Refugees protest on Greek island of Chios against deportations – ‘A historic blow to human rights’

3 April 2016 (FRANCE24) – Migrants waving signs that read “We want freedom” protested on the Greek island of Chios on Sunday, a day before a controversial EU deal that will see hundreds of people deported back to Turkey was due to come into effect. An estimated 750 people will be sent back to Turkey […]

Video: Philippines rice shortage sparks food riots – ‘It has not rained for almost four months’

  By David Campanale2 April 2016 One of the strongest El Niño weather events ever recorded has caused heatwaves, water shortages and forest fires around the world. Now deaths linked to protests over food shortages have been reported in Cotabato province in the southern Philippines, where thousands of drought-hit farmers have clashed with police over […]

Colombia: Ethnocide and political violence on the rise – More than 60 percent of all indigenous peoples in Colombia are at risk of extinction

By Dan Kovalik28 March 2016 (Libya 360) – While Colombia, the U.S.’s staunchest ally in the Hemisphere, is held out as some beacon of democracy in Latin America, the facts on the ground tell a very different story. Of course, you will rarely hear those facts, or about Colombia at all, given the general laziness […]

Photo gallery: Aerial view of drought and fire impacts on California landscape

By Amy Graff29 March 2016 (Seattle PI) – About three and a half years ago, Thomas Heinser was on a plane landing at San Francisco International Airport, when he was admiring the beautiful color palettes of the salt ponds on the edge of the bay. The S.F.-based photographer had spent many years taking aerial images […]

1 in 5 people will be obese by 2025, study says – In past four decades, global obesity has doubled among women and more than tripled among men

By Joshua Berlinger1 April 2016 (CNN) – The obesity epidemic has gone global, and it may be worse than most thought. A new study in The Lancet says that if current trends continue, 18% of men and 21% of women will be obese by 2025. In four decades, global obesity has more than tripled among […]

Is global warming causing marine diseases to spread?

  By Charlotte Eve Davies28 March 2016 (The Conversation) – Global climate change is altering the world’s oceans in many ways. Some impacts have received wide coverage, such as shrinking Arctic sea ice, rising sea levels, and ocean warming. However, as the oceans warm, marine scientists are observing other forms of damage. My research focuses […]

Sierra snowpack better than 2015, but not enough to declare California drought over – ‘A big improvement compared to last year, but not what we had hoped for’

By Matt Stevens30 March 2016 (Los Angeles Times) – In a symbolic moment in California’s slow but steady drought recovery, a state surveyor on Wednesday found several feet of snow in the same Sierra Nevada meadow that was bare and brown just a year ago. The depth of the snowpack was declared to be just […]

Vietnam’s southern Mekong Delta faces worst drought in history – ‘Those who have rice in hands will make fat profits’

HANOI, Vietnam, 17 March 2016 (AP) – Vietnam’s southern Mekong Delta, the country’s main rice growing region, is experiencing the worst drought and saline intrusion in recent history that has affected more than half a million people, officials said Thursday. The drought could result in the loss of up to 1 million tons of rice, […]

Is India facing its worst-ever water crisis? ‘The unthinkable is happening’

By Soutik Biswas 27 March 2016 (BBC News) – On 11 March 2016, panic struck engineers at a giant power station on the banks of the Ganges river in West Bengal state. Readings showed that the water level in the canal connecting the river to the plant was going down rapidly. Water is used to […]

Costa Rica men convicted for killing conservationist and raping volunteers

[See Desdemona’s coverage of this story: Jairo.] 29 March 2016 (AFP) – A Costa Rican court has sentenced four men to decades in prison for the 2013 murder of an environmentalist and the rape of four western female volunteers who were with him. The judgment capped a nine-week retrial of seven men accused of killing […]

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