Munich Re: Series of hurricanes makes 2017 year of highest insured losses ever – “Our experts expect such extreme weather to occur more often in future”

4 January 2018 (Munich Re) – The hurricane trio of Harvey, Irma, and Maria will cost the insurance industry a record amount in 2017: the final insurance bill for those and other natural catastrophes, including a severe earthquake in Mexico, is expected to come to US$ 135bn – higher than ever before. And overall losses […]

2017 was a hard year for India – Air pollution and floods claimed many lives; failing public healthcare killed children; ministry predicted water scarcity by mid-century

30 December 2017 (IndiaSpend) – A bumper harvest crashing prices, pollution worsening in Delhi and other north Indian cities due to crop stubble burning and power plants, and the lack of infrastructure and manpower in public health centres leading to deaths of children across the country. These were the key points of worry for India […]

The places that may never recover from the Great Recession – One in six Americans lives in “economically distressed communities”

By Alana Semuels  29 December 2017 HEMET, California (The Atlantic) – Many cities across America are doing better today than they were before the recession. This is not one of them. A decade after the start of the Great Recession, it struggles with pervasive crime and poverty. “We’re still recovering—we were really hit hard on […]

Video: 100 days after Hurricane Maria, more than one million Puerto Ricans without power after botched response by Trump administration – “We seem to be going from crisis to crisis”

28 December 2017 (MSNBC) – Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz of San Juan, Puerto Rico, talks with Joy Reid about the challenges the island is still dealing with months after catastrophic hurricanes, problems made worse by the Trump administration’s bungling of the response and the new Republican tax law. Puerto Rico crisis lingers as Trump administration […]

Thousands of Puerto Rico police owed overtime call in sick

By Danica Coto 28 December 2017 SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) – Thousands of police officers are calling in sick every day in Puerto Rico, partly to press demands for unpaid overtime pay for hurricane recovery efforts as concerns grow over people’s safety in a U.S. territory struggling to restore power. The increase in absences […]

Hotter temperatures will accelerate migration of asylum-seekers to Europe, says study – “Europe will see increasing numbers of desperate people fleeing their home countries”

21 December 2017 (Columbia University) – New research predicts that migrants applying for asylum in the European Union will nearly triple over the average of the last 15 years by 2100 if carbon emissions continue on their current path. The study suggests that cutting emissions could partially stem the tide, but even under an optimistic […]

Major layoffs announced in western Kentucky coal mines

By Annie Moore 19 December 2017 LOUISVILLE, KY (WAVE) – More than 500 employees in Kentucky’s coal sector will be impacted by the latest round of layoffs and terminations. The Office for Employment and Training announced two Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) notices. Beginning February 18, Armstrong Coal in Madisonville anticipates laying off all […]

Why are America’s farmers killing themselves in record numbers?

By Debbie Weingarten 6 December 2017(EHRP) – It is dark in the workshop, but what light there is streams in patches through the windows. Cobwebs coat the wrenches, the cans of spray paint and the rungs of an old wooden chair where Matt Peters used to sit. A stereo plays country music, left on by […]

U.N. official shocked at poverty in rural Alabama – “It’s very uncommon in the First World. This is not a sight that one normally sees.”

By Carlos Ballesteros 10 December 2017 (Newsweek) – A United Nations official investigating poverty in the United States was shocked at the level of environmental degradation in some areas of rural Alabama, saying he had never seen anything like it in the developed world. “I think it’s very uncommon in the First World. This is […]

Video: No Man’s Land – Barbuda after Hurricane Irma

By Neil Collier, Ora Dekornfeld, and Ben Laffin 30 November 2017(The New York Times) – Hurricane Irma was ruthless to Barbuda. It damaged or destroyed pretty much all the buildings on the island. It left everyone vulnerable, their homes open to the sky. Walls collapsed. Windows shattered. And it opened a door for the government. […]

Social media & sharing icons powered by UltimatelySocial