20 million people face starvation in Africa’s Sahel region – ‘The climate is increasingly erratic; it puts enormous stresses on farmers and pastoralists’

By Jeremy Hance4 February 2014 (mongabay.com) – The UN and partner humanitarian groups today called on the international community to spend $2 billion to avoid a famine in Africa’s Sahel region, which includes nine nations along the southern edge of the Sahara. Although the Sahel is chronically prone to food insecurity, the situation has dramatically […]

Global warming reveals preserved bodies of World War 1 soldiers as glaciers melt in northern Italy

By Laura Spinney13 January 2014 (Daily Telegraph) – At first glance Peio is a small alpine ski resort like many others in northern Italy. In winter it is popular with middle-class Italians as well as, increasingly, Russian tourists. In summer there’s good hiking in the Stelvio National Park. It has a spa, shops that sell […]

The U.S. government’s secret research into climate change as a security risk

By Katharine Trendacosta31 January 2014 (io9) – Plenty of people still doubt that climate change is a real thing, or that it was engineered by humans and accelerating. But national security hawks agree with the scientific consensus that climate change is a real and growing problem. And they’ve done tons of research predicting the wars […]

Oil development in Ecuador’s Yasuni rainforest pits uncontacted tribes against one another – ‘After all the people we killed, we felt dizzy’

By Bethany Horne3 January 2013 (Newsweek) – As two military-style helicopters touch down in a remote village in the jungles of Ecuador, masked men with guns hop out and scurry into a one-room schoolhouse. Inside they capture their target: a 6-year-old girl who doesn’t speak their language and can’t even guess why they are kidnapping […]

Blood in the Sand – Costa Rica’s turtle egg poachers are willing to kill anyone who gets in their way

By Matthew Power2 January 2014 (Outside Magazine) – It was only eight o’clock on the evening of 30 May 2013, but the beach was completely dark. The moon hadn’t yet risen above Playa Moín, a 15-mile-long strand of mangrove and palm on Costa Rica’s Caribbean coast. A two-door Suzuki 4×4 bumped along a rough track […]

U.S. military wraps climate change response into master plans – ‘We are going to integrate climate change considerations into the normal processes, the day-to-day jobs of everybody’

By Cheryl Pellerin26 November 2013 WASHINGTON (American Forces Press Service) – The effects of climate change are already evident at Defense Department installations in the United States and overseas, and DOD expects climate change to challenge its ability to fulfill its mission in the future, according to the first DOD Climate Change Adaptation Roadmap [pdf]. […]

Big green groups walk out of U.N. climate talks – ‘The Polish government has done its best to turn these talks into a showcase for the coal industry’

By Ben Jervey21 November 2013 WARSAW, Poland (Grist) – For the first time ever, environmental groups have staged a mass walkout of a U.N. climate summit. Citing immense frustration with the lack of productive action in the COP19 climate talks, which have been dogged by a persistent rift between rich and poor countries on the […]

Protests sweep Canada following paramilitary assault on indigenous fracking blockade – ‘Indigenous communities like the Elsipogtog First Nation are on the frontlines of defending water and the land for everyone’

By Sarah Lazare, staff writer18 October 2013 (Common Dreams) – Protests are sweeping Canada following Thursday’s assault by paramilitary-style police on members of indigenous Elsipogtog Mi’kmaq First Nation and local residents as they blockaded a New Brunswick fracking exploration site. The group had barricaded a road near the town of Rexton in rural New Brunswick […]

Video: Orphaned orangutan asks girl for help in sign language – ‘Your food is destroying my home’

[Can’t verify the truthiness of this video (it looks a bit stagey), but Desdemona completely supports the message.] 9 October 2013 (RAN) – http://InYourPalm.org – TAKE ACTION TODAY TO STAND WITH THE LAST WILD ORANGUTANS. Rainforests are being destroyed for palm oil and pushing the last wild orangutans to the brink of extinction. At Rainforest […]

Jude Law joins protest over Russia’s prosecution of Greenpeace activists – ‘What is ludicrous is that they have been charged with piracy’

5 October 2013 (BBC News) – Actor Jude Law and musician Damon Albarn have joined hundreds demonstrating in London over piracy charges brought by Russia against 30 Greenpeace activists. Six Britons were among those arrested last month as they protested against oil drilling in the Arctic at a rig owned by Russian firm, Gazprom. Relatives […]

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