critical topics

Critical Topics

The Global Social Change Research Project does not necessarily endorse any point of view or organization. The resources listed here are only for education and information.

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Critical World Issues

The UN has these Millennium Goals   http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/   and reports about them
    End poverty and hunger
    Universal education
    Gender equality
    Child health
    Maternal health
    Combat HIV/AIDS
    Environmental Sustainability

The UN also has a list of issues   http://www.un.org/issues/   including aging, Africa, AIDS, climate change, disarmament, drugs and crime, refugees, science and technology, terrorism, water and others.

Global Studies Exploring Critical World Issues   http://www.ucis.pitt.edu/global/    lists these topics:
    * Sustainable Development
    * Global Economy and Global Governance
    * Changing Identities in a Global World
    * Communication, Technology, and Society
    * Conflict and Conflict Resolution
    * Global Health

Global Education Website http://www.globaleducation.edna.edu.au/globaled/page1.html The Global Education Website is initiated and funded by AusAID to support its Global Education Program.
This site also lists a number of critical issues such as
    Children's rights
    Environment
    Food Security
    Governance
    Health
    HIV/AIDS
    Human rights
    Peace building
    Poverty reduction
    Refugees
    and others....

Global Issues of the Twenty-First Century and United Nations Challenges http://www.global-challenges.org/index.html    lists a bunch of issues organized into various topics such as conflict, crime, development, environment, human rights and health.

World Economic Crisis The current situation, prospects, how it got here

Prospects for the Global Economy, World Bank here some forecasts for 2010, growth will resume in 2010.

Federal Reserve Bank of New York Global Economy http://www.newyorkfed.org/research/global_economy/index.html has a page of indicators    http://www.newyorkfed.org/research/global_economy/globalindicators.html    at least for US, Japan and Europe area.

IMF research page   http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/res/index.htm   includes world outlook reports, include this one   http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/weo/2009/update/01/   that says recovery in 2010.

Brookings section on economy   http://www.brookings.edu/global.aspx   more like news and reports.

London School of Economics public lectures page   http://www.lse.ac.uk/resources/podcasts/publicLecturesAndEvents.htm   has some related videos. See the previous talk page    http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/LSEPublicLecturesAndEvents/live/LSELive_previous.htm one talk is The Global Economic Crisis - meeting the challenge, from 17 Feb 2009.

Simon Johnson, Peterson Institute for International Economics in testimony before the Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation and Trade, Committee on Foreign Affairs, US House of Representatives
March 12, 2009    http://www.petersoninstitute.org/publications/papers/paper.cfm?ResearchID=1147   says "I forecast a contraction of 1 percent in the world economy in 2009 (on a Q4-to-Q4 basis) and no recovery on the horizon"
The Peterson Institute is in the top 30 US thinktanks   http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=4598&page=1   and tied for first among International Economic Policy Think Tanks    http://www.foreignpolicy.com/files/2008_Global_Go_To_Think_Tanks.pdf

Economy Watch   http://www.economywatch.com/world_economy/   news and info, reports, conferences etc.
   Economy Watch is listed here
   http://www.loc.gov/law/help/financial_stimulus_plan.php
   http://www.buyusa.gov/india/en/394.pdf

World Economic Forum   http://www.weforum.org/en/index.htm   news and info, reports, conferences etc.
   The World Economic Forum is listed here
   http://www.america.gov/st/washfile-english/2003/December/20031209150722rellufj0.6990473.html
   http://www.manufacturing.gov/events/archive.asp

Global Warming has the potential to cause the greatest changes in society.

Reports

EPA's Climate Change Site   http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/   This site "offers comprehensive information on the issue of climate change in a way that is accessible and meaningful to all parts of society"
Also see this EPA site   http://cfpub.epa.gov/ncea/   National Center for Environmental Assessment. On July 10, 2008, it released this report, Assessment of the Impacts of Global Change on Regional U.S. Air Quality (External Review Draft).

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change   http://www.ipcc.ch/   This group was established "to assess scientific, technical and socio- economic information relevant for the understanding of climate change, its potential impacts and options for adaptation and mitigation."

IPCC Special Report on Emissions Scenarios   http://www.grida.no/climate/ipcc/emission/index.htm

Projected distributions of novel and disappearing climates by 2100 AD, John W. Williams, Stephen T. Jackson, and John E. Kutzbach. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 10.1073. http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/abstract/0606292104v1
    Key risks associated with projected climate trends for the 21st century include the prospects of future climate states with no current analog and the disappearance of some extant climates.

Livestock's Long Shadow: environmental issues and options.   http://www.fao.org/docrep/010/a0701e/a0701e00.HTM   from FAO. Page 272 says that livestock is 18% of global warming effect, more than the transportation sector worldwide.

Comments about the IPCC reports

The IPCC - on the run at last   http://www.sciencealert.com.au/opinions/20082204-17218.html   story from April 2008 critical of the IPCC reports, by Bob Carter, researcher at the Marine Geophysical Laboratory at James Cook University. His papers and presentations about global warming are here   http://members.iinet.net.au/~glrmc/   available to read and view for free. Professor Carter is currently an adjunct professor   http://www.jcu.edu.au/ees/staff/adjunct/JCUDEV_014954.html

The US Senate Committee On Environment and Public Works has this story http://epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Minority.Blogs&ContentRecord_id=D4B5FD23-802A-23AD-4565-3DCE4095C360 summarizing an open letter to the UN Secretary General, also critical of the IPCC reports, signed by 103 professionals, including professors of environmental scientists, and one expert reviewer for the IPCC.

