From Drone Technician to Whistleblower

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2015 Hottest Year on Record

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Top 3 Economic Stories of 2015

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Armed militia seize fed building in stand against US govt

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Harvard’s alumni impact | Harvard Gazette

By Christina Pazzanese, Harvard Staff Writer

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The oldest American university, Harvard has launched thousands of graduates who became important, trailblazing figures in politics, business, law, education, medicine, science, and the humanities. Some have made technological breakthroughs, developed innovative products, or discovered lifesaving treatments, while others have led nations and revolutions, created timeless artwork, or written words that changed the course of history.

But what do we know about the many thousands of present-day alumni who make valuable economic and social contributions after they leave Harvard, but who aren’t necessarily so well known? It turns out, not very much — until now.

According to the first University-wide survey examining Harvard’s global impact, alumni are deeply engaged with the world and strongly committed to contributing to society through entrepreneurship, board service, and volunteerism.

…(read more).

Global Climate Change
Environment Ethics
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Bill McKibben, “Report from the Front Line of the Climate Fight”

columbiauniversity

Published on Aug 21, 2013

Global Strategy Lecture Series, Summer 2013

Each summer, the Hertog Global Strategy Initiative brings renowned experts and policy makers to Columbia University to deliver weekly public lectures and work with students in the program.

http://globalstrategy.columbia.edu/

August 7, 2013
Bill McKibben, “Report from the Front Line of the Climate Fight”

Global Climate Change
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Environment Justice

Bill McKibben on U. of California Divesting from Coal and Tar Sands

Democracy Now!

Published on Sep 10, 2015

The University of California has announced that it has sold off more than $200 million worth of investments in coal and tar sands companies. University officials say the move was prompted by concerns over environmental sustainability as well as the increasing riskiness of investing in the coal and tar sands industries, which have both seen their profits plummet in recent months. Bill McKibben, co-founder of 350.org, hailed the move. The European Green Party and 350.org recently launched the “Divest for Paris” challenge, calling on institutions, individuals and governments to divest from fossil fuels ahead of the climate summit in Paris later this year.

Global Climate Change
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Environment Justice

Bill McKibben: Climate Protest Movement, Not COP21, Key to Preventing “Uninhabitable World”

Democracy Now!

Published on Dec 2, 2015

Democracy Now! is your independent media. You count on us to dig deeper and connect the dots between the issues you’ve cared about for years and the news headlines each day. We urgently need your help to bring you the news you’ve come to depend on every day. Please donate today: http://owl.li/VBVgh

Bill McKibben, co-founder of 350.org, says the U.N. Climate Summit reveals the “scoreboard” for activists pushing governments to take action on global warming, and shows “how much more work we have to do.” He argues whatever agreement comes out of the meeting “won’t be enough” to avoid putting the world on a path to higher temperatures and an “uninhabitable world.” As France continues to ban protests at the summit, McKibben says he was moved to tears by the the outpouring of solidarity actions this weekend in 2,200 places around the world.

Global Climate Change
Environment Ethics
Environment Justice

What Cuba Can Teach Us About Food and Climate Change

After the Cold War, Cuba faced many of the agricultural challenges that the rest of the world is now anticipating.

By Raj Patel January 1, 2016

The Studebakers plying up and down Havana’s boardwalk aren’t the best advertisement for dynamism and innovation. But if you want to see what tomorrow’s fossil-fuel-free, climate-change-resilient, high-tech farming looks like, there are few places on earth like the Republic of Cuba.

Under the Warsaw Pact, Cuba sent rum and sugar to the red side of the Iron Curtain. In exchange, it received food, oil, machinery, and as many petrochemicals as it could shake a stick at. From the Missile Crisis to the twilight of the Soviet Union, Cuba was one of the largest importers of agricultural chemicals in Latin America. But when the Iron Curtain fell, the supply lines were cut, and tractors rusted in the fields.

Unable to afford the fertilizers and pesticides that 20th-century

agriculture had taken for granted, the country faced extreme weather events and a limit to the land and water it could use to grow food. The rest of the world will soon face many of the same problems: In the coming decade, according to the OECD, we’ll see higher fuel and fertilizer costs, more variable climate patterns, and limits to arable land that will drive cereal prices 20 percent higher and hike meat prices by 30 percent—and that’s just the beginning. Policymakers can find inspirational and salutary ideas about how to confront this crisis in Cuba, the reluctant laboratory for 21st-century agriculture.

Cuban officials faced the crisis clumsily. They didn’t know how to transform an economy geared toward sweetening Eastern Europe into one that could feed folk at home. Agronomists had been schooled in the virtues of large-scale industrial collective agriculture. When the “industrial” part became impossible, they insisted on yet more collectivization. The dramatic decline in crop production between 1990 and 1994, during which the average Cuban lost 20 pounds, was known as “the Special Period.” Cubans have a line in comedy as dark as their rum.

…(read more).

Global Climate Change
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Environment Justice
Food-Matters

Ebola medical staff given New Year honours – BBC News

By Smitha Mundasad Health reporter 30 December 2015

British doctors and nurses involved in the fight against the world’s worst outbreak of Ebola have been recognised in the New Year Honours list.

Among them is Dr Michael Jacobs, who leads the specialist infectious diseases team at the Royal Free Hospital in London.

He received a knighthood after helping treat three Britons who caught Ebola while working in Sierra Leone.

…(read more).

Global Climate Change
Environment Ethics
Environment Justice