Daily Archives: August 27, 2015

Nigeria

Nigeria marks 500 days since abduction of Chibok girls

Independent Catholic News
nig-9Nearly 500 days have passed since Boko Haram terrorists kidnapped 200 girls from their school in Nigeria. The President of the Ekklisiyar Yan’uwa a Nigeria (EYN, Church of the Brethren in Nigeria) has revealed that more than 176 of them are from families belonging to his denomination.

Reverend Samuel Dali’s revelation coincides with a Global Week of Action launched by local activists to mark the 500 days.

Speaking to local media, Reverend Dali added that over 8,000 members of his church had lost their lives and 70 percent of church facilities in Adamawa, Yobe and Borno States had been destroyed, including the church’s headquarters in Mubi, Adamawa State, which was seized in October 2014. In addition, an estimated 90,000 EYN church members are reported to have been displaced by terrorist violence. Continue reading Nigeria marks 500 days since abduction of Chibok girls →

Environment

NASA: World ‘Locked Into’ at Least 3 Feet of Sea Level Rise

Common Dreams
Current satellite data reveals that glaciers ‘might not be as stable as we once thought’
Andrea Germanos, staff writer

Photo: NASA/Saskia Madlener
Photo: NASA/Saskia Madlener

New research underway indicates that at least three feet of global sea level rise is near certain, NASA scientists warned Wednesday.

That’s the higher range of the 1 to 3 feet level of rise the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) gave in its 2013 assessment.

Sea levels have already risen 3 inches on average since 1992, with some areas experiencing as much as a 9-inch rise.

“Given what we know now about how the ocean expands as it warms and how ice sheets and glaciers are adding water to the seas, it’s pretty certain we are locked into at least 3 feet of sea level rise, and probably more,” said Steve Nerem of the University of Colorado, Boulder, and lead of NASA’s interdisciplinary Sea Level Change Team. “But we don’t know whether it will happen within a century or somewhat longer.” Continue reading NASA: World ‘Locked Into’ at Least 3 Feet of Sea Level Rise →