Category: Event

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Managing Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters for Advancement of Climate Change Adaptation. The full version of this report is expected to be published in February of next year. The Science Media Centre of the UK and the Science Media Centre of Canada (which also held a “webinar” on the…

As we were writing this article in Rio de Janeiro’s bohemian Lapa neighborhood, we heard the sound of tear gas being used by police to suppress mass protests against harsh austerity plans proposed by Brazil’s three-month-old conservative government. If approved, the so-called “Bridge to the Future” policy would impose a spending cap that would freeze the federal budget, but…

The US has attacked the Syrian airbase that was used to launch an suspected Sarin gas attack on Khan Sheikhun, which killed over 80 civilians. US President Donald Trump and Secretary of state Rex Tillerson cited the chemical attacks as the reason their country was involved in Syria’s six year war. According to a Pentagon spokesperson,…

Each year, disasters cause deaths, significant damage, hinder development, and lead to conflict and forced immigration. Unfortunately, there is a trend of increasing. In May 2017, disaster management experts and policy makers from more than 180 countries met in Cancun to discuss how to combat this trend. The Cancun Summit was interrupted by the news that large areas…

The ” march for the family” was held in September by 100 cities across all 32 Mexican states. It was a protest against a proposal that would legalize homosexual marriage. According to the National Front for Family coalition of civil societies and religious groups who organized the march, more than one million people took part. Other sources put the number at…

Since Rodrigo Duterte became president of the Philippines in 2016, international media has been very interested in Philippine politics. The international press has been much more interested in Philippine politics since Rodrigo Duterte was elected president in 2016. To understand Philippine politics in general – and Duterte’s success in particular — it is necessary to…

Carnival in this Caribbean island, which has 1.4 million residents – mostly descendants of indentured Indians and enslaved Africans — is not a mere imitation of similar celebrations in Rio de Janeiro and New Orleans. Instead, it combines African traditions and European pre-Lent festivals with Indian musical rhythms. It’s not surprising that over the last…

The siege in Aleppo has reached unprecedented levels of public awareness. Many people have claimed that the destruction of the city and the testimony of the wounded survivors who used social media to communicate with the world are causing a total meltdown of humankind. Some people have complained that the post-Holocaust cry ” Never Again” has proven meaningless and…

Recent street protests in Suriname haven’t made many international headlines. Only newspapers in neighbouring Guyana and in the Netherlands, the colonial metropole, have covered the marches in which thousands of people have taken to the streets in recent weeks to protest spiraling economic chaos. Suriname, a small nation on South America’s northern coast with a population of half…

Here are some shocking facts about the human impact on Earth. We have produced enough concrete to build a 2mm thick Earth replica. We’ve produced enough plastic for Earth to be wrapped in clingfilm. We are creating ” technofossils,” which is a term for congealed materials made by humans – concretes and plastics – which will…