No, a nation’s geography is not its destiny

If you start in the city center of Nogales, Santa Cruz [Arizona] and walk south for a while, at some point you see houses become much more run down, streets turn decrepit. You have crossed the Mexican border into Nogales, Sonora. Though the two cities are made of the same cloth and were once united, now there are sharp differences between the two

By Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson | Reuters | March 19, 2012

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Migration not a matter of choice but survival, says Kiribati President

Following a recent decision by its Cabinet to buy land in Fiji as 'climate change insurance' for its population, Kiribati President, Anote Tong has called on the international community to address the effects of climate change that could wipe out the entire Pacific archipelago

By Brigitte Leoni | UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction | 15 March 2012

Children in the village of Tebikenikora, on Kiribati’s main Tarawa atoll (Photo: UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe)

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Global Fund Fights AIDS, TB and Malaria

The long-awaited shake-up in the Geneva-based Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (the Fund) finally became operational this month with the assumption of office of Gabriel Jaramillo, a former leading banker, as the new general manager. The change followed various unflattering audit reports of the Fund operations in some recipient countries that suggested money lost to corrupt practices and lax oversight

Chinua Akukwe | World Press | February 6, 2012

A pregnant Sudanese woman being treated for Malaria in a health center in Nyala. (Photo: Raul Touzon, National Geographic Society, Corbis)

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Somali famine 'will kill tens of thousands'

The UN in Somalia says tens of thousands of people will have died of starvation by the time the famine in the Horn of Africa ends

BBC News | 15 January 2012

Many Somalis have fled across the border into Ethiopia to seek aid

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Lead kills 400 Nigerian children

400 Nigerian children dead of lead poisoning due to gold mining

Disaster News Network | February 10, 2012

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Fracking: Anatomy of a free market failure

A recent New York Times article reported that rural landowners who had signed leases with gas and oil companies exchanging drilling rights on their property for royalty payments have discovered that they may have been misled

By Robin Hahnel | Real Climate Economics | January 12, 2012

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In Famatina, Water Is Worth Far More Than Gold

Thousands of people in the northwest Argentine province of La Rioja are mobilising to stop an open-cast gold mining project in the Nevados de Famatina, a snowy peak that is the semi-arid area's sole source of drinking water

By Marcela Valente | Inter-Press Service | Jan 24, 2012

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Less Than Zero: the 1 Percent and the Fate of the Earth

Beneath and beyond the flow of current events, including the rise and repression of the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) Movement and the ongoing threat of double-dip recession being sparked by the Euro crisis, the primary threat to a decent and desirable human future becomes ever more severe

Paul Street | Paul Street's ZSpace Page in ZNet | December 09, 2011

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Amy Goodman: Listen to the people, not the polluters

High above the pavement, overlooking Durban’s famous South Beach and the pounding surf of the Indian Ocean, and just blocks from the United Nations Climate Change Conference, where up to 20,000 people gathered, seven activists fought against the wind to unfurl a banner that read, “Listen to the People, Not the Polluters”

AMY GOODMAN | The Cap Times | December 8, 2011

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Most Religious Believers Favor International Efforts To Curb Climate Change, Nuclear Risks, Poverty

A majority of Americans professing a belief in God, favor cooperative international efforts to combat climate change, environmental degradation, and the spread of nuclear weapons says a new public opinion poll conducted jointly by the University of Maryland's Center for International and Security Studies at Maryland (CISSM) and its Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA)

World Public Opinion | December 6, 2011

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Japan Split on Hope for Vast Radiation Cleanup

Futaba is a modern-day ghost town — not a boomtown gone bust, not even entirely a victim of the devastating earthquake and tsunami that leveled other parts of Japan’s northeast coast

By MARTIN FACKLER | The New York Times | December 6, 2011

Workers replaced soil as part of a decontamination effort at Soma agricultural high school in Fukushima. Ko Sasaki for The New York Times

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The most important news story of the day/millennium

