ROBERT HUNZIKER – The Arctic Turns Ugly

Runaway global warming is far and away humankind’s biggest nightmare, and the Arctic is the likely perpetrator. If it happens, it’ll blister agricultural foodstuff before it can reach the outstretched arms of the multitudes. Then what? Dr. Peter Gleick of the Pacific Institute of California recently warned, “What is happening in the Arctic now is unprecedented and possibly catastrophic,” Ian …

Alex Kirby – Rapid warming brings Arctic changes

Scientists in the US who have been checking on the health of the Arctic over the last year are worried by what they’ve learned: it’s warmer, has less ice, and some of its animals and fish are facing new stresses. And in a surprise finding , which they cannot yet explain, the scientists discovered that green vegetation over much of …

Climate Change Driving ‘Profound’ Shift in Arctic Ecosystem

NOAA warns Arctic is warming ‘twice as fast as other parts of the planet’ The 2015 report card compiled by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and released Tuesday comes to a disturbing conclusion: record highs in air temperatures, and lows in peak ice, reveal that—for the marine ecosystem—climate change is already “profound.” “Changes in sea ice alone are …

Crawford Kilian – The Silent Epidemic Killing White American Women

A momentous new report took up just six pages in a recent issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The title had no spoilers: “Rising morbidity and mortality in midlife among white non-Hispanic Americans in the 21st century.” The authors were Anne Case of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, and Angus Deaton of …

Joseph Stigliz – When Inequality Kills

his week, Angus Deaton will receive the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics “for his analysis of consumption, poverty, and welfare.” Deservedly so. Indeed, soon after the award was announced in October, Deaton published some startling work with Anne Case in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences – research that is at least as newsworthy as the Nobel ceremony. …