A group of former top military and national security officials are pressing the U.S. administration to come up with a plan which would treat climate change as a major national security threat. They urge the creation of a White House Office on Climate Security to be led by a senior official who would report directly to the President. [node:read-more:link]
The global McKinsey & Co. consultancy says companies which see climate change as a future risk are making a huge mistake if they ignore its physical effects on infrastructure, supply chains, food systems, asset prices, productivity and economic growth. It also points out that the increasingly connected global economy means that risk in one part of the world often will extend well beyond the place of immediate impact. [node:read-more:link]
The Stockholm International Peace and Security Institute says that although the security implications of climate change have increasingly been debated by the UN Security Council, there are growing concerns about the UN’s overall response. In a new policy brief, SIPRI looks at how the climate security debate has evolved and highlights three priorities for action. [node:read-more:link]
Canada’s Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, the Honourable Ralph Goodale, has announced that Canada will host the Fifth Regional Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction in the Americas in 2017. [node:read-more:link]
As federal political parties prepare for the upcoming general election, results of a new study suggest they have a challenge on their hands: fostering climate change programs while promoting the energy sector. Those are Canadians’ primary but not necessarily conflicting concerns, according to the Angus Reid Institute. [node:read-more:link]
The Government of Canada creates an expert panel on measuring Canada’s progress in building its resilience to climate change. The panel will also support the federal government in better communicating to Canadians how we are preparing for and adapting to the current and future impacts of climate change. [node:read-more:link]
Russia has mapped five new islands in the Arctic which were discovered three years ago by a student using satellite imagery to analyze glacial retreat. The student, Marina Migunova, is now a naval oceanographic engineer in the Northern Fleet. [node:read-more:link]
After initially refusing a G7 offer to help his country with fires in the Amazon rainforest unless his French counterpart apologized for calling him a liar about climate change, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has decided to accept the offer. Equivalent to nearly $33 million, it was announced by President Emmanuel Macron as host of the 2019 G7 summit. [node:read-more:link]
As global attention has been focused on fires burning in the Brazilian Amazon, neighbouring Bolivia is battling at least 20,000 blazes in its share of the Amazon as well as a southeastern region of forests, prairies and farmland. [node:read-more:link]
Canada is offering water bombers and $15 million to help Brazil and other South American countries fight Amazon forest fires still raging out of control. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau disclosed the offer at the end of the G7, saying “the toll of human activity and extreme weather events on ... our world will continue to climb unless we take decisive action as part of our broader commitment to fight climate change.” [node:read-more:link]
Michael Fuchs, a former U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, says the G7 Summit planned for the U.S. next year, in a Florida resort owned by President Donald Trump, should be cancelled. Now a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, he says Trump’s goals are antithetical to those of the six other G7 nations. [node:read-more:link]
Results of the latest Angus Reid Institute poll indicate that climate change is the priority issue for 23 per cent of potential voters in the Oct. 21 general, including a third of the 18-34 age group, but it drops to second place among those over 55. The national poll also indicates that party leaders have to win over a huge undecided element. [node:read-more:link]
Widespread forest fires in Brazil’s Amazon basin is an international crisis which should be an issue at the G-7 Summit in France, say French President Emmanual Macron and German Chancellor Angela. Brazilian President Jair counters that the other leaders’ stance evokes a “colonial mindset.” [node:read-more:link]
Elections Canada says that environmental lobbies’ advertising about the dangers of climate change during the next federal campaign could be deemed to be politically partisan. Apparently an official in a recent training session said that since the leader of the Conservative Party of Canada questions the legitimacy of climate change, any group challenging that in its ads may have to register as a campaign third party. [node:read-more:link]
Australia is being blamed for undercutting its Pacific island neighbours by rejecting their calls for a ban on coal mining, a major Australian export. At a regional summit in Tuvalu, regional leaders called for strong climate change action. [node:read-more:link]
