The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the UN Committee charged with monitoring the state of the world’s climate, will be meeting soon to make final changes to its latest five-year report. Last time, the IPCC stated that it was 95% certain that human activity was leading to climate changes that could have dire consequences for the environment. This time, the report is wrestling with a 15-year pause in the rate of temperature increase that climate change skeptics have argued undermines that central conclusion. Leaked reports suggest that the IPCC will not change that conclusion, but will acknowledge that the pause makes predictions much more difficult.
Many of the world’s garments come from textile mills in Bangladesh, where working conditions are generally very bad. The workers in these factories are currently engaged in a strike to demand higher wages and better working conditions. The strike is causing problems for many US and European retailers who rely on the cheaper products from low wage countries but who are also concerned about being identified with factories that exploit workers to such an incredible degree. Pressure on these retailers are slowly changing the working conditions for the better, but there is still much that needs to be done.
Income inequality is a major issue in world affairs, largely because the rate at which inequality is growing is extraordinary and largely stimulated by the process of globalization. The Washington Post has a graphic of how income inequality in the US has grown since 1977. The graphic is amazing–the more green one sees in the map, the greater the degree of income inequality. It is also an index of either a serious economic problem (the collapse of demand in a consumer-driven economy) or a political problem (a deepening sense that the system is rigged in favor of the rich).
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