The planet is warming, from the North Pole to the South Pole. Since 1906, the global average surface temperature has increased by more than 1.6 degrees Fahrenheit (0.9 degrees Celsius)—even more in sensitive polar regions. And the impacts of rising temperatures aren’t waiting for some far-flung future–the effects of global warming are appearing right now. The heat is melting glaciers and sea ice, shifting precipitation patterns, and setting animals on the move.

Many people think of global warming and climate change as synonyms, but scientists prefer to use “climate change” when describing the complex shifts now affecting our planet’s weather and climate systems. Climate change encompasses rising average temperatures, extreme weather events, shifting wildlife populations and habitats, rising seas, and a range of other impacts. All these changes are emerging as humans continue adding heat-trapping greenhouse gases to the atmosphere.

these changes are emerging as humans continue adding Scientists already have documented these impacts of climate change:

• Ice is melting worldwide, especially at the Earth’s poles. This includes mountain glaciers, ice sheets covering West Antarctica and Greenland, and, glaciers has Glacier National Park the number of glaciers has declined to fewer than 30 from more than 150 in 1910.

• Much of this melting ice contributes to sea-level rise. Global sea levels are rising 0.13 inches (3.2 millimeters) a year. The rise is occurring at a faster rate in recent years and is predicted to accelerate in the coming decades.

• Rising temperatures are affecting wildlife and their habitats. Vanishing ice has challenged species such as the Adélie penguin in Antarctica, where some populations on the western peninsula have collapsed by 90 percent or more.

• As temperatures change, many species are on the move. Some butterflies, foxes, and alpine plants have migrated farther north or to higher, cooler areas.

• Precipitation (rain and snowfall) has increased across the globe, on average. Yet some regions are experiencing more severe drought, increasing the risk of wildfires, lost crops, and drinking water shortages.

• Some species—including mosquitoes, ticks, jellyfish, and crop pests—are thriving. Booming populations of bark beetles that feed on spruce and pine trees, for example, have devastated millions of forested acres in the U.S.

Terrorism is the calculated use of violence to create a general climate of fear in a population and thereby bring about a particular political objective. Terrorism has been practiced by political organizations with both rightist and leftist objectives, by nationalistic and religious groups, by revolutionaries, and even by state institutions such as armies, intelligence services, and the police.

Definitions of terrorism

Definitions of terrorism are usually complex and controversial, and, because of the inherent ferocity and violence of terrorism, the term in its popular usage has developed an intense stigma. It was first coined in the 1790s to refer to the terror used during the French Revolution by the revolutionaries against their opponents. The Jacobin party of Maximilien Robespierre carried out a Reign of Terror involving mass executions by the guillotine. Although terrorism in this usage implies an act of violence by a state against its domestic enemies, since the 20th century the term has been applied most frequently to violence aimed, either directly or indirectly, at governments to influence policy or topple an existing regime.

Terrorism is not legally defined in all jurisdictions; the statutes that do exist, however, generally share some common elements. Terrorism involves the use or threat of violence and seeks to create fear, not just within the direct victims but among a wide audience. The degree to which it relies on fear distinguishes terrorism from both conventional and guerrilla warfare. Although conventional military forces invariably engage in psychological warfare against the enemy, their principal means of victory is the strength of arms. Similarly, guerrilla forces, which often rely on acts of terror and other forms of propaganda, aim at military victory and occasionally succeed (e.g., the Viet Cong in Vietnam and the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia). Terrorism proper is thus the calculated use of violence to generate fear, and thereby achieve political goals when direct military victory is not possible. This has led some social scientists to refer to guerrilla warfare as the “weapon of the weak” and terrorism as the “weapon of the weakest.”

