Thursday Late Afternoon “Morning” Linkage

22 August 2013, 1940 EDT

It’s morning somewhere, right? Here are some belated links to stories, covering Richard Haass and Syria, climate change and the IPCC 5th assessment, a lethal bat-born virus, gay rights and Russia, and the new Fukushima nuclear worry…

Syria

  • FT op-ed by Richard Haass of all people urging the president to intervene in Syria

Environment

  • Draft IPCC Fifth assessment report on climate change impacts leaks, guess what, more climate change
  • Andrew Revkin muses that a focus on current weather and climate attribution may feed into uncertainty and inaction
  • New study – action on short-lived greenhouse gases might not deliver as many reductions if implementation isn’t 100%
  • Fukushima’s reactors are leaking again and it’s bad, very bad
  • Eduardo Porter’s superficial analysis calling for more nuclear power in The New York Times, a smart take supporting nuclear power needs to be written but this isn’t really it
  • Reports on the revival of fossil fuels in Germany are based on misinformation according to the Rocky Mountain Institute
  • Worries that western coal sales from U.S. public lands will upend Obama’s climate policy
  • But maybe the market will help with there simply not being enough money in it to bid for the coal
  • Ecuador drops plan to not drill for oil in Amazon in exchange for $ – not enough $ to not drill

Health

  • Mystery bat-born virus killing people in Saudi Arabia
  • New edited book by João Biehl and Adriana Petryna on critical global health, not sure what is but the book When People Come First looks cool

Africa

  • Why a development rather than counter-terrorism strategy is preferable for northern Nigeria
  • MSF to pull out of Somalia – too dangerous for MSF, man’s, that’s bad

Russia

  • James Kirchick kicked off Russian-funded TV station after talking about anti-gays laws in Russia instead of Bradley Manning