channels owned by the parliamentary deputy Taras Kozak, a close associate of Viktor Medvedchuk, the godfather of the daughter of Russia president Vladimir Putin. Medvedchuk is also said to be the real owner of the pro-Russian TV channels.

As part of the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian War, fighting escalated in the first quarter of 2021, with 25 Ukrainian soldiers dying in the conflict, compared to the 50 that died in 2020 according to Ukrainian authorities. In late March 2021, large movements of military equipment were reported in various areas within Russia, with the equipment headed to Crimea, and the Rostov and Voronezh oblasts. Various intelligence in the following months, including a statement from Russian news agency TASS, put the number of troops situated in the Southern Military District which borders the Donbas conflict zone at 85,000 to 90,000.

Despite reassurances from a Russian government official that the troops "pose no threat", Russian official Dmitry Kozak stated that Russian forces will act to "defend" Russian citizens in Ukraine, and any escalation would lead to "the beginning of the end of Ukraine". Other politicians such as German chancellor Angela Merkel and United States White House press secretary Jen Psaki have made comments, Merkel phoning Putin demanding a reversal of the build-up, and Psaki describing the build-up as "the largest since 2014". In late October, Russian news agency TASS reported massive drills occurring in the Astrakhan Oblast involving over 1,000 personnel and 300 pieces of military hardware, which included the Buk, S-300, and Tor-M2 missile systems.

In July 2021, Putin published an essay titled On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians, in which he states that Belarusians, Ukrainians and Russians should be in one All-Russian nation as a part of the Russian world and are "one people" whom "forces that have always sought to undermine our unity" wanted to "divide and rule". The essay denies the existence of Ukraine as an independent nation. Putin wrote: "I consider the wall that emerged in recent years between Russia and Ukraine, between parts of essentially one historic and cultural space, as one big, common problem, as a tragedy."

On 7 December 2021, American president Joe Biden spoke with Russian president Vladimir Putin via a secure video link regarding the build-up of Russian military presence and increase in tensions on the Ukrainian border in response to Ukraine's intent to join NATO, which Putin described as a "security threat". These tensions also came in line with the election of Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who pushed back against Russian encroachment on Ukrainian sovereignty. During the video conference, Putin said Western military activity in Ukraine was approaching "a red line", repeating that he saw it as a threat toward Russian national security.

On 9 December 2021 an incident occurred involving the Ukrainian command ship Donbas, which had set sail from the port of Mariupol at 09:12 Moscow time, heading towards the Kerch Strait (shared internal waters of Russia and Ukraine, by treaty). According to the FSB, the vessel did not react to a request to change course, but later headed back. The Russian foreign ministry labeled this incident as a "provocation", whilst Ukraine dismissed the Russian grievances as part of an "information attack" on Kyiv.

On the same day (9 December 2021), Joe Biden called Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy regarding the tensions in the Donbas region and internal reform in Ukraine, with Zelenskyy issuing a statement thanking Biden for the "strong support". White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters that "The president's intention going into this call was to provide an update for President Zelensky on his call with President Putin and underscore our support for Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity". Despite these reassurances, Biden stressed the idea that "the United States is going to unilaterally use force to confront Russia from invading Ukraine is not ... in the cards right now." but that if Russia were to invade Ukraine, there would be "severe consequences".

US Senator Bob Menendez, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee again proposed the idea of severe sanctions, "at the maximum end of the spectrum", and reiterated the possibility of cutting out Russia from SWIFT, saying that "Putin himself, as well as his inner circle, would lose access to bank accounts in the West. Russia would effectively be cut off and isolated from the international economic system". German chancellor Olaf Scholz also warned of "consequences" for the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, a Russian gas pipeline project operated by Gazprom under the wholly-owned subsidiary Nord Stream AG 2, which delivers natural gas to Germany. Whilst Biden ruled out direct American military intervention in Ukraine, he mentioned that the United States may "be required to reinforce our presence in NATO countries to reassure particularly those in the eastern front".

Ukrainian general Kyrylo O. Budanov said, while speaking to the New York Times that "There are not sufficient military resources for repelling a full-scale attack by Russia if it begins without the support of" additional forces, and that "without delivery of reserves, there's not an army in the world that can hold out".

On 21 February 2022, Russia officially recognized the Donetsk People's Republic and Luhansk People's Republic, two breakaway states in eastern Ukraine. On the same day, Putin ordered the deployment of troops to territory held by the LPR and the DPR. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned that Russia was planning the "biggest war in Europe since 1945" as Putin intended to invade and encircle the capital of Kyiv.

Although Russia had repeatedly denied any plans to invade Ukraine, the Russian army started an invasion on Ukraine on 24 February, with ground and air assaults across many parts of the country including on the capital, Kyiv. President Zelenskyy announced that Ukraine cut all diplomatic relations with its eastern neighbour.

On 5 March 2022, according to the Russian RIA news agency, Russia's foreign ministry urged on European Union and NATO members to "stop supplying arms" to Ukraine. Moscow is particularly concerned that portable anti-aerial Stinger missiles could fall into terrorist hands, posing a threat to planes, according to the report. Russia had previously supplied anti-aircraft missiles to pro-Russian separatists who downed Malaysia Airlines Flight 17.

On 5 April 2022, Liz Truss, the United Kingdom's foreign secretary, announced that Britain would deploy investigators to Ukraine to assist in the collection of evidence of war crimes, including sexual abuse. In April 2022, in an interview with the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, Russian political scientist Sergey Karaganov, who is considered close to Putin, stated that "war will be victorious, in one way or another. I assume demilitarization will be achieved and there will be denazification, too. Like we did in Germany and in Chechnya. Ukrainians will become much more peaceful and friendly to us."

On 10 May 2022, it was reported that Russia was responsible for a large-scale cyberattack against Viasat's KA-SAT network immediately before the Russian incursion into Ukrainian territory, primarily targeting the Ukrainian military's digital assets. Intelligence from the United Kingdom's National Cyber Security Centre stated that the attacks also caused disruption to wind farms and other internet users in Central Europe. In a statement by the EU Council, the cyberattack also had a "significant impact causing indiscriminate communication outages and disruptions across several public authorities, businesses and users in Ukraine".

On 17 June 2022, Putin told the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum relations between Russia and Ukraine would normalise upon completion of the "special military operation". On 30 September, Putin signed decrees which annexed Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson Oblasts of Ukraine into the Russian Federation. The annexations are not recognized by the international community, and are illegal under international law.

In December 2022, Putin said that a war against Ukraine could be a "long process". Hundreds of thousands of people have been killed in the Russo-Ukrainian War since February 2022. In January 2023, Putin cited recognition of Russia's sovereignty over the occupied and annexed territories as a condition for peace talks with Ukraine.

Russia and Ukraine share 2,295 kilometres (1,426 mi) of border. In 2014, the Ukrainian government unveiled a plan to build a defensive walled system along the border with Russia, named "Project Wall". It was expected to cost almost $520 million, take four years to complete and has been under construction as of 2015. In June 2020 the State Border Guard of Ukraine expected that the project would be finished by 2025.

On 1 January 2018 Ukraine introduced biometric controls for Russians entering the country. On 22 March 2018 Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko signed a decree that required Russian citizens and "individuals without citizenship, who come from migration risk countries" (more details were not given) to notify the Ukrainian authorities in advance about their reason for travelling to Ukraine.

