Since women’s equality is an essential part of the culture of peace, we must appreciate the great mobilization around Women’s Day, March 8, and the annual meeting of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women.

We’ve seen two shocking election results recently: the defeat of the referendum for the peace accords in Colombia, and the election of Donald Trump in the USA based on a racist and xenophobic campaign. What does it mean ?

Renewable sources of electricity overtook coal last year to become the largest source of installed capacity in the world, according to the International Energy Agency.

A recent graph is spectacular showing how the cost of solar energy has come down while the volume deployed has gone up. In 1975 a silicon solar energy module cost over $50 per watt, while now it is less than $1 per watt. The milliwatts installed have risen from 1 to 115,000 ! Since 2000 the deployment of solar has doubled seven times.

Since its creation over 70 years ago, the United Nations has been the hope of mankind “to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war.” But more and more, we are losing hope that in its present form it can succeed. This was especially evident in recent weeks when the great powers did not bother to send high-level delegations to the UN’s Humanitarian Summit despite the fact that 60 other countries sent their heads of state. While Germany was represented by its Chancellor Angela Merkel, the other great powers were essentially absent: Canada, France, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States, Russia and China.