Humans are gobbling up natural resources at a terrifying rate
Humans are using too much crap.
That’s the official word from a new U.N. report on the use of natural resources. It found that, from the food we eat to the homes we live in to the fuels we burn, our rates of consumption are just unsustainable. That’s not too surprising, but the real shock is that our extraction of the primary materials used to make all of our stuff has more than tripled in the past 40 years.
“We urgently need to address this problem before we have irreversibly depleted the resources that power our economies and lift people out of poverty,” said the U.N.’s Alicia Bárcena Ibarra.
Unfortunately, it’s a trend that’s likely to continue. Unless we drastically change our systems of production, according to the U.N., the world’s population will require almost three times the amount of resources we currently use by 2050. Rich nations, especially, are overusing materials, sucking up 10 times more than the world’s poorest nations and twice the global average.
So put down those diggers, humans! It’s time to save some stuff for the future.
How Much Warmer Was Your City in 2015?
Database of 3,116 cities provided by AccuWeather, about 90 percent of them were warmer than normal. Enter your city in the field below to see how much warmer it was last year.
BP drilling sites in Great Australian Bight 'couldn't be more inappropriate
it would appear that they're proposing to drill right in the middle of the marine park. BP wants to drill four exploration wells up to 2.5 kilometres deep
Nuclear Power Is Losing Money At An Astonishing Rate
Half nuclear power plants are no longer profitable. The New York Times and others have tried to blame renewable energy, but the admittedly astounding price drops of renewables aren’t the primary cause of the industry’s woes — cheap fracked gas is.
The climate crisis is here, now, but a compromised, corrupted media doesn’t want us to know.
http://www.monbiot.com/2016/
Saudi Companies Unable to Pay Foreign Workers Salaries in Arrears
RYAD – Thousands of foreign workers in Saudi Arabia, most of them Asian, are in financial dire straits as large Saudi corporations are in arrears with their salaries, a crisis due to the freeze on many construction projects after the oil prices collapse.
One example would be the “Saudi Ogeh” company, whose employees have resorted in the past weeks to protest in front of the company’s HQ in Jeddah and provoked fires in their sleeping barracks and staff shuttle buses.
A Filipino worker, who identified himself as “Edward,” told EFE that “Saudi Ogeh” hadn’t paid them any wages for nine months and they had filed complaints both at the Saudi Ministry of Work and the Philippines’ embassy in Ryad.
“The embassy is trying to help us, but we ask our government and president to intervene as some of us have children and we need to pay their schooling and our debts back home,” he added with anxiety.
Due to the financial crisis “Saudi Ogeh” is immersed in, they cannot even process the documents required by workers enabling them to seek another job or return to their home countries, as they need the “authorization” of their employer to leave Saudi Arabia.
The Saudi Ministry of Work has tried to intermediate between the company and its workers, by offering them money, renewing their work visas or granting a travel visa to leave Saudi Arabia.
Read More
Saudi Companies Unable to Pay Foreign Workers Salaries in Arrears
RYAD – Thousands of foreign workers in Saudi Arabia, most of them Asian, are in financial dire straits as large Saudi corporations are in arrears with their salaries, a crisis due to the freeze on many construction projects after the oil prices collapse.
One example would be the “Saudi Ogeh” company, whose employees have resorted in the past weeks to protest in front of the company’s HQ in Jeddah and provoked fires in their sleeping barracks and staff shuttle buses.
A Filipino worker, who identified himself as “Edward,” told EFE that “Saudi Ogeh” hadn’t paid them any wages for nine months and they had filed complaints both at the Saudi Ministry of Work and the Philippines’ embassy in Ryad.
“The embassy is trying to help us, but we ask our government and president to intervene as some of us have children and we need to pay their schooling and our debts back home,” he added with anxiety.
Due to the financial crisis “Saudi Ogeh” is immersed in, they cannot even process the documents required by workers enabling them to seek another job or return to their home countries, as they need the “authorization” of their employer to leave Saudi Arabia.
The Saudi Ministry of Work has tried to intermediate between the company and its workers, by offering them money, renewing their work visas or granting a travel visa to leave Saudi Arabia.
Read More
