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

"t has been announced today that the UK and China have agreed a £45m pig semen export deal. That's a figure not to be sniffed at. Selling our pigs' semen to the world's biggest pig producer would be a boost to British exports and good for our country's economy. What isn't touched on in coverage of the deal is the welfare aspect. What conditions will the resulting pigs be kept in, in China? It raises the ethical discussion that comes up time and time again: just because we can do something, does that mean we should?"

"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 do emptier waters look like? This web aquarium shows declining fish populations over the past 100 years - and it uses more than 200 datasets to do it. We recommend that you closely analyse the data showing that the population of big fish has been decimated while small fish are now overly abundant. Or else you can leave it on your screen as a digital pet and a grim modern Tamagotchi. "

"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."

From January 2013, Tanzania will start restricting the size of land that single large-scale foreign and local investors can "lease" for agricultural use. The decision follows both local and international criticism that major investors are grabbing large chunks of land here, often displacing small-scale farmers and local communities.

"The map shows the touch-ins (going into the network) and touch-outs (leaving the network) of Oyster cards at London's tube and train stations, including a few beyond the Greater London boundary which still accept . As the animation moves forwards in 10-minute intervals during the typical weekday, the balance between touch-ins and touch-outs is shown by a colour scale. Red indicates the great majority of taps are touch-ins, and green indicates mainly touch-outs. White is the "neutral" colour, indicating that roughly as many people are entering the network as leaving it, at that period in time."

"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."

"Over 40 million tonnes of electric and electronic waste (also known as e-waste) are produced worldwide every year. That is boundless heaps of refrigerators, computers, television sets, ovens, telephones, air conditioning units, lamps, toasters and other electric and electronic devices, with a total weight equal to seven times that of the Great Pyramid of Giza. "

"The gardens are home to one of a growing number of azoteas verdes - or green roofs - that are springing up around Mexico City as part of the metropolis's efforts to purge its air of the pollution that has long been among its least-desired claims to fame."

"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."

China's ruling Communist Party meets from 8 November to rubber-stamp sweeping changes that will put in place the country's leaders for the next 10 years. Here are eight reasons - eight being an auspicious number in China - why the world should pay attention to what happens in the secretive corridors of Beijing's Great Hall of the People.

Roman Abramovich gains control of world's biggest nickel mine Kremlin appears to endorse deal that hands biggest voting share in $30bn Norilsk Nickel to Chelsea owner

"Ice loss in Antarctica since 1980 - interactive More than 4 trillion tonnes of ice from Greenland and Antarctica has melted in the past 20 years and flowed into the oceans, pushing up sea levels. The revelations come from a landmark study that provides by far the best measure to date of the effect climate change is having on the planet's biggest ice sheets"

More than 4 trillion tonnes of ice from Greenland and Antarctica has melted in the past 20 years and flowed into the oceans, pushing up sea levels. The revelations come from a landmark study that provides by far the best measure to date of the effect climate change is having on the planet's biggest ice sheets

"Brazil has announced that it will cancel or restructure almost $900m (£600m) worth of debt with Africa. Oil- and gas-rich Congo-Brazzaville, Tanzania and Zambia are among the 12 African countries to benefit. The move is seen as an effort to boost economic ties between the world's seventh largest economy and the African continent."

"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"

"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"

A US intelligence portrait of the world in 2030 predicts that China will be the largest economic power, climate change will create instability by contributing to water and food shortages, and there will be a "tectonic shift" with the rise of a global middle class.

Launched April 24, 2013 The United Kingdom Peace Index (UKPI) has found that the UK is 11 per cent more peaceful than it was a decade ago. Produced by the Institute for Economics and Peace, the UKPI is the first measure of peacefulness across the UK.