Populist autocrats threaten human rights in 2017 – “We forget at our peril the demagogues of the past: the fascists, communists, and their ilk”

Washington, DC, 12 January 2017 (Human Rights Watch) – The rise of populist leaders in the United States and Europe poses a dangerous threat to basic rights protections while encouraging abuse by autocrats around the world, Human Rights Watch said today in launching its World Report 2017 [pdf]. Donald Trump’s election as US president after […]

Exxon ordered to hand over climate documents – “Exxon must come clean about what it knew about climate change”

By Scott Malone; Editing by Toni Reinhold and Leslie Adler11 January 2017 (Reuters) – A Massachusetts judge has refused to excuse Exxon Mobil Corp from a request by the state’s attorney general to hand over decades worth of documents on its views on climate change, state officials said on Wednesday. The decision by Massachusetts Superior […]

Old sea ice is vanishing in the thawing Arctic

By Steve Connor8 January 2017 (The Guardian) – Something is happening to the floating sea ice of the Arctic, other than the well-documented retreat in its surface coverage each summer. Scientists are finding that Arctic sea ice is getting younger and thinner, which is set to continue in March, when US research reveals the winter […]

ExxonMobil gave big to U.S. Senate panel in charge of Rex Tillerson’s confirmation

By Patricia Murphy10 January 2017 (The Daily Beast) – Under Rex Tillerson, ExxonMobil PAC gave thousands of dollars to members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee who will now be in charge of his confirmation. When ExxonMobil Chairman and CEO Rex Tillerson appears before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Wednesday, all of the Republican senators […]

U.S. lists first bumble bee species as endangered

By Steve Gorman; Editing by Sandra Maler10 January 2017 (Reuters) – The rusty patched bumble bee, a prized but vanishing pollinator once familiar to much of North America, was listed on Tuesday as an endangered species, becoming the first wild bee in the continental United States to gain such federal protection. One of several species […]

Rex Tillerson says climate change exists but says “ability to predict that effect is very limited”

11 January 2017 (The Associated Press) – Donald Trump’s choice for secretary of state says climate change does exist and the risk is great enough to warrant action. Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson didn’t say what action. Tillerson told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Wednesday the increase in greenhouse gases is “having an effect.” But […]

U.S. unlikely to make significant gains in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and may become net energy exporter

By Bobby Magill5 January 2017 (Climate Central) – The amount of energy Americans use and the pollution they emit from using coal, oil, and natural gas are not likely to change radically over the next 30 years, even as the U.S. becomes a major energy exporter, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s Annual Energy […]

Short-lived greenhouse gases cause centuries of sea-level rise

By Jennifer Chu9 January 2017 (MIT News) – Even if there comes a day when the world completely stops emitting greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, coastal regions and island nations will continue to experience rising sea levels for centuries afterward, according to a new study by researchers at MIT and Simon Fraser University. In a […]

Thousands of Afghan children dying of hunger amid “unprecedented” displacement

9 January 2017 (United Nations) – Despite attempts to increase food aid in Afghanistan, children bear the brunt of the country’s nutritional crisis, the United Nations humanitarian arm today reported, warning that the ongoing fighting has also led to record number of children at risk of abuse and exploitation. According to the recently-issued Humanitarian Needs […]

2016 was the second hottest year on record in U.S.

By Andrea Thompson 9 January 2017 (Climate Central) – 2016 was the second hottest year for the U.S. in more than 120 years of record keeping, government scientists announced on Monday, marking 20 above-average years in a row. Every state had a temperature ranking at least in the top seven, with two, Georgia and Alaska, […]

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