Images: In Spain, the unemployment rate is over 50 percent among young people (Samuel Aranda for The New York Times)

nytimes.com - September 24th, 2012 - Suzanne Daley

On a recent evening, a hip-looking young woman was sorting through a stack of crates outside a fruit and vegetable store here in the working-class neighborhood of Vallecas as it shut down for the night.

At first glance, she looked as if she might be a store employee. But no. The young woman was looking through the day’s trash for her next meal.

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Reuters - by Nina Chestney
September 27, 2012

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LONDON: More than 100 million people will die and global economic growth will be cut by 3.2 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) by 2030 if the world fails to tackle climate change, a report commissioned by 20 governments said on Wednesday.

As global average temperatures rise due to greenhouse gas emissions, the effects on the planet, such as melting ice caps, extreme weather, drought and rising sea levels, will threaten populations and livelihoods, said the report conducted by humanitarian organisation DARA.

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Report - Climate Vulnerability Monitor: A Guide to the Cold Calculus of A Hot Planet
http://daraint.org/climate-vulnerability-monitor/climate-vulnerability-monitor-2012/report/

Image: Barack Obama paid a personal tribute to Chris Stevens, the US ambassador to Libya who was killed in the attack on Benghazi. Photograph: Mary Altaffer/AP

guardian.co.uk - September 25th, 2012 - Julian Borger

President Barack Obama today sought to reset US relations with the Arab world in the wake of anti-American riots triggered by an amateur video insulting the prophet Mohamed, that led to the death of the US ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens.

Obama used his speech to the UN general assembly, expected to be his last major foreign policy address before the November elections, to pay a personal tribute to Stevens, highlighting the murdered diplomat's passion for Arab culture and support for democracy, and present it a model for American-Arab relations.

The president also restated the US position on the Iran nuclear programme: that there was still time for diplomacy, but not "unlimited time".

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submitted by Albert Gomez

bethkanter.org - by Beth Kanter - September 20, 2012

“Cloud Computing” is when you use software on the Internet versus your local hard drive or local computer network.  It makes your data and documents available anywhere, anytime.

TechSoup has just released the results of a global study of NGOs about cloud computing with some interesting findings.

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2012 Global Cloud Computing Translated Survey Results
http://www.techsoupglobal.org/translated-cloud-reports

submitted by Samuel Bendett

inhabitat.com - by Lidija Grozdanic - September 12, 2012

Moscow authorities recently announced the results of the Moscow Agglomeration Competition for the Moscow metropolitan area. The 3-stage international competition called for master plan designs for the city that include the existing city development and the design of new city districts (Federal City, Innovation City, Logistics City and Science City). Entrants responded with ambitious urban planning proposals that include massive green belts, high-speed transportation systems and zero-waste, zero-emission buidlings - read on for a closer look!

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Image: A Google map locating protests around the world tied to a low-budget video produced in canyon country north of Los Angeles. Photograph: Google

guardian.co.uk - September 14th, 2012 - Matthew Weaver, Brian Whitaker and Tom McCarthy   

Protest activity smoldered in Cairo, Tunisia, Lebanon and elsewhere after a day of upheaval in the Middle East and North Africa. Relatively small but intense protests outside US embassies across the region resulted in multiple fatalities in Tunis and at least one each in Lebanon and Cairo.

Gunmen staged a raid on a peacekeepers' outpost in Sinai, with three foreign soldiers, believed to be Colombian, reportedly injured. The raid was described as major, with dozens of fighters and vehicles, and was not of a kind with the protests outside US diplomatic outposts.

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Image: Graph of food riots over time and against food prices.

Submitted by Samuel Bendett

inhabitat.com - September 12th, 2012 - Timon Singh

A few years ago, Sir John Beddington, the UK government’s chief scientific advisor stated that with the world’s population growing, food supplies diminishing, and water supplies becoming more scarce, all of these factors would combine to form a ‘perfect storm’ in 2030 resulting in food shortages and rioting. However, the New England Complex Systems Institute believes he is way too optimistic with his timing. In fact, the complexity theorists think that if we don’t reverse the current trend in food prices, we’ve got until August 2013 before social unrest sweeps the planet.

