The Deep South: Where the American Dream goes to die

By David Atkins 23 July 2013  (AlterNet) – David Leonhardt  has a fantastic piece about social mobility in the United States. It turns out that the American Dream, while getting more and more distant across the board, is still much more possible in some places than in others. What places? Well, surprise surprise: Climbing the […]

Detroit prepares to file for bankruptcy as soon as Friday, largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history

By Nancy Kaffer, Stephen Henderson, and Matt Helms 18 July 2013 (Detroit Free Press) – The City of Detroit is in final preparations to file for federal bankruptcy as early as Friday morning, several sources told the Free Press today. The filing would begin a 30- to 90-day period that will determine whether the city […]

Women, children at risk of trafficking after Uttarakhand floods – ‘People have lost everything. Their homes and livelihoods have been ruined.’

By Nita Bhalla5 July 2013 NEW DELHI (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Women and children who have survived deadly floods in India could now be at risk of being sold as brides or into domestic and sex work by traffickers preying on vulnerable families, aid agencies say. The floods and landslides, triggered by heavier than normal […]

Global food security weakening ‘on a scale we haven’t seen yet’ – ‘Of all the resources we have, time is the scarcest’

By Laurie Goering28 June 2013 LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Population growth, rising affluence, water shortages, and climate change are combining to create unprecedented pressure on the world’s food supply – pressure that is likely to play out both as slow rises in hunger and as famines linked to extreme weather events, a leading agriculture […]

Krugman: Fight the Future

By PAUL KRUGMAN16 June 2013 (The New York Times) – Last week the International Monetary Fund, whose normal role is that of stern disciplinarian to spendthrift governments, gave the United States some unusual advice. “Lighten up,” urged the fund. “Enjoy life! Seize the day!” O.K., fund officials didn’t use quite those words, but they came […]

Photo gallery: Abandoned America and the decline of a superpower

13 June 2013 (Daily Telegraph) – Snapshots of history documenting abandoned America and the decline of a superpower. Abandoned America Technorati Tags: North America,financial collapse,poverty,religion

Detroit halts debt payments, plans pension cuts – City is financially insolvent, ‘on the brink of financial and operational ruin’

By Chris Isidore14 June 2013 (CNNMoney) – Detroit will immediately stop payments on about $2 billion in debt, the city’s emergency manager announced Friday, an effort to conserve cash. The manager, Kevyn Orr, also said Detroit will need to cut pay and pension and health benefits for city workers. Debt holders are likely to get […]

Climate change to affect liveability of remote Australia

3 June 2013 (PhysOrg) – People living in remote Australia are likely to be more severely affected by climate change than other sectors of the national population. A new study, released today, by the CRC for Remote Economic Development (CRC-REP) and Ninti One warns that communities and outlying settlements on Cape York, in Central Australia […]

Blight sweeping Central America coffee plantations puts thousands out of work – Climate change causing rust fungus to spread to higher elevations that once were too cool and dry

By Tim Johnson3 June 2013 SAN PEDRO YEPOCAPA, Guatemala (McClatchy) –  Across Central America, even as rains arrive, many coffee plantations contain only spindly, nearly defoliated bushes, the result of a blight known as coffee leaf rust whose devastation, so far, has yet to affect the prices of premium highland coffee that baristas serve around […]

Where the Millennium Development Goals fell short: valuing Nature

Dr. Fred Boltz 29 May 2013 (Conservation International) – This week in New York City, the 27 members of the high-level panel of eminent persons appointed by the U.N. Secretary General will deliver a report providing recommendations on the post-2015 development agenda. This is a critical opportunity to address the inadequacies of the Millennium Development […]

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