Global Issues

Announcement of new and updated content on the globalissues.org web site. GlobalIssues.org is a web site attempting to look at various global issues to show they are inter-related.

Health in the media 1 Sep 2010, 2:19 am

Health information is often sensationalized in the media, with various promises of quick fixes and miracle cures. Yet, that is rarely reality. How does it come to this?

This new article attempts to look at some of the ways in which media stories about health issues mislead, distort or confuse us with resources to better understand health related stories.

Read full article:

Source: Global Issues |

Climate change and biodiversity 10 Aug 2010, 4:00 am

It has long been recognized that rapid climate change can have a severe impact on biodiversity and on the ability for ecosystems to naturally adapt.

As well as problems such as ocean acidification, increasing ocean stratification and dead zones also pose a threat to the planet as they affect tiny organisms in the ocean such as plankton and phytoplankton that form the basis of our food chain and support life through the production of half the oxygen we breathe.

This page has been update with further explanation and multimedia explaining this further.

Read full article: Climate Change Affects Biodiversity

Source: Global Issues |

Climate change: past decade warmest on record and all indicators show warming trend 10 Aug 2010, 3:30 am

Some still doubt climate change exists or think it is a vast scientific conspiracy. Yet scientific consensus amongst publishing climate scientists is extremely high. Climate change impacts and effects on humans and the planet in general have been discussed before and are introduced on this page.

This particular update includes additional notes and multimedia on ocean acidification and on indicators of a warming world with human causes. Also updated is the warmest periods section (as this past decade is now the warmest on record) and asked why recent weather such as extreme cold in some regions this past winter is still a sign of global warming.

Read full article: Climate Change and Global Warming Introduction

Source: Global Issues |

World military spending exceeds $1.5 trillion, continuing upward trend despite economic conditions 7 Jul 2010, 1:53 am

In recent years, global military expenditure has increased again and is now comparable to Cold War levels again. Recent data shows global spending at over $1.5 trillion. This is despite the global economic conditions.

The highest military spender is the US accounting for just under half of the world’s spending, more than the rest of the G7 (most economically advanced countries) combined, and more than all its potential enemies, combined.

This update includes updated figures, graphs and charts exploring this further.

Read full article: World Military Spending

Source: Global Issues |

Addressing biodiversity loss 6 Jun 2010, 10:17 pm

At the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development (the Earth Summit), the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) was born. 192 countries, plus the EU, are now Parties to that convention. In April 2002, the Parties to the Convention committed to significantly reduce the loss of biodiversity loss by 2010.

Perhaps predictably, that did not happen. Despite numerous successful conservations measures supporting biodiversity, the 2010 biodiversity target has not been met at the global level. This page provides an overview on how the attempts to prevent biodiversity loss is progressing.

Read full article: Addressing Biodiversity Loss

Source: Global Issues |

Climate change and biodiversity 6 Jun 2010, 9:58 pm

It has long been recognized that rapid climate change can have a severe impact on biodiversity and on the ability for ecosystems to naturally adapt.

This page was quite old and had barely any content, so has been completely rewritten to look at the impact climate change will have on biodiversity in the arctic as well as the implications of increasing ocean acidification and more.

Read full article: Climate Change Affects Biodiversity

Source: Global Issues |

Despite increased attempts at conversation, biodiversity loss continues 6 Jun 2010, 9:44 pm

The Convention on Biological Diversity came into being many years ago. Most nations are party to the convention and agreed to meet a 2010 target to reduce biodiversity loss. Unfortunately, most indicators show those targets have not been met, despite increased conservation efforts.

This update includes additional details, numbers, graphs and charts on the scale of biodiversity issues, including new sections on the impact to inland water systems, additional information about deforestation, dwindling fish stocks, climate change impacts on lizards, how indigenous communities can often be guardians of nature, and an overview of attempts to address many aspects of biodiversity.

Read full article: Loss of Biodiversity and Extinctions

Source: Global Issues |

Military aid 4 May 2010, 1:28 am

Military aid can be controversial. Its stated aim is usually to help allies or poor countries fight terrorism, counter-insurgencies or to help fight drug wars.

The aid may be in the form of training, or even giving credits for foreign militaries to purchase weapons and equipment from the donor country.

But military aid may even be given to opposition groups to fight nations. This could be understandable if the opposition is a potential democratic force standing up against authoritarian rule.

However, as was especially seen during the Cold War, democratic nations (or potentially emerging democratic fledgling nations) often found themselves fighting foreign supported undemocratic forces because of geopolitical goals of the superpowers who tolerated or supported such regimes and dictatorships in order to achieve their own geopolitical aims.

This new page provides a brief overview of some of the issues.

Read full article: Military Aid

Source: Global Issues |

Aid 4 May 2010, 1:27 am

This web site has provided a number of articles related to aid and they have been categorized under various other issues.

This new issue page simply brings them together and inter-relates some of those issues.

Read full article: Aid

Source: Global Issues |

Foreign aid: highest levels ever but still way below promised amounts 25 Apr 2010, 8:26 pm

The OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) recently published new preliminary figures for aid in 2009.

It showed official development assistance (ODA) aid from wealthy governments had increased to just over $123 billion in 2009 (at constant 2008 prices). This is roughly 0.31% of GNI (Gross National Income) of the donor nations.

Yet, almost 40 years ago nations promised to reach 0.7% of their GNI. While each year the amount of aid falls quite short of that 0.7% target, the quality and effectiveness of that aid is often questionable, sometimes benefiting the donor more than the recipient due to the types of conditions attached to this aid.

This update includes a number of new and updated charts and graphs.

Read full article: Foreign Aid for Development Assistance

Source: Global Issues |