To attract and maintain the publicity necessary to generate widespread fear, terrorists must engage in increasingly dramatic, violent, and high-profile attacks. These have included hijackings, hostage takings, kidnappings, mass shootings, car bombings, and, frequently, suicide bombings. Although random, the victims and locations of terrorist attacks often are carefully selected for their shock value. Schools, shopping centers, bus and train stations, and restaurants and nightclubs have been targeted both because they attract large crowds and because they are places with which members of the civilian population are familiar and in which they feel at ease. The goal of terrorism generally is to destroy the public’s sense of security in the places most familiar to them. Major targets sometimes also include buildings or other locations that are important economic or political symbols, such as embassies or military installations. The terrorist hopes that the sense of terror these acts engender will induce the population to pressure political leaders toward a specific political end.

Some definitions treat all acts of terrorism, regardless of their political motivations, as simple criminal activity. For example, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) defines both international and domestic terrorism as involving “violent, criminal acts.” The element of criminality, however, is problematic, because it does not distinguish among different political and legal systems and thus cannot account for cases in which violent attacks against a government may be legitimate. A frequently mentioned example is the African National Congress (ANC) of South Africa, which committed violent actions against that country’s apartheid government but commanded broad sympathy throughout the world. Another example is the Resistance movement against the Nazi occupation of France during World War II.

Since the 20th century, ideology and political opportunism have led several countries to engage in international terrorism, often under the guise of supporting movements of national liberation. (Hence, it became a common saying that “One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter.”) The distinction between terrorism and other forms of political violence became blurred—particularly as many guerrilla groups often employed terrorist tactics—and issues of jurisdiction and legality were similarly obscured.

These problems have led some social scientists to adopt a definition of terrorism based not on criminality but on the fact that the victims of terrorist violence are most often innocent civilians. Even this definition is flexible, however, and on occasion, it has been expanded to include various other factors, such as that terrorist acts are clandestine or surreptitious and that terrorist acts are intended to create an overwhelming sense of fear.

In the late 20th century, the term ecoterrorism was used to describe acts of environmental destruction committed to further a political goal or as an act of war, such as the burning of Kuwaiti oil wells by the Iraqi army during the Persian Gulf War. The term also was applied to certain environmentally benign though criminal acts, such as the spiking of lumber trees, intended to disrupt or prevent activities allegedly harmful to the environment.

Types of terrorism

Various attempts have been made to distinguish among types of terrorist activities. It is vital to bear in mind, however, that there are many kinds of terrorist movements, and no single theory can cover them all. Not only are the aims, members, beliefs, and resources of groups engaged in terrorism extremely diverse, but so are the political contexts of their campaigns. One popular typology identifies three broad classes of terrorism: revolutionary, subrevolutionary, and establishment. Although this typology has been criticized as inexhaustive, it provides a useful framework for understanding and evaluating terrorist activities.

Revolutionary terrorism is arguably the most common form. Practitioners of this type of terrorism seek the complete abolition of a political system and its replacement with new structures. Modern instances of such activity include campaigns by the Italian Red Brigades, the German Red Army Faction (Baader-Meinhof Gang), the Basque separatist group ETA, the Peruvian Shining Path (Sendero Luminoso), and ISIL (the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant; also known as the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria [ISIS]). Subrevolutionary terrorism is rather less common. It is used not to overthrow an existing regime but to modify the existing sociopolitical structure. Since this modification is often accomplished through the threat of deposing the existing regime, subrevolutionary groups are somewhat more difficult to identify. An example can be seen in the ANC and its campaign to end apartheid in South Africa.

Establishment terrorism often called state or state-sponsored terrorism is employed by governments—or more often by factions within governments—against that government’s citizens, against factions within the government, or foreign governments or groups. This type of terrorism is very common but difficult to identify, mainly because the state’s support is always clandestine. The Soviet Union and its allies allegedly engaged in widespread support of international terrorism during the Cold War; in the 1980s the United States supported rebel groups in Africa that allegedly engaged in acts of terrorism, such as UNITA (the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola); and various Muslim countries (e.g., Iran and Syria) purportedly provided logistical and financial aid to Islamic revolutionary groups engaged in campaigns against Israel, the United States, and some Muslim countries in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.

