Acclaimed, critiqued and depressing for its bleak prospect for the future of a humanly habitable biosphere (and the liberal economy as we know it), The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming by David Wallace-Wells (Google Books, Goodreads) has a short chapter on climate conflict. The more recent of the sources for that chapter have not all…
Charges against founder of Wikileaks threaten press freedom
Despite certain blemishes, Wikileaks has contributed with disclosures of incredible value to the public. Some of the charges raised at the arrest of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange on 11th April 2019 in London constitute an attack on the free press, says experts and NGOs. The parts of the charges that are under criticism are, particularly,…
“Environmental breakdown could trigger … economic, shocks [like] the global financial crisis of 2007-08”
This is a Crisis: Facing up to the Age of Environmental Breakdown by UK based Institute for Public Policy Research is a meta study that links environmental degradation to economic costs. From the increase in floods, loss of topsoil, accelerating climate change, collapse of species populations, lack of diversity everywhere; to increases in migration and…
Add ‘Cold Case Hammarskjöld’ to your watchlist
New documentary gives a more than likely answer to who killed Dag Hammarskjöld.
Week 52 & 1: Pamela Anderson rules
Pamela Anderson is nominated for quote of the year: I do not think the poor should pay for climate change. Yet it is the poor who are paying the biggest price. Some say that the protesters in France protested so they could continue polluting the planet. But I do not think this is true. They…
Week 51: Merry Christmas
During the first eleven months of 2018, almost five thousand people were killed and almost 29 million people affected in climate breakdown incidents, The Guardian recounts in an informative graphic. Islamic State has systematically wrecked the environment from territories they have fled. It’s yet another war crime, actually. “The worst thing is when you destroy…
Week 50: Minerals and morals in demand everywhere
Supply of neodymium, terbium, indium, dysprosium, praseodymium, other rare minerals – and silver – must grow twelvefold by 2050. Else the demand for production of solar panels, rechargeable batteries and other technologies needed for sustainable energies is not met. Furthermore, Europe and USA are overwhelmingly dependent on China, especially, as well as Turkey and Australia…
Week 49: Climate change and final frontiers
It’s COP24 times, so… The New Zealand military is preparing. Climate change will be one of the greatest security challenges for New Zealand Defence in the coming decades […] The links between climate change are indirect but demonstrable … [the impacts] will require more humanitarian assistance, and disaster relief, stability operations and search and rescue…
Week 48: A change of climate at FOX News? No change on oil and food markets
Remember the climate change report that the Trump administration released while most Americans were eating their Thanksgiving turkey? That report didn’t just mention costs of climate change. The security aspects were covered as well. “Climate change, variability, and extreme events, in conjunction with other factors, can exacerbate conflict […] droughts, floods, storm surges, wildfires, and…
Week 47: Climate change creates poverty, alerts the armies, and a fake Black Friday picture
The climate crisis poses a constant threat to global security. This is a threat that we face, not years from now, but today. We owe it to our brave soldiers on the front lines, and at the ready at home & abroad, to recognize this threat & act to solve it. https://t.co/kXmTueR7Ry — Al Gore…
Week 46: Killing for irrigation, divide and conquer in the jungle, sitting in the streets
The water supplying many of Kyrgyzstan’s farmers flows from Uzbekistan. Rarely there is enough for everyone. The water comes from glaciers that are disappearing. “During the summer time, there are daily conflicts over irrigation water […] They are usually between villages, sometimes inter-ethnic and people have killed each other over irrigation water.” Tynar Musabaev, executive…
Week 45: Deadly air pollution, deadly drought, deadly climate
New calculation: Air pollution causes more than 500,000 premature deaths in Europe every year. Although it might feel like we heard this accounting of subjective violence before. What also bears repetition is that climate change creates conflict and that the Middle East risks a water wars. His body was bloodied, swollen, and just lying there……