Since 30 November 2018 Ukraine has banned all Russian men between 16 and 60 from entering the country with exceptions for humanitarian purposes.

The Ukrainian and Russian arms and aviation manufacturing sectors remained deeply integrated following the break-up of the Soviet Union. Ukraine is the world's eighth largest exporter of armaments according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, and according to analysts cited by The Washington Post, around 70% of Ukraine's defence-related exports flowed to Russia before 2014, or nearly US$1 billion. Potentially strategically sensitive exports from Ukraine to Russia included 300-350 helicopter engines per year as well as various other aircraft engines from Motor Sich in Zaporizhia, intercontinental ballistic missiles from Yuzhmash in Dnipro, missile guidance systems from factories in Kharkiv, 20% of Russia's uranium consumption from mines in Zhovti Vody, 60% of the gears used in Russian warships from manufacturers Mykolaiv, and oil and gas from the Sea of Azov.

In opinion polls taken before 2014, Russians generally say they have a more negative attitude towards Ukraine than vice versa. Polls in Russia have shown that after top Russian officials made radical statements or took drastic actions against Ukraine the attitude of those polled towards Ukraine worsened (every time). The issues that have hurt Russians' view of Ukraine are:

Although a large majority of Ukrainians voted for independence in December 1991, in the following years the Russian press portrayed Ukraine's independence as the work of " nationalists" who "twisted" the "correct" instincts of the masses according to a 1996 study. The study argues that this influenced the Russian public to believe that the Ukrainian political elite is the only thing blocking the "Ukrainians' heartfelt wish" to reunite with Russia. Some members of the Russian political elite continued to claim that Ukrainian is a Russian dialect and that Ukraine (and Belarus) should become part of the Russian Federation. In a June 2010 interview Mikhail Zurabov, then Russian ambassador to Ukraine, stated "Russians and Ukrainians are a single nation with some nuances and peculiarities". Ukrainian history is not treated as a separate subject in leading Russian universities but rather incorporated into the history of Russia.

According to experts, the Russian government cultivates an image of Ukraine as the enemy to cover up its own internal mistakes. Analysts like Philip P. Pan (writing for The Washington Post) argued late 2009 that Russian media portrayed the then- Government of Ukraine as anti-Russian.

80% had a "good or very good" attitude towards Belarus in 2009.

During the 1990s, polls showed that a majority of people in Russia could not accept the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the independence of Ukraine. According to a 2006 poll by VTsIOM 66% of all Russians regretted the collapse of the Soviet Union. 50% of respondents in Ukraine in a similar poll held in February 2005 stated they regret the disintegration of the Soviet Union. In 2005 (71%) and 2007 (48%) polls, Russians expressed a wish to unify with Ukraine; although a unification solely with Belarus was more popular.

A poll released on 5 November 2009 showed that 55% of Russians believed that the relationship with Ukraine should be a friendship between "two independent states". A late 2011 poll by the Levada Center showed 53% of polled Russians preferred friendship with an independent Ukraine, 33% preferred Ukraine to be under Russia's economic and political control, and 15% were undecided. According to Levada's 2012 poll, 60% of Russians preferred Russia and Ukraine as independent but friendly states with open borders without visas or customs; the number of unification supporters increased by 4% to 20% in Russia. Twenty surveys conducted from January 2009 to January 2015 by the Levada Center found that less than 10% of Russians supported Russia and Ukraine becoming one state. In the January 2015 survey, 19% wanted eastern Ukraine to become part of Russia and 43% wanted it to become an independent state.

The thinking of many Russians, including Russian political elites, about Ukraine has also been influenced by the Russian world concept and also by nationalist philosophers such as Alexandr Dugin often referred to as Putin's brain. The Russian world concept is a totalitarian ideology based on a specific theology that sees the West's decadence as an enemy of Russian culture, and regards war as a legitimate method of purifying the world from the demonic. Dugin is believed by some to have laid the ideological groundwork for the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 as part of his advocacy for Ukraine becoming "a purely administrative sector of the Russian centralized state", which he refers to as Novorossiya, or New Russia. At the end of March 2022, a poll conducted in Russia by the Levada Center concluded the following: When asked why they think the military operation is taking place, respondents said it was to protect and defend civilians, ethnic Russians or Russian speakers in Ukraine (43%), to prevent an attack on Russia (25%), to get rid of nationalists and "denazify" Ukraine (21%), and to incorporate Ukraine or the Donbas region into Russia (3%)."

A poll released on 5 November 2009 showed that about 67% of Ukrainians believed the relationship with Russia should be a friendship between "two independent states". According to a 2012 poll by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS), 72% of Ukrainians preferred Ukraine and Russia as independent but friendly states with open borders without visas or customs; the number of unification supporters shrunk by 2% to 14% in Ukraine.

In December 2014, 85% of Ukrainians (81% in eastern regions) rated relations with Russia as hostile (56%) or tense (29%), according to a Deutsche Welle survey which did not include Crimea and the separatist-controlled part of Donbas. Gallup reported that 5% of Ukrainians (12% in the south and east) approved of the Russian leadership in a September-October 2014 survey, down from 43% (57% in the south and east) a year earlier.

In September 2014, a survey by Alexei Navalny of the mainly Russophone cities of Odesa and Kharkiv found that 87% of residents wanted their region to stay in Ukraine, 3% wanted to join Russia, 2% wanted to join "Novorossiya," and 8% were undecided. A KIIS poll conducted in December 2014 found 88.3% of Ukrainians were opposed to joining Russia.

At the end of 2021, 75% of Ukrainians had a positive attitude toward ordinary Russians, while in May 2022, 82% of Ukrainians had a negative attitude toward ordinary Russians.

Treaty between the Russian SFSR and the Ukrainian SSR (Kyiv, 19 November 1990) (surpassed by the treaty of 1997)

ratified by the Supreme Council of the Russian SFSR (23 November 1990)

ratified by the Supreme Council of Ukraine (1990) "yes": 352, "nay": 0

Belavezha Accords (8 December 1991)

Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances (5 December 1994)
Following the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation and the subsequent War in Donbas in 2014, Ukraine, the US, Canada, the UK, along with other countries, stated that Russian involvement is a breach of its obligations to Ukraine under the Budapest Memorandum, a Memorandum signed by Bill Clinton, Boris Yeltsin, John Major, and Leonid Kuchma, and in violation of Ukrainian sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Partition Treaty on the Status and Conditions of the Black Sea Fleet (Kyiv, 28 May 1997)

ratified by the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation (2 March 1999)

the State Duma approved the denunciation of the treaty unanimously by 433 members of parliament on 31 March 2014.

Treaty on Friendship, Cooperation, and Partnership Between the Russian Federation and Ukraine (Kyiv, 31 May 1997)

Treaty Between the Russian Federation and Ukraine on Cooperation in the Use of the Sea of Azov and the Kerch Strait (2003)

2010 Kharkiv Pact

both the Russian and Ukrainian parliaments did ratify the agreement on 27 April 2010

the State Duma approved the denunciation of the treaty unanimously by 433 members of parliament on 31 March 2014

In December 2019, Ukraine and Russia agreed to implement a complete ceasefire in eastern Ukraine by the year-end. The negotiations were brokered by France and Germany, where the countries in conflict committed an extensive prisoner swap along with withdrawal of Ukraine's military from three major regions falling on the front line.