The military dictatorships in Brazil (1964–85), Chile (1973–90), and Argentina (1976–83) committed acts of state terrorism against their populations. The violent police states of Joseph Stalin in the Soviet Union and Saddam Hussein in Iraq are examples of countries in which one organ of the government—often either the executive branch or the intelligence establishment—engaged in widespread terror against not only the population but also other organs of the government, including the military.

The persistent element of all forms of establishment terrorism, unlike that of nonstate terrorism, is that secrecy. States invariably seek to disavow their active complicity in such acts, both to evade international censure and to avoid political and military retribution by those they target.

History

Terror has been practiced by state and non-state actors throughout history and the world. The ancient Greek historian Xenophon (c. 431–c. 350 BCE) wrote of the effectiveness of psychological warfare against enemy populations. Roman emperors such as Tiberius (reigned 14–37 CE) and Caligula (reigned 37–41 CE) used banishment, expropriation of property, and execution as means to discourage opposition to their rule.

The most commonly cited example of early terror, however, is the activity of the Jewish Zealots, often known as the Sicarii (Hebrew: “Daggers”), who engaged in frequent violent attacks on fellow Hebrews suspected of collusion with the Roman authorities. Likewise, the use of terror was openly advocated by Robespierre during the French Revolution, and the Spanish Inquisition used arbitrary arrest, torture, and execution to punish what it viewed as religious heresy. After the American Civil War (1861–65), defiant Southerners formed the Ku Klux Klan to intimidate supporters of Reconstruction (1865–77) and the newly freed former slaves. In the latter half of the 19th century, terror was adopted in western Europe, Russia, and the United States by adherents of anarchism, who believed that the best way to effect revolutionary political and social change was to assassinate persons in positions of power. From 1865 to 1905 several kings, presidents, prime ministers, and other government officials were killed by anarchists’ guns or bombs.

The 20th century witnessed great changes in the use and practice of terror. It became the hallmark of several political movements stretching from the extreme right to the extreme left of the political spectrum. Technological advances, such as automatic weapons and compact, electrically detonated explosives, gave terrorists new mobility and lethality, and the growth of air travel provided new methods and opportunities. Terrorism was virtually an official policy in totalitarian states such as those of Nazi Germany under Adolf Hitler and the Soviet Union under Stalin. In these states arrest, imprisonment, torture, and execution were carried out without legal guidance or restraints to create a climate of fear and to encourage adherence to the national ideology and the declared economic, social, and political goals of the state.

Terror has been used by one or both sides in anticolonial conflicts (e.g., those between Ireland and the United Kingdom, between Algeria and France, and between Vietnam and France and the United States), in disputes between different national groups over possession of a contested homeland (e.g., that between Palestinians and Israelis), in conflicts between different religious denominations (e.g., that between Roman Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland), and in internal conflicts between revolutionary forces and established governments (e.g., those within the successor states of the former Yugoslavia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Peru). In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, some of the most extreme and destructive organizations that engaged in terrorism possessed a fundamentalist religious ideology (e.g., Hamas and al-Qaeda). Some groups, including the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and Hamas, adopted the tactic of suicide bombing, in which perpetrators would attempt to destroy an important economic, military, political, or symbolic target by detonating a bomb on their person. In the latter half of the 20th century, the most prominent groups using terrorist tactics were the Red Army Faction, the Japanese Red Army, the Red Brigades, the Puerto Rican FALN, Fatah and other groups related to the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), the Shining Path, and the Liberation Tigers. The most prominent groups in the early 21st century were al-Qaeda, the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan, and ISIL.

