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Climate Change is Happening Too Quickly for Species to Adapt

Tue, 2013-07-23 19:34 — Kathy Gilbeaux

      

Species that live on mountains, such as the snow leopard, are particularly at risk. Photograph: Tom Brakefield/Getty Images

guardian.co.uk - by Robin McKie - July 13, 2013

Among the many strange mantras repeated by climate change deniers is the claim that even in an overheated, climate-altered planet, animals and plants will still survive by adapting to global warming. . .

. . . However, their rate of change turns out to be painfully slow, according to a study by Professor John Wiens of the University of Arizona. . . The results, published online in the journal Ecology Letters, show that most land animals will not be able to evolve quickly enough to adapt to the dramatically warmer climate expected by 2100.

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Due to Global Warming, End Is Virtually Certain for NYC, Boston, Miami, Holland

Tue, 2013-07-23 16:30 — Kathy Gilbeaux

huffingtonpost.com - by Eric Zuesse - July 20, 2013

A new article in the prestigious Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), is headlined "The Multimillennial Sea-Level Commitment of Global Warming," and it reports that because of carbon emissions that are virtually certain, on the basis of the lack of policy-response to global warming thus far, sea levels are now set to rise anywhere from around 8 inches to 7 feet within 100 years, and around 5 yards to 10 yards within 2,000 years. The projections are clearer (within a narrower range) for the longer time-frame than for the shorter one. That's because even if the short-term consequences of heat-rise turn out to be relatively slight, the longer-term consequences are clearer, and will be considerably larger, as delayed impacts kick in.

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PNAS - The multimillennial sea-level commitment of global warming
http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2013/07/10/1219414110

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Global Humanitarian Assistance Report 2013

Mon, 2013-07-22 22:01 — Kathy Gilbeaux

globalhumanitarianassistance.org - July 17, 2013

‘Year of perpetual crises’ exposes chronic poverty and vulnerability

Geneva: The Global Humanitarian Assistance (GHA) report 2013, released today by Development Initiatives at the UN’s ECOSOC meeting, highlights the absence of any ‘mega-disasters’ [1] in 2012 but reveals the perpetual vulnerability of the poorest people in developing countries and their persistent exposure to crises.

The GHA report, the most comprehensive annual review of humanitarian financing, highlights the shocking death toll of the hunger crisis in Somalia, with 257,000 people (or 4.6% of the population) estimated to have died between 2010 and 2012.

Judith Randel, Executive Director of Development Initiatives, said:“The data shows that the response to slow-onset crises such as Somalia is often late, resulting in huge numbers of unnecessary deaths. By intervening earlier, as well as investing in mechanisms that reduce risk, donors could save more lives and protect more livelihoods - probably at lower cost.”

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India Floods In June Leave Over 5,700 Missing And Presumed Dead

Tue, 2013-07-16 18:10 — Kathy Gilbeaux

      

A rescue boat sailing through the water logged lanes during flood in river Yamuna on June 20, 2013 in New Delhi, India. Low-lying areas along the Yamuna remained submerged for the second consecutive day though the water level in the river started receding today. (Photo by Arijit Sen/Hindustan Times via Getty Images)

CLICK HERE - Red Flood alert in India from 23/06/2013 00:00 UTC to 15/07/2013 23:59 UTC -
Global Disaster Alert and Coordination System (GDACS)

huffingtonpost.com - by BISWAJEET BANERJEE - July 16, 2013

LUCKNOW, India -- More than 5,700 people missing since floods devastated northern India last month are being presumed dead, even as rescue officials struggle to bring aid to affected villages, top officials said Tuesday.

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Air Pollution Killing Over Two Million Annually, Study Says

Tue, 2013-07-16 16:29 — Kathy Gilbeaux

      

New Delhi: Air pollution accounts for over 500,000 deaths in India annually, a new study says.

CLICK HERE FOR STUDY - Environmentsl Research Letters - Global premature mortality due to anthropogenic outdoor air pollution and the contribution of past climate change

cnn.com - by Matthew Knight - July 16, 2013

Article Highlights:

  • Air pollution responsible for more than two million premature deaths worldwide annually
  • Study assesses impact of fine particulates and ozone using atmospheric climate models
  • East Asia worst affected region with over a million deaths per year
  • Study also found that climate change hasn't had huge impact on effects of air pollution

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE HERE)

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Geofeedia - Pioneering Location-Based Social Media Monitoring

Sun, 2013-07-14 22:11 — Kathy Gilbeaux

geofeedia.com

Location-based streaming, search, monitoring, and analytics.

Create live, location-based social media streams, or “Geofeeds”. Once you create a Geofeed – by simply entering an address or drawing a boundary around a location on a map – you can search, monitor and analyze all social media activity from that location.

http://corp.geofeedia.com/company/how-it-works/

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Illicit Power Structures In Afghanistan: Ethnic diversity, Drug trafficking, War lords and Corruption in the systems of government

Thu, 2013-07-11 01:09 — Maryam Safi

By: Maryam Safi

(THE COMPLETE DOCUMENT IS AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD IN THE ATTACHMENT BELOW)

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Millennium Development Goals are Within Reach, but Stronger Efforts Needed – UN Report

Sat, 2013-07-06 11:59 — Kathy Gilbeaux

un.org

The Millennium Development Goals Report - 2013
(64 page .PDF report)

1 July 2013 – Thirteen years after the world set the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), countries have made big strides to meet the eight anti-poverty targets by their 2015 deadline, says a United Nations report released today, which stresses that the unmet goals are still within reach, but nations need to step up their efforts to achieve them.

“In more than a decade of experience in working towards the MDGs, we have learned that focused global development efforts can make a difference,” Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says in the report's foreword, in which he urges for accelerated action to close development gaps.

“Now is the time to step up our efforts to build a more just, secure and sustainable future for all.”

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Scientists Predicted A Decade Ago Arctic Ice Loss Would Worsen Western Droughts. Is That Happening Already?

Thu, 2013-07-04 22:57 — Kathy Gilbeaux

thinkprogress.org - by Joe Romm - June 30, 2013

(SEE LINKS BELOW FOR 2004 STUDY, 2005 STUDY, AND 2013 CRYOSAT ARTICLE)

Scientists predicted a decade ago that Arctic ice loss would bring on worse western droughts. Arctic ice loss has been much faster than the researchers — and indeed all climate modelers — expected (see “CryoSat-2 Confirms Sea Ice Volume Has Collapsed“).

It just so happens that the western U.S. is in the grip of a brutal, record-breaking drought. Is this just an amazing coincidence — or were the scientists right and what would that mean for the future? I ask the authors.

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A Sustainable Energy Future is Within Our Grasp

Mon, 2013-07-01 20:03 — Kathy Gilbeaux

 

internationalrivers.org - June 25, 2013
by Susanne Wong and Peter Bosshard

Renewables 2013 - Global Status Report
(178 page .PDF report)

The staggering growth in renewable energy has the potential to fundamentally change the way we generate and use power. Previously dismissed as marginal technologies, renewables have become “increasingly mainstream and competitive with conventional energy sources.” This is the conclusion of a new report on the global status of renewable energies by the REN21 Network.

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ABOUT - REN21 - http://www.ren21.net/

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