governance – Page 35 – Desdemona Despair

U.S. life expectancy at birth, 1900-2021. Data: CDC. Graphic: Datawrapper

September 2, 2022

U.S. life expectancy plunged again in 2021, down nearly a year – Last comparable decrease was during height of World War II – “It’s a dismal situation. It was bad before and it’s gotten worse.”

By Mike Stobbe 30 August 2022 NEW YORK (AP) – U.S. life expectancy dropped for the second consecutive year in 2021, falling by nearly a year from 2020, according to a government report being released Wednesday [Provisional Life Expectancy Estimates for 2021 –Des]. In the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, the estimated American […]

A rare earth mine near the Chinese border owned by a company that has no permits. On paper, Sin Kyaing Company is owned by a local militia leader named Lagwi Bawm Lang. But like other Burmese companies in the rare earth mining industry, it is really a front for illegal investment by Chinese businesspeople. Photo: Global Witness

August 14, 2022

New evidence shows massive and rapid expansion of illicit rare earths industry in Myanmar – “China has effectively offshored this toxic industry to Myanmar over the past few years, with terrible consequences for local communities and the environment”

9 August 2022 (Global Witness) – Myanmar has seen a rapid expansion of illegal mining of heavy rare earth minerals, used in green energy technologies, smartphones and home electronics, with the industry fuelling human rights abuses, environmental destruction and funding local militias linked to the brutal military regime, our new investigation reveals today. Our report shows that […]

Departure of temperature from average for July 2022, the sixth-warmest July for the globe since record-keeping began in 1880, according to NOAA. Record-warmest areas included parts of southern Europe and northern Africa, southern and eastern Asia, Brazil, Oceania, and southern Texas/northern Mexico. No large areas experienced record cold. Graphic: NOAA/NCEI

August 14, 2022

July 2022: Earth’s 6th warmest July on record

By Jeff Masters and Bob Henson 12 August 2022 (Yale Climate Connections) – July 2022 was Earth’s sixth warmest July on record since global record-keeping began in 1880, 0.87 degrees Celsius (1.57°F) above the 20th-century average, NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information, NCEI, reported on August 12. NASA rated the month as tied for the third warmest […]

Insured losses linked to extreme weather in Canada, 1983-2021. Data: Insurance Bureau of Canada. Graphic: Reuters

August 8, 2022

Canada village razed by wildfire wrestles with climate-proofing its future – “I’m not expecting I’ll be rebuilding ever”

By Nia Williams 5 August 2022 REVELSTOKE, British Columbia (Reuters) – A year after a wildfire destroyed the western Canadian village of Lytton, residents, municipal leaders, and the British Columbia government are grappling with the slow and costly reality of future-proofing a community against climate change. The remote village sits at the confluence of the […]

Aerial view of a structure burning during a wildfire in Palo Pinto County, Texas on Monday, 18 July 2022. The 110-degree heat wave caused a record 24 wildfires in Texas this week. Two Texas wildfires consumed at least 21 homes amid the record heat wave. Photo: KDFW FOX 4 / AP

July 21, 2022

U.S. Central states, Texas break power use records again in heat wave – Texas Gov. Abbott’s inaction leads to huge electricity bills

20 July 2022 (Reuters) – Power use in Texas and other central states hit all-time highs Tuesday and could break that record again in Texas on Wednesday as homes and businesses crank up air conditioners to escape a brutal heat wave blanketing most of the country. Electric grid operators across the country said they have […]

Firefighters work against a wildfire near Landiras, southwestern France, on Saturday, 16 July 2022. Firefighters struggled to contain wildfires in France and Spain as Europe wilted under an unusually extreme heatwave that authorities link to a rise in excess mortality. Photo provided by the fire brigade of the Gironde region (SDIS 33). Photo: SDIS 33 / AP

July 20, 2022

Humanity faces “collective suicide” over climate crisis, warns UN chief – “No nation is immune. Yet we continue to feed our fossil fuel addiction.”