On 17 July 2022, Russian, Ukrainian and Turkish military delegations met with United Nations officials in Istanbul to start talks on the resumption of exports of Ukrainian grain from the Black Sea port of Odesa. On 22 July 2022, Russian and Ukrainian officials have signed the deal to allow grain exports from Ukrainian Black Sea ports. Under the agreement, a coalition of Turkish, Ukrainian and UN staff will monitor the loading of grain into vessels in Ukrainian ports, to allay Russian fears of weapons smuggling before navigating a preplanned route through the Black Sea, which remains heavily mined by Ukrainian and Russian forces. On 29 October 2022, Russia said it was suspending its participation in the grain deal, in response to what it called a major Ukrainian drone attack on its Black Sea fleet.

A number of territorial disputes exist between two countries:

Crimea including Sevastopol, Kerch Strait, Sea of Azov. Russia lays claims onto territory of Crimea by the resolution #1809-1 of the Supreme Council of the Russian Federation "On legal evaluation of decisions of the supreme bodies of state power of the RSFSR about changing the status of Crimea that was adopted in 1954". In 2014, Crimea was annexed by Russia. Ukraine considers this as an annexation and as a violation of international law and agreements by Russia, including the Agreement Establishing the Commonwealth of Independent States in 1991, Helsinki Accords, Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons of 1994 and Treaty on friendship, cooperation and partnership between the Russian Federation and Ukraine. The event was condemned by many world leaders as an illegal annexation of Ukrainian territory, in violation of the 1994 Budapest Memorandum on sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, signed by Russia. It led to the other members of the then G8 suspending Russia from the group, then introducing the first round of sanctions against the country. The United Nations General Assembly also rejected the vote and annexation, adopting a non-binding resolution affirming the "territorial integrity of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders". See also: International reactions to the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation, International sanctions during the Russo-Ukrainian War

Tuzla Island. The Tuzla conflict is unresolved since 2003.

Some Russian nationalists have disputed Ukraine's independent existence, considering Ukrainians (as well as Belarusians) to belong to the Russian nation, and Ukraine to belong to Greater Russia. In 2006, Putin reportedly stated, "Ukraine is not even a state"; after the annexation of Crimea, he stated in July 2021 that Ukrainians and Russians "are one people". In February 2020, leading Kremlin ideologue Vladislav Surkov stated, "There is no Ukraine". According to international relations scholar Björn Alexander Düben, "Among the Russian public it is commonly regarded as self-evident that Crimea has historically been Russian territory, but also that all of Ukraine is in essence a historical part of Russia".

In 2022, UK defence minister Ben Wallace characterized Putin's article "On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians" as a "skewed and selective reasoning to justify, at best, the subjugation of Ukraine and at worse the forced unification of that sovereign country."

On 26 April 2022, the sculpture under the People's Friendship Arch in Kyiv, which depicted a Ukrainian worker and a Russian worker standing together, was dismantled. The arch and the Peoples' Friendship Arch monument are also planned to be renamed and to become a new monument. This would be one of the first steps in a plan to demolish about 60 monuments and to rename dozens of streets associated with the Soviet Union, Russia and Russian figures across Ukraine. Days before the People's Friendship Arch statue was removed, aspects of this street renaming and monument removal plan were already being carried out across other areas in Ukraine as well. Ukraine has decided to rename the streets of Ukrainian cities named after such Russian historical figures as Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky or Leo Tolstoy. After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, as part of de-Russification of Ukraine, Russian movies, books and music were banned and monuments to Russian and Russian-Ukrainian personalities such as Mikhail Bulgakov were removed.

1. See ^ Ukrainian Civil War combatants include Anarchists, White Russians, Bolsheviks, Central Powers, Ententes and those of short-lived Ukrainian governments.

2. After the two countries were denied membership of the ^ NATO Membership Action Plan (at the 20th NATO summit in April 2008) Russia's NATO envoy Dmitry Rogozin stated in December 2008: "They will not invite these bankrupt scandalous regimes to join NATO...more so as important partnerships with Russia are at stake", after an earlier statement that "In the broad sense of the word, there is a real threat of the collapse of the Ukrainian state." Ukraine's envoy to NATO Ihor Sahach replied: "In my opinion, he is merely used as one of cogs in the informational war waged against Ukraine. Sooner or later, I think, it should be stopped". The envoy also expressed a surprise with Rogozin's slang words. "It was for the first time that I heard such a higher official as an envoy using this, I even don't know how to describe it, whether it was slang or language of criminal circles... I can understand the Russian language, but, I'm sorry, I don't know what his words meant".

3. In the videoblog, ^ Dmitry Medvedev accused Viktor Yushchenko of arming the Georgian military with Ukrainian weapons which were used in the war in South Ossetia in August 2008. Among other issues in the relationship, such as the Black Sea Fleet, gas disputes, Medvedev also accused Yushchenko of attempting to eliminate the Russian language from everyday life in Ukraine. Medvedev also accused the Yushchenko administration of being willing to engage in historical revisionism and heroisation of Nazi collaborators, and imposing on the international community "a nationalistic interpretation of the mass famine of 1932-1933 in the USSR, calling it the "genocide of the Ukrainian people".

4. The development came after Ukraine accepted the appointment of ^ Mikhail Zurabov to replace Viktor Chernomyrdin as Russia's ambassador in Kyiv, who was recalled in June 2009.

5. In the letter Ukrainian President Yushchenko called Ukraine's position on the ^ 2008 events in Georgia coincident with "the known positions of virtually all other countries" with "an exceptional respect for the sovereignty, territorial integrity and inviolability of borders of Georgia or any other sovereign states", called arms trade with Georgia legal since Georgia has not been and now is not a subject of any international sanctions or embargo, objected to Russian criticism about Ukraine joining NATO (emphasizing that the desire of Ukraine to membership in NATO was in no way directed against Russia and the final decision on accession to NATO will be held only after a national referendum), accused the Black Sea Fleet of "gross violations of bilateral agreements and the legislation of Ukraine", accused Russia of trying "to deprive Ukraine of its view of its own history" and accused Russia that not Ukraine but Russia itself is "virtually unable to realize the right to meet their national and cultural needs" of the Ukrainian minority in Russia.

1. ^ Ukraine sticks to positions on Russia but leaves room for "compromises", Reuters (12 February 2020)

2. ^ "Russia is stoking tension with Ukraine and the EU". The Economist. 14 November 2021. Archived from the original on 14 December 2021. Rumours of wars: Russia is stoking tension with Ukraine and the EU: Destabilisation rather than invasion is probably its goal, but that leaves plenty of room for miscalculation

3. ^ Crowley, Michael (10 December 2021). "Biden Delivers a Warning to Putin Over Ukraine". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 14 December 2021. Biden Delivers a Warning to Putin Over Ukraine: In a high-stakes video call, President Biden warned President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia of "strong economic and other measures" from the U.S. and European allies if military tensions with Ukraine escalated.

