Photos of endangered places around the world (The Newsroom)

We all know that climate change melts glaciers and shifts sea levels. But have you ever thought about how rising temperatures can threaten beautiful places in every corner of the world? Some of these spots may be closer to home than you think.

For Earth Day, Yahoo! News interviewed Gaute Hogh, publisher of the book 100 Places to Go Before They Disappear (distributed by Abrams in the U.S.). Hogh was inspired to produce the book after witnessing the effects of global warming in his native Denmark. He wanted to show how natural beauty around the globe could be forever altered by climate change.

"The whole purpose of this book was to show my children the effects of climate change," Hogh says. "People usually show someone suffering and I wanted to show the positive side of it: If we don't do anything, we'll lose some of these beautiful places."

The first place that came to Hogh's mind was the Wadden Sea, a low-lying coastal zone in Denmark where visitors can "walk on water" to see varied landscapes and migratory birds. Hogh fears that rising sea levels will make the crossing too dangerous and destroy its dynamic ecosystem.

"One of my missions with the book is to show teenagers, if you don't turn off the water or turn down the heat, these places will disappear," Hogh says. "They may say, 'Why should I do this?' But if I show them these pictures, they start to see it another way."

Looking beyond his homeland, Hogh and his team used 2009 data from the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to cover a diversity of locations, both well-known and obscure. One famous locale is London by the river Thames, which could overflow by as early as 2025. Flooding would damage the city's underground rail network and could cost upwards of $48 billion.

Several areas in South America are vulnerable, including Brazil's white sand beaches by the coastal city of Recife. Increased flooding from Amazonian rivers also threatens the world's largest estuary Rio de la Plata, where coastal capitals Buenos Aires and Montevideo sit. It's also the natural habitat of threatened species like sea turtles, the rare La Plata dolphin, and the croaker, a drum-fish that croaks like a frog.

While many may be familiar with the precarious future of the Maldives, they may not know that even smaller islands like Tonga's Vava'u are also in danger. Said to be the best place to see whales in the wild, the small island chain is also prized for its vibrant coral reefs. Increased levels of CO2 are being absorbed by the ocean, bleaching reefs and endangering coral around the planet.

"For me, I don't care whether the place is big or small," Hogh says. "It's the same thing with people. No matter if you're black or white or Chinese or whatever. It's about treating each other with respect and it's the same thing with these small islands."

--By Allie Louie-Garcia and Thomas Kelley

For more information on Hogh's project, go to www.100places.com. The book also includes essays by Nobel Peace Prize recipients Desmond Tutu and Dr. Rajendra K. Pachauri, chairman of the IPCC.

View the original article here

Endangered places around the world (The Newsroom)

We all know that climate change melts glaciers and shifts sea levels. But have you ever thought about how rising temperatures can threaten beautiful places in every corner of the world? Some of these spots may be closer to home than you think.

In celebration of Earth Day, Yahoo! News interviewed Gaute Hogh, publisher of the book 100 Places to Go Before They Disappear (distributed by Abrams in the U.S.). Hogh was inspired to produce the book after witnessing the effects of global warming in his native Denmark. He wanted to show how natural beauty around the globe could be forever altered by climate change.

"The whole purpose of this book was to show my children the effects of climate change," Hogh says. "People usually show someone suffering and I wanted to show the positive side of it: If we don't do anything, we'll lose some of these beautiful places."

The first place that came to Hogh's mind was the Wadden Sea, a low-lying coastal zone in Denmark where visitors can "walk on water" to see varied landscapes and migratory birds. Hogh fears that rising sea levels will make the crossing too dangerous and destroy its dynamic ecosystem.

"One of my missions with the book is to show teenagers, if you don't turn off the water or turn down the heat, these places will disappear," Hogh says.  "They may say, 'Why should I do this?' But if I show them these pictures, they start to see it another way."

Looking beyond his homeland, Hogh and his team used 2009 data from the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to cover a diversity of locations, both well-known and obscure. One famous locale is London by the river Thames, which could overflow by as early as 2025. Flooding would damage the city's underground rail network and could cost upwards of $48 billion.

