Only one-third of the world’s longest rivers remain free-flowing – Nearly 60,000 large dams exist worldwide, with more than 3,700 planned

Only one-third of the world’s longest rivers remain free-flowing – Nearly 60,000 large dams exist worldwide, with more than 3,700 planned

8 May 2019 (McGill University) – Just over one-third (37%) of the world’s 246 longest rivers remain free-flowing, according to a new study published in the scientific journal Nature. Dams and reservoirs are drastically reducing the diverse benefits that healthy rivers provide to people and nature across the globe. A team of 34 international researchers from McGill University, […]

Rapid permafrost thaw unrecognized threat to landscape, global warming researcher warns – “We are watching this sleeping giant wake up right in front of our eyes”

Rapid permafrost thaw unrecognized threat to landscape, global warming researcher warns – “We are watching this sleeping giant wake up right in front of our eyes”

30 April 2019 (University of Guelph) – A “sleeping giant” hidden in permafrost soils in Canada and other northern regions worldwide will have important consequences for global warming, says a new report led by University of Guelph scientist Merritt Turetsky. Scientists have long studied how gradual permafrost thaw occurring over decades in centimetres of surface […]

Global debt soars to $169 trillion, along with fears of crisis ahead – “We were supposed to correct a debt bubble. What we did instead was create more debt.”

By David J. Lynch 3 September 2018 (The Washington Post) – Ten years after the worst financial panic since the 1930s, growing debt burdens in key developing economies are fueling fears of a new crisis that could spread far beyond the disruption sweeping Turkey. The loss of investor confidence in the Turkish lira, which has […]

Air conditioning use emerges as one of the key drivers of global electricity-demand growth

15 May 2018 (IEA) – The growing use of air conditioners in homes and offices around the world will be one of the top drivers of global electricity demand over the next three decades, according to new analysis by the International Energy Agency that stresses the urgent need for policy action to improve cooling efficiency. […]

Global Peace Index 2018: World is less peaceful today than at any time in the last decade – “Acceptance of the Rights of Others” has been deteriorating in Europe and North America since 2005

LONDON, 6 June 2018 (IEP) –  The 12th edition of the annual Global Peace Index (GPI) report, produced by the international think-tank the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP), revealed that the world is less peaceful today than at any time in the last decade. The 2018 GPI reveals a world in which the tensions, […]

How the 2008 financial crash made cities unaffordable worldwide – Property markets in the world’s major cities have “synchronised”, leaving behind nations and citizens

By Nathan Brooker 14 March 2018 (Financial Times) –  In the stormy spring of 2008, the UK’s worsening property downturn was yet to hit Sloane Street in central London. A full year after the start of the credit crunch and the run on Northern Rock — which started a slide that would see more than 20 […]

Photo gallery: Natural disasters and severe weather in 2017

The Eagle Creek wildfire burns as golfers play at the Beacon Rock Golf Course in North Bonneville, Washington, 4 September 2017. [more] Pictures of the year: Natural disasters Extreme heat in Indonesia: A freshly-scorched landscape in Pekanbaru, Indonesia in August 2017, after a fire caused by hot temperatures and lack of rain. [more] The impact […]

“Decimated”: Germany’s birds disappear as insect abundance plummets 76 percent

By Morgan Erickson-Davis 27 October 2017 (Mongabay) – A new study in PLOS ONE reveals a 76 percent reduction in Germany’s flying insect biomass over the past 27 years while another reports the country’s bird abundance has declined 15 percent in just over a decade. While the causes behind the insect decline haven’t yet been […]

Tenfold increase in childhood and adolescent obesity in four decades – World will have more obese children and adolescents than underweight by 2022

LONDON, 11 October 2017 (WHO) – The number of obese children and adolescents (aged five to 19 years) worldwide has risen tenfold in the past four decades. If current trends continue, more children and adolescents will be obese than moderately or severely underweight by 2022, according to a new study led by Imperial College London […]

Denmark defends whale and dolphin slaughter in Faroe Islands – 1,085 dolphins killed since 21 July 2013

[Keep in mind that Japan still poaches dolphins at Taiji and whales in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary; Iceland and Norway continue to poach whales in the Atlantic.] By Erwin Vermeulen 28 August 2013 (SSCS) – On 27 August 2013, around 2pm local time, another 51 Pilot whales were butchered in the Ferocious Isles. This time […]

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