4. Shambarov, Valery (2007). Kazachestvo: istoriya volnoy Rusi Казачество: история вольной Руси [The Cossacks: History of a Free Rus']. Algorithm Expo. Moscow. p. [page needed ]. ISBN 978-5-699-20121-1.

5. ^ Abdelal, Rawi (2005). National Purpose in the World Economy: Post-Soviet States in Comparative Perspective. Cornell University Press. p. 106. ISBN 978-0-8014-8977-8. Archived from the original on 2021-04-10.

6. Steele, Jonathan (1988). Eternal Russia: Yeltsin, Gorbachev, and the Mirage of Democracy. Harvard University Press. p. 217. ISBN 978-0-674-26837-1. Archived from the original on 2020-08-19.

7. ^ Ohienko, Ivan (2001). "XII. Скорпіони на українське слово". Nasha Kultura i Nauka Історія української літературної мови [The History of the Ukrainian Literary Language] (in Ukrainian). Kyiv. ISBN 966-7821-01-3. Archived from the original on 2012-03-05.

8. ^ Legvold, Robert, ed. (2012). Russian Foreign Policy in the Twenty-First Century and the Shadow of the Past. Columbia University Press. New York. p. 240. ISBN 978-0-231-51217-6. Archived from the original on 2021-04-12.

9. ^ D'Anieri, Paul (2019-10-31). Ukraine and Russia: From Civilized Divorce to Uncivil War (Kindle ed.). Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-108-48609-5.

10. ^ Martel, William C. (1998). "Why Ukraine Gave Up Nuclear Weapons: Nonproliferation Incentives and Disincentives". In Schneider, Barry R.; Dowdy, William L. (eds.). Pulling Back from the Nuclear Brink: Reducing and Countering Nuclear Threats. Psychology Press. pp. 88-104. ISBN 978-0-7146-4856-9. Archived from the original on 2017-03-21. There are some reports that Ukraine had established effective custody, but not operational control, of the cruise missiles and gravity bombs. ... By early 1994 the only barrier to Ukraine's ability to exercise full operational control over the nuclear weapons on missiles and bombers deployed on its soil was its inability to circumvent Russian permissive action links (PALs).

11. ^ Pikayev, Alexander A. (Spring-Summer 1994). "Post-Soviet Russia and Ukraine: Who Can Push the Button?" (PDF). The Nonproliferation Review. 1 (3): 31-46. doi:10.1080/10736709408436550. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2014-05-21.

12. ^ "1994 Public Papers 2146 - Remarks at the Denuclearization Agreements Signing Ceremony in Budapest". Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1994, Book II). 5 December 1994.

13. Specter, Michael (1 June 2007). "Setting Past Aside, Russia and Ukraine Sign Friendship Treaty". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 2019-01-27.

14. Karatnycky, Adrian; Motyl, Alexander J. (May-June 2009). "The Key to Kyiv". Foreign Affairs. Archived from the original on 2018-11-25.

15. ^ Tymoshenko, Yuliya (May-June 2007). "Containing Russia". Foreign Affairs. Archived from the original on 2007-05-17.

16. ^ "Tymoshenko Bloc, OU-PSD, And Lytvyn Bloc Sign Rada Coalition Agreement". Ukrainian News Agency. 16 December 2008. Archived from the original on 2009-01-22.

17. ^ "Russian & Ukrainian Volunteers Pledged for Syrian Army". Syria Report (in Russian). 31 May 2013. Archived from the original on 2019-05-18 - via YouTube.

18. ^ "The only survived Ukrainian fisherman is held by force in Russia and is threatened with imprisonment" Archived 2013-09-03 at the Wayback Machine. . July 30, 2013.

19. ^ Alsop, Harry (1 March 2014). "Vladimir Putin prepares authorisation of military force in Ukraine". Telegraph.co.uk. Archived from the original on 2022-01-12.

20. ^ МИД вызвал Временного поверенного в делах РФ в Украине для вручения ноты-протеста. unn.com.ua (in Russian). 18 March 2014. Archived from the original on 19 March 2014.

21. ^ Zaks, Dmitry (23 December 2016). "Ukraine rebels agree to new indefinite truce". Agence France-Presse. Archived from the original on 2020-04-05 - via Business Insider.

22. ^ Malkin, Bonnie, ed. (4 March 2014). "Ukraine crisis: US suspends military cooperation with Russia". Agence France-Presse. Archived from the original on 2022-01-12 - via Telegraph.co.uk.

23. ^ Roth, Andrew (30 November 2018). "Ukraine bans entry to Russian men 'to prevent armies forming'". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 5 April 2020.

24. ^ Putin, Vladimir (12 July 2021). "Article by Vladimir Putin 'On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians'". The Kremlin. Government of Russia. Archived from the original on 25 January 2022.

25. ^ "Putin Says Russia-Ukraine Relations Will Normalize after 'Special Military Operation'". Aawsat.com.

26. ^ "Russia could be fighting in Ukraine for a long time: Putin". Al Jazeera. 7 December 2022.

27. ^ Ukraine's Wall project on border with Russia implemented by a mere 40% (Document) Archived 2022-02-24 at the Wayback Machine, UNIAN (5 June 2020)

28. ^ Solchanyk, Roman (2000). Ukraine and Russia: The Post-Soviet Transition. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 21. ISBN 978-0-7425-1018-0. Archived from the original on 2021-08-18.

29. ^

Smoke, Richard (1996). Perceptions of Security: Public Opinion and Expert Assessments in Europe's New Democracies. Manchester University Press. p. 238. ISBN 978-0-7190-4813-5. Archived from the original on 2022-01-28.

30. ^ Newman, Dina (10 July 2014). "Russian nationalist thinker Dugin sees war with Ukraine". . London. A prominent Russian ultra-nationalist philosopher has told BBC News that war between Russia and Ukraine 'is inevitable' and has called on President Vladimir Putin to intervene militarily in eastern Ukraine 'to save Russia's moral authority'. In Russian: Дина Ньюман (10 July 2014). Кто придумал аннексировать украинский Крым? (in Russian). BBC Ukrainian.

31. ^ Burbank, Jane (22 March 2022). "The Grand Theory Driving Putin to War". The New York Times. New York City. After unsuccessful interventions in post-Soviet party politics, Mr. Dugin focused on developing his influence where it counted - with the military and policymakers... In Mr. Dugin's adjustment of Eurasianism to present conditions, Russia had a new opponent - no longer just Europe, but the whole of the 'Atlantic' world led by the United States. And his Eurasianism was not anti-imperial but the opposite: Russia had always been an empire, Russian people were 'imperial people,' and after the crippling 1990s sellout to the 'eternal enemy,' Russia could revive in the next phase of global combat and become a 'world empire.'

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poverty, the state of one who lacks a usual or socially acceptable amount of money or material possessions. Poverty is said to exist when people lack the means to satisfy their basic needs. In this context, the identification of poor people first requires a determination of what constitutes basic needs. These may be defined as narrowly as "those necessary for survival" or as broadly as "those reflecting the prevailing standard of living in the community." The first criterion would cover only those people near the borderline of starvation or death from exposure; the second would extend to people whose nutrition, housing, and clothing, though adequate to preserve life, do not measure up to those of the population as a whole. The problem of definition is further compounded by the noneconomic connotations that the word poverty has acquired. Poverty has been associated, for example, with poor health, low levels of education or skills, an inability or an unwillingness to work, high rates of disruptive or disorderly behaviour, and improvidence. While these attributes have often been found to exist with poverty, their inclusion in a definition of poverty would tend to obscure the relation between them and the inability to provide for one's basic needs. Whatever definition one uses, authorities and laypersons alike commonly assume that the effects of poverty are harmful to both individuals and society.