New Peer-Reviewed Scientific Studies Chill Global Warming Fears   http://epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Minority.Blogs&ContentRecord_id=84E9E44A-802A-23AD-493A-B35D0842FED8   from the same committe, says that there are a number of peer This story says reviewed studies have "prompted scientists to declare that fear of catastrophic man-made global warming “bites the dust” and the scientific underpinnings for alarm may be “falling apart.” The latest study to cast doubt on climate fears finds that even a doubling of atmospheric carbon dioxide would not have the previously predicted dire impacts on global temperatures."

The above story refers to this article: Heat capacity, time constant, and sensitivity of Earth's climate system. Stephen E. Schwartz. Atmospheric Science Division, Brookhaven National Laboratory. http://www.agu.org/pubs/crossref/2007/2007JD008746.shtml in the J. Geophys. Res. 2007. A preprint version is here http://www.ecd.bnl.gov/steve/pubs.html While I don't understand most of it, I'm not entirely sure that says that fears of man made global warming "bites the dust". I'm guessing more likely it says we aren't sure enough yet, or the models make a lot of assumptions and still aren't entirely clear.

Comments and additional information

Adapting Cities for Climate Change: The Role of the Green Infrastructure
S.E. Gill, J.F. Handley, A.R. Ennos, S. Pauleit
Built Environment, March 2007, 115-133
http://www.atypon-link.com/ALEX/doi/abs/10.2148/benv.33.1.115
Another version of the paper is here   http://www.planning-resnet.org.uk/papers/2006.htm
This paper says that adding more trees and other plants can greatly reduce city heat.

Global Climate Change   http://www.exploratorium.edu/climate/index.html   has a primer listed on the home page "Overview of Climate Change Research"   http://www.exploratorium.edu/climate/primer/index.html   This outlines some of the uncertainties, for example, difficulties in measurement.

The Natural Resources Defense Council   http://www.nrdc.org/globalwarming/   has some basic guides and a solution guide.

The Republican Policy Committee has a number of papers, such as:
Global Warming: The Settled Versus The Unsettled Science   http://rpc.senate.gov/public/_files/022707GlobalWarmingPG.pdf from Feb 2007
This paper is listed on the Environment page   http://rpc.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Issues.Issue&Issue_ID=9b609f26-b496-4540-b3b1-76ee1487f56a

This article has some data: Global and hemispheric temperature anomalies--land and marine instrumental records   http://cdiac.esd.ornl.gov/trends/temp/jonescru/jones.html   by P. D. Jones,1 D. E. Parker,2 T. J. Osborn,1 and K. R. Briffa

Clouds of Global-Warming Hysteria   http://www.aei.org/article/24335

Global Warming.org   http://www.globalwarming.org/   This site is aimed to "dispel the myths of global warming by exposing flawed economic, scientific, and risk analysis.

Just for information, this site says "This website is paid for and maintained by the Competitive Enterprise Institute." The CEI had been funded by Exxon up through 2005, at which time Exxon stopped funding this group. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/09/AR2007020902081.html

The Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change http://www.co2science.org/ argues against global warming.

This organization is listed here   http://cdiac.ornl.gov/pns/gcclinks.html
and here   http://www.usgcrp.gov/usgcrp/links/linka-c.htm
and here   http://fire.pppl.gov/global_clim_chang.html

Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine   http://www.oism.org/    has some global warming slides and a petition. The petition links to "A review of the research literature ... leads to the conclusion that increases during the 20th Century have produced no deleterious effects upon global weather, climate, or temperature."
This organization is listed here   http://pafc.arh.noaa.gov/climvar/climate-paper.html

A Yale collaborative on climate change http://research.yale.edu/environment/climate/ call to do something about it.

Blowing the whistle on climate change:   New evidence shows the extent to which the White House censored scientific reports on the dangers of global warming
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/jul/10/climatechange.dickcheney

We Can Solve It http://www.wecansolveit.org/   educating people around the world that the climate crisis is both urgent and solvable.

Food Crisis

FAO, World Food Situation   http://www.fao.org/worldfoodsituation/en/    news, issues, etc

UN's World Food Program    http://www.wfp.org/ news, stories, etc.

High Food Prices: The What, Who, and How of Proposed Policy Actions   http://www.ifpri.org/PUBS/ib/foodprices.asp   from the International Food Policy Research Institute. The also have a food prices page   http://www.ifpri.org/themes/foodprices/foodprices.asp   talking about rising food prices.

Terrorism
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What is terrorism http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A330995    and   http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/1555265.stm from BBC. Very brief overviews.

Terrorism definition   http://www.history.navy.mil/library/guides/terrorism.htm#definition    from the US Navy

Country Reports on Terrorism   http://www.state.gov/s/ct/rls/crt/   Annual reports from the US Dept of State

Terrrorism reports from the US GAO   http://www.gao.gov/docsearch/featured/terrorism.html   mostly reports about specific areas like Iraq, or passenger rail safety.

UN Action to Counter Terrorism   http://www.un.org/terrorism/   links to strategies, other documents.

CDI's Terrorism Program   http://www.cdi.org/program/index.cfm?programid=39   documents on various terrorism related issues.

Council on Foreign Relations has this   http://www.cfr.org/issue/135/   section about terrorism.

The Global Terrorism Database http://www.start.umd.edu/start/data/gtd/    has data on terrorism.

Interpol   http://www.interpol.int/public/Terrorism/default.asp   some info about what interpol is doing, a fact sheet and some info about terrorism.

Are you ready?   http://www.fema.gov/areyouready/terrorism.shtm   from FEMA

list of links   http://www.nps.edu/Library/Research/SubjectGuides/SpecialTopics/Terrorism/TerrorismSubjectGuideEssay.html   from the Naval Graduate School