Category: Earth Intelligence

The New Fragile States Landscape: Shades, Shifts and Shake-ups

by Juana de Catheu & Emmanuel Letouzé

Global Observatory, Wednesday, December 12, 2012

This article summarizes the main findings and arguments presented in the recent OECD report Fragile states 2013: Resource flows and trends in a shifting world, by its co-authors.

From Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, fragile states face common challenges: they host less than one-fifth of the world’s population yet are home to one-third of the world’s poor; they are more vulnerable to external and internal shocks—including armed violence—than other countries; and, in contrast to other developing countries who have managed significant progress towards the MDGs, not one of these countries has achieved a single Millennium Development Goal. They constitute most of the MDG deficit: seven in ten infant deaths and six in ten undernourished people are found in fragile states. Struggling to meet the challenges of basic survival, poverty-stricken populations in fragile situations are less equipped to deal with volatile changes, whether political, environmental, or economic. Behind these symptoms of fragility lays a limited state ability to develop mutually constructive relations with society and to carry out basic governance functions.

But, paraphrasing Tolstoy’s line, “Every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way,” all fragile states are fragile in their own way. The 47 countries and economies used for quantitative analysis in the 2013 OECD report on fragile states constitute a diverse group, adding to the challenge of effective engagement and significant development impact. Some of them–including Angola, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Chad, Mozambique and Rwanda–have been among the fastest-growing countries of the past decade, whereas over the same period, in contrast, countries like Sudan, Chad, Eritrea, and Zimbabwe lost economic ground.

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Link Found Between Global Warming and Increased Volcanic Activity

DARREN QUICK – GizMag

Another piece of the climate change trend falls into place.

SOURCE: Steffen Kutterolf, Marion Jegen, Jerry X. Mitrovica, Tom Kwasnitschka, Armin Freundt and Peter J. Huybers.
A detection of Milankovitch frequencies in global volcanic activity. Geology. November 30, 2012, doi: 10.1130/G33419.1

It’s no secret that volcanic eruptions can cool the planet by spewing ash and droplets of sulfuric acid into the atmosphere that obscure the sun. Now researchers at Germany’s GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel and Harvard University have found evidence that suggest the reverse could also be true. The researchers have discovered a strong historical link between global temperature increases and increases in volcanic activity.

Using observations of ash layers in cores taken from the seafloor around the Pacific region, the researchers reconstructed the history of volcanic eruptions for the past one million years. When they compared this data with the climate history, they found that periods of fast, global temperature increases and associated ice melting were followed with periods of high volcanic activity.

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Regulators Under Fire for Keeping Fracking Pollution Test Results Under Wraps

Mike Ludwig

truthout.org, 11 December 2012

Residents living in the shadow of fracking rigs say they've suffered from headaches, nosebleeds and other health effects since drilling began in their communities. Meanwhile, state agencies refuse to release the results of air and water pollution tests.

Thirty years ago, Jenny and Tom Lisak moved into a historic farmhouse in Pennsylvania's rural Jefferson County. The couple raised three children there and established a certified organic farm they named LadyBug Farm.

“When living in the country, your time is marked by nature and each season comes with its own smells, sounds and colors,” Jenny Lisak recently told environmental researchers. “But those colors have faded and our wellbeing, livelihood and dreams are now threatened.”

The trouble started when the oil and gas boom hit Jefferson County and rolled into the Lisak's neighborhood. First came the trucks carrying equipment and supplies in a stream of constant traffic; then oil and gas wells were drilled near LadyBug farm.

Continue reading “SchwartzReport: Regulators Keep Fracking Pollution Test Results From Public — Betrayal of the Public Trust!”