Several areas in South America are vulnerable, including Brazil's white sand beaches by the coastal city of Recife. Increased flooding from the Amazonian rivers also threatens the world's largest estuary Rio de la Plata, where coastal capitals Buenos Aires and Montevideo sit. It's also the natural habitat of threatened species like sea turtles, the rare La Plata dolphin, and the croaker, a drum-fish that croaks like a frog.

While many may be familiar with the precarious future of the Maldives, they may not know that even smaller islands like Tonga's Vava'u are also in danger. Said to be the best place to see whales in the wild, the small island chain is also prized for its vibrant coral reefs. Increased levels of CO2 are being absorbed by the ocean, bleaching reefs and endangering coral around the planet.

"For me, I don't care whether the place is big or small," Hogh says. "It's the same thing with people. No matter if you're black or white or Chinese or whatever. It's about treating each other with respect and it's the same thing with these small islands."

--By Allie Louie-Garcia and Thomas Kelley

For more information on Hogh's project, go to www.100places.com/en. The book also includes essays by Nobel Peace Prize recipients Desmond Tutu and Dr. Rajendra K. Pachauri, chairman of the IPCC.

View the original article here

Photos of endangered places around the world (The Newsroom)

We all know that climate change melts glaciers and shifts sea levels. But have you ever thought about how rising temperatures can threaten beautiful places in every corner of the world? Some of these spots may be closer to home than you think.

For Earth Day, Yahoo! News interviewed Gaute Hogh, publisher of the book 100 Places to Go Before They Disappear (distributed by Abrams in the U.S.). Hogh was inspired to produce the book after witnessing the effects of global warming in his native Denmark. He wanted to show how natural beauty around the globe could be forever altered by climate change.

"The whole purpose of this book was to show my children the effects of climate change," Hogh says. "People usually show someone suffering and I wanted to show the positive side of it: If we don't do anything, we'll lose some of these beautiful places."

The first place that came to Hogh's mind was the Wadden Sea, a low-lying coastal zone in Denmark where visitors can "walk on water" to see varied landscapes and migratory birds. Hogh fears that rising sea levels will make the crossing too dangerous and destroy its dynamic ecosystem.

"One of my missions with the book is to show teenagers, if you don't turn off the water or turn down the heat, these places will disappear," Hogh says. "They may say, 'Why should I do this?' But if I show them these pictures, they start to see it another way."

Looking beyond his homeland, Hogh and his team used 2009 data from the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to cover a diversity of locations, both well-known and obscure. One famous locale is London by the river Thames, which could overflow by as early as 2025. Flooding would damage the city's underground rail network and could cost upwards of $48 billion.

Several areas in South America are vulnerable, including Brazil's white sand beaches by the coastal city of Recife. Increased flooding from Amazonian rivers also threatens the world's largest estuary Rio de la Plata, where coastal capitals Buenos Aires and Montevideo sit. It's also the natural habitat of threatened species like sea turtles, the rare La Plata dolphin, and the croaker, a drum-fish that croaks like a frog.

While many may be familiar with the precarious future of the Maldives, they may not know that even smaller islands like Tonga's Vava'u are also in danger. Said to be the best place to see whales in the wild, the small island chain is also prized for its vibrant coral reefs. Increased levels of CO2 are being absorbed by the ocean, bleaching reefs and endangering coral around the planet.

"For me, I don't care whether the place is big or small," Hogh says. "It's the same thing with people. No matter if you're black or white or Chinese or whatever. It's about treating each other with respect and it's the same thing with these small islands."

--By Allie Louie-Garcia and Thomas Kelley

For more information on Hogh's project, go to www.100places.com. The book also includes essays by Nobel Peace Prize recipients Desmond Tutu and Dr. Rajendra K. Pachauri, chairman of the IPCC.