In the late 20th century the United States suffered several acts of terrorist violence by Puerto Rican nationalists (such as the FALN), antiabortion groups, and foreign-based organizations. The 1990s witnessed some of the deadliest attacks on American soil, including the bombing of the World Trade Center in New York City in 1993 and the Oklahoma City bombing two years later, which killed 168 people. In addition, there were several major terrorist attacks on U.S. government targets overseas, including military bases in Saudi Arabia (1996) and the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania (1998). In 2000 an explosion triggered by suicide bombers caused the deaths of 17 sailors aboard a U.S. naval ship, the USS Cole, in the Yemeni port of Aden.

The deadliest terrorist strikes to date were the September 11 attacks (2001), in which suicide terrorists associated with al-Qaeda hijacked four commercial airplanes, crashing two of them into the twin towers of the World Trade Center complex in New York City and the third into the Pentagon building near Washington, D.C.; the fourth plane crashed near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The crashes destroyed much of the World Trade Center complex and a large portion of one side of the Pentagon and killed more than 3,000 people.

Terrorism appears to be an enduring feature of political life. Even before the September 11 attacks, there was widespread concern that terrorists might escalate their destructive power to vastly greater proportions by using weapons of mass destruction—including nuclear, biological, or chemical weapons—as did the Japanese doomsday cult AUM Shinrikyo, which released nerve gas into a Tokyo subway in 1995. These fears were intensified after September 11, when several letters contaminated with anthrax were delivered to political leaders and journalists in the United States, leading to several deaths. U.S. Pres. George W. Bush made a broad “war against terrorism” the centerpiece of U.S. foreign policy at the beginning of the 21st century.

Autism, or autism spectrum disorder (ASD), refers to a broad range of conditions characterized by challenges with social skills, repetitive behaviors, speech, and nonverbal communication. According to the Centers for Disease Control, autism affects an estimated 1 in 44 children in the United States today.

We know that there is not one autism but many subtypes, most influenced by a combination of genetic and environmental factors. Because autism is a spectrum disorder, each person with autism has a distinct set of strengths and challenges. How people with autism learn to think and problem-solve can range from highly skilled to severely challenged. Some people with ASD may require significant support in their daily lives, while others may need less support and, in some cases, live entirely independently.

Several factors may influence the development of autism, and it is often accompanied by sensory sensitivities and medical issues such as gastrointestinal (GI) disorders, seizures, or sleep disorders, as well as mental health challenges such as anxiety, depression, and attention issues.

Signs of autism usually appear by age 2 or 3. Some associated development delays can appear even earlier, and often, they can be diagnosed as early as 18 months. Research shows that early intervention leads to positive outcomes later in life for people with autism.

* In 2013, the American Psychiatric Association merged four distinct autism diagnoses into one umbrella diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). They included autistic disorder, childhood disintegrative disorder, pervasive developmental disorder-not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS), and Asperger syndrome.

The world’s largest intact forest, the Amazon rainforest covers 2.6 million square miles across nine countries in South America: Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana. Approximately 60 percent of the Amazon Basin is in Brazil, where Greenpeace Brazil has been working for 30 years to protect it.

When the Amazon rainforest is in danger, we all are.

The world’s largest intact forest, the Amazon plays a key role in regulating the global climate. It is home to Indigenous Peoples and traditional communities whose land stewardship practices can lead us all toward a more sustainable future. It is perhaps the world’s most biodiverse region yet also a place where there are likely still many species unknown to science.

The Amazon is, simply put, amazing. And, yet, it is being destroyed.

Tree by tree, kilometer by kilometer, the Amazon is being weakened by deforestation carried out by those who put short-term profits over people, over the planet, and even over our collective future. From January through July 2022, the highest rate of deforestation ever for the first months of the year was recorded, according to data from INPE, with an area of forest five times the size of New York City deforested in the Amazon during that span.

Life as we know it can not exist without strong standing forests.

Understanding the problems facing the Amazon — notably deforestation and fires fueled by the anti-environment policies of Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro’s government — can empower us to see the solutions.

Let’s start with the basic facts about the Amazon rainforest, deforestation, and the fires in the region.

The future of the oceans is being decided this week at the United Nations, where governments are negotiating a new Global Ocean Treaty. The outcome will determine the fate of our blue planet for centuries to come.

