Trump billboard in Mumbai confirmed to be real – ‘There is only one way to live. The Trump way.’

30 December 2016 (Snopes) – An image purportedly showing a billboard advertisement for Trump Tower Mumbai — which shows a photograph of the American businessman and President-elect alongside the slogan “There is only one way to live” with a group of apparently homeless people sitting and sleeping in the street beneath it — was circulated […]

Chinese officials seize 3.1 tons of pangolin scales – Up to 7,500 of the endangered creatures may have been killed

28 December 2016 (AFP) – Chinese customs seized over three tonnes of pangolin scales, state media said, in the country’s biggest-ever smuggling case involving the animal parts. Shanghai Customs found around 3.1 tonnes of pangolin scales mixed in with a container of wood products imported from Nigeria, state broadcaster CCTV reported Tuesday. It estimated up […]

Cheetah population crashes, with only 7,100 cheetahs remaining globally

New York (Panthera) – The world’s fastest land animal, the cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus), is sprinting towards the edge of extinction and could soon be lost forever unless urgent, landscape-wide conservation action is taken, according to a study published today in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Led by Zoological Society of London […]

Graph of the Day: Net favorability of Vladimir Putin and Russia among U.S. Republicans and Democrats, 2011-2016

14 December 2016 (Desdemona Despair) – These graphs show the poll results for U.S. Republicans and Democrats when asked about their feelings toward Russia and Vladimir Putin. Over the two-year period from 2014 to 2016, the net favorability of Republicans toward Putin increased by 56 points. Data are from the YouGov/Economist poll, 10-13 December 2016; […]

Caught in “poverty trap”, least developed countries being left behind – UN report

15 December 2016 (United Nations) – Even as the international community pledged to ‘leave no one behind’ with the adoption of the 2030 Agenda, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) has warned that without stronger global support, 48 of the world’s most vulnerable countries will lose ground in economic development and face […]

On global warming and the economy, we’re trapped in an idiotic netherworld

By Greg Jericho10 December 2016 (The Guardian) – This week was a prime example of how economics and, by extension, politics doesn’t cope very well with the issue of climate change. The news that Australia economy went backwards in the September quarter was greeted with alarm by politicians and then used as a reason to […]

Donald Trump and the triumph of climate-change denial

By Clare Foran 25 December 2016 (The Atlantic) – Denial of the broad scientific consensus that human activity is the primary cause of global warming could become a guiding principle of Donald Trump’s presidential administration. Though it’s difficult to pin down exactly what Trump thinks about climate change, he has a well-established track record of […]

Ominous revision to Wisconsin government site on climate change removes science on climate change

26 December 2016 (Earthy Robot) – Wisconsin’s Department of Natural Resources has removed “climate change” from its website page that describes the impact of climate change. Contact the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources to let them know that science matters and that Governor Scott Walker‘s personal agenda of denial is irrelevant. Luckily, the internet remembers. […]

Hundreds of species are already going locally extinct because of global warming – “In some ways, this is just the beginning”

By Sean Greene13 December 2016 (The Los Angeles Times) – As the planet warms, species around the world are engaged in a race against time to either adapt or move to cooler habitats. Hundreds of them are already losing, according to a recent study in PLoS Biology. As animals and plants move to higher elevations […]

Children of Men, ten years later

25 December 2016 (Desdemona Despair) – Ten years ago today, Children of Men, the brilliant, dystopian science fiction film, debuted in the United States. Directed by Alfonso Cuarón, Children of Men portrays Britain in the year 2027 as the last bastion of civilization standing against the imminent extinction of the human species. In 2006, Cuarón […]

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