Although poverty is a phenomenon as old as human history, its significance has changed over time. Under traditional (i.e., nonindustrialized) modes of economic production, widespread poverty had been accepted as inevitable. The total output of goods and services, even if equally distributed, would still have been insufficient to give the entire population a comfortable standard of living by prevailing standards. With the economic productivity that resulted from industrialization, however, this ceased to be the case-especially in the world's most industrialized countries, where national outputs were sufficient to raise the entire population to a comfortable level if the necessary redistribution could be arranged without adversely affecting output.

Several types of poverty may be distinguished depending on such factors as time or duration (long- or short-term or cyclical) and distribution (widespread, concentrated, individual).
(Read Indira Gandhi's 1975 Britannica essay on global underprivilege.)

Cyclical poverty

Cyclical poverty refers to poverty that may be widespread throughout a population, but the occurrence itself is of limited duration. In nonindustrial societies (present and past), this sort of inability to provide for one's basic needs rests mainly upon temporary food shortages caused by natural phenomena or poor agricultural planning. Prices would rise because of scarcities of food, which brought widespread, albeit temporary, misery.

In industrialized societies the chief cyclical cause of poverty is fluctuations in the business cycle, with mass unemployment during periods of depression or serious recession. Throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, the industrialized nations of the world experienced business panics and recessions that temporarily enlarged the numbers of the poor. The United States' experience in the Great Depression of the 1930s, though unique in some of its features, exemplifies this kind of poverty. And until the Great Depression, poverty resulting from business fluctuations was accepted as an inevitable consequence of a natural process of market regulation. Relief was granted to the unemployed to tide them over until the business cycle again entered an upswing. The experiences of the Great Depression inspired a generation of economists such as John Maynard Keynes, who sought solutions to the problems caused by extreme swings in the business cycle. Since the Great Depression, governments in nearly all advanced industrial societies have adopted economic policies that attempt to limit the ill effects of economic fluctuation. In this sense, governments play an active role in poverty alleviation by increasing spending as a means of stimulating the economy. Part of this spending comes in the form of direct assistance to the unemployed, either through unemployment compensation, welfare, and other subsidies or by employment on public-works projects. Although business depressions affect all segments of society, the impact is most severe on people of the lowest socioeconomic strata because they have fewer marginal resources than those of a higher strata.

Collective poverty

In contrast to cyclical poverty, which is temporary, widespread or " collective " poverty involves a relatively permanent insufficiency of means to secure basic needs-a condition that may be so general as to describe the average level of life in a society or that may be concentrated in relatively large groups in an otherwise prosperous society. Both generalized and concentrated collective poverty may be transmitted from generation to generation, parents passing their poverty on to their children.

Collective poverty is relatively general and lasting in parts of Asia, the Middle East, most of Africa, and parts of South America and Central America. Life for the bulk of the population in these regions is at a minimal level. Nutritional deficiencies cause disease seldom seen by doctors in the highly developed countries. Low life expectancy, high levels of infant mortality, and poor health characterize life in these societies.

Collective poverty is usually related to economic underdevelopment. The total resources of many developing nations in Africa, Asia, and South and Central America would be insufficient to support the population adequately even if they were equally divided among all of the citizens. Proposed remedies are twofold: (1) expansion of the gross national product (GNP) through improved agriculture or industrialization, or both, and (2) population limitation. Thus far, both population control and induced economic development in many countries have proved difficult, controversial, and at times inconclusive or disappointing in their results.

An increase of the GNP does not necessarily lead to an improved standard of living for the population at large, for a number of reasons. The most important reason is that, in many developing countries, the population grows even faster than the economy does, with no net reduction in poverty as a result. This increased population growth stems primarily from lowered infant mortality rates made possible by improved sanitary and disease-control measures. Unless such lowered rates eventually result in women bearing fewer children, the result is a sharp acceleration in population growth. To reduce birth rates, some developing countries have undertaken nationally administered family-planning programs, with varying results. Many developing nations are also characterized by a long-standing system of unequal distribution of wealth -a system likely to continue despite marked increases in the GNP. Some authorities have observed the tendency for a large portion of any increase to be siphoned off by persons who are already wealthy, while others claim that increases in GNP will always trickle down to the part of the population living at the subsistence level.

Concentrated collective poverty

In many industrialized, relatively affluent countries, particular demographic groups are vulnerable to long-term poverty. In city ghettos, in regions bypassed or abandoned by industry, and in areas where agriculture or industry is inefficient and cannot compete profitably, there are found victims of concentrated collective poverty. These people, like those afflicted with generalized poverty, have higher mortality rates, poor health, low educational levels, and so forth when compared with the more affluent segments of society. Their chief economic traits are unemployment and underemployment, unskilled occupations, and job instability. Efforts at amelioration focus on ways to bring the deprived groups into the mainstream of economic life by attracting new industry, promoting small business, introducing improved agricultural methods, and raising the level of skills of the employable members of the society.

Case poverty

Similar to collective poverty in relative permanence but different from it in terms of distribution, case poverty refers to the inability of an individual or family to secure basic needs even in social surroundings of general prosperity. This inability is generally related to the lack of some basic attribute that would permit the individual to maintain himself or herself. Such persons may, for example, be blind, physically or emotionally disabled, or chronically ill. Physical and mental handicaps are usually regarded sympathetically, as being beyond the control of the people who suffer from them. Efforts to ameliorate poverty due to physical causes focus on education, sheltered employment, and, if needed, economic maintenance.
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Adam Augustyn.

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Poverty | Definition, Causes, Types, & Facts

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Poverty, the state of one who lacks a usual or socially acceptable amount of money or material possessions. Poverty is said to exist when people lack the means to satisfy their basic needs. Learn more about types and causes of poverty in this article.

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In the year and a half since Russia's full-scale invasion, Ukraine has recaptured 54 percent of occupied territory, while Russia still occupies 18 percent of the country. Ukraine's 2023 offensive has achieved minor territorial gains, but the frontlines have remained stable for almost a year. Both sides have dug in, making breakthroughs increasingly difficult, and the number of military casualties has climbed to an estimated half a million. Meanwhile, Russia continues to bombard Ukrainian cities and blockade its ports, and Ukraine has stepped up drone attacks on Russian ships and infrastructure. Since January 2022, Ukraine has received nearly $350 billion in aid, including $77 billion from the United States, though it warns of donor fatigue. Fighting and air strikes have inflicted nearly 22,000 civilian casualties, while 5.1 million people are internally displaced, and 6.2 million have fled Ukraine. 17.6 million people need humanitarian assistance.

Armed conflict in eastern Ukraine erupted in early 2014 following Russia's annexation of Crimea. The previous year, protests in Ukraine's capital, Kyiv, against Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych's decision to reject a deal for greater economic integration with the European Union (EU) were met with a violent crackdown by state security forces. The protests widened, escalating the conflict, and President Yanukovych fled the country in February 2014.

