By Gregor Aisch, Adam Pearce, and Bryant Rousseau5 December 2016 (The New York Times) – Amid a migrant crisis, sluggish economic growth and growing disillusionment with the European Union, right-wing parties in a growing number of European countries have made electoral gains. The right-wing parties included below range across a wide policy spectrum, from populist […]
By Brian Kahn 21 December 2016 (Climate Central) – For the second year in a row, the Arctic is facing a late December heat wave (at least by Arctic winter standards). Temperatures are forecast to soar about 50°F above normal, which would bring them near the freezing point at the North Pole. As isolated data […]
By Chris Mooney 16 December 2016 (Washington Post) – Scientists at institutions in the United States and Australia on Friday published a set of unprecedented ocean observations near the largest glacier of the largest ice sheet in the world: Totten glacier, East Antarctica. And the result was a troubling confirmation of what scientists already feared […]
7 December 2016 (UN) – The United Nations and its partner non-governmental organizations today launched an appeal for $2.66 billion to provide emergency assistance across eight countries in the Sahel region, where “millions of people still live in conditions of deplorable human suffering.” “The Sahel faces considerable challenges and will remain the site of […]
WASHINGTON, D.C., 8 December 2016 (UNEP) – More than 80 per cent of countries consider environmental crime a national priority, with the majority saying new and more sophisticated criminal activities increasingly threaten peace and security. INTERPOL and UN Environment surveyed close to 70 countries for their new joint report, Environment, Peace and Security? A Convergence […]
GENEVA, 15 December 2016 (ILO News) – Wage growth around the world has decelerated since 2012, falling from 2.5 per cent to 1.7 per cent in 2015, its lowest level in four years. If China, where wage growth was faster than elsewhere, is not included, growth in global wages dropped from 1.6 per cent to […]
By Brad Plumer 16 December 2016 (Vox) – By far one of the most important impacts of global warming in the coming decades will be sea-level rise. As the Earth heats up and ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica melt, ocean levels will creep upward, flooding coastal cities and forcing large-scale relocations around the world. […]
29 November 2016 (AFP) – A mass bleaching event on the Great Barrier Reef this year killed more corals than ever before, scientists said Tuesday, sounding the alarm over the delicate ecosystem. The 2,300-kilometre (1,400-mile) long reef—the world’s biggest—suffered its most severe bleaching in recorded history, due to warming sea temperatures during March and April, […]
By Camila Domonoske 30 November 2016 (NPR) – An annual study released by the Brazilian government estimates that the rate of deforestation in the Amazon has increased by 29 percent over last year. That’s the second year in a row that deforestation in the Amazon quickened; last year, the pace rose by about 24 percent. […]
2 December 2016 (Columbia University) – The Arctic’s frozen ground contains large stores of organic carbon that have been locked in the permafrost for thousands of years. As global temperatures rise, that permafrost is starting to melt, raising concerns about the impact on the climate as organic carbon becomes exposed. A new study is shedding […]