Situation Report

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The Pacific Island nation, the site of many nuclear tests, is taking its case to the ICJ and US courts

Associated Press - america.aljazeera.com - April 24, 2014

The tiny Pacific nation of the Marshall Islands is taking on the United States and the world’s eight other nuclear-armed nations with an unprecedented lawsuit demanding that they meet their obligations toward disarmament, and accusing them of “flagrant violations” of international law. . .

. . . The country is also filing a federal lawsuit against the U.S. in San Francisco, naming President Barack Obama, the departments and secretaries of defense and energy and the National Nuclear Security Administration.

The Marshall Islands claims the nine countries are modernizing their nuclear arsenals instead of negotiating disarmament, and it estimates that they will spend $1 trillion on those arsenals over the next decade.

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Some 30,000 people demonstrate in the center of Copenhagen on Dec. 12, 2009 to turn up the heat on world leaders debating global warming at the U.N. climate conference
Attila Kisbenedek / AFP / Getty Images

A new study shows that human beings are too selfish to endure present pain to avert future climate change. That's why we need win-win solutions now

science.time.com - by Bryan Walsh - October 21, 2014

You want to know what the biggest obstacle to dealing with climate change is? Simple: time. It will take decades before the carbon dioxide we emit now begins to have its full effect on the planet’s climate. And by the same token, it will take decades before we are able to enjoy the positive climate effects of reducing carbon-dioxide emissions now.

Firewood is still the main fuel used by Mexico's poor, like this woman cooking in the southern state of Chiapas. Credit: Mauricio Ramos/IPS

MEXICO CITY, Apr 21 (IPS) - When Mexico's climate change law went into effect in October 2012, it drew international praise. But what has happened since then?

globalissues.org - by Emilio Godoy - April 21, 2014

The best illustration of the lack of action so far is the Climate Change Fund, created under the law to finance adaptation and greenhouse gas emissions reduction initiatives, with national and international funds.

In 2012 it was assigned just 78,000 dollars for administrative operations, but was given no funds to finance projects. And this year there is not even a specific budget allocation for the Fund.

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This is Dr. Fred Davies, US Agency for International Development senior science advisor for the agency's bureau of food security and a Texas A&M AgriLife Regents Professor of Horticultural Sciences.  Texas A&M AgriLife Research photo by Kathleen Phillips

agrilife.org - by Kathleen Phillips - April 18, 2014

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The world is less than 40 years away from a food shortage that will have serious implications for people and governments, according to a top scientist at the U.S. Agency for International Development.

“For the first time in human history, food production will be limited on a global scale by the availability of land, water and energy,” said Dr. Fred Davies, senior science adviser for the agency’s bureau of food security. “Food issues could become as politically destabilizing by 2050 as energy issues are today.”

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Eurekalert - Food shortages could be most critical world issue by mid-century