One month later, in March 2014, Russian troops took control of the Ukrainian region of Crimea. Russian President Vladimir Putin cited the need to protect the rights of Russian citizens and Russian speakers in Crimea and southeast Ukraine. Russia then formally annexed the peninsula after Crimeans voted to join the Russian Federation in a disputed local referendum. The crisis heightened ethnic divisions, and two months later, pro-Russian separatists in the eastern Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk held their own independence referendums.

Armed conflict in the regions quickly broke out between Russian-backed forces and the Ukrainian military. Russia denied military involvement, but both Ukraine and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) reported the buildup of Russian troops and military equipment near Donetsk and Russian cross-border shelling immediately following Crimea's annexation. The conflict transitioned to an active stalemate, with regular shelling and skirmishes occurring along frontlines separating Russian- and Ukrainian-controlled eastern border regions.

Beginning in February 2015, France, Germany, Russia, and Ukraine attempted to kickstart negotiations to bring an end to the violence through the Minsk Accords. The agreement framework included provisions for a ceasefire, withdrawal of heavy weaponry, and full Ukrainian government control throughout the conflict zone. Efforts to reach a diplomatic settlement and satisfactory resolution, however, were largely unsuccessful.

In April 2016, NATO announced the deployment of four battalions to Eastern Europe, rotating troops through Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland to deter possible future Russian aggression elsewhere on the continent, particularly in the Baltics. In September 2017, the United States also deployed two U.S. Army tank brigades to Poland to further bolster NATO's presence in the region.

In January 2018, the United States imposed new sanctions on twenty-one individuals-including a number of Russian officials-and nine companies linked to the conflict in eastern Ukraine. In March 2018, the U.S. Department of State approved the sale of anti-tank weapons to Ukraine, the first sale of lethal weaponry since the conflict began. In October 2018, Ukraine joined the United States and seven other NATO countries in a series of large-scale air exercises in western Ukraine. The exercises came after Russia held its own annual military exercises in September 2018, the largest since the fall of the Soviet Union.

In October 2021, months of intelligence gathering and observations of Russian troop movements, force build-up, and military contingency financing culminated in a White House briefing with U.S. intelligence, military, and diplomatic leaders on a near-certain mass-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine. The only remaining questions were when the attack would take place and whether the United States would be able to convince allies to act preemptively. Both were answered on February 24, 2022, when Russian forces invaded a largely unprepared Ukraine after Russian President Vladimir Putin authorized a " special military operation " against the country. In his statement, Putin claimed that the goal of the operation was to demilitarize and denazify Ukraine and end the alleged genocide of Russians in Ukrainian territory.

In the days and weeks leading up to the invasion, the Joe Biden administration made the unconventional decision to reduce information-sharing constraints and allow for the broader dissemination of intelligence and findings, both with allies-including Ukraine-and publicly. The goal of this strategy was to bolster allied defenses and dissuade Russia from taking aggressive action. Commercial satellite imagery, social media posts, and published intelligence from November and December 2021 showed armor, missiles, and other heavy weaponry moving toward Ukraine with no official explanation from the Kremlin. By the end of 2021, more than one hundred thousand Russian troops were in place near the Russia-Ukraine border, with U.S. intelligence officials warning of a Russian invasion in early 2022. In mid-December 2021, Russia's foreign ministry called on the United States and NATO to cease military activity in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, commit to no further NATO expansion toward Russia, and prevent Ukraine from joining NATO in the future. The United States and other NATO allies rejected these demands and threatened to impose severe economic sanctions if Russia took aggressive action against Ukraine.

In early February 2022, satellite imagery showed the largest deployment of Russian troops to its border with Belarus since the end of the Cold War. Negotiations between the United States, Russia, and European powers-including France and Germany-failed to bring about a resolution. In late February 2022, the United States warned that Russia intended to invade Ukraine, citing Russia's growing military presence at the Russia-Ukraine border. President Putin then ordered troops to Luhansk and Donetsk, claiming the troops served a "peacekeeping" function. The United States responded by imposing sanctions on the regions and the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline a few days later. Nevertheless, just prior to the invasion, U.S. and Ukrainian leaders remained at odds regarding the nature and likelihood of an armed Russian threat, with Ukrainian officials playing down the possibility of an incursion and delaying the mobilization of their troops and reserve forces.

Since the summer of 2022, fighting has largely been confined to Ukraine's east and south, with Russian cruise missiles, bombs, cluster munitions, and thermobaric weapons devastating port cities along the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov. The Russian seizure of several Ukrainian ports and subsequent blockade of Ukrainian food exports compounded an already acute global food crisis further exacerbated by climate change, inflation, and supply chain havoc. Prior to the conflict, Ukraine had been the largest supplier of commodities to the World Food Program (WFP), which provides food assistance to vulnerable populations. In July, Russia and Ukraine signed an agreement to free more than twenty million tons of grain from Russian-controlled Ukrainian ports. The first grain shipments to leave Ukraine since the Russian invasion departed from Odesa on August 1, 2022; they arrived in Russian-allied Syria on August 15, although their originally presumed destination had been Lebanon. On October 29, Russia suspended the grain deal in response to an alleged Ukrainian attack on Russian naval forces, which Ukraine called a "false pretext." Nonetheless, Russia did not enforce the blockade when Ukraine defiantly continued shipments, and Turkey quickly negotiated Russia's return to the deal, which has been consistently extended to date.

The current conflict has severely strained U.S.-Russia relations and increased the risk of a wider European conflict. Tensions are likely to increase between Russia and neighboring NATO member countries that would likely involve the United States, due to alliance security commitments. The conflict will also have broader ramifications for future cooperation on critical issues like arms control; cybersecurity; nuclear nonproliferation; global economic stability; energy security; counterterrorism; and political solutions in Syria, Libya, and elsewhere. Additionally, Russia's isolation has not only destabilized global energy and resource markets but also pushed the country to seek stronger strategic ties with those states (e.g., China) still willing to partner with it, largely in opposition to the West. The war has also compounded other global crises, with military operations and violence hindering the delivery and distribution of much-needed aid, including food, and exacerbating an already severe shortage of available global humanitarian assistance and resources.

On June 6, 2023, a breach in the Nova Kakhovka dam, sixty kilometers north of Kherson on the Dnipro River, caused severe flooding in southwest Ukraine, affecting over eighty thousand people who live in the riparian zone. Ukraine accuses Russia of blowing up the dam to prevent a southeastern offensive, while Russia claims Ukraine carried out the attack to deprive Crimea of water and distract from the battlefront. The Ukrainian dam operator says it has been destroyed beyond repair. Furthermore, the draining of the reservoir raises concerns over the availability of water to cool the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant reactors, though the cooling ponds are reportedly stable.

In June 2023, Ukraine launched a much-anticipated counteroffensive, attempting to break through Russian defenses eastward in Donetsk province, including around Bakhmut, and southward in Zaporizhzhia province, which forms the " land corridor" to Crimea. Zelenskyy said Ukraine aims to liberate 18 percent of occupied territory in the current phase, but Ukrainian forces have met stiff resistance and suffered heavy losses against hardened Russian defensive positions, air superiority, and minefields. Nonetheless, Ukraine has made small gains on the ground and has stepped up attacks on bridges to Crimea, Russian ships, and buildings in Moscow.

