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Vulnerability View: GAIN Index Rates Climate Change Preparedness
›According to the UN, the planet has warmed faster since the turn of the century than any other period on record. Sea-level rise has also increased pace to 0.12 inches a year – almost double the rate observed during the 20th century. This “unprecedented” rate of climate change is expected to disproportionally impact developing countries, whose socio-economic, political, and physical landscapes make them particularly vulnerable to the effects. The GAIN Index, an interactive mapping tool recently acquired by the University of Notre Dame, can help policymakers prepare for these changes by comparing the climate change vulnerability and readiness of countries around the world.
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Wilson Center Roundtable on ‘Backdraft’: The Unintended Consequences of Climate Change Response
›As President Obama readies a new road map for addressing climate change in the United States, experts warn that poorly designed and implemented initiatives, especially in already-fragile parts of the world, could unintentionally provoke conflicts, rather than diffuse them.
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‘At the Desert’s Edge’ Gives a Glimpse of China’s Massive Desertification Challenge
›In may not be surprising that China, home to so many other superlatives, also faces desertification on a grand scale. According to China’s State Forestry Administration, over 27 percent of the country now suffers from desertification – more than 1,000,000 square miles, or about one-third of the continental United States – impacting the lives of more than 400 million people.
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Cat Lazaroff, Resource Media
Infographic: Women, Reproductive Health at the Center of a Sustainable Future
›The original version of this article, by Cat Lazaroff, appeared on Resource Media.
What does family planning have to do with Earth Day? More than you might think. Family planning gives women and families the tools they need to decide whether and when to have children – and that, quite literally, can mean the world.
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East Asia’s Many Maritime Disputes and the Imperative of Energy Access
›Friction between Japan and China in the East China Sea has escalated this year to the point where jets on both sides have been scrambled and Chinese military vessels have locked their fire control radar onto their Japanese counterparts multiple times. The source of this tension is the Senkaku (as they are known in Japan) or Diaoyu (if you’re in China) Islands – specifically, who owns them.
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Demographic Dividend and the Rise of the Global South
›The Global South is “radically reshaping the world of the 21st century, with developing nations driving economic growth, lifting hundreds of millions of people from poverty, and propelling billions more into a new global middle class,” says the United Nations Development Program’s (UNDP) 2013 Human Development Report, released yesterday. “More than 40 developing countries have made greater human development gains in recent decades than would have been predicted.”
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Aqueduct Water Risk Atlas Shows Detailed View of Global Water Vulnerability
›As world population pushes towards nine billion by mid-century and millions are elevated to the global middle class every year, demand for water continues to grow as well. More people need more water for drinking and household use, but also for agriculture, mining, energy, and industry. With water often cited as a limit to growth and potential crisis point, the World Resources Institute has released the Aqueduct Water Risk Atlas, which details various types of water stress around the world in impressively detailed fashion.
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Cleo Paskal and Uttam Sinha on the Geopolitical Implications of Climate Change for India and China
›India and China – “the two most important countries going forward in this century” – will both experience domestic concerns as a result of environmental change, but they are responding very differently, said Cleo Paskal, an associate fellow at Chatham House, in an interview with the Environment, Conflict, and Cooperation (ECC) Platform.
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