Central Asia
Next: Free Siberia?
In a little-noted irony, as Vladiimir Putin backs the "People's Republics" in eastern Ukraine, he has cracked down on a separatist movement that has emerged in Siberia.
Tag: climate destabilization
The Amazon
Brazil cracks down on Amazon ‘land traffickers’
Authorities in Brazil arrested several members of a criminal "land trafficking" gang described as "the greatest destroyers" of the Amazon rainforest.
Iraq
Control of water at issue in Iraq conflict
The taking of the Mosul Dam on the Tigris River from ISIS by Peshmerga forces backed by US air power highlights the strategic nature of water in the multi-sided Iraq conflict.
Planet Watch
Obama climate plan: too little, too late
The EPA's Clean Power Plan, bashed by the GOP and industry as draconian, would cut carbon emissions by a grossly insufficient 7% by 2030—and of course through market mechanisms.
South Asia
Mt. Everest disaster and global climate shift
Sherpas who guide tourists up Mount Everest go on strike following the deadly avalanche—as destabilization of the Himalayan glaciers portends more such disasters.
Southern Cone
Chile: was Valparaíso fire a ‘natural disaster’?
Decades of uncontrolled urban growth in an area naturally prone to forest fires left Valparaíso's working-class neighborhoods vulnerable to devastation.
Mexico
Mexico: bidding set to start on energy sector
As expected, Mexico's "energy reform" will provide a big opening for multinationals, along with more fracking, more deep-sea drilling, and more carbon dioxide.
Watching the Shadows
Obama’s fifth year: a World War 4 Report scorecard
World War 4 Report offers its annual annotated assessment of Obama's moves in dismantling, continuing or escalating the apparatus of the Global War on Terrorism.
Planet Watch
Polar Vortex: Yes, it’s global warming!
Climate-change denialists are gloating at the "Polar Vortex"—failing to understand that it was unleashed by destabilization of the Jet Stream due to loss of arctic ice cover.
Africa
Disease, hunger fears after Somalia cyclone
Two weeks after a devastating cyclone struck Somalia’s autonomous enclave of Puntland, nomadic pastoralists are especially at risk, with much of their livestock wiped out.
East Asia
Fukushima: the greatest danger comes now…
As nuclear boosters tout a dubious WHO study finding minimal excess cancer risks from the Fukushima disaster, TEPCO's new phase in the clean-up holds even greater peril.
Greater Middle East
Did climate change spark Syria crisis?
A jet stream blockage related to climate change caused the Russian wheat crop to fail in 2010, halting exports to Syria and the Arab world, and fueling unrest and revolt.