Global

Scientists Sound Alarm on Climate

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Justin Gillis
Mario J. Molina, who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1995 for his work on understanding the depletion of the ozone layer, led a stark new report on climate change.
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Early in his career, a scientist named Mario J. Molina was pulled into seemingly obscure research about strange chemicals being spewed into the atmosphere. Within a year, he had helped discover a global environmental emergency, work that would ultimately win aNobel Prize.

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The Most Disruptive Force on the Planet

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MoneyMorning.com.au
Everyone stands as Sheik Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the UAE, enters the World Future Energy Summit on January 20.
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The most disruptive technological force on the planet is happening quietly and relatively unseen by most of us.

When you plug your cellphone charger into a wall socket, you are probably connecting to one of about 500 coal-fired power plants in the United States.

What if all of them were shut down by 2050?

What if instead of getting your power from a centralised source, you got it from a small generating plant on top of your house or business or car?

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Peacekeeping Budgets Equal Less than Two Days of Military Spending

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Michael Renner
U.N. Peacekeeping Budget, 1950 - 2013
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The approved budget for United Nations peacekeeping operations from July 2013 to June 2014 runs to $7.83 billion—$390 million higher than in the previous year.1 (See Figure 1.) This is the third-highest budget since the record $8.26 billion spent in 2009–10.2 Despite some relatively minor fluctuations in the last seven years, peacekeeping budgets are much more stable now than in the 1990s, when a rapid rise in spending was followed by an abrupt decline.

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World must end 'dirty' fuel use - UN

Author: 

Matt McGrath
Scientists believe there needs to be a step change in the energy sector
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A long-awaited UN report on how to curb climate change says the world must rapidly move away from carbon-intensive fuels.

There must be a "massive shift" to renewable energy, says the study released in Berlin.

It has been finalised after a week of negotiations between scientists and government officials.

Natural gas is seen as a key bridge to move energy production away from oil and coal.

But there have been battles between participants over who will pay for this energy transition.

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Aquaculture Continues to Gain on Wild Fish Capture

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Michael Renner
Global Fish Production, 1950 - 2013
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According to preliminary estimates by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), total global fish production was expected to reach an all-time high of 160 million tons in 2013, up from 157.9 million tons in 2012. This figure includes a projected wild capture of 90 million tons, down from 91.3 million tons in the previous year and from 93.7 million tons in 2011.

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The most deadly creature on earth

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LENNY BERNSTEIN
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You were going to say humans, right? All those guns, bombs, chemicals and G0d-knows-what-else we use to kill each other.

Okay, we’re second, at 475,000 deaths annually. But it’s a distant second to the lowly mosquito, which, according to Bill Gates, kills 725,000 people a year; 600,000 of them by transmitting malaria. Another 200 million people are incapacitated annually by the disease.

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Plastic waste causing $13bn in damage: UN

Nairobi - The dumping of plastic waste into the world's oceans is causing at least $13bn a year of damage, threatening marine life, tourism and fisheries, the United Nations warned on Monday at the launch of a global environment conference.
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Nairobi - The dumping of plastic waste into the world's oceans is causing at least $13bn a year of damage, threatening marine life, tourism and fisheries, the United Nations warned on Monday at the launch of a global environment conference.

"Plastics have come to play a crucial role in modern life, but the environmental impacts of the way we use them cannot be ignored", said UN Environment Programme (UNEP) chief Achim Steiner said.

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