By Fiona Harvey 18 July 2022 (The Guardian) – Wildfires and heatwaves wreaking havoc across swathes of the globe show humanity facing “collective suicide”, the UN secretary general has warned, as governments around the world scramble to protect people from the impacts of extreme heat. António Guterres told ministers from 40 countries meeting to discuss the […]

A protester stands against a water cannon as police use tear gas to disperse demonstrators near President’s residence during a protest demanding the resignation of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, amid the country’s economic crisis, in Colombo, Sri Lanka, 8 July 2022. Photo: Dinuka Liyanawatte / REUTERS

July 8, 2022

Sri Lanka police impose curfew, fire tear gas as unrest escalates – “We have seen the use of lethal weapons in protests”

By Uditha Jayasinghe 8 July 2022 COLOMBO (Reuters) – Police in Sri Lanka’s commercial capital Colombo imposed a curfew after firing tear gas and using a water cannon on student protesters on Friday ahead of a planned weekend rally, as public discontent escalates over the worst economic crisis in seven decades. The island nation has […]

Three-wheelers queue to buy petrol due to fuel shortage, amid the country's economic crisis, in Colombo, Sri Lanka, 5 July 2022. Dinuka Liyanawatte / REUTERS

July 8, 2022

World Bank calls for sovereign debt changes ahead of looming crises – “There are more Sri Lankas on the way”

By Marc Jones 28 June 2022 LONDON, June 28 (Reuters) – A senior official at the World Bank has ramped up its calls for changes in sovereign debt laws so governments have more control when crises strike and they have to restructure their debt. World Bank economists estimate that low- and middle-income economies owe a […]

Maps showing poverty impact hotspots as percentages of countries’ population that could fall into poverty as a result of soaring food and energy prices. Among those countries likely facing high poverty impacts across all poverty lines are Armenia and Uzbekistan in the Caspian Basin; Burkina Faso, Ghana, Kenya, Rwanda and Sudan in Sub-Saharan Africa; Haiti in Latin America; and Pakistan and Sri Lanka in South Asia. In these countries, around 3 percent of the population, on average, could fall into poverty. In Ethiopia, Mali, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Tanzania and Yemen, the impacts could be particularly hard at the lowest poverty lines, whereas in Albania, Kyrgyz Republic, Moldova, Mongolia, Tajikistan, and Ukraine, the hits could be hardest at $5.50 a day.7 Clear geographical hotspots, depending on the poverty line, emerge in Sub-Saharan Africa, mainly in the Sahel region, the Balkans and the Caspian Basin. Graphic: UNDP

July 7, 2022

Cost-of-living crisis drives 71 million people into extreme poverty in three months – “This cost-of-living crisis is tipping millions of people into poverty and even starvation at breathtaking speed”

By Marc Jones 7 July 2022 LONDON (Reuters) – The global cost-of-living crisis is pushing an additional 71 million people in the world’s poorest countries into extreme poverty, a new report published by the U.N. Development Programme (UNDP) on Thursday has warned. Achim Steiner, UNDP administrator, said an analysis of 159 developing countries showed that […]

Prevalence of undernourishment (left axis) and number of undernourished people (right axis), 2005-2021. World hunger rose further in 2021, following a sharp upturn in 2020 in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. The persistence of the pandemic and its enduring consequences, which exacerbated existing inequalities, have contributed to further setbacks in 2021 toward achievement of the Zero Hunger target by 2030. Between 702 and 828 million people in the world faced hunger in 2021. Considering the middle of the projected range (768 million), hunger affected 46 million more people in 2021 compared to 2020, and a total of 150 million more people since 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic. Graphic: FAO

July 6, 2022

UN report: World hunger rose again in 2021, with 2.3 billion people severely or moderately hungry – “This year’s report should dispel any lingering doubts that the world is moving backward in its efforts to end hunger”

By Edith M. Lederer 6 July 2022 UNITED NATIONS (AP) – World hunger rose in 2021, with around 2.3 billion people facing moderate or severe difficulty obtaining enough to eat — and that was before the Ukraine war, which has sparked increases in the cost of grain, fertilizer and energy, according to a U.N. report […]