The Stream, August 16: Climate Refugees

The deltas of the the Mekong, Irrawaddy, Niger, Nile, Mississippi, Ganges-Brahmaputra and the Yangtze rivers contain some of the largest, most vulnerable populations to climate change. Lester Brown explores how raging storms and rising seas will create climate refugees around the globe.

Agriculture vs. Industry
Is genetically modified corn for ethanol production in the United States worsening the global food crisis exposed by the famine in Somalia? The Guardian investigates.

Agriculture vs. Energy Industry. Australian farmers demanded greater protection against the country’s potentially lucrative coal seam gas industry, which is expanding across some of Australia’s prime agricultural land and fueling tensions within the ruling conservative coalition, Reuters reported.

China
About 90 percent of China’s grasslands has deteriorated due to desertification, human activity and pests, China Daily reported.

Less than two weeks after a Greenpeace report revealed commercial links between major global clothing brands and polluting suppliers in China, one of the sportswear brands pledged to eliminate all releases of hazardous chemicals across its global supply chain by 2020, according to Reuters.

Earlier this year, China warned that it could be facing its worst electricity deficits in years and that blackouts could hit a range of sectors. Reuters investigates what happened to China’s power shortages.

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