World Politics News   Articles for World Politics Course

Turkish President Erdogan has mobilized the Turkish military and police to combat what he described as “one of the biggest and bloodiest terrorist waves in its history”.  He identified Daesh (the Islamic State), and not the PKK, the Kurdish Worker’s Party,  as the source of the most recent terror attack within Turkey.  Nonetheless, it seems as if Erdogan is deeply interested in pursuing those Kurds who appear to be supporting greater autonomy and support for the Syrian Kurds.  It is hard to pursue both enemies simultaneously since Daesh and the Kurds are also battling each other.  At some point, Erdogan has to decide which is the greater enemy.

The Conservative Party in Britain is being rocked by the upcoming referendum over British membership in the European Union.  The Prime Minister, David Cameron, rashly promised a referendum on British membership in order to win the last election and then demanded and received concessions from the EU to remain.  But some important members of the Party remain unsatisfied with those concessions and are going to campaign for an exit despite Cameron’s about face.  The disagreement threatens to undermine the current government.

The World Meteorological Organisation has issued its annual report on climate, and its tone was unyielding: “The alarming rate of change we are now witnessing in our climate as a result of greenhouse gas emission is unprecedented in modern records.”  The Guardian summarizes the report with these bullet points:

• 2015 was the hottest year on record, with global average surface temperatures sitting 0.76C above the 1961-90 average. That was driven by long-term climate change and a strong El Niño.
• Ocean heat down to both 700m and 2,000m broke all previous records.
• When the Arctic sea ice was at its maximum, it was the smallest it has been since consistent records began in the 1970s. The sea ice minimum was the fourth-smallest it has been over that time.
• The latest WMO figures on CO2 levels (from 2014) reached a record level, teetering on the edge of the symbolic 400ppm, at 397.7 – 43% more than pre-industrial levels.
• Sea level, measured by both traditional tide gauges and satellites, was the highest on record.
• Devastating heatwaves occurred in many places, killing 2,000 people in the southern Indian states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh alone.
• Extreme rainfall records fell in many locations. More than 11 months’ worth of rain fell in one day on the west coast of Libya. Marrakech in Morocco received 13 months’ worth in one hour in August.
• Southern Africa had its driest season since 1932-33 and drought exacerbated forest fires in Indonesia.
• Tropical cyclone Patricia hit Mexico on 20 October as the strongest hurricane on record in either the Atlantic or eastern north Pacific, with sustained wind speeds of 346km/h.