Category Archives: News to use

Useful news for all to advance knowledge of the world and how it works

Climate tipping points are now imminent, scientists warn | News | DW | 28.07.2021

Thousands of scientists reiterated calls for immediate action over the climate crisis in an article published Wednesday in the journal BioScience.

“The extreme climate events and patterns that we’ve witnessed over the last several years — not to mention the last several weeks — highlight the heightened urgency with which we must address the climate crisis,” said Philip Duffy, co-author of the study and executive director of the Woodwell Climate Research Center in the US state of Massachusetts.

Two years ago, more than 10,000 scientists from around 150 countries jointly declared a global climate emergency. They are now joined by over 2,800 more signatories in urging the protection of life on Earth.

Since the 2019 declaration, Earth has seen an “unprecedented surge” in climate-related disasters, researchers noted.

Source: Climate tipping points are now imminent, scientists warn | News | DW | 28.07.2021

Illegal gold mining on Colombia′s rivers rising: UN | News | DW | 28.07.2021

The illegal mining of gold from rivers and waterways in Colombia is increasing, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said in a new report.

The number of hectares in use for alluvial gold production rose by 3% last year and the share of illegal output increased by an equal percentage, the report said.

In 2020, the illegal extraction of alluvial gold affected more than 52,000 hectares (128,500 acres) of nature reserves — an area almost the size of Madrid.

The report stressed that extensive gold production by crime gangs, leftist rebels and others is causing grave environmental damage to the country, which is among the world’s most biodiverse.

It is “a worrying situation because it has ties to organized crime,” said Pierre Lapaque, the Colombia representative for the UNODC, while presenting the report in Bogota.

Alluvial gold mining is the process of extracting gold from streambed deposits. It results in contamination of water by mercury and other toxic substances.

Source: Illegal gold mining on Colombia′s rivers rising: UN | News | DW | 28.07.2021

Are women better leaders?

A pure serendipity

Jacinda Ardern as a feminist icon in the contemporary world

Source: ThePrint

The world knows Jacinda Ardern as the current Prime Minister of New Zealand and as the youngest head of government in the world. Her governance has been widely praised across the world – be it the compassionate handling of the 2019 Christchurch attacks or successfully leading her country through the COVID-19 pandemic or her recent APEC diplomacy that brought Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin, and Joe Biden together on the same video call.

However, behind all this, who is Jacinda Ardern? – well, in her own words, she is a working mom who is using the age-old trick of multitasking to manage her work along with raising a child. In doing so, she has set an inspiring example for leaders and women alike – be it taking her child along with her to the UN when she was a…

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Time Flies

Good Steven Wright joke is a plus.

bluejayblog

“Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you.”–Carl Sandburg

It’s common for people to squander the “coins” of our lives when we’re young and vital. After all, we must spend some of that “coin” in order to learn the lessons of time appreciation and budgeting. At the other extreme, it is easy to fall into the trap of trying to hoard all of one’s time out of fear of wasting it. It’s a healthy practice to intersperse strict time management with letting go of it for awhile. How long for each is a personal matter. The balance is likely to change one way or the other as we age.

We’ve had a spate of severe weather this summer in the Great Plains and…

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Letter IX – “A Day’s Venture”

Pacific Paratrooper

Dobodura, New Guinea

At this point in time, the jungle war training had live firing and everything was becoming a bit clearer, a bit more realistic.

Major Burgess left the units temporarily to set up a jump school.  This would give the glidermen and Burgess himself an opportunity to qualify as paratroopers.  The parachutists began their glider training at Soputa airstrip that was no longer in regular use.

waters off Lae, New Guinea

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Letter IX                                               “A Day’s Venture”                                                                      Monday   6/26/44                       …

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