We need our oceans. They keep our planet habitable. They provide sustenance and livelihoods for billions, and are home to so much of our planet’s biodiversity.

But they are in crisis. From industrial fishing to deep sea mining, the oceans face so many threats. Thankfully, more than 100 governments have joined scientists in supporting the solution; protecting at least 30% of the oceans by 2030, the 30×30 target, to give them space to recover.

This is impossible without a strong new Treaty.

Currently, there is no way for governments to protect the high seas, waters outside national jurisdictions. A strong Treaty would fix this by enabling the creation of vast ocean sanctuaries, off limits to destructive human activities.

The need for action is urgent. Governments first discussed a new Treaty almost two decades ago. While they’ve talked, the ocean crisis has deepened. Countless species and habitats have been destroyed or lost.

A strong Treaty would provide hope for the future of the oceans, and for the billions of people who depend on them.

A weak Treaty, or any further delay, would make 30×30 practically impossible. This would be a slap in the face for all those who have put faith in political leaders actually keeping their promises.

Over 5 million people have joined us to call for action to protect the oceans and deliver a strong Treaty.

Now it’s up to delegates to protect the oceans. Time truly is running out. The world is watching. The future is watching.

Signed by:

Rosanna Arquette, Actor and Activist

Hayley Atwell, Actor

Alec Baldwin, Actor and Activist

Javier Bardem, Actor

Carlos Bardem, Actor

Lily Cole, Model

Fearne Cotton, Presenter

Laura Dern, Actor and Activist

David de Rothschild, Explorer

Shepard Fairey, Artist and Activist

Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall, Chef

Jane Fonda, Actor and Activist

Silvia Frey, KYMA Sea Conservation & Research

Stephen Fry, Actor

Álvaro Longoria, Film Director and Activist

Robert Lindsay, Actor

Joanna Lumley, Actor and Activist

Will McCallum, Head of Oceans, Greenpeace UK

Adam McKay, Writer, Director, Producer

Helen Mirren, Actor

Arizona Muse, Model

Cornelia Nauen, Mundus Maris – Sciences and Arts for Sustainability

Vicki Nichols Goldstein, Inland Ocean Coalition

NOMA, Model and Activist

Farah Obaidullah, Women4Oceans

Lillian Ono, Climate justice activist

Chris Packham, Presenter

Piper Perabo, Actor

Michael Palin, Actor

Grag Queen, Singer and Activist

Inde Relph and Sally Ranney, Co-founders, GlobalChoices

Mark Rylance, Actor

Susan Sarandon, Actor and Activist

Andrew Sharpless, Oceana, CEO

Alex Smolinsky, SharkProject International, President

Alejandro Sanz, Singer

Andrew Sharpless, Oceana, CEO

Gustaf Skarsgård, actor and environmentalist

Alex Smolinsky, SharkProject International, President

Brett Sommermeyer, Law of the Wild, Legal Director

Alison Sudol, Singer, Actress and Activist

Masahiro Takemoto, Diver and Environmentalist

Ted Turner, Founding Member, Ocean Elders

Amber Valletta, Model and Activist

Shailene Woodley, Actor and Oceans Advocate

Bonnie Wright, Filmmaker and Author

Sindhu Vee

Daisuke Yosumi, Author and Naturalist

Forests are losing out to fossil fuels and foreign finance in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). On July 28, the country’s government auctioned 27 oil blocks and three gas blocks overlapping with some of the world’s most sensitive ecosystems, after signalling its intent in April.

The blocks cutting through carbon-rich peatlands, the Virunga National Park and other wildlife sanctuaries were sold to the highest bidder in what the country’s government has framed as an act of nationalism to advance its economy. “We care more for human beings than for gorillas,” the minister of communications has argued. “We have a duty for our people, while NGOs don’t,” the minister of environment has said, in defence of this environmental catastrophe in the making.

