More than 1,700 environmental activists murdered in the past decade – report

Figures likely to be an underestimate, says Global Witness, as land defenders are killed by hitmen, crime groups and governments

Climate activists hold up portraits of slain Philippine environmental defenders during a climate justice protest last November. Photograph: Ezra Acayan/Getty Images
Climate activists hold up portraits of slain Philippine environmental defenders during a climate justice protest last November. Photograph: Ezra Acayan/Getty Images

More than 1,700 murders of environmental activists were recorded over the past decade, an average of a killing nearly every two days, according to a new report.

Killed by hitmen, organised crime groups and their own governments, at least 1,733 land and environmental defenders were murdered between 2012 and 2021, figures from Global Witness show, with Brazil, Colombia, the Philippines, Mexico and Honduras the deadliest countries.

The NGO has published its report on the killings of land and environmental defenders around the world every year since 2012, after the murder of Chut Wutty, a Cambodian environmentalist who worked with the Global Witness CEO Mike Davis investigating illegal logging. Killings hit a record of 227 in 2020 despite the pandemic.

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‘Forever chemicals’ detected in all umbilical cord blood in 40 studies

Studies collectively examined nearly 30,000 samples over the past five years in ‘disturbing’ findings

‘Forever chemicals’ detected in all umbilical cord blood in 40 studies
Biobank, tube containing umbilical cord stem cells. Photograph: Bsip Sa/Alamy

Toxic PFAS chemicals were detected in every umbilical cord blood sample across 40 studies conducted over the last five years, a new review of scientific literature from around the world has found.

The studies collectively examined nearly 30,000 samples, and many linked fetal PFAS exposure to health complications in unborn babies, young children and later in life. The studies’ findings are “disturbing”, said Uloma Uche, an environmental health science fellow with the Environmental Working Group, which analyzed the peer-reviewed studies’ data.

“Even before you’ve come into the world, you’re already exposed to PFAS,” she said.

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Arctic System Collapse? Devastating new research.

Prog-215-Arctic-Sea-Ice-transcript download
The arctic region is a key driver of global climate patterns. In the summer of 2022, three peer reviewed research papers were published, all of which showed the systems that have kept the arctic stable for thousands of years are now collapsing far more quickly than previous analysis and modelling had suggested. A fourth paper, published at the same time, shows us what the consequences are likely to be. This video assesses all four.

Project Unabom

Project Unabom

Decades after Ted Kaczynski was caught, society is still asking some of the same questions about him: Is Ted a genius who went astray? Or simply a madman who murdered three people in cold blood? Project Unabom takes an in-depth look back at the Unabomber saga and Ted Kaczynski’s legacy from the perspective of FBI agents who worked to solve the case, his brother who turned him in, and Ted’s very own writings. New episodes out every Monday. Project Unabom is an Apple Original podcast, produced by Pineapple Street Studios. Listen and follow on Apple Podcasts.

Download all episodes here.

https://www.audacy.com/podcasts/project-unabom-149264

What will actually happen when the so-called ‘Doomsday Glacier’ disintegrates?

Has the word ‘doomsday’ lost all meaning?

Ice entering the ocean might look like this. Credit: Getty / Posnov
Ice entering the ocean might look like this. Credit: Getty / Posnov

As many climate change activists are pointing out lately, the “doomsday” implied in the term “Doomsday Glacier” — the nickname given to the Thwaites Glacier in Antarctica — may be coming soon. But what will that day actually be like?

As noted in a scary new paper in the journal Nature Geoscience by a team led by geological oceanographer Alastair G. C. Graham, the Thwaites Glacier in Antarctica may be closer to a major disintegration event than previously thought.

Here’s what’s new in our understanding of this situation: This new study involved analyzing ridges on the sea floor. These rib-like formations reveal strong evidence of the glacier’s location for centuries as the tide nudged it each day. This is different from previously gathered data about the glacier, which was pulled from satellite maps of the ice as it edges further and further toward a total (or near total) collapse into the ocean,

LINK TO ARTICLE

STARK: How the Rich Destroy Democracy and Cause Collapse

STARK: How the Rich Destroy Democracy and Cause CollapseIn this episode, I interview political commentator, former congressional candidate, and now regenerative farmer Haven Scott McVarish, author of LAST CHANCE TO SAVE AMERICAN DEMOCRACY. Haven talks about his favorite novel, STARK by Ben Elton, a dystopian comedy thriller about how corporations and the wealthy cause a global ecological collapse. Haven also discusses the novel’s themes in relation to his own book about the current, ongoing collapse of U.S. democracy. We talk about how to save our imperiled democracy as well as what ordinary people can start doing now to prepare for collapse via local community building and restorative agriculture.

LINKS:

https://thisistheend.net/e/stark-how-the-rich-destroy-democracy-and-cause-collapse/

Last Chance to Save American Democracy by Haven Scott McVarish https://amzn.to/3eqPxxB
Stark by Ben Elton https://amzn.to/3wY6dD2
5 Journeys (Haven Scott McVarish’s non-profit organization) https://www.5journeys.org/

World on brink of five ‘disastrous’ climate tipping points, study finds

Giant ice sheets, ocean currents and permafrost regions may already have passed point of irreversible change

The collapse of the Greenland ice cap is one of the tipping points that may already have been passed. Photograph: Ulrik Pedersen/Getty Images
The collapse of the Greenland ice cap is one of the tipping points that may already have been passed. Photograph: Ulrik Pedersen/Getty Images

The climate crisis has driven the world to the brink of multiple “disastrous” tipping points, according to a major study.

It shows five dangerous tipping points may already have been passed due to the 1.1C of global heating caused by humanity to date.

LINK TO ARTICLE: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/sep/08/world-on-brink-five-climate-tipping-points-study-finds

A ‘doomsday glacier’ the size of Florida is disintegrating faster than thought

Thwaites Glacier, known as the “doomsday glacier” for the risk it poses to global sea levels, is retreating faster than previously thought, study shows

The U.S. Antarctic Program research vessel Nathaniel B. Palmer working along the ice edge of the Thwaites Eastern Ice Shelf in February 2019. (Courtesy of Alexandra Mazur/University of Gothenburg) Listen 3 min
The U.S. Antarctic Program research vessel Nathaniel B. Palmer working along the ice edge of the Thwaites Eastern Ice Shelf in February 2019. (Courtesy of Alexandra Mazur/University of Gothenburg

A large glacier in Antarctica that could raise sea levels several feet is disintegrating faster than last predicted, according to a new study published Monday in the journal Nature Geoscience.

The Thwaites Glacier — dubbed the “doomsday glacier” because scientists estimate that without it and its supporting ice shelves, sea levels could rise more than 3 to 10 feet — lies in the western part of the continent. After recently mapping it in high-resolution, a group of international researchers found that the glacial expanse experienced a phase of “rapid retreat” sometime in the past two centuries — over a duration of less than six months.

READ ARTICLE: https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/09/06/thwaites-doomsday-glacier-antarctica-disintegrating/

The super-rich ‘preppers’ planning to save themselves from the apocalypse

The super-rich ‘preppers’ planning to save themselves from the apocalypse
Time to bunker down… if you’ve got the cash. Photograph: Terravivos/Observer Design

Tech billionaires are buying up luxurious bunkers and hiring military security to survive a societal collapse they helped create, but like everything they do, it has unintended consequences

LINK: https://www.theguardian.com/news/2022/sep/04/super-rich-prepper-bunkers-apocalypse-survival-richest-rushkoff