Alaska towns at risk from rising seas sound alarm as Trump pulls federal help – “It feels like a complete abdication of responsibility on climate change”

By Oliver Milman 10 August 2017 NEW YORK (The Guardian) – The US government’s withdrawal from dealing with, or even acknowledging, climate change may have provoked widespread opprobrium, but for Alaskan communities at risk of toppling into the sea, the risks are rather more personal.The Trump administration has moved to dismantle climate adaptation programs including […]

Yemen’s “man-made catastrophe” is ravaging country, senior UN officials tell Security Council

18 August 2017 (UN) – Warning about escalating suffering in Yemen’s man-made catastrophe, senior United Nations officials today addressed the Security Council, calling on the international community to push for a political solution to the more than two-year-old conflict. “Death looms for Yemenis by air, land and sea,” Special Envoy of the Secretary-General to Yemen, […]

Tallying fewer crossings, UN agency reports rise in migrant deaths at US-Mexico border

4 August 2017 (United Nations) – Even as the flow appears to have thinned, migrants crossing the United States-Mexico border are dying at a faster rate in 2017 than in past years, according to a new United Nations agency study.“Some 232 migrant fatalities have been recorded in the first seven months of 2017, an increase […]

Proposed Trump border wall would cut through wildlife refuge, causing “serious environmental and economic damage”

By Lorenzo Zazueta-Castro 4 August 2017 (The Monitor) – Six Democratic Congressmen expressed concern in a letter addressed to the acting head of the Department of Homeland Security about the expected border wall construction at the Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge.The congressmen expressed concern on the heels of news that DHS would be waiving environmental […]

Loss of fertile land fuels looming crisis across Africa – “We are basically reaching the end of the road”

By Jeffery Gettleman 29 July 2017 LAIKIPIA, Kenya (The New York Times) – The two elders, wearing weather-beaten cowboy hats with the strings cinched under their chins, stood at the edge of an empty farm, covering their mouths in disbelief. Their homes — neat wooden cabins — had been smashed open. All their cattle had […]

Joel Clement: I’m a scientist. I’m blowing the whistle on the Trump administration.

By Joel Clement 19 July 2017 (The Washington Post) – I am not a member of the deep state. I am not big government. I am a scientist, a policy expert, a civil servant and a worried citizen. Reluctantly, as of today, I am also a whistleblower on an administration that chooses silence over science. […]

Climate change-induced migration from Central America

By Stephanie Leutert 21 June 2017 (Lawfare) – Last Thursday and Friday, the United States and Mexico co-hosted top officials from Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and other countries for the “Conference on Prosperity and Security in Central America.” As the name suggests, the gathering aimed to spur a wide-ranging conversation for improving the region’s economic […]

Children in West and Central Africa moving in greater numbers than ever before – More than seven million children uprooted from their homes each year due to violence, poverty, and global warming

5 July 2017 (United Nations) – With more than seven million children in West and Central Africa uprooted from their homes each year due to violence, poverty, and climate change, and projections that this number will continue to rise, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has called for greater efforts to ensure that migrant and […]

Lake Tanganyika hit by global warming, overfishing, and refugees

16 June 2017 (BBC) – Millions of people rely on Lake Tanganyika for their livelihoods. But the second largest lake in Africa is in crisis. It is suffering from the effects of climate change, over-fishing, and deforestation and has been nominated by the Global Nature Fund as the “most threatened lake of the year”. The […]

Violence and persecution uprooted record 65.6 million people in 2016, UN agency reports – “By any measure this is an unacceptable number”

19 June 2017 (United Nations) – Nearly 66 million people were forcibly displaced from their homes last year, the United Nation refugee agency today reported, stressing the “very high” pace at which conflict and persecution is forcing people to flee their homes. The figure equates to “one person displaced every three seconds – less than […]

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