conflict – Page 2 – Desdemona Despair

Map showing global water stress projected to 2050. By 2050, an additional 1 billion people are expected to live with extremely high water stress, even if the world limits global temperature rise to 1.3 degrees C to 2.4 degrees C (2.3 degrees F to 4.3 degrees F) by 2100, an optimistic scenario. Global water demand is projected to increase by 20 percent to 25 percent by 2050, while the number of watersheds facing high year-to-year variability, or less predictable water supplies, is expected to increase by 19 percent. Data: wri.org/aqueduct. Graphic: WRI

August 20, 2023

25 countries, housing one-quarter of the population, face extremely high water stress – By 2050, an additional 1 billion people will live with extremely high water stress

By Samantha Kuzma, Liz Saccoccia, and Marlena Chertock 16 August 2023 (WRI) – New data from WRI’s Aqueduct Water Risk Atlas show that 25 countries — housing one-quarter of the global population — face extremely high water stress each year, regularly using up almost their entire available water supply. And at least 50% of the world’s population […]

Primary energy global consumption (left) and share of global primary energy by source (right), 2000-2022. Primary energy demand growth slowed in 2022, increasing by 1.1 percent, compared to 5.5 percent in 2021, and taking it to around 3 percent above the 2019 pre-COVID level. Consumption increased in all regions apart from Europe (-3.8 percent) and CIS (-5.8 percent). Renewables’ (excluding hydro) share of primary energy consumption reached 7.5 percent, an increase of nearly 1 percent over the previous year. Fossil fuel consumption as a percentage of primary energy remained steady at 82 percent. Graphic: Energy Institute

July 24, 2023

World energy system struggled in face of geopolitical and environmental crises in 2022 – Coal production reached record high – CO2 emissions reached record level – “We are still heading in the opposite direction to that required by the Paris Agreement”

26 June 2023 (EI) – The Energy Institute (EI) and partners KPMG and Kearney today released the 72nd annual edition of the Statistical Review of World Energy, presenting for the first time full global energy data for 2022. Five key themes emerge from the data EI President Juliet Davenport OBE HonFEI said: “The EI Statistical Review […]

Map showing the Global Peace Index for 2023. In the period 2022-2023, deaths from global conflict increased by 96 percent to 238,000. 79 countries witnessed increased levels of conflict including Ethiopia, Myanmar, Ukraine, Israel, and South Africa. The global economic impact of violence increased by 17 percent or $1 trillion, to $17.5 trillion in 2022, equivalent to 13 percent of global. Conflicts became more internationalised, with 91 countries now involved in some form of external conflict, up from 58 in 2008. GDP Graphic: IEP

July 23, 2023

Conflict deaths in 2023 at highest level this century – Conflicts are becoming more internationalised, with 91 countries now involved in some form of external conflict, up from 58 in 2008

LONDON, 28 June 2023 (IEP) – Today marks the launch of the 17th edition of the Global Peace Index from international think-tank, the Institute for Economics & Peace (IEP). Key results Impact of the war in Ukraine on peacefulness The 17th edition of the annual Global Peace Index (GPI) [pdf], the world’s leading measure of peacefulness, reveals […]

Number of mass killings in the United States in 2023 compared with previous years. Data are current to 4 July 2023. Graphic: USA TODAY

July 15, 2023

U.S. on grim pace for gun violence, mass killings in 2023: “The bad year continues”

By Grace Hauck 15 July 2023 (USA TODAY) – An acceleration of mass shootings. More public mass killings. More than 200 people across the nation shot on the Fourth of July. The United States frequently reaches horrific new highs of the gun violence epidemic. The latest way: A deadly six months in what figures to be the […]

Global Negative Experience Index, 2006-2022. As it does every year, Gallup asked adults in 142 countries and areas in 2022 if they had five different negative experiences on the day before the survey -- and then compiled the results into an index. Higher scores on the Negative Experience Index indicate that more of the population is experiencing these negative emotions. In 2022, about four in 10 adults worldwide said they experienced a lot of worry (41%) or stress (40%), and nearly one in three experienced a lot of physical pain (32%). More than one in four experienced sadness (27%), and slightly fewer experienced anger (23%). Worry, stress and sadness remained near their record highs set in 2021, although each declined one percentage point in 2022. The percentage of adults worldwide who experienced physical pain increased one point, while the percentage who experienced anger remained at 23% for the second year in a row. Graphic: Gallup

July 2, 2023

Global rise in unhappiness leveled off in 2022 – Worry, stress, and sadness remained near their record highs set in 2021

