New information suggests that the oil company now known as ExxonMobil knew about the risks of carbon dioxide emissions toward the problem of climate change as early as 1981. Nonetheless, it continued for many years to fund groups, so-called climate change deniers, that argued that there was no scientific evidence about the link. Although the company now acknowledges the human role in climate change, by some estimates, it spent about $30 million supporting groups denying that climate change was a real problem.
The Pew Research Center has conducted research that the global middle class–a product of the process of globalization–is smaller than we have long assumed. According to the study:
“Only 13% of the world’s population fall into the category of ‘middle income,’ living on between $10.01 and $20 a day—an annual income of between $14,600 and $29,000 for a family of four, which is barely above the official US poverty line.”
The vast majority of these people live in either Europe or North America, and about 71% of the global population still live below this level.
The humanitarian crisis in Greece is difficult to comprehend and completely under-reported in the maze of economic gibberish. The health system is no longer available to about 25% of the Greek population and hospitals have cut their budgets as much as 50%. Europe is beginning to plan for a massive humanitarian effort in Greece if the economic crisis is resolved. In addition to the social crisis, Greece has already received more refugees from abroad (primarily from Syria and Africa) than it did in all of 2014.
World Politics News 
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