1 Global warming likely irreversible, says UN panel
(Seth Borenstein in San Francisco Chronicle) Global warming is here,
human-caused and probably already dangerous — and it's increasingly likely that
the heating trend could be irreversible, a draft of a new international science
report says.
The United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change has sent governments a final draft of its synthesis report,
which combines three earlier, gigantic documents by the Nobel Prize-winning
group. The 127-page draft paints a harsh warning of what's causing global
warming and what it will do to humans and the environment. It also describes
what can be done about it.
"Continued emission of greenhouse gases will
cause further warming and long-lasting changes in all components of the climate
system, increasing the likelihood of severe, pervasive and irreversible impacts
for people and ecosystems," the report says.
Depending on circumstances and values,
"currently observed impacts might already be considered dangerous,"
the report says. It mentions extreme weather and rising sea levels, such as
heat waves, flooding and droughts. It even raises the idea that climate change
will worsen violent conflicts and refugee problems and could hinder efforts to
grow more food. And ocean acidification, which comes from the added carbon
absorbed by oceans, will harm marine life, it says.
The report says if the world continues to spew
greenhouse gases at its accelerating rate, it's likely that by mid-century
temperatures will increase by about another 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit (2 degrees
Celsius) compared to temperatures from 1986 to 2005. And by the end of the
century, that scenario will bring temperatures that are about 6.7 degrees
warmer (3.7 degrees Celsius).
2 The US in black and white (Mahir Ali in Khaleej
Times) There was no doubt a considerable degree of schadenfreude in social
media activity from official sources in nations such as Egypt and Iran in
reaction to the events of recent weeks in Ferguson, Missouri. The US, after
all, is seldom backward in offering condescending advice in relation to how
other governments deal with dissidence (inevitably with some notable
exceptions, particularly in the case of Israel).
What is far more embarrassing for the American
authorities is the fact that domestic confrontations reflect its overseas
military interventions, given that police forces across the country have been
equipped with army surplus gear. Sadly, it wasn’t an exceptional incident,
which was another reason why Ferguson exploded. Fatal consequences are relatively
rare, but who can seriously deny that they proceed from the same mindset that
leads the forces of the law to stop and search African Americans far more
frequently than whites?
And here’s one more interesting statistic: north of
a Ferguson dividing line called Delmar Boulevard, 98 per cent of the population
is black (with an average annual income of $18,000); south of it, 73 per cent
people are white (and the median income in $50,000). The renowned former basketballer
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar recently commented in Time magazine that in the context of
Ferguson “we have to address the situation not just as another act of systemic
racism, but as what else it is: class warfare”.
However, given the political will, a determined
effort to tackle institutionalised racism would surely yield some positive
results. At Michael Brown’s funeral, the Reverend Al Sharpton made an
impassioned call for action on policing — which would arguably be the obvious
place to start in terms of policies, attitudes, recruitment, training and, not
least, equipment. Sadly, a post-racial society — prematurely posited as a
possibility in the wake of Barack Obama’s election to the White House — remains
something of a dream deferred.
3 Mozilla’s $33 smartphone for India (BBC) Mozilla,
a company best known for its Firefox browser, has launched a new low-cost
smartphone in India that will retail for 1,999 rupees ($33). The phone is only
for sale on India's online shopping site, Snapdeal. The Intex Cloud FX runs on
Mozilla's Firefox operating system and as such it will be the first low-cost
device running that system available in Asia.
India's emerging market is regarded as the world's
fastest growing for low-cost smartphones. Various emerging markets across Asia
are seen by mobile device manufacturers as the key remaining areas for massive
growth. Analysts expect these types of low-cost smartphones to give users in
emerging markets an affordable opportunity to upgrade from so-called feature
phones - or phones that do not easily access the internet.
"The price point
is what will grab the market's attention," said Bryan Ma of research firm
IDC, "but that's just one factor in all this.It's the ecosystem we look at
- or what kind of applications are available on the phone. That is more worth
talking about. That's an example of what we might call an 'app-gap' - or the
lack of applications on cheaper smartphones compared to those available on
phones that use Android and other such operating systems," he explained.
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