Group items tagged

"0.85 - the amount in degrees Celsius that the world's land and oceans warmed between 1880 and 2012. 3.7 - the amount in Celsius of extra global surface warming we will likely get between 2081 and 2100 if greenhouse gas emissions stay roughly on their current path. 14 - the number of chapters in the full Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis report. Australian scientists feature as authors in 11. 19 - the amount in centimetres the world's oceans have risen between 1901 and 2010. 36 - the number of pages in the summary document. 39 - the number of countries represented in the list of authors and review editors for the full report. 40 - the percentage rise in the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere between the years 1750 and 2011. 55 - the number of countries represented in the list of expert reviewers. 63 - the amount in centimetres of extra sea level rise we will likely get between 2081 and 2100 if greenhouse gas emissions stay roughly on their current path. 90 - the percentage of the extra energy in the climate system between 1971 and 2010 that has been taken up by warming oceans. 209 - the number of lead authors who worked on the full report. 600+ - the number of contributing authors to the full report. 1089 - the number of self-appointed expert reviewers of the full report. 1250 - the number of figures (that's charts, graphs and other eye candy) contained in the full report. 2000+ - the number of pages in the full draft of Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis. 9,200 - the number of scientific publications cited in the full report. 54,677 - the number of comments made on the full report by the group of self-appointed expert reviewers. 1,400,000 - the number of words in the full report. 2,000,000+ - the amount in gigabytes of numerical data gathered from computers running models of the world's climate systems. 30,000,000,000 - the tonnes of ice that "likely" melted from the Antarctic Ice Sheet on average each ye

"THE best quality of life of any of the world's urbanites is still enjoyed by Melburnians, according to the latest Liveability report by the Economist Intelligence Unit, our corporate sibling. For the third year in a row Australia's second city has kept a hair's breadth ahead of Vienna and Vancouver, which spent almost a decade in first place before Melbourne's reign began. The ranking scores 140 cities on a scale of zero to 100 for each of 30 factors such as the quality of public healthcare or the threat of military conflict. These 30 values are then combined to create scores in five areas: stability, infrastructure, education, health care, and culture and environment. A weighted average of those five numbers gives each city its final score."

"SOMETIME in 2013 Lagos will overtake Cairo to become Africa's largest city. This is confirmation of a decisive shift away from the ends of the continent and towards its tropical middle. Within a decade Lagos will have 16m people; Kinshasa, in Congo, will have 15m. The standard view of cities as generators of wealth, diversity and ideas will be challenged in Africa. To become liveable, cities will have to improve public transport, address rising violent crime and generate opportunities for young Africans. In 2013, over half of all city-dwellers will be under 18 and every African election will be decided, statistically at least, by first-time voters. What is certain is that African cities will be the most informal economies in the world in 2013. Some 70% of workers will live on their wits, relying on day labour to make enough to eat, pay rent and send their children to school. That will make cities dynamic and mobile, but also combustible. See full article."

"The world's wealthiest people aren't known for travelling by bus, but if they fancied a change of scene then the richest 85 people on the globe - who between them control as much wealth as the poorest half of the global population put together - could squeeze onto a single double-decker. The extent to which so much global wealth has become corralled by a virtual handful of the so-called 'global elite' is exposed in a new report from Oxfam on Monday. It warned that those richest 85 people across the globe share a combined wealth of £1tn, as much as the poorest 3.5 billion of the world's population."

What is it about London? Population growth is slowing across most of Europe - people are having fewer children and, it could be argued, steps are being taken to try to reduce social inequalities. But London is unusual. London continues growing, and London is becoming more youthful. The middle aged and those who are poor, but not desperately poor, are being squeezed out. Graduates from the rest of Britain and the rest of the world flow in ever greater numbers and require ever higher degrees of optimism. Many fail to achieve their aspirations. Above them a few are becoming ever richer. Below them, as private rents and social housing becomes too expensive for huge numbers of lowly paid families and many leave, a new poor may be growing, less well documented, less well protected, with even less to lose.

