By Stephen Stapczynski and Shoko Oda 25 March 2022 (Bloomberg News) – Not since the late 1970s have governments around the world been under so much pressure to ask their citizens to cut energy consumption for the greater good. The need for more energy conservation has snowballed: The war in Ukraine is forcing Europe to curb […]
By Marta Rullan 26 March 2022 ROME (EFE) – The planting of the next wheat season in Ukraine, “which could significantly affect world food insecurity, is still extremely uncertain” because of the war, the director general of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Qu Dongyu, told EFE, who was also very concerned about […]
By Fiona Harvey 21 March 2022 (The Guardian) – The war in Ukraine risks putting global targets on the climate out of reach, the UN secretary general has warned, if countries respond to Russia’s aggression by increasing their use of fossil fuels. António Guterres said the aim of limiting global temperatures to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels, […]
18 March 2022 (McGill University) – In this troubled time of war and pandemic, the World Happiness Report 2022 shows a bright light in dark times. According to the team of international researchers, including McGill University Professor Christopher Barrington-Leigh, the pandemic brought not only pain and suffering but also an increase in social support and benevolence. As the […]
4 March 2022 (FAO) – The FAO Food Price Index (FFPI) averaged 140.7 points in February 2022, up 5.3 points (3.9 percent) from January and as much as 24.1 points (20.7 percent) above its level a year ago. This represents a new all-time high, exceeding the previous top of February 2011 by 3.1 points. The […]
By Frances D’Emilio 11 March 2022 ROME (AP) – Poorer countries in northern Africa, Asia, and the Middle East that depend heavily on wheat imports risk suffering significant food insecurity because of Russia’s war in Ukraine, and the conflict is poised to drive up already soaring food prices in much of the world, the U.N. food agency […]
By Sarah Repucci and Amy Slipowitz 24 February 2022 (Freedom House) – Global freedom faces a dire threat. Around the world, the enemies of liberal democracy—a form of self-government in which human rights are recognized and every individual is entitled to equal treatment under law—are accelerating their attacks. Authoritarian regimes have become more effective at […]
By Matt Mathers 25 February 2022 (The Independent) – Radiation at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant has exceeded control levels after Russia troops took control of the area, Ukraine has said. Data from the automated radiation monitoring system of the exclusion zone, which is available online, indicate that the control levels of gamma radiation dose […]
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia, 16 February 2022 (AP) – The last surviving freshwater Irrawaddy dolphin on a stretch of the Mekong River in northeastern Cambodia has died, apparently after getting tangled in a fishing net, wildlife officials said Wednesday. The aquatic mammal was found dead Tuesday on a riverbank in Stung Treng province, near the border […]
By Mike Stobbe 20 January 2022 NEW YORK (AP) – Antibiotic-resistant germs caused more than 1.2 million deaths globally in one year, according to new research that suggests that these “superbugs” have joined the ranks of the world’s leading infectious disease killers. The new estimate, published Thursday in the medical journal Lancet, is not a […]
