These last few months have seen an outpouring of new studies on ice melt caused by climate change. In short, much of the new evidence suggests that rising sea levels are going to be much more extreme than we have assumed in the past, largely becuase of significant underestimates of ice melts on land masses such as Greenland and Antarctica (as opposed to sea ice which, even if it does melt won’t raise sea levels by much. Climate Central has published some interactive maps on how sea rises of 2 feet compare with sea rises of 6 feet on some major American cities. If you are familiar with either Boston or Miami, these maps will look familiar.
Boston
Turkish President Erdogan is in Washington, DC and it has become clear that US-Turkish relations are not very good. Turkey and Washington disagree on the priorities of enemies and friends. Turkey has decided that Syrian President Assad and the Kurds are less serious enemies than Daesh (the Islamic State). The US regards the Kurds as allies and Assad as a less serious enemy and Daesh as the most serious enemy. Washington also disagrees with Erdogan’s stance toward human rights and its position toward the treatment of Syrian refugees. It is unlikely that the TUrkish-American rift can be healed as long as either Obama or Erdogan remain in office.
The US is beefing up its forces in NATO to signal an increased capability to respond to Russian military moves in Eastern Europe. The US is going to position three combat brigades in Europe along the Russian border, a force of about 4,200 soldiers in addition to the already stationed 62,000 American soldiers in Europe. The move caps off several earlier ones designed to bolster the American presence in Europe in response to Russian moves in Ukraine that are considered quite provocative. The earlier moves were matched by Russia is a clear demonstration of the dynamics of the Security Dilemma. We will see if these additional moves trigger off additional Russian moves.
World Politics News 
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