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Shell Oil Spill Victims Reject 'Derisory and Insulting' Compensation Offer

Sat, 2013-10-05 00:05 — Maeryn Obley

Niger delta residents pass a burning Shell oil pipeline as they evacuate their homes by boat in December 2005. (Photo: George Osodi/AP) Image: Niger delta residents pass a burning Shell oil pipeline as they evacuate their homes by boat in December 2005. (Photo: George Osodi/AP)

commondreams.org - September 14th, 2013 - Andrea Gernabis

A Niger Delta community affected by oil spills has rejected a compensation offer from oil giant Shell they see as "totally derisory and insulting."

The residents of Bodo, Nigeria are represented by the London-based law firm Leigh Day to seek damages for two 2008 spills that devastated tens of thousands of residents in dozens of villages and unleashed a thick, black river of death that has choked mangroves and riverways for years.

The Guardian reports:

    On Friday the full scale of the spills could be seen from the air with over 75 sq km of mangrove forests, creeks, swamps and channels thick with crude oil.

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Eli Beer: The fastest ambulance? A motorcycle

Thu, 2013-09-12 22:00 — Maeryn Obley
cit

ted.com - July 2013

As a young EMT on a Jerusalem ambulance, Eli Beer realized that, stuck in brutal urban traffic, they often arrived too late to help. So he organized a group of volunteer EMTs -- many on foot -- ready to drop everything and dash to save lives in their neighborhood. Today, United Hatzlah uses a smartphone app and a fleet of “ambucycles” to help nearby patients until an ambulance arrives.

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Five things you should know about Turkey and the Istanbul protests

Sun, 2013-06-30 15:07 — Maeryn Obley

Video: Turkey protests 'a warning' to Erdogan

telegraph.co.uk - June 3rd, 2013 - Ruth Sherlock

Since the 1920s Turkey has been vigorously secular in its public sphere. Now protestors accuse Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of blurring the line between religion and state by trying to impose the Islamist values of his Justice and Development party (AKP) on society as a whole.

Last month the government introduced a new law cracking down on alcohol, banning the sale of drink between 10pm and 6am and forcing restaurants near schools or mosques to be dry.

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Why Social Media Is the Front Line of Disaster Response

Fri, 2013-06-21 18:50 — Maeryn Obley

mashable.com - May 21st, 2013 - Zoe Fox

Nearly one million people are affected by natural disasters each year. In the U.S. alone, some 400 people die from disasters that cost the economy $17.6 billion. Helping respond to these cataclysmic events, social media is now a go-to tool for those effected by disasters.

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Nearly two-thirds of Greek youths are unemployed

Fri, 2013-05-10 19:09 — Maeryn Obley

A Greek unemployment center.

Image: A Greek unemployment center.

reuters.com - May 9th 2013 - George Georgiopoulos

Greek youth unemployment shot to a record 64 percent in February, underscoring the dire state of the recession-hit economy despite signs of improving business sentiment.

Repeated doses of austerity under international bailouts have almost tripled Greece's jobless rate since its debt crisis began in 2009, weighing on an economy in its sixth year of recession.

Overall unemployment has risen to an all-time high of 27 percent, data showed on Thursday, while joblessness in the 15-to-24 age group jumped to 64.2 percent in February from 59.3 percent in January.


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The other-worldly philosophers

Fri, 2013-05-10 19:02 — Maeryn Obley

Article illustration by Brett Ryder

Image: Article illustration by Brett Ryder

economist.com - July 16th 2009

Robert Lucas, one of the greatest macroeconomists of his generation, and his followers are “making ancient and basic analytical errors all over the place”. Harvard's Robert Barro, another towering figure in the discipline, is “making truly boneheaded arguments”. The past 30 years of macroeconomics training at American and British universities were a “costly waste of time”.

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Climate Change’s Links to Conflict Draws UN Attention

Fri, 2013-02-15 16:08 — admin

By Flavia Krause-Jackson - Feb 14, 2013 8:30 PM MT - Bloomberg News

Members of the United Nations Security Council in New York met with Joachim Schellnhuber, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, who presented a number of scenarios to show the connection between climate change and global security challenges.

Climate change is a “reality that cannot be washed away,” according to notes prepared for diplomats at today’s session. “There is growing concern that with faster than anticipated acceleration, climate change may spawn consequences which are harsher than expected.”

Topics ranged from Hurricane Sandy, to fossil-fuel deposits, to glacial melting and how the seeds of conflict, unrest, and revolution are being sewn.

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Read the National Intelligence Council Global Trends 2030 Report

Climate Change as Source of Future Conflict Draws UN Attention

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Explaining Risks

Fri, 2012-11-30 18:15 — Maeryn Obley

Aftereffects of the L'Aquila earthquakeImage: Aftereffects of the L'Aquila earthquake

compression.org - October 25th, 2012 - Robert W. "Doc" Hall

The difficulties of explaining risk are the nub of the recent conviction on manslaughter changes of six Italian seismologists and a public official for inadequately forewarning the public of the L’Aquila earthquake in 2009: 309 fatalities, over 1500 injuries, and about 20,000 buildings destroyed. Seismologists classified the L’Aquila as a “moderate earthquake,” 6.3 Richter, but losses were very high in a densely populated area.

The case has drawn media attention, but Nature has a more detailed account.

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Malaria Creeps Back Into Greece Amid Health Budget Cuts

Fri, 2012-11-30 18:05 — Maeryn Obley

Health employees protest outside the Health Ministry in Athens against pay and budget cuts. Fewer resources for malaria treatment and mosquito control may be contributing to malaria's comeback in Greece. Aris Messinis/AFP/Getty Images

Image: Health employees protest outside the Health Ministry in Athens against pay and budget cuts. Fewer resources for malaria treatment and mosquito control may be contributing to malaria's comeback in Greece. Aris Messinis/AFP/Getty Images

npr.org - October 26th, 2012 - Michaeleen Doucleff

After a 40-year hiatus, malaria is returning to Greece.

Some 70 cases have been reported there this year, and at least 12 people appear to have been infected in the country. (The others picked up the disease elsewhere.)

That's a concern for health workers because it means malaria may now be endemic to Greece — and not just hitching a ride with travelers.

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Eurozone unemployment hits new high

Mon, 2012-11-12 18:12 — Maeryn Obley

Pedestrians walk past graffitti in Athens – a growing number of Greek workers remain nominally employed but have not been paid for some time. Photograph: EPA

Image: Pedestrians walk past graffitti in Athens – a growing number of Greek workers remain nominally employed but have not been paid for some time. Photograph: EPA

guardian.co.uk - October 31st, 2012 - Julia Kollewe and Phillip Inman   

Unemployment in the eurozone has risen to a new record, with more than one in four out of work in Spain and Greece.

There are now 18.49 million people without jobs in the 17 countries sharing the euro, said the European statistics office Eurostat on Wednesday with an extra 146,000 joining the ranks of the unemployed last month.

Youth unemployment – joblessness among under-25s – rose to 23.3%, up from 21% during the same month a year ago.

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