Projected change in population density in Ethiopia by 2050 under a pessimistic climate change scenario. As climate change worsens even moderately, it could cause water shortages in Ethiopia severe enough to prompt 1.5 million Ethiopians to migrate by 2050. They’ll most likely move out of the northern highlands and Addis Ababa into the southern highlands and Ahmar Mountains. Addis Ababa lies at the center of Ethiopia’s agricultural region, and lower crop yields will result in movement out of the urban center, which is currently the hub of the country’s economic development. Graphic: The World Bank Groundswell Report

Get ready for tens of millions of climate refugees

By Susan Cosier 24 April 2019 (Technology Review) – In 2006, the British economist Nicholas Stern warned that one of the biggest dangers of climate change would be mass migration. “Climate-related shocks have sparked violent conflict in the past,” he wrote, “and conflict is a serious risk in areas such as West Africa, the Nile […]

World’s rivers awash with dangerous levels of antibiotics – “It’s quite scary and depressing”

By Natasha Gilbert 26 May 2019 (The Guardian) — Hundreds of rivers around the world from the Thames to the Tigris are awash with dangerously high levels of antibiotics, the largest global study on the subject has found. Antibiotic pollution is one of the key routes by which bacteria are able develop resistance to the […]

Millions of songbirds are vacuumed out of trees and killed each year during the nocturnal Mediterranean olive harvest. Iconic British birds like robins, greenfinches, warblers and wagtails are among the highest casualties. Photo: Todolivo

Millions of songbirds vacuumed to death every year during Mediterranean olive harvest – 2.6 million birds are sucked out of trees and killed every year in Andalusia

By Phoebe Weston 16 May 2019 (The Independent) – Millions of songbirds are vacuumed out of trees and killed each year during the nocturnal Mediterranean olive harvest, researchers have warned. Vast numbers of legally protected birds from central and northern Europe seek refuge in the Mediterranean basin during winter months. At night they roost in […]

Bloodshed looms in the Amazon unless Brazil government protects Indigenous peoples from illegal land seizures and logging – “Brazil’s Indigenous peoples and their land face enormous threats and the situation will soon become untenable in the dry season”

Bloodshed looms in the Amazon unless Brazil government protects Indigenous peoples from illegal land seizures and logging – “Brazil’s Indigenous peoples and their land face enormous threats and the situation will soon become untenable in the dry season”

7 May 2019 (Amnesty International) – There is an imminent risk of violent clashes in Brazil’s Amazon region unless the government protects Indigenous peoples’ traditional lands from increasing illegal land seizures and logging by armed intruders, Amnesty International warned today. Amnesty International recently visited three different Indigenous territories in northern Brazil where illegal intruders had […]

Cuba launches widespread rationing in face of crisis

By Michael Weissenstein and Andrea Rodriguez 10 May 2019 HAVANA (AP) – The Cuban government announced Friday that it is launching widespread rationing of chicken, eggs, rice, beans, soap and other basic products in the face of a grave economic crisis. Commerce Minister Betsy Díaz Velázquez told the state-run Cuban News Agency that various forms […]

Total marginal effect of Standardised Precipitation-Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) on conflict for the 2010–2012 period. Graphic: Abel, et al., 2019 / Global Environmental Change

New study establishes link between climate change, conflict, and migration – “In a context of poor governance and a medium level of democracy, severe climate conditions can create conflict over scarce resources”

23 January 2019 (UEA) – Research involving a University of East Anglia (UEA) academic has established a link between climate change, conflict, and migration for the first time. In recent decades climatic conditions have been blamed for creating political unrest, civil war, and subsequently, waves of migration, but scientific evidence for this is limited. One […]

Amazon deforestation increase continued in November 2018 – Deforestation was four times higher than in November 2017

By Stefania Costa 2 January 2019 (Imazon) – Deforestation continues to increase, according to data from the Deforestation Bulletin (SAD) November 2018 published today by Imazon. The state of Pará contributed with 63% of deforestation alerts registered in November 2018. The areas that suffered the most destruction are mainly in the northeast of the state, […]

As carbon dioxide levels climb, millions at risk of nutritional deficiencies – “We cannot disrupt most of the biophysical conditions to which we have adapted over millions of years without unanticipated impacts on our own health and wellbeing”

BOSTON, Massachusetts, 27 August 2018 (Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health) – Rising levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) from human activity are making staple crops such as rice and wheat less nutritious and could result in 175 million people becoming zinc deficient and 122 million people becoming protein deficient by 2050, according to new […]

North China Plain could face killer heat due to global warming – “This is just going to be the hottest spot for deadly heat waves in the future”

By David L. Chandler 31 July 2018 (MIT News) – A region that holds one of the biggest concentrations of people on Earth could be pushing against the boundaries of habitability by the latter part of this century, a new study shows. Research has shown that beyond a certain threshold of temperature and humidity, a […]

(a) ERA-Interim wet bulb temperature (T) in India on 21 May 2016. (b) Monthly maximum of the wet bulb temperature in May 2016 (◦C). (c) Anomalies of the maximum wet bulb temperature in May 2016 (K), see text for details on the very high wet bulb temperatures in May 2016. (d–f) Same as (a–c) but for 22 May 2015. Graphic: Oldenborgh, et al., 2018 / Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences

Graph of the Day: Wet bulb temperature in India during record heat wave, May 2016

24 January 2018 (Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences) – On 19 May 2016 the afternoon temperature reached 51.0◦C in Phalodi in the northwest of India – a new record for the highest observed maximum temperature in India. The previous year, a widely reported very lethal heat wave occurred in the southeast, in Andhra Pradesh […]

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