Ex-Military brass back Tillerson, Mattis in global warming fight, as Trump considers exiting the Paris climate accord

By Joe Ryan and Jennifer A Dlouhy8 May 2017 (Bloomberg) – A group of retired senior military officers is urging U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Defense Secretary James Mattis to remain firm in their support for combating global warming as White House officials consider exiting the Paris climate accord. The 17 veterans argue […]

Worsening food insecurity forcing more people to migrate, finds new UN report

5 May 2017 (UN) – Highlighting the complex link between food insecurity and migration – where increase in one forces the other to rise and then spirals back to push the former even higher – the United Nations food relief agency has urged greater investments in food security and livelihoods at places of origin to […]

Study finds there are four ways to reduce economic inequality: state collapse, pandemic, revolution, and “mass mobilization warfare”

By Ana Swanson 19 April 2017 (The Washington Post) – Rising economic inequality in the United States has been a major animating force on both the political left and the right. Whether it is Sen. Bernie Sanders promising to rebuild blue-collar communities or President Trump pledging to “make America great again,” today’s political platforms often […]

Yes, I am a climate alarmist. Global warming is a crime against humanity.

By Lawrence Torcello29 April 2017 (The Guardian) – Most of us have wondered about the human context of past crimes against humanity: why didn’t more people intervene? How could so many pretend not to know? To be sure, crimes against humanity are not always easy to identify while they unfold. We need some time to […]

Stephen Hawking: Humans have 100 years to find a new planet

By Mary Bowerman4 May 2017 (USA Today) – It’s no secret that physicist Stephen Hawking thinks humans are running out of time on planet Earth. In a new BBC documentary, Hawking will test his theory that humankind must colonize another planet or perish in the next 100 years. The documentary Stephen Hawking: Expedition New Earth, […]

Kuki Gallmann, “I Dreamed of Africa” author, is shot in Kenya – “It’s more dangerous now: More weapons, more young men without role models, without prospects, without an education, without a future”

By Jeffery Gettleman23 April 2017 NAIROBI, Kenya (The New York Times) – Kuki Gallmann could feel the ring of danger tightening around her. Over the past few days, Mrs. Gallmann, one of Kenya’s most famous conservationists and the author of the best-selling book. I Dreamed of Africa, sent me a flurry of increasingly distressed text […]

The Tana River, Kenya’s lifeblood, strains under development and drought

By Nathan Siegel14 April 2017 (Mongabay) – Every morning, Abdu Hajy, 65, takes his canoe out into the murky waters of the Tana River Delta to fish. He’s been following the same routine, in his hometown of Kipini on the Kenyan coast, for the last four decades. But he is not sure how much longer […]

Rising temperatures increased conflicts and deadly violence in the ancient Maya world

By Léa Surugue31 March 2017 (International Business Times) – With temperatures set to rise in the coming decades, investigating the issue of whether climate change can exacerbate conflict is becoming more and more relevant. Looking at how past civilisations fared in the face of changing climatic conditions offers interesting insights. In a research now published […]

UW professor: The information war is real, and we’re losing it

By Danny Westneat29 March 2017 (The Seattle Times) – A University of Washington professor started studying social networks to help people respond to disasters. But she got dragged down a rabbit hole of twitter-boosted conspiracy theories, and ended up mapping our political moment. It started with the Boston marathon bombing, four years ago. University of […]

Trump’s Defense Secretary, James Mattis, cites global warming as national security challenge

By Andrew Revkin14 March 2017 (ProPublica) – [Update, 16 March 2017] Our story on March 13 concerning Secretary of Defense James Mattis’ views on the relationship between climate change and national security was based on excerpts from unpublished written exchanges between Mattis and several Democrats on the Senate Armed Services Committee following his Jan. 12 […]

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