The nationalistic narrative is not only grossly misleading, but masks the true acts of nationalism that are required in Africa. First and foremost, the government has not even bothered to inform and consult the numerous Congolese people whose lives will be affected by oil and gas exploration and production. Greenpeace Africa knows that because when its teams went to speak to people living on the auctioned blocks, they found communities shocked and outraged at the prospect that their ancestral lands will be auctioned and their lifestyle disrupted.

Twenty five weeks of fighting and it’s not yet over – the Russian war on Ukraine continues, disrupting lives, families and peace. The impact of this aggression, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the global economic chaos is spreading its tentacles to every corner of the world, creating havoc and upending social order. Many societies are met with ongoing inflation through high costs of food, transport and energy. Individuals and families are cash strapped and have to make difficult choices – often there is no choice but to go to bed hungry. This is hurting, especially the most vulnerable populations who are also facing the impact of climate emergency. Images abound of malnourished and severely wasted children, destruction of ecosystems and a plunder of our natural world.

An investigation by Unearthed has found that garment waste from clothes made for Nike, Ralph Lauren, Diesel and other big brands is being burnt in brick kilns in Cambodia. As the majority of these garments are likely to be made from polyester, the burning of this plastic exposes bonded workers to toxic fumes and microplastic fibres. See the fashion brands’ replies.

A closer look

Despite the claims about sustainability by big brands, today’s fast fashion system depends on shifting its waste problem onto countries in the Global South where the lack of regulation and enforcement has led to the exploitation of workers and the environment.

In the last decade, Greenpeace’s Detox My Fashion campaign has exposed the pollution of waterways in the Global South with hazardous chemicals and showed how the impacts of pollution in the supply chain are felt disproportionately in these countries.

This Unearthed investigation shows that without transparency about actual practices on the ground, claims of zero waste and worker standards in supply chains, even including the avoidance of modern slavery, are no more than greenwashing.

The historic recent UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution, recognising a clean, healthy and sustainable environment as a universal human right, did not come out of the blue.

Landslide support for the resolution (161 votes in favour, none against, eight abstentions*) followed more than a decade of activism and advocacy by professionals, communities and environmental justice movements all over the world.

When the UN appointed an independent expert on human rights and the environment in 2012, it was already 40 years since the first global UN Conference on the Environment in Stockholm, whereupon the Stockholm Declaration positioned the environment as a major world issue for the first time. The current Special Rapporteur on human rights and the environment, David R. Boyd, backed by a groundswell of demand from Indigenous Peoples, social movements, local communities, academics and groups including Greenpeace, led the push for adoption in October last year of the right to a healthy environment by the UN Human Rights Council (‘HRC’).

Climate and environmental litigation – lawyering up for the planet – had been gathering pace and, less than a year after the HRC, the UNGA’s historic resolution smashed through the wall of cynical billion-dollar industrial propaganda that attempts to deny, disown and downplay the environmental and human rights atrocities their businesses caused.

Those who have previously participated in Plastic Free July, which has been running since 2011, know there are some simple actions many of us can take to reduce our plastic footprint. It can be by bringing our reusable coffee cup to the cafe, taking our tote bags to the supermarket, and ensuring our refillable water bottle, like sunscreen and chapstick, is part of our essential summer kit. We’re all proud and excited to do our part and, rightly so, feel great knowing that we are making a difference.

But while these lifestyle changes are important, they only make a small dent in our enormous plastic problem. So while we’re all doing our best, even the most conscientious shopper among us will struggle to be 100 percent plastic free as single-use plastic packaging is seemingly everywhere and alternatives are hard to find. Throwaway plastic is also almost omnipresent in the fast-moving consumer goods sector in the straws, takeout containers, soda bottles, and snack bags that we encounter as we go about our lives.

In Durham, North Carolina where I live, I’m very lucky to have a co-op with a bulk section, a robust farmers’ market with local, package-free produce, a package-free bulk food store, and a package-free soap and cleaning shop.