Situation Report

Image: 2010 Drought in Russia. (c) New York Times.

foreignpolicyblogs.com - November 10th, 2012 - Mia Bennett

The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) and National Research Council (NRC) have released a report commissioned by the CIA and various other American intelligence agencies on the security threats posed by climate change. The report’s goal is to inform intelligence agencies as to how to best carry out monitoring to anticipate climate-related disasters, help prevent them from occurring, and, when they do, respond to emergencies. The report investigates how climate change could potentially induce social and political stresses that will affect U.S. security over the next decade.

(VIEW COMPLETE ARTICLE)

Image: Chief executive Sir Stuart Etherington says government should open up commissioning and make other initiatives less complex

submitted by Albert Gomez

thirdsector.co.uk - October 25th, 2012 - Tim Tonkin

Charity leaders are feeling more optimistic about their organisations’ financial prospects in the forthcoming year, according to a new report by the National Council for Voluntary Organisations.

The umbrella body’s latest quarterly Charity Forecast Survey, carried out last month and published today, shows that 31 per cent of the 200 or so NCVO members who responded feel the overall situation of their organisations will improve over the next year, compared with 21 per cent in the poll carried out for the last Forecast Survey.

The proportion who feel their organisation’s overall position will worsen over the coming year is down slightly, from 46 per cent in the last survey to 42 per cent.

(VIEW COMPLETE ARTICLE)

LuAnne Cadd/AP - A baby Grauer's gorilla that had been poached from Kahuzi-Biega National Park is seen at the Senkwekwe Orphan Gorilla Center at Virunga National Park in eastern Congo. Twenty-five species of monkeys, langurs, lemurs and gorillas are on the brink of extinction and need global action to protect them from increasing deforestation and illegal trafficking, researchers said Oct. 15, 2012.

The Washington Post - Associated Press - October 15, 2012

NEW DELHI — Twenty-five species of monkeys, langurs, lemurs and gorillas are on the brink of extinction and need global action to protect them from increasing deforestation and illegal trafficking, researchers said Monday.

The report by the International Union for Conservation of Nature was released at the United Nations’ Convention on Biological Diversity being held in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad.

Conservation efforts have helped several species of primates that are no longer listed as endangered, said the report, prepared every two years by some of the world’s leading primate experts.