Resource conflict and ecosystem diplomacy in bullet point updates – since 2008
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…
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…
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……
My handful of primitive news collecting helpers have unceremoniously done their work for another week. So, I bid you welcome to a short summary of the highlights produced by yours truly over a blended Scotch in a dark and quiet Sunday evening hour. A large group of desperate Central Americans are walking towards the US…
When I think about our engagement in sub-Saharan Africa, in Somalia, in other places of the world, I see that climate change has already had a massive impact on population movement, on fertility of land. It’s moving the border between pastoralist and agriculturalist. […] It’s very obvious that some of the violence that we are…
They can kill me at any moment, but they are going to regret it forever because, after I’m dead, others will take my place. Aluisio ‘Alenquer’ Sampaio Alenquer was shot and killed Thursday the 11th of October 2018. He was a campaigner for family farm rights in Brazil, and had received death threats for years…
US “First Lady” Melania Trump went to Africa wearing the very symbol of colonialism. While this inspired some criticism, Elliot Ross found it to be perfectly fitting. Beginning in Arabic, Foreign Minister of Austria, Karin Kneissl, held her speech at the UN General Assembly in multiple languages. The collapse of the Ottoman Empire created a…
In the English Channel, British and French fishermen have clashed in the Scallop War. In the absence of fishery management, climate change might lead to more fish wars, argues Kathleen McGinty. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)’s new special report on 1.5°C warming is alarming. But the summary for policymakers is not nearly alarming…
Spending tax money to keep the one industry the biosphere needs to have shut down urgently going – that’s dumb. According to new research, the Canadian government spends “hundreds of millions of [Canadian] dollars per year” on subsidies for oil and gas business. Go ahead and tweet something angry with the hashtag #stopfundingfossils. The Canadians…
The civil war in Libya is still raging. Earlier this month, gunmen attacked the headquarter of the national oil company. “[local militia fighters] started shooting at the assailants inside while the assailants threw grenades down on them from the second floor. I think that most injuries happened because the respondents were shooting in.” Baha Elddin,…
On September 8, hundreds of thousands of people marched on all continents to demand a much more determined political approach to climate change. #riseforclimate Growing demand for lithium used in batteries inspires increased mining. The mining operations use lots of water – in dry areas. In Chile, authorities are beginning to wonder if they have…
How often do you despair that so little action is taken even in the face of mounting signs of trouble to come? It “takes dead bodies on the table”, a saying in Danish goes. And this summer’s Californian wildfires at least led to that Democrat led US state’s pledge to transform to 100% renewable energy….