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New Field Guide Explores Open Data Innovations in Disaster Risk and Resilience

Citizen mapping can help pinpoint damage and locate risks, such as hillside instability that could threaten communities.  GFDRR

worldbank.org - March 19, 2014

  • The new World Bank Group field guide provides practical guidance for governments and organizations as they build their own open data programs for addressing disaster risk and resilience.
  • It shows how participatory mapping projects can fill in government data gaps and keep existing data relevant as cities rapidly expand.
  • Among the guide’s success stories are projects that quickly mapped disaster damage in the Philippines after Typhoon Yolanda and helped improve urban planning in Kathmandu.

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CLICK HERE -  Open Data for Resilience Initiative: Field Guide (134 page .PDF file)

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IPCC Report: Climate Change Felt on All Continents and Across the Oceans

      

Smoke billowing from a plant in Tokyo Bay, Japan. Government officials and scientists are gathered in Yokohama this week ahead of the launch of the IPCC report. Photograph: Franck Robichon/EPA

Leaked text of blockbuster report says changes in climate have already caused impacts on natural and human systems

theguardian.com - by Suzanne Goldenberg - March 28, 2014

Climate change has already left its mark "on all continents and across the oceans", damaging food crops, spreading disease, and melting glaciers, according to the leaked text of a blockbuster UN climate science report due out on Monday.

Government officials and scientists are gathered in Yokohama this week to wrangle over every line of a summary of the report before the final wording is released on Monday – the first update in seven years.

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Exxon's Russia Partnerships Challenge US Exports as Energy Weapon Narrative

      

Credit: New York Times

huffingtonpost.com - by Steve Horn - March 17, 2014

. . . Yet even as some say we are witnessing the beginning of a "new cold war," few have discussed the ties binding major U.S. oil and gas companies with Russian state oil and gas companies.

The ties that bind, as well as other real logistical and economic issues complicate the narrative of exports as an "energy weapon."

The situation in Ukraine is a simple one at face value, at least from an energy perspective.

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ALSO SEE ADDITIONAL INFORMATION IN ARTICLES BELOW:

Post Crimea, Exxon's Partnership With Rosneft Feels Weird

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Big Facts: Climate Impacts on People

      

ccafs.cgiar.org - by Simon Bager - March 26, 2014

Millions of people around the world already struggle to achieve food security and climate change is set to make those challenges even harder. It is perhaps humanity’s most pressing challenge, as we seek to nourish more than nine billion people by 2050.

(CLICK HERE FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION AND INFOGRAPHICS)

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Fisheries and Aquaculture Fact Sheet - Earth Policy Institute

earth-policy.org - March 27, 2014

The world fish catch is a measure of the productivity and health of the oceanic ecosystem that covers 70 percent of the earth's surface. The extent to which world demand for seafood is outrunning the sustainable yield of fisheries can be seen in shrinking fish stocks, declining catches, and collapsing fisheries.

Seafood plays a vital role in world food security. Roughly 3 billion people get about 20 percent of their animal protein from fishery products.

The world fish catch has hovered around 90 million tons over the last 20 years.

The wild fish catch per person has dropped dramatically, from 17 kilograms (37.5 pounds) per person at its height in 1988 to 13 kilograms in 2012—a 37-year low.

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sigma - No 01/2014 Natural Catastrophes and Man-Made Disasters in 2013

submitted by Tim Siftar

swissre.com

According to the latest sigma study, global insured losses from natural catastrophes and man-made disasters were USD 45 billion in 2013, down from USD 81 billion in 2012. Of the 2013 insured losses, USD 37 billion were generated by natural catastrophes, with hail in Europe and floods in many regions being the main drivers.

(CLICK HERE FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION AND LINKS TO THE STUDY)

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Ebola victims quarantined in Guinea

 — Health workers in protective hazmat suits treated patients in quarantine centers on Tuesday in a remote corner of Guinea where Ebola has killed at least 60 people in West Africa's first outbreak of the deadly virus in two decades.

Seven patients are being hospitalized at one isolation ward in Gueckedou in southern Guinea, while two others are being treated elsewhere, said Doctors Without Borders. The aid group said it is sending mobile teams into the surrounding countryside in search of people who may have been exposed since the first cases emerged last week.

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New Report Reveals U.S. Fisheries Killing Thousands of Protected and Endangered Species

oceana.org - March 20, 2014

(CLICK HERE - REPORT -
Wasted Catch: Unsolved Problems in U.S. Fisheries)

thedailybeast.com - by Abby Haglage - March 23, 2014

A new report by Oceana exposes nine U.S. fisheries that throw away half of what they catch, and kill dolphins, sea turtles, whales, and more in the process.

A new study released this week called Wasted Catch: Unsolved Bycatch Problems in U.S. Fisheries reveals the nine dirtiest fisheries in the United States. It’s a dirty bunch indeed, the waste between them accounting for nearly half a billion wasted seafood meals in the U.S. alone.

Culled by Oceana, the largest international organization for ocean conservation, the fisheries are ranked based on bycatch—the amount of unwanted creatures caught while commercial fishing.

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Exxon to Disclose Extent of Its Carbon Asset Exposure

newscientist.com - by Andy Coghlan - March 25, 2014

Oil giant Exxon Mobil has promised to reveal how much of its fossil fuel reserves could become worthless if governments agree to cut greenhouse gas emissions. It is the first major fossil fuel company to declare the size of its exposure to the so-called carbon bubble – the over-valuation of fossil fuel companies that could result if their assets are left unused.

To save ourselves from the worst impacts of global warming, we have to leave fossil fuels in the ground instead of burning them.

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