Since February 24, 2022, the United States has committed nearly forty billion dollars in security assistance to Ukraine, including nineteen billion in immediate military aid and sixteen billion in humanitarian aid. Additionally, in early 2023 the Biden administration approved the provision of increasingly advanced weaponry, such as the Patriot air defense system, crucial for defending against Russian airstrikes, and top-tier battle tanks. The United States has also dramatically increased U.S. troop presence in Europe, bringing the total to more than one hundred thousand. On June 8, 2023, in a joint press conference with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Biden said he believes the United States has the funds to "support Ukraine as long as it takes." A day later, the Department of Defense announced another 2.1 billion dollars in military aid. While the United Nations, Group of Seven member states, EU, and others continue to condemn Russia's actions and support Ukrainian forces, Russia has turned to countries like North Korea and Iran for intelligence and military equipment and continues to sell discounted oil and gas to India and China, among others.

By June 2023, the UN Human Rights Office recorded nearly nine thousand civilian deaths and over fifteen thousand civilian injuries since Russia's full-scale military invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022. The violence has internally displaced nearly six million people and forced nearly eight million to flee to neighboring countries, including Moldova and Poland, a NATO country where the United States and other allies are helping to accommodate the influx of refugees.

On June 23, Putin faced a major internal challenge when Yevgeniy Prigozhin released a video claiming the Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) shelled Wagner forces and announced a "march of justice" to unseat the military leadership. The mutiny follows months of tensions with the MoD, which Prigozhin often insulted and accused of not supplying adequate munitions, and an attempt by the MoD to reign in Wagner fighters. Wagner forces quickly occupied Rostov-on-Don and seized Russia's southern military headquarters. Wagner convoys then advanced more than halfway to Moscow; Putin declared the march " treason" and offered amnesty for soldiers who stopped. On June 24, Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko negotiated for Wagner soldiers to return to their bases and for Prigozhin to move to Belarus. Prigozhin's true aims remain unknown, but the incident left both the Wagner Group and Putin weakened.

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War in Ukraine | Global Conflict Tracker

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Understand the conflict in Ukraine since it erupted in 2014 and track the latest developments around Russian and U.S. involvement on the Global Conflict Tracker from the Center for Preventive Action.

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Child abuse and neglect are serious public health problems that can have long-term impact on health, opportunity, and wellbeing. CDC works to understand the problems of child abuse and neglect and prevent them.

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Child abuse and neglect can have a lasting effect on victims. The CDC Injury Center's goal is to stop it from happening in the first place. Learn More.

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​Child abuse, also known as maltreatment, is common. It is important to understand and reduce the risks of abuse for your child and be familiar with the signs of abuse and neglect.

About ​4 million cases of child abuse and neglect involving almost 7 million children are reported each year. The highest rate of child abuse is in babies less than one year of age, and 25 percent of victims are younger than age three.

The majority of cases reported to Child Protective Services involve neglect, followed by physical and sexual abuse. There is a lot of overlap among children who are abused, with many suffering a combination of physical abuse, sexual abuse, and/or neglect.

Types of abuse and neglect

Physical abuse occurs when a child's body is injured as a result of hitting, kicking, shaking, burning or other show of force. One study suggests that about 1 in 20 children has been physically abused in their lifetime.

Sexual abuseis any sexual activity that a child cannot understand or consent to. It includes acts such as fondling, oral-genital contact and genital and anal intercourse. It also includes exhibitionism, voyeurism, and exposure to pornography. Studies suggest that up to one in five girls and one in 20 boys will be sexually abused before they are 18 years old. More than 90 percent of child sexual abuse victims know their abuser.

Child neglect can include physical neglect (failing to provide food, clothing, shelter, or other physical necessities), emotional neglect (not providing love, comfort, or affection), and medical or educational neglect (not providing access to needed medical care or education) or supervisory neglect (failure to appropriately supervise). Psychological or emotional abuse results from all of the above, but also can be associated with verbal abuse, which can harm a child's self-worth or emotional well-being.

Risk factors for abuse and neglect

Most child abuse occurs within the family. Risk factors include parental depression or other mental health issues, a parental history of childhood abuse or neglect, parental substance abuse and domestic violence.

Child neglect and other forms of maltreatment are also more common in families living in poverty and among parents who are teenagers or who abuse drugs or alcohol.

Signs and symptoms

It is not always easy to recognize when a child has been abused. Children who have been maltreated are often afraid to tell anyone, because they think they will be blamed or that no one will believe them. Sometimes they remain quiet because the person who abused them is someone they love very much, or because of fear, or both.

Parents also tend to overlook signs and symptoms of abuse, because it is hard to believe it could happen or they fear what might happen if people found out. However, a child who has been abused needs special support and treatment as early as possible. The longer children continue to be abused or are left to deal with the situation on their own, the harder it is for them to be able to heal and develop optimally physically and mentally.

Here are some physical signs and behavioral changes in children who may have experienced abuse or neglect:

Physical signs

Non-mobile infant with any injury

Bruises to the torso, ears, or neck in a child less than four years of age

Any injury (bruise, burn, fracture, abdominal or head injury) that is not consistent with the way the injury is said to have happened, that cannot be adequately explained, or that is inconsistent with the child's developmental capabilities

The child discloses abuse or neglect

Failure to gain weight (especially in infants) or sudden dramatic weight gain

Genital pain, bleeding, or discharge

A sexually transmitted disease

Behavioral and mental health changes that raise concern about possible abuse or neglect

It is important to remember that the following changes are seen in many children as a result of many different kinds of stressful situations and are not specific to child abuse and neglect. The reason for the appearance of these behaviors should always be investigated.

Fearful behavior (nightmares, depression, unusual fears)

Unexplained abdominal pain, sudden onset of bed-wetting, or regression in toileting (especially if the child has already been toilet trained)

Attempts to run away

Extreme sexual behavior that seems developmentally inappropriate for the child's age

Sudden change in self-confidence

Headaches or stomachaches with no medical cause

School failure

Extremely passive or aggressive behavior

Desperately affectionate behavior or social withdrawal

Big appetite and stealing food

Long-term consequences

In most cases, children who are abused or neglected suffer greater mental health than physical health damage. Emotional and psychological abuse, physical abuse, and neglect deny the child the tools needed to cope with stress, and to learn new skills to become resilient, strong, and successful. So a child who is maltreated or neglected may have a wide range of reactions and may even become depressed or develop suicidal, withdrawn, or violent behavior. As they get older, they may show learning difficulties, use drugs or alcohol, try to run away, refuse discipline, or abuse others. As an adult, they may develop marital and sexual difficulties, depression, or suicidal behavior.

Not all children who are abused have severe reactions. Usually the younger the child, the longer the abuse continues. The closer the child's relationship with the abuser, the more serious the mental health effects will be. A close relationship with a very supportive adult can increase resiliency, reducing some of the impact.

Getting help

If you suspect your child has been abused, get help immediately through your pediatrician or a local child protective agency. Physicians are legally obligated to report all suspected cases of abuse or neglect to state authorities. Your pediatrician also will detect and treat any medical injuries or conditions, recommend a therapist, and provide necessary information to investigators. The doctor also may testify in court if needed to secure legal protection for the child or criminal prosecution of the person suspected of perpetrating the abuse or neglect.