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Somali girls line up to receive a hot meal in Mogadishu last year after the worst drought in the Horn of Africa in decades, compounded by war, put millions in danger of starvation.  Roberto Schmmidt/AFP/Getty Images

npr.org - by Elizabeth Shogren - September 6, 2012

Reducing greenhouse gases and saving the polar bears tend to dominate discussions on climate change. But to the booming world population, one climate change issue may be even more pressing – hunger.

A new report by a leading international relief agency warns that climate change will increase the risk of large spikes in global food prices in the future, and lead to more hungry people in the world.

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Oxfam report - Extreme Weather, Extreme Prices
http://www.oxfamamerica.org/publications/extreme-weather-extreme-prices

Image: Involve communities specially in informal settlements (Photo: Julius Mwelu/IRIN)

irinnews.org - September 6th, 2012

With more than half the world now living in urban centres, city residents’ quality of life, vulnerability to natural hazards and diets are matters of growing importance, drawing significant attention at the World Urban Forum in Naples, Italy, this week.

Two major studies launched to coincide with the Forum explore these issues. Both focus on the role of local governments and community initiatives in shaping sustainable policies for poor urban dwellers: Growing Greener Cities in Africa, a report from the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO); and the Making Cities Resilient Report 2012, produced by the London-based International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) for the UN Office for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR).

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submitted by Albert Gomez

good.is - by Rosie Spinks - September 6, 2012

When disaster strikes a place like Haiti, Somalia, or Indonesia, the response in the developed world usually follows a similar trajectory: massive aid appeal from local NGOs supported by celebrity faces, a large influx of funds from reliably generous Americans, and an eventual petering out of urgent media coverage in the ensuing weeks.

While media coverage of international tragedies may appear to reach saturation levels at times, the story of how those aid dollars affect local economies is not so well told.

“After a disaster, there is more money [from donors] than you can shake a stick at,” says Howard Sharman, senior consultant for the UK-based relief project Advance Aid.

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Image: Rotting corn was damaged by severe drought on a farm near Bruceville, Indiana.

submitted by Samuel Bendett

cnn.com - September 3rd, 2012 - David Frum

Prediction: 2013 will be a year of serious global crisis. That crisis is predictable, and in fact has already begun. It will inescapably confront the next president of the United States. Yet this emerging crisis got not a mention at the Republican National Convention in Tampa.

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in.reuters.com - September 5th, 2012

The website of Qatar-based satellite news network Al Jazeera was apparently hacked on Tuesday by Syrian government loyalists for what they said was the television channel's support for the "armed terrorist groups and spreading lies and fabricated news".

A Syrian flag and statement denouncing Al Jazeera's "positions against the Syrian people and government" were posted on the Arabic site of the channel in response to its coverage of the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad which began in March last year.

Al Jazeera took the lead in covering the uprisings across the Arab world, and Qatar, one of the Sunni-led states in the region, publicly backed the predominantly Sunni rebel movement in Syria against Assad's Alawite-led government.

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submitted by Samuel Bendett

homelandsecuritynewswire.com - September 4th, 2012

Earth’s growing human population needs fresh water for drinking and food production. Fresh water, however, is also needed for the growth of biomass, which acts as a sink of carbon dioxide and thus could help mitigate climate change. Does the Earth have enough freshwater resources to meet these competing demands?

An American Geophysical Union release reports that J. Rockström and colleagues, in their recent study, estimate the order of magnitude of freshwater consumption needed to feed a population of nine billion people by 2050 and the amount of water needed to realize the planet’s full biomass carbon sequestration potential.

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aljazeera.com - Chris Arsenault - August 26th, 2012

The author Mark Twain once remarked that "whisky is for drinking; water is for fighting over" and a series of reports from intelligence agencies and research groups indicate the prospect of a water war is becoming increasingly likely.

In March, a report from the office of the US Director of National Intelligence said the risk of conflict would grow as water demand is set to outstrip sustainable current supplies by 40 per cent by 2030.

"These threats are real and they do raise serious national security concerns," Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, said after the report's release.

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