"The west has in recent years undergone a prolonged and painful financial crisis. In contrast, much of Africa has experienced relatively more rapid economic growth. While there are questions about the environmental impact, sustainability and quality of Africa's growth, what accounts for these different economic trajectories? Part of the explanation lies in the growth of the Brics (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) economies. These are largely responsible for higher African economic growth through increased demand for primary commodities and investment in mining, infrastructure and other sectors. They are also changing the nature of globalisation."

"Changes to China's strict one-child policy that will allow more parents to have a second child will begin to roll out early next year, according to state media. The policy change is expected to go into force in some areas of China in the first quarter of 2014, Yang Wenzhuang, a director at the National Health and Family Planning Commission, told the official Xinhua news agency. Beijing said last month it would allow millions of families to have two children, the most radical relaxation of its strict one-child policy in nearly three decades. The move is part of a plan to raise fertility rates and ease the financial burden on China's rapidly ageing population."

"Satellite images show how the march of progress has altered the face of the earth in just a few decades. The images were all taken by a fleet of Earth-observing satellites that form part of the 'Landsat' program, which celebrates its 40th anniversary on 23 July."

"IN HER parents' bare brick-built shack in southern Beijing, Li Xue sifts through piles of court verdicts, petitions and other papers that record her family's struggle for most of the 20 years of her life to secure a simple document: a household registration certificate, the basic building block of official identity in China. Because she was born in violation of China's one-child-per-couple policy, local officials will not give her one. As a result she could not go to school. She now cannot get a job, nor get married, nor even buy a train or plane ticket. Despite recent moves to relax family-planning rules, the ordeal for Ms Li (pictured) is still far from over."

"Flying over East Asia, astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) took this night image of the Korean Peninsula. Unlike daylight images, city lights at night illustrate dramatically the relative economic importance of cities, as gauged by relative size. In this north-looking view, it is immediately obvious that greater Seoul is a major city and that the port of Gunsan is minor by comparison. There are 25.6 million people in the Seoul metropolitan area-more than half of South Korea's citizens-while Gunsan's population is 280,000."

In particular, the OECD's projections for 2060 (at constant purchasing-power parities) show the impact of fast catch-up growth in underdeveloped countries with big populations. Economic power will tilt even more decisively away from the rich world than many realise. In 2011 the current membership of the OECD made up 65% of global output, compared with a combined 24% for China and India. By 2060 the two Asian giants will have a 46% share of world GDP, the OECD members a shrunken 42%. India's economy will be a bit bigger than America's, China's a lot.

"Syria has disappeared from the internet. That's not an exaggeration either, nearly the entire Middle Eastern country has been cut off from the web. A post from research company Renesys reveals that what effectively amounts to all of Syria's internet connectivity shut down earlier today: Starting at 10:26 UTC (12:26pm in Damascus), Syria's international Internet connectivity shut down. In the global routing table, all 84 of Syria's IP address blocks have become unreachable, effectively removing the country from the Internet. We are investigating the dynamics of the outage and will post updates as they become available. A more detailed post reveals that 77 networks, representing 92% of the routed networks in the country experienced an outage. The outage comes among increasing violence in the country. According to the Daily Star, the government cut off internet as well as cell phone activity amid increasingly fierce clashes between government troops and rebels."

"What kills people around the world - and how does it vary by country? The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation have published their latest report in to the global burden of disease today and alongside the release have launched a range of visualisations showing how the data breaks down by country. Explore one of the new interactives below and see how causes of death have changed over time. Use the drop down menu to view data by a specific country and to change indicator"

"WHAT EXACTLY IS THE GIRL EFFECT? The girl effect is a movement. It's about leveraging the unique potential of adolescent girls to end poverty for themselves, their families, their communities, their countries and the world. It's about making girls visible and changing their social and economic dynamics by providing them with specific, powerful and relevant resources. Created by the Nike Foundation in collaboration with the NoVo Foundation, United Nations Foundation and Coalition for Adolescent Girls, the girl effect is fuelled by hundreds of thousands of girl champions who recognise the untapped potential of adolescent girls living in poverty."

