People & Population

A fifth of Pakistan is under water, and more than 14 million victims are flooded out. The Taliban and terror-linked groups are helping people more rapidly than the U.N. and western nations. The floods seem to be verifying predictions of climate refugees and climate change as a threat to global and U.S. security. The current government of Pakistan may be failing. Will global warming cause a nuclear-armed nation to be taken over by terrorists?

Walruses in the Arctic depend on sea ice as a base for hunting and transportation. The native Yupik and Inupiat people have depended on the walrus for meat, clothing, and tools. Now the climate-driven shrinking of sea ice is threatening both walruses and humans.

A Penn State anthropologist puts forth a new hypothesis: that the nearly universal human tendency to bond altruistically with animals is a unique trait that has evolved because it gives us many advantages.

"Continued climate change will drive Mexican farm workers to migrate to the United States in greater numbers, environmental experts predicted on Monday."
 

"In the first few days after BP's Deepwater Horizon wellhead exploded, spewing crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico, cleanup workers could be seen on Louisiana beaches wearing scarlet pants and white t-shirts with the words "Inmate Labor" printed in large red block letters. Coastal residents, many of whom had just seen their livelihoods disappear, expressed outrage at community meetings; why should BP be using cheap or free prison labor when so many people were desperate for work? The outfits disappeared overnight."

"A small Colorado tribe takes control of its energy resources and becomes a billion-dollar corporation — but has it gone too far?"

"Where would Jesus drill? Religious leaders who consider environmental protection a godly mission are making the Gulf of Mexico oil spill a rallying cry, hoping it inspires people of faith to support cleaner energy while changing their personal lives to consume less and contemplate more."