As scientists worry about rapidly warming world, U.S. public doesn’t – ‘If the American population were left to lead on the issue of climate, it’s just not going to happen’

By Seth Borenstein3 November 2015 WASHINGTON (Associated Press) – Americans are hot but not too bothered by global warming. Most Americans know the climate is changing, but they say they are just not that worried about it, according to a new poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. And that is keeping […]

Video: French police fire teargas to disperse climate protest

  29 November 2015 (Al Jazeera) – Police have fired teargas and used pepper spray to disperse a group of anti-global warming activists who marched in Paris in defiance of a recent ban on public demonstrations, a day before the start of a key UN summit on climate change in France’s capital. The tough response […]

Smoke from Indonesia fires causes 500,000 cases of acute respiratory illness – ‘This is a crime against humanity of extraordinary proportions’

[Long-time Desdemona readers will recall that smoke from peatland fires killed many people in Moscow in 2010. Dense wildfire smog grips Moscow in heatwave, Heat probably killed thousands in Moscow –Des] By Kate Lamb26 October 2015 (Jakarta) – Raging forest fires across Indonesia are thought to be responsible for up to half a million cases […]

Colonial church resurfaces in Mexico as water levels drop in Nezahualcoyotl Reservoir

By Natalie Roterman18 October 2015 (Latin Times) – The colonial Temple of Quechula has once again resurfaced for a second time in the Nezahualcoyotl reservoir due to a drought. Thanks to a drastic drought in the Grijalva River in Chiapas, Mexico, a mid-16th century church has resurfaced for a second time in the Nezahualcoyotl reservoir. […]

Many fear the worst for humanity, so how do we avoid surrendering to an apocalyptic fate?

By Melanie Randle 11 October 2015 (The Conversation) – A new, four-nation study has found people rate the risks of global threats to humanity surprisingly high. These perceptions are likely to be important, socially and politically, in shaping how humanity responds to the threats. The study, of more than 2000 people in the US, UK, […]

Estimate of migrants into Germany doubles to 1.5 million – Europe facing ‘battle of compassion versus fear, and of tolerance versus xenophobia’

5 October 2015 (BBC News) – The number of people seeking asylum in Germany this year will be as high as 1.5 million – almost double the previous estimate, German media report. The German government has not confirmed the new estimate, which comes from an internal official report cited by popular daily Bild. The report […]

Catholic GOP congressman will boycott Pope Francis’s congressional address over global warming – ‘When the Pope chooses to act and talk like a leftist politician, then he can expect to be treated like one’

  By Sophia Tesfaye18 September 2015 (Salon) – Arizona Republican Congressman Paul Gosar, describing himself as a “a proud Catholic” took to the conservative website Townhall to lecture Pope Francis and announce his planned boycott of his historic papal visit to Congress next week. Calling it his “moral obligation” to call out Catholic leaders who […]

Flash flood in Utah traps hikers, carries away cars – 16 die in ‘100-year event’

By Brady McCombs16 September 2015 HILDALE, Utah (Associated Press) – A van and SUV carrying three women and 13 children sat near the widening stream, waiting for the water to recede so they could cross back to their homes in a small, polygamous town on the Utah-Arizona border. But in an instant, flood waters engulfed […]

John Gray: Steven Pinker is wrong about violence and war – ‘The picture of declining violence presented by this new orthodoxy is not all it seems to be’

By John Gray13 March 2015 (The Guardian) – For an influential group of advanced thinkers, violence is a type of backwardness. In the most modern parts of the world, these thinkers tell us, war has practically disappeared. The world’s great powers are neither internally divided nor inclined to go to war with one another, and […]

The Pope’s encyclical on climate change: Live reaction and analysis

By Adam Vaughan18 June 2015 (The Guardian) – On Thursday the Vatican published Pope Francis’s long-awaited encyclical on the environment, which warns of ‘serious consequences’ if the world does not act on climate change. [English translation: LAUDATO SI’, mi’ Signore] Ban Ki-moon reacts: The secretary-general welcomes the papal encyclical released today by His Holiness Pope […]

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