Health

By Nina Burleigh | – ( Tomdispatch.com) – On New Years’ Eve 2019, Americans celebrated the advent of the roaring ‘20s with fireworks and champagne, amid ominous news alerts from China. Surely that virus would stay on the other side of the planet. I cringe at how entitled we felt then. Covid-19 has now wiped […]

Food Security

Food prices: how Countries are using the Global Crisis to gain Geopolitical Power

The Conversation

By Sarah Schiffling, Liverpool John Moores University; and Nikolaos Valantasis Kanellos,Technological University Dublin | Twenty million tonnes of grain are currently stuck in Ukrainian silos, exacerbating the global food crisis sparked by Russia’s invasion of the country. Aside from the need to get the grain onto world markets, freeing up storage space will be crucial […]

Food Insecurity

War in Ukraine is pushing global acute Hunger to the highest Level in this Century

The Conversation

By Daniel Maxwell, Tufts University | – Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has produced a terrible humanitarian crisis in eastern Europe. It also is worsening conditions for other countries, many of them thousands of miles away. Together, Russia and Ukraine account for almost 30% of total global exports of wheat, nearly 20% of global exports of […]

Anti-Vaccination

Pandemic Anti-Rights Syndrome

Tomdispatch

By Nina Burleigh | – ( Tomdispatch.com ) – Last month, not long after Florida federal judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle ruled that the transportation mask mandate was illegal, I flew from New York City to Miami. Videos of airplane passengers in midflight ripping off their masks and cheering with joy had already gone viral following […]

Africa

The Economic Consequences of the War: Why the Conflict in Ukraine Is a Disaster for the Poor of This Planet

Rajan Menon

( Tomdispatch.com ) – In 1919, the renowned British economist John Maynard Keynes wrote The Economic Consequences of the Peace, a book that would prove controversial indeed. In it, he warned that the draconian terms imposed on defeated Germany after what was then known as the Great War — which we now call World War […]

Climate Crisis

Climate Emergency: India’s Unprecedented Heat Wave blights Wheat Crops, adding to Global Bread Shortages

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – A global wheat crisis has been caused by Russian’s invasion of Ukraine and the ongoing war there, which has drastically reduced Ukraine’s wheat production and exports, while the resultant international sanctions have also somewhat reduced Russian production. Now, there is yet another complication, as the fertile wheat-growing regions of North […]

Health

Seven hours of Sleep is optimal in Middle and old Age, say Researchers

contributors

By Barbara Sahakian | ( Cambridge University Research) – Seven hours is the ideal amount of sleep for people in their middle age and upwards, with too little or too much little sleep associated with poorer cognitive performance and mental health, say researchers from the University of Cambridge and Fudan University. Sleep plays an important […]

Food Security

Ukraine Crisis: Yemen urgently needs Seeds to Avoid Famine given Global Wheat Shortages

Daniel Martin Varisco

(Special to Informed Comment) – On top of the world’s worst humanitarian crisis created by a seven year war, Yemen is facing a new threat to feeding its people due to the impact of the Ukraine crisis. The FAO points out that almost half of the population is “undernourished” with famine conditions in some areas. […]