At least 116 environmental activists died last year while campaigning against mining, logging, water and land grabs, according to a report.
The number of deaths is rising, UK-based group Global Witness reported, with two people dying on average every week – up a fifth on 2013.
Some have been shot by police during protests or gunned down by hired assassins, its research found, while many more activists are threatened by the companies they oppose.
It’s only day two of the Paris climate talks and already there’s a world of difference between the lofty and inspiring words by state leaders made Monday, and what country negotiators are actually saying to vulnerable nations behind the scenes about what will done to protect them from future climate chaos.
“The leaders made very, very good laudable statements," said Bangladeshi climate negotiations expert Saleemul Huq. "I don't see their negotiators following very good instructions from their leaders."
Faced with the greatest threat to our planet, we cannot afford a bad deal, and we say, with the rest of humanity, “No deal is better than a bad deal.” And even if an acceptable deal is reached, it will provide only a temporary solution to the climate crisis. A permanent solution lies in the world’s turning away from capitalism, a mode of production that insatiably and incessantly transforms living nature into dead commodities, creates destabilizing growth, and promotes over-consumption.
If climate change is not brought under control, the world will face more humanitarian crises such as the one unfolding in Syria, one of the world's most prominent security experts warned.
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) director John Brennan said in a speech Tuesday morning that climate change causing compromised access to food and water “greatly increases the prospect for famine and deadly epidemics.”
The shocking photograph of Aylan Kurdi lying dead on a Turkey beach made many wake up to the horrifying reality of the crisis but, although most of us now know that millions of people have been displaced from their homes in the nation to escape civil war and persecution, there are many who may not actually understand what is happening over in Syria.
That’s why this helpful cartoon has been produced in an attempt to try and help people understand the situation in the country and how and why it has happened and escalated to such an extent.