If your child has been abused, you may be the only person who can help them. There is no good reason to delay reporting your suspicions of abuse. Denying the problem will only make the situation worse. It allows the abuse or neglect to continue unchecked and lowers your child's chance for optimal physical and mental health and well-being.

In any case of abuse or neglect, the child's safety is of primary concern. They need to be in a safe environment, free of the potential for more abuse and neglect.

Preventing abuse and neglect

The major reasons for physical and psychological maltreatment of children within the family often are a parent's feelings of isolation, stress, and frustration. Parents need support and as much information as possible in order to raise their children responsibly. They need to be taught how to cope with their own feelings of frustration and anger without venting them on children. They also need the companionship of other adults who will listen and help during times of crisis.

Support groups through local community organizations often are helpful first steps to ease some of the isolation or frustration parents may be feeling. Parents who were themselves abused as children are in particular need of support. Confronting, addressing, and healing parental mental and emotional health takes a lot of courage and insight. But this is often the best way to lower the odds of past abuse being passed on to the next generation of children

Personal supervision of and involvement in your child's activities are the best ways to prevent physical and sexual abuse outside the home. Pay careful attention to your child's reports about and reactions to his experiences at child care and school. Always investigate if your child tells you they've been maltreated or if they have a sudden unexplained change in behavior.

Although you don't want to frighten your child, you can teach some basic rules of safety in a non-threatening manner. Teach them to keep their distance from strangers, not to wander away from you in unfamiliar territory, to say "no" when someone asks them to do something they don't want to do. Tell them to always to tell you if someone hurts them or makes them feel bad, even if that person is someone they know.

Remember

Open, two-way communication with your child provides the best chance of knowing early when there is a problem. Make sure your child understands they will not get in trouble if they tell you about abuse or other confusing events.

Instead of teaching them that they are surrounded by danger, teach them that they are strong, capable, and can count on you to keep them safe.

More information

Adapted from Caring for Your Baby and Young Child: Birth to Age 5 7th Edition (Copyright © 2019 American Academy of Pediatrics)

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child abuse~ sexual abuse~ signs of abuse~ parental neglect~ injury prevention~  effects of abuse~ symptoms of abuse~ types of abuse~ help for abuse victims~ children~ child care~ home safety~ parenting tips~ pediatrics

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Child Abuse and Neglect: What Parents Should Know

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Although it's a mistake to become overprotective and make your child fearful, it is important to recognize the actual risks and familiarize yourself with the signs of abuse.

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Sylvana

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United Nations : Office on Drugs and Crime

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Human Trafficking is the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of people through force, fraud or deception, with the aim of exploiting them for profit. Men, women and children of all ages and from all backgrounds can become victims of this crime, which occurs in every region o…

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What Is Child Abuse?

Child abuse happens when someone caring for a child hurts a child's feelings or body. It can happen to boys or girls in any family. Often, hurt feelings (or emotional trauma) last long after a hurt body has healed.

Knowing the dangers of abuse and what to do if you suspect it is key to keeping all children safe.

What Are the Types of Child Abuse?

Physical abuse is when a child's body has been hurt. Hitting hard with a hand or an object like a belt can leave bruises or cuts and cause pain. Shaking, pushing, choking, punching, painful grabbing, and kicking also can be physical abuse.

Sexual abuse is sexual contact (like sexual acts) or non-contact sexual activities (like taking or sharing sexual photos and sexual talk) between:

an adult and someone younger than 18

an older child or teen and a much younger child

one person who has power over another, no matter their ages

Most cases of sexual abuse involve a close trusted adult or family member who abuses the child's trust. Often, the child is pressured or talked into the activity, offered gifts, or asked to keep secrets, not physically forced into it.

Neglect is when an adult doesn't do what is needed to take care of a child. This means not giving the child enough:

food, housing or clothing

medical care

supervision

attention (called emotional neglect, when a child is ignored)

education/schooling

Emotional abuse (or psychological abuse) happens when adults caring for a child judge, threaten, put down or reject kids or teens, withholding love so the child feels bad about themselves or worthless.

Substance abuse, when adults use drugs or too much alcohol, can put a child in danger. It can cause adults to neglect, physically, sexually, or emotional hurt a child. When adults use drugs or overuse alcohol around a child, many state laws say this is child abuse, even if no one neglected or physically hurt the child.

In some states, it's child abuse if:

adults let a child drink alcohol or take illegal drugs

adults make, take, or sell illegal drugs in the presence of a child

a woman uses illegal drugs while pregnant

Medical child abuse is when adult caregivers harm a child with too much medical care, such as medicines, appointments, surgeries, or lab tests that are not needed.

Who Causes Child Abuse?

There is not one type of person who causes child abuse. Most of the time a child knows the abuser well. Sometimes people who abuse children were abused when they were children.

Sometimes, people who abuse kids can show some signs. For example, parents who abuse their children may:

Always talk negatively about the child or call the child worthless.

Try to keep the child away from others.

Have a hard time talking about their children's injuries or behavioral problems.

Show little concern or affection for the child.

What Are the Signs of Child Abuse?

Kids and teens often have a hard time speaking up about abuse. So knowing the signs of child abuse can help.

Kids who are being abused might:

have frequent bruises, especially in places kids don't usually get bruises from play

have stories to explain injuries that don't make sense or keep changing

not want to go home

avoid being with the abuser

avoid being with others

show signs of emotional trauma, like fear, anger, or trouble relating to or trusting others

be sad or depressed

bully others

hurt themselves, like cutting

have nightmares or trouble sleeping

act out in class, have trouble paying attention, or be hyperactive

Kids who see abuse (but are not the victims themselves) or see violence between adults caring for them sometimes show similar signs.

These signs don't always point to abuse. Kids going through stressful times - like their parents' separation or divorce, a move, or the death of a loved one - also might be sad, angry, or withdrawn. But if physical signs (like bruises) happen along with behavior problems, that's a stronger sign of abuse.

What Should I Do if I Suspect Child Abuse?

If you think a child is being abused or a child tells you about abuse, contact your local:

child protective services agency

police

hospital

You also can contact the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-CHILD (1-800-422-4453). You don't have to give your name.

You might not be sure of the abuse, but having a concern is enough. The authorities will look into things and find out if abuse is happening. It is better to report and have no abuse found than to not act on your concern while a child continues to be hurt.

Never threaten a person or take the law into your own hands. Let the legal system do its work.

If you are worried that you might hurt a child in your care, make sure the child is somewhere safe, and then speak with a friend, relative, or health care professional. You also can contact the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-CHILD (1-800-422-4453). You might just need someone to talk to or you may want to seek counseling.

What Else Should I Know?

Not all suspicions of child abuse turn out to be true. But all deserve serious attention and fast action.

The earlier abuse is identified and stopped, the earlier medical care, therapy, and counseling can help children and families heal.

So if you suspect abuse, speak up. If a child tells you about abuse, take it seriously. All children deserve to be heard, protected, and helped.

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Child abuse happens when someone caring for a child hurts a child's feelings or body. It can happen to boys or girls in any family. Often, hurt feelings (or emotional trauma) last long after a hurt body has healed. Knowing the dangers of abuse and what to do if you suspect it is key to keeping all children safe.