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

"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."

"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."

"Nicaragua's parliament is due to vote on Thursday on one of the biggest infrastructure projects in Latin America's history - a trans-oceanic canal that is to be built and run by a Chinese company. If it goes ahead, the $40bn (£26bn) scheme, which is twice as expensive as Brazil's Belo Monte dam and likely to be three times longer than the Panama canal, looks set to transform global shipping and jump start the economy of this Central American nation"

"DON´T PANIC, is a one-hour documentary film produced by Wingspan Productions for This World on BBC2 and others. The film covers world population, income distribution and the use of fossil fuel. The presenter, Professor Hans Rosling, is the co-founder of Gapminder Foundation, and Gapminder also supplied the data shown in the program and the educational concepts on which the program's graphics are based."

"For more than 30 years, China has upheld a strict one-child policy. And despite the country's growing prosperity, novelist Ma Jian discovered that ruthless squads still brutally enforce the law with vast fines - and compulsory sterilisations and abortions"

Thanks largely to vehicle emissions, Mexico City was once the world's most polluted urban centre. But over the past decade, a focus on sustainable alternative transport has persuaded a growing number of citizens to leave their cars at home. A heavily subsidised underground network caters for 22m journeys daily, and conditions on the city's overcrowded roads have improved, with the metro bus system and the introduction of public bicycles contributing significantly to reduced pollution levels

"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. "

What were the defining issues of this year in development? Land grabs dominated headlines as investors bought up swaths of Africa, Britain controversially decided to stop sending aid to India and the Rio+20 conference on sustainability caused widespread frustration. Click on the pictures to explore the issues and revisit this year's major topics

"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."

On Wednesday 24 April 2013 a building complex collapsed on the outskirts of Dhaka in Bangladesh. The building was home to a large garment factory making clothes for western retailers such as Primark.

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

These images show the varying levels of light pollution on Earth, as seen from space. Canadian scientist Felix Pharand-Deschênes created the images to highlight our waste of energy.

"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."

"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."

"Zambia has one of the highest deforestation rates in the world, with many citizens relying on wood for fuel and timber. A pioneering reforestation scheme aims to increase awareness and halt the trend"

"Millions of Brits drink a cup of Assam tea each day, but it comes at a terrible price. Plantation workers on 12p an hour are easy prey for traffickers who lure away their daughters to India's cities. Now pressure is growing on big tea brands to safeguard better pay"

"People are living longer. On average, people aged 55 today will live to their mid-to-late 80s. Around 1 in 10 men and 1 in 5 women this age will live to 100 - and receive their telegram from The Queen."

One for you here Lily

"National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says first half of year was warmest ever and Earth experienced hottest June"