July 11, was World Population Day as defined by the Governing Council of the United Nations Development Programme in 1989, an outgrowth of the interest generated by the Day of Five Billion, which was observed on July 11, 1987. Family planning is a human right The current United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has a theme
Atmospheric carbon dioxide levels grew at a record pace in 2016, to 403.3 parts per million (ppm), up from 400.0 in 2015, the UN World Meteorological Organization just revealed as part of its annual Greenhouse Gas Bulletin. The growth rate in atmospheric carbon dioxide in 2016 was thus around 50% faster than the average of
National governments gathered in Istanbul this week to work on the first World Humanitarian Summit, an outgrowth of last year’s international climate change conference and the UN’s new Sustainable Development Goals. Over 60 leaders came together, including 50 heads of state and government to rework and codify international humanitarian operations. Said David Miliband, chairman and
Seven billion dreams. One Planet. Consume with care. Those are the messages of today, which is World Environment Day everywhere. It’s the biggest day for positive environmental action! The United Nations declares this day every year to energize worldwide awareness and action for the environment. Stakeholders in over 100 countries celebrate through public outreach every June 5. This
Tropical deforestation rates have actually soared over recent years, rather than decreased as was previously estimated in a prominant report from the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization’s Forest Resource Assessment, according to new research. The reason for this disparity is a simple one, the UN estimate was based on what people said they did, the
Never let it be said that the doomsaying, treehugging, pointy-headed nerds of the climate change adaptation movement lack a fundamental sense of humor. The dark amusements of the UN’s COP20 conference in Lima—as at prior venues—surface daily in the presentation of an award for [Climate] Fossil of the Day. During United Nations climate change talks
It’s still Climate Week, though the marches and summit conference are over. If you’d like to spend some time doing a brief climate watch this weekend, here are a few suggestions. These short takes are the result of surveying over 500 free and publicly available videos. Each takes around three minutes or less to watch.
Or do you? It’s time to pay attention to climate change now—as if it wasn’t back in 1800, when our current problems started. We all need to acknowledge that stunning industrial achievements can carry with them enormous unforeseen risks and challenges. Americans should take particular note, because on the whole we are wa-a-a-y behind on this.
There are the good wildfires, and there are the bad. Unfortunately, the latter often overwhelm the beneficial ones. We’ll go on with stories from San Diego in a minute—it’s a long story of an actually short time—but here’s a word about the bright side first. Whoopi Goldberg had a thought that’s worth repeating: When you
At the United Nations’ upcoming COP 19 event in Warsaw, the REN Alliance is scheduled to “introduce the theme of a 100% renewable energy future, and introduce case studies on how to attain this vision.” The side event is supposed to touch on technical integration of renewable energy resources, policies, financing, and more. Speakers will include
One of the most unique large-scale international climate change projects is underway in Africa. A 4,000 mile “wall of trees” is being constructed across the east-west axis of the continent as a defense against rapid, expanding desertification of the Sahara. 11 nations — Mauritania, Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Nigeria, Chad, Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Djibouti
The UN’s World Meteorological Organisation has released it’s provisional annual statement on the state of the global climate and it shows that, if things keep going as they have for the first 10 months of the year, 2012 will join the ranks of warmest years on record that have been filled by the years 2001
I’ve written on the Heartland Institute’s complete hypocrisy two or three times (see the related posts at the bottom of this one to check those out). DeSmog Blog recently posted another great piece on this hypocrisy, from yet another angle. Here’s that piece in full: A Heartland Institute front man* phoned a Greenpeace activist
The economic toll of natural disasters cost the world a record amount in 2011, it was reported this week. The total cost was around $380 billion, according to the United Nations. The costliest disasters were earthquakes in Japan and New Zealand. However, floods in Thailand (the most costly floods in Thailand’s history) and elsewhere, fires,
1. Exxon Rakin’ in the Dough, Paying Super Low Taxes ExxonMobil’s end-of-year financial summary shows that it made a whopping $41.1 billion in 2011 (35% more than in 2010) but only paid a 17.6% tax rate. Who lets them get away with such robbery? Congress obviously does. But so do we, if we don’t hold
NYC’s mayor, billionaire Michael Bloomberg, is not the 99%’s favorite politician. However, he has done more to push science-denying Republicans (members of a party he used to belong to) to wake up to the threats of global warming and climate change and take action. The latest news is that he is pushing all mayors
Following up on my other two posts today on the UN climate change negotiations currently taking place in Durban, South Africa, and adding to what I said in both, here’s the WWF on how bad things are looking: Sam Smith ahead the closing COP17 from WWF on Vimeo. by WWF Durban, South Africa: Government
Climate Change poses a major threat to future peace and security, a senior UN official has warned. Achim Steiner from the UN Environment Program said Climate Change would also “exponentially” increase the scale of natural disasters.
Some top global warming and environmental news from the last day or so: Global Warming & Environmental Politics Time to Put People Ahead of Polluters Over on ecopolitology, Sierra Club’s Michael Brune had a good piece on why it’s time to put people ahead of polluters. Senate 2012 Race & Tea Partiers The conservative right
Some of the top climate change and environmental stories of the last day or so: Climate Science Graph of the Day: Greenland Ice Sheet Mass Changes Good info and graphs on the page above, but thought I’d share the 3 videos from the post here for you to check out just in case you don’t feel
Here’s some of the biggest global warming and environmental politics news and commentary from the last week or so, along with some fun cartoons. Rocket Fuel in Our Water? The inspiration for the cartoon above, among other things: information that there is rocket fuel (or a component of it) in water supplies across the U.S.
Rome, Italy: The conflict between increasing demand for fish and failing fisheries has enormous implications for world food security and the state of our oceans, lakes and rivers, WWF said today. The global environment organisation was welcoming the latest State of the World’s Fisheries and Aquaculture (SOFIA) report, issued today in Rome by the UN
Here’s our roundup of interesting (good & bad) environmental and wildlife news of the week, other than what we’ve covered already. White House: Polar Bears Not ‘Endangered’ The Obama administration is sticking with a George W. Bush-era decision to deny polar bears endangered species status. In a court filing Wednesday, the Fish and Wildlife Service
I know, it’s not November any more. I’m dropping links here for November stories I never got around to sharing or writing about but really wanted to. I figured it would be better to do so at the end of the week than on Tuesday. So, here are some more stories from November you might
Here’s our weekly roundup of environment and wildlife news. Enjoy.
An independent report into the climategate scandal has left the involved scientists mostly vindicated, with only a minor slap on the wrist. The panel of inquiry, led by former U.K. civil servant Muir Russell, found that the scientists “rigour and honesty as scientists [is] not in doubt.” The report went on to say that they
The UN’s Millennium Development Goal of ending global under-nourishment by 2015 will not be met, but a new set of “mega” initiatives are being implemented to achieve more efficient delivery of “research outputs” to speed agricultural development.
Since the monumental failure of the Copenhagen summit in December, one must wonder how we’ll ever avert catastrophe. [social_buttons]Instead of coming out of the climate change conference in Copenhagen with a new international climate treaty we found that countries are more divisive than ever, with industrialized nations, new economic powers like China and Argentina, and
It is one of the least discussed issues when we discuss solutions to the environmental crisis. It is not whether or not the food is organic or sprayed with synthetic chemicals, or whether or not it is grown locally. The underdiscussed issue is the importance of a vegetarian diet for addressing critical environmental issues. As