By Julie Ray 27 June 2023 WASHINGTON, D.C. (Gallup) – Emotionally, the world was no worse off in 2022 than it was in 2021, but it is still in a heightened negative state, according to Gallup’s latest annual global update on the negative and positive experiences that people have daily. The well-documented global rise in negative emotions such as […]

Composite image of Bruno Araújo Pereira, a renowned defender of the rights of Brazil’s Indigenous peoples, and Guardian reporter Dom Phillips. Both were murdered on 5 June 2022 for exposing organized crime committing acts of deforestation in Brazil. Graphic: Guardian Design / WWF / Getty Images / AP / AFP

June 3, 2023

One year after they were murdered, their work must go on – Forest defender Bruno Araújo Pereira and journalist Dom Phillips were assassinated in Brazil on 5 June 2022

By Katharine Viner 1 June 2023 (The Guardian) – Forest defenders should not be killed for exposing crimes. Journalists should not be killed for reporting facts. But, one year ago, the Guardian was devastated by the awful news that in the Amazon rainforest, two lives had been taken on the frontline of the battle to protect the […]

Map showing early warning hunger hotspots, June-November 2023. Hunger was set to worsen in 18 “hotspots” worldwide including Sudan, where fighting put people at risk of starvation, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP) warned in a report published on Monday, 29 May 2023. Sudan, Burkina Faso, Haiti and Mali were elevated to the highest alert level, joining Afghanistan, Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen. Graphic: UN FAO

June 3, 2023

UN agencies warn of rising hunger risk in 18 “hotspots” – “Not only are more people in more places around the world going hungry, but the severity of the hunger they face is worse than ever”

29 May 2023 (UN News) – Hunger is set to worsen in 18 “hotspots” worldwide including Sudan, where fighting is putting people at risk of starvation, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP) warned in a report published on Monday. Sudan, Burkina Faso, Haiti and Mali have been elevated to the highest alert level, joining Afghanistan, Nigeria, […]

a–f, Fraction of population (%; a–c) and absolute population (billion people; d–f) exposed to unprecedented temperatures (MAT ≥29 °C; a,d), left outside the niche due to temperature change only (b,e,) and left outside the niche due to temperature change and demographic change (c,f) for different SSPs. Calculations are based on MAT averaged over the 20-year intervals and population density distribution at the centre year of the corresponding intervals. Data are presented as mean values with the shaded regions corresponding to the 5th–95th percentiles. Graphic: Lenton, et al., 2023 / Nature Sustainability

May 27, 2023

Current climate policies will leave more than a fifth of humanity exposed to dangerously hot temperatures by 2100 – “For every 0.1°C of warming above present levels, about 140 million more people will be exposed to dangerous heat”

By Alex Morrison 22 May 2023 (University of Exeter) – Current climate policies will leave more than a fifth of humanity exposed to dangerously hot temperatures by 2100, new research suggests. Despite the Paris Agreement pledge to keep global warming well below 2°C (compared to pre-industrial levels), current policies are projected to result in 2.7°C warming by the […]

People jostle each other to buy subsidized sacks of wheat flour in Quetta, Pakistan, Thursday, 12 January 2023, after a recent price hike of flour in the country. An Associated Press analysis of a dozen countries most indebted to China - including Pakistan, Kenya, Zambia and Laos - found the debt is consuming an ever-greater amount of tax revenue needed to keep schools open, provide electricity and pay for food and fuel. Photo: Arshad Butt / AP Photo

May 21, 2023

China’s loans pushing world’s poorest countries to brink of collapse – “In a lot of the world, the clock has hit midnight”

By Bernard Condon 18 May 2023 (AP News) – A dozen poor countries are facing economic instability and even collapse under the weight of hundreds of billions of dollars in foreign loans, much of them from the world’s biggest and most unforgiving government lender, China. An Associated Press analysis of a dozen countries most indebted […]

Mass killings in the United States by day of year, 2006-2023. 2023 data as of April 29. The year 2023 saw more mass killings than any other year except 2009 since data collection started in 2006. A mass killing is defined as an incident in which four or more victims, not counting the assailant, are killed. Data: The AP/USA TODAY/Northeastern University mass killings database. Graphic: AP

April 30, 2023

Frequent shootings in 2023 put US mass killings on a record pace – “Nobody should be shocked. I visit my daughter in a cemetery. Outrage doesn’t begin to describe how I feel.”

By Stefanie Dazio and Larry Fenn 21 April 2023 LOS ANGELES (AP) – The U.S. is setting a record pace for mass killings in 2023, replaying the horror on a loop roughly once a week so far this year. The carnage has taken 88 lives in 17 mass killings over 111 days. Each time, the […]