The rise of megacities - interactive By 2025, the developing world, as we understand it now, will be home to 29 megacities. We explore the latest UN estimates and forecasts on the growth of these 'cities on steroids', and take a look at the challenges and opportunities megacities present for the tens of millions living in Lagos, Mexico City and Dhaka

"Home News by technology Apple faces fresh labor abuse allegations Apple faces fresh labor abuse allegations Apple's in hot water once more By Lily Prasuethsut  September 6th 0 COMMENTS Trouble for the big Apple Related stories iPhone 5S release date set for Sept. 20? T-Mobile workers' holiday plans shelved Double dates? New iPhones may go on sale Sept. 20 and Sept. 27 Was the iPhone 5C caught running iOS 7 on camera? Though the bubbly invitations have been sent for Apple's Sept. 10 Cupertino event where we might finally see the iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C, recent reports once again, show a darker side of Apple. China Labor Watch released a statement today about the conditions of Jabil Green Point, a U.S. owned factory in Wuxi, China purportedly producing the cheap iPhone. Apple has already been in hot water earlier this summer when the Watch reported labor violations at Pegatron facilities. Poor working and living conditions, and the use of underage employees at Pegatron, were similar to previous investigations of Apple's other major supplier, Foxconn."

"This video is part of a series that won a Pulitzer Prize for explanatory reporting on April 15, 2013 bit.ly/11aWqlz. See the entire iECONOMY series here nyti.ms/ZDNRNA For the New York Times | By Jonah M. Kessel In the winter of 2011, I visited the Foxconn factory in Chengdu, China, where many popular Apple products are made. However, I was not greeted with open arms. Foxconn denied any interviews and did not allowed us access to their facility. Employees of Foxconn we found outside the factory gates complained of grimm working conditions. (That report here: vimeo.com/35674511) Over the year, the New York Times and other media outlets reported on this and Apple responded saying they would improve conditions for workers. One year later, I returned to Foxconn with New York Times' Hong Kong Bureau Chief Keith Bradsher as well as factories producing for Hewlett-Packard in Western China, to see what had changed since our initial investigations. This time around, Foxconn in Chengdu allowed us to interview employees as well as visit employee dormitories. Their reaction a year later showed a culture change. While at HP, manufactories there gave us full access to work areas, recreational areas, dormitories and eating facilities. This video documents what we found."

"What is known about the laws and policies that shape children's lives globally? Previously, few global maps showcased children's rights in countries around the world. The Children's Chances website allows you to view maps of key policies for children's healthy development, and answer pressing questions such as: Can children in your country go to school? How many countries protect children from child labor? In which countries is child marriage legal? Does your country prioritize child health? Can parents in your country meet the needs of their children? How do the unemployed or underemployed fare across different countries? In which countries do children of different genders, religions or ethnicities have equal rights? Which countries support the education and inclusion of children with disabilities?"

"In June 2012, "Welcome to the Anthropocene"-a film about the state of the planet-opened the UN's Rio+20 summit on sustainable development. The summit was the largest UN meeting to date. 3mins 38 worth watching A 3-minute journey through the last 250 years of our history, from the start of the Industrial Revolution to the Rio+20 Summit. The film charts the growth of humanity into a global force on an equivalent scale to major geological processes. "

This is so COOL . The National Library of Scotland's (NLS) Map Department has recently completed a huge georeferencing exercise, taking a set of Six-Inch-To-Mile (1:10560) maps for the whole of England and Wales, scanning them in to create high-quality images, and lining them up with Google Maps and OpenStreetMap modern maps. The maps were drawn between 1888-1913 and so represent a complete picture of the countries a hundred years ago. They have developed a side-by-side tool to allow for easy comparison between the old and new maps.