conflict – Page 4 – Desdemona Despair

Number of U.S. dollar billionaires in China, 1999-2022. The year 2022 saw the biggest fall in the Hurun China Rich List in the 24 years of its existence. Data: Hurun Research Institute. Graphic: James P. Galasyn

November 20, 2022

China’s superrich decimated as economic downturn wipes out billions – “This year has seen the biggest fall in the Hurun China Rich List of the last 24 years”

By John Feng 8 November 2022 (Newsweek) – China’s wealthy lost hundreds of billions of dollars in 2022 as the global economic downturn also shook up the country’s typically high-growth industries, according to an annual rich list published on Tuesday. The number of Chinese entrepreneurs worth 5 billion Chinese yuan ($710 million) or more on September 15 […]

Smoke rises form chimneys of a steel plant in Ostrava, Czech Republic, Friday, 11 November 2022. High energy prices linked to Russia’s war on Ukraine have paved the way for coal’s comeback, endangering climate goals and threatening health from increased pollution. Photo: AP Photo / Petr David Josek

November 19, 2022

High energy prices lead to coal revival in Czech Republic – “The short-term effect is quite obvious: the air pollution will be worse because of the higher coal consumption”

By Karel Janicek 18 November 2022 OSTRAVA, Czech Republic (AP) – In this part of northeastern Czech Republic, huge piles of coal are stacked up ready to sell to eager buyers and smoke belches from coal-fired plants that are ramping up instead of winding down. Ostrava has been working for decades to end its legacy […]

Mexican journalists gather around pictures of murdered colleagues as they protest the recent killings of photojournalist Margarito Martinez and journalist Lourdes Maldonado, in Veracruz, Mexico, on 25 January 2022. Photo: Yahir Ceballos / Reuters

November 13, 2022

CPJ’s Global Impunity Index 2022: Vast majority of journalists’ killers go free – Of the 263 journalists murdered in the last decade, 78 percent were assassinated with complete impunity

By Jennifer Dunham1 November 2022 (CPJ) – The vast majority of killers of journalists continue to get away with murder, according to CPJ’s 2022 Global Impunity Index. In nearly 80% of the 263 cases of journalists murdered in retaliation for their work globally over the past decade, the perpetrators have faced no punishment. Somalia remains […]

Somalis who left rural areas due to drought receive nutritional assistance at a camp for the internally displaced on the outskirts of Baidoa, in the Southwest State of Somalia, Wednesday, 12 October 2022. Photo: Geneva Costopulos / WFP / AP

October 29, 2022

UN: Almost 1 million drought-hit Somalis in al-Shabab areas – Onset of the October-December deyr rains has either been late or performed poorly across most of Somalia

By Cara Anna 26 October 2022 NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) – The United Nations says close to 1 million drought-affected people in Somalia are in areas under the control or influence of the al-Shabab extremist group, and it appealed to the fighters to allow humanitarian access as famine threatens the country. The U.N. secretary-general’s special representative in Somalia, […]

Projected changes in surface temperatures in the Alps, 2021-2050. The Alpine region experiences a higher temperature rise than peri-Alpine areas or at least that the temperature changes start earlier. Large parts of Bavaria, Lombardy and other regions depend on ecosystem services provided by the Alps. Decreasing quantities of water and a reduced reliability of supply will become major issues in the coming decades. This affects not only the drinking water supply but also agriculture, energy production, and industrial cooling demand. Graphic: FAU

October 29, 2022

Water woes loom in the Alps amid climate change – “Reduced quantities of water and limited reliability of water supply will be a major issue in the coming decades”

By Jamey Keaten 27 October 2022 BRIG, Switzerland (AP) – A battle is brewing around Europe’s rooftop over the planet’s most precious resource. The crystal-clear waters issuing from the Alps could become increasingly contested as the effects of climate change and glacier melt become more apparent. Italy wants them for crop irrigation in the spring […]

A satellite image shows gas from the Nord Stream pipeline bubbling up in the water following incidents in the Baltic Sea, in this handout picture released 29 September 2022. Roscosmos / REUTERS

October 24, 2022

Nord Stream rupture may mark biggest single methane release ever recorded, U.N. says – “This is the most wasteful way to generate emissions”

By Richard Valdmanis; editing by Frances Kerry and Howard Goller 30 September 2022 (Reuters) – The ruptures on the Nord Stream natural gas pipeline system under the Baltic Sea have led to what is likely the biggest single release of climate-damaging methane ever recorded, the United Nations Environment Programme said on Friday. A huge plume […]

Aerial view of flooding in South Sudan following fourth year of historic rainfall, 18 October 2022. Photo: UNHCR

October 23, 2022

Devastation in South Sudan following fourth consecutive year of historic floods – Two-thirds of country experiencing flooding – More than 900,000 people directly impacted

21 October 2022 (UNHCR) – UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is urging international support for humanitarian efforts in South Sudan in the face of record-breaking rains and floods for a fourth consecutive year, and the threat of worse to come as the climate crisis accelerates. Two-thirds of the country is currently experiencing flooding. Over 900,000 […]

Aerial view of people arriving at a displacement camp in southern Somalia in late September 2022. Photo: Jerome Delay / AP Photo

October 23, 2022

Prolonged drought brings famine, death, and fear to Somalia – “We’d grieve, stop for a while, pray. We’d bury them beside the road.”

By Cara Anna 5 October 2022 DOLLOW, Somalia (AP) – A man in a donkey cart comes wheeling through the dust, carrying two small, silent boys. The sky is overcast. It could rain. It won’t. It hasn’t for a very long time. Mohamed Ahmed Diriye is 60 years old, and he’s completing the grimmest journey […]

Dredging barges operated by miners illegally mining gold converge on the Madeira River, a tributary of the Amazon River in Autazes, Amazonas state, Brazil, 25 November 2021. One of Brazil’s biggest gold refiners, which has been accused of processing gold mined illegally deep in the Amazon rainforest, has been stripped of an important industry certification that global manufacturers from Apple to Tesla rely on to root out abuses in their supply chains. Photo: Edmar Barros / AP Photo

October 23, 2022

Big Brazilian gold refiner delisted amid Amazon mining probe – “In Brazil, as in so many gold-producing countries, illegality enters into the supply chain very early on”

By Joshua Goodman and David Biller 5 October 2022 MIAMI (AP) – One of Brazil’s biggest gold refiners, which processes gold suspected of being mined illegally in the Amazon rainforest, has been stripped of an important industry seal of approval that global manufacturers from Apple to Tesla rely on to root out abuses in their […]

Colombian natives and activists during a protest in Bogotá, Colombia, on 23 August 2019. Photo: RAUL ARBOLEDA / AFP / Getty Images

October 21, 2022

Countries where the most people are killed defending the environment

By Angelo Young 15 October 2022 (24/7 Wall St.) – As the world comes to the realization of the profound damages human beings are causing to natural environments worldwide, groups across the globe have long been trying to protect the local land and environment. In some places, these struggles are not always peaceful, and last […]