The most important piece of news yesterday, this week, this month, and this year was a new set of statistics released yesterday by the Global Carbon Project. It showed that carbon emissions from our planet had increased 5.9 percent between 2009 and 2010. In fact, it was arguably among the most important pieces of data in the last, oh, three centuries, since according to the New York Times it represented “almost certainly the largest absolute jump in any year since the Industrial Revolution”

by Bill McKibben | Dec 5 2011 by Daily Kos in Energy Bulletin | Dec 5, 2011

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Occupy My Wallet: Moving Money Off Wall Street

If you're really ticked off at Wall Street, you've got some options: Grab your sleeping bag and head to the nearest protest site, or do something that actually pinches the big bankers' bottom line

By Lewis Braham | Bloomberg | Nov 5, 2011

A man dressed as an "evil banker" stands with other Occupy Wall Street protesters. Photographer: Leon Neal/AFP/Getty Images

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Fatty Foods Addictive as Cocaine in Growing Body of Science

Cupcakes may be addictive, just like cocaine

By Robert Langreth and Duane D. Stanford | Bloomberg | Nov 2, 2011

If fatty foods and snacks and drinks sweetened with sugar and high fructose corn syrup are proven to be addictive, Big Food may face the most drawn-out consumer safety battle since the anti-smoking movement took on the tobacco industry a generation ago. Photographer: Denis Stenderchuck/Getty Images

Cupcakes sit on display at a bakery in New York. Photographer: Rich Press/Bloomberg

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The Reign of the One Percenters

Income inequality and the death of culture in New York City

By Christopher Ketcham | November/December 2011 issue | Orion

Photograph: William Steacy

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Were the riots about poverty? No, but new data links crime and the broken society

Neil O'Brien is Director of Policy Exchange, an independent think tank working for better public services, a stronger society and a more dynamic economy. He writes in a personal capacity

Neil O'Brien | The Telegraph | October 25th, 2011

Riot police guard Debenhams in Peckham

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The Metamovement: Moving beyond marches and people in the street

The "Metamovement" is Umair Haque's collective name for the various global pro-democracy, anti-corporatist movements that have sprung up all over the world this year: the "Occupy" movements in over 400 cities, mostly in the Americas, the parallel European "Indignant" movements that began with the 15M protests in Madrid, Spain attended by over 100,000 people last May, and the "Arab Spring" movements in the Middle East nations

by Dave Pollard | Energy Bulletin | Oct 25 2011

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Occupy Wall Street's Global Echo

The Occupy Wall Street protests that began in New York City a month ago gained worldwide momentum (CBS/AP) over the weekend, as hundreds of thousands of demonstrators in nine hundred cities protested corporate greed and wealth inequality. Protesters from London to Sydney echoed the anti-capitalist, populist rhetoric of the Occupy movement in what was deemed a "global day of protest" (TIME).

Analysis Brief by Christopher Alessi, Associate Staff Writer | CFR | October 18, 2011

Protesters demonstrate against banking and finance in front of headquarters of ECB in Frankfurt. (Ralph Orlowski/Courtesy Reuters)

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#Occupy - ANALYSIS - Oct 22

How Occupy Wall Street Really Got Started; From Protest to Disruption: Frances Fox Piven on Occupy Wall Street; What ‘Diversity of Tactics’ Really Means for Occupy Wall Street; Could the Occupy Movement’s General Assemblies Replace Today’s Parliaments and Legislatures?; What can OWS learn from a defunct French avant-garde group?

by Staff | Energy Bulletin | Oct 22 2011

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#Occupy - HOW-TO - Oct 22

How to cook a pacific #revolution (from Spain); Consensus (Direct Democracy @ Occupy Wall Street); #occupywallstreet general assembly facilitation; Quick guide on group dynamics in people’s assemblies; HowToCamp / HowToOccupy; and, Ketchup's description (via Chris Hedges)

by Staff | Energy Bulletin | Oct 22 2011

How to cook a pacific #revolution

Take the Square

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