Archive for 2019

14/10/2019

Satellites Record Second Lowest Arctic Sea Ice Extent Since 1979

14 October 2019 (UN Environment)*The polar oceans are among the most rapidly changing oceans in the world. The yearly cycle of the build-up and melting of Artic sea ice is one of the earth’s vital signs and a key climate variable monitored by scientists.

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Photo by Pxhere (Posted here from UN Environment)

While they may be far from the world’s major population centres, changes in the polar regions have global implications: they affect the world’s climate through carbon storage and/or release, heat balance, and other environmental and ecological impacts.

One of the most visible indicators of this change is the reduction in the extent of Arctic sea ice by the end of September each year.

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14/10/2019

Trump’s Major Crimes

Human Wrongs Watch

By John Scales Avery – TRANSCEND Media Service

Impeachment Finally Under Way

The long-delayed impeachment proceedings against Donald Trump are finally starting, but at present the focus is on a relatively minor crime–the Ukraine/Biden scandal. However, Trump has committed (and is still committing) major crimes and these ought to be in the spotlight. Let us look at a few of them.

Let’s Look at His Major Crimes, Rather than at Minor Ones:

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14/10/2019

Austerity, the “New Normal”

Human Wrongs Watch

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WASHINGTON DC, Oct 11 2019 (IPS)* While this week Ministers of Finance and economists meet in Washington to confront global economic challenges at the IMF and World Bank Annual Meetings, the majority of the world population lives with austerity cuts and see their living standards deteriorating. World leaders must reverse this trend.

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Isabel Ortiz

Since 2010, most governments in both high income and developing counties have been implementing austerity policies, cutting public expenditures.

Surprisingly, this trend is expected to continue at least until 2024, according to a global study just published by the Initiative for Policy Dialogue at Columbia University, global trade unions and civil society organizations. Austerity has become “the new normal.”

Based on IMF fiscal projections, the study finds that a new fiscal adjustment shock will start in 2020.

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14/10/2019

Human Violence: Pervasive, Multi-dimensional and Extinction-threatening

Human Wrongs Watch

By Robert J. Burrowes*

DAYLESFORD, Australia, 13 October 2019Violence is pervasive throughout human society and it has a vast range of manifestations.

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Robert J. Burrowes

Moreover, some of these manifestations – particularly the threat of nuclear war (which might start regionally), the climate catastrophe and the ongoing ecological devastation, as well as geoengineering and the deployment of 5G – threaten imminent human extinction if not contained.

Separately from these extinction-threatening manifestations, however, violence occurs in a huge range of other contexts denying many people the freedom, human rights and opportunities necessary for a meaningful life.

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13/10/2019

Farewell to the World Social Forum?

Human Wrongs Watch

By Roberto Savio – Other News*

LOOKING BACK

The first World Social Forum in 2001 ushered in the new century with a bold affirmation: “Another world is possible.”

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Roberto Savio

That gathering in Porto Alegre, Brazil, stood as an alternative and a challenge to the World Economic Forum, held at the same time an ocean away in the snowy Alps of Davos, Switzerland.

A venue for power elites to set the course of world development, the WEF was then, and remains now, the symbol for global finance, unchecked capitalism, and the control of politics by multinational corporations.

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13/10/2019

Are We Ready to Fight an A.I.?

Human Wrongs Watch

By Fernando Velázquez*

A.I. at the service of Malware

27 September  2019 (Wall Street International)*  —  Some time ago in this magazine, we talked about the possibility of A.I.’s stagnation in very specific matters regarding behavior and development models, that could take a long time to evolve and generate innovations truly impacting the field.

A.I. at the service of Malware
A.I. at the service of Malware | Image from Wall Street International.
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13/10/2019

When We Protect Nature, Nature Protects Us

13/10/2019

UN’s Cash Crisis Can Have Serious Consequences, Staff Unions Warn

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UNITED NATIONS, Oct 10 2019 (IPS)* The UN’s smoldering cash crisis, which has threatened staff salaries and payments to vendors, has triggered strong reactions and rattled the over 6,400 staffers who work in the 39-storeyed Secretariat building in New York.

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13/10/2019

At $716 Billion, the US Military Budget Is Bigger Than Those of 144 Countries Combined and Largest Contributor to Climate Change

Human Wrongs Watch

By Antonio C. S. Rosa | Editor – TRANSCEND Media Service*

“State sovereignty is a goner. Bankism and Military Capitalism rule the world in all respects now.
“Militaries are the ultimate manifestation of direct, structural and cultural violence—a cancer that must be extirpated from humanity.

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13/10/2019

How Are Donald Trump and the Cell Phone Alike?

Human Wrongs Watch

19 October 2019 (Wall Street International)*The non-United States of America is in dire need of replacing a “reality” president with a real president, one who is mentally, morally and physically strong and with enough intelligence to manage the complexity and stamina that the position requires. Such attributes as intelligence, mastery of knowledge, mental stability, honesty and courage matter, as we have learned too well in the last three years. Without this change, I doubt that the country can survive and certainly not as a world leader and a democracy.
Donald Trump
Donald Trump  | Photo from Wall Street International.