View the original article here

Romney leads the GOP field on health care — at least in the real world

What makes Mitt Romney’s health-care troubles particularly perverse is that, by all rights, he’s the one candidate in the Republican field who’s really accomplished something on the issue. This graph uses data from the Kaiser Family Foundation to chart the number of uninsured in each Republican contender’s home state. In states where there are two likely Republicans — say, Minnesota, where both Tim Pawlenty and Michele Bachmann receive their mail, or Texas, which elected both Ron Paul and Rick Perry — I’ve grouped them together. Look who comes out ahead. And not by a little:

Moreover, Donald Trump can’t be blamed for New York’s rate of uninsurance. Tim Pawlenty hasn’t done much to change Minnesota’s health-care system one way or the other. But Massachusetts’s leadership on this graph is substantially due to decisions Romney made as governor. Romney doesn’t look good because the Dukakis administration did the work for him, though the Dukakis administration did pass some important health-care reforms. Romney looks good because he achieved something important.

Romney’s record looks worse, it should be said, if you focus on costs. Massachusetts had the highest per-person costs when Romney took office and it has the highest per-person costs now. His reforms largely dodged the cost issue, arguing that access was a necessary precondition for cost control, and so it needed to be done first. In the individual and small-group markets where his reforms focused, however, insurance has become, on net, more affordable.

To his credit, though, the theory that expanding access can align the political incentives toward cost control is largely working out. The reforms gave the Massachusetts political establishment something to protect, and so they’ve begun focusing seriously on the sort of real cost controls needed to make near-universal coverage sustainable. The Patrick administration has proposed one of the most far-reaching cost control efforts ever seen on the state level, and the state’s largest health insurer is carrying out the most promising payment experiment we’ve seen in some time. Romney has a lot to be proud of, even if he’s not supposed to say so.

???initialComments:true! pubdate:05/13/2011 10:38 EDT! commentPeriod:3! commentEndDate:5/16/11 10:38 EDT! currentDate:5/14/11 10:35 EDT! allowComments:true! displayComments:false!

View the original article here

The world according to Donald Trump: ‘So easy’

The world according to Donald Trump: ‘So easy’ - The Washington PostTWP_Debug.pagedebug && window.console && console.log && console.log('[' + (new Date()-TWP_Debug.initialTime)/1000 + ']' + ' js/head.jpt - start');TWP_Debug.pagedebug && window.console && console.log && console.log('[' + (new Date()-TWP_Debug.initialTime)/1000 + ']' + ' js/head.jpt - after wpost load');TWP_Debug.pagedebug && window.console && console.log && console.log('[' + (new Date()-TWP_Debug.initialTime)/1000 + ']' + ' js/head.jpt - after eidos load');TWP_Debug.pagedebug && window.console && console.log && console.log('[' + (new Date()-TWP_Debug.initialTime)/1000 + ']' + ' js/head.jpt - after ad load'); $(document).ready(function(){TWP_Debug.pagedebug && window.console && console.log && console.log('[' + (new Date()-TWP_Debug.initialTime)/1000 + ']' + ' document.ready fired'); }); $(window).load(function(){TWP_Debug.pagedebug && window.console && console.log && console.log('[' + (new Date()-TWP_Debug.initialTime)/1000 + ']' + ' window.load fired'); });TWP_Debug.pagedebug && window.console && console.log && console.log('[' + (new Date()-TWP_Debug.initialTime)/1000 + ']' + ' js/head.jpt - end');TWP = ( typeof TWP == 'undefined' ) ? {} : TWP ;TWP.Data = ( typeof TWP.Data == 'undefined' ) ? {} : TWP.Data ;TWP.Data.NN = {init: function(){this.pageType="article_story";this.canonicalURL="http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/the-world-according-to-donald-trump-so-easy/2011/04/23/AFx1ZpVE_story.html";this.shortURL="";this.section="/politics";this.destinations="google_news";this.homepage=false;}}TWP.Data.NN.init(); SubscribeMobileConversationsToday's PaperGoing Out GuideJobsCarsReal EstateRentalsClassifiedsHomePoliticsCampaignsCongressCourts &LawThe Fed PageHealth CarePollingWhite HouseWho Runs GovBlogs & ColumnsTop Blogs

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Gary Coronado/AP - Donald Trump attends the South Florida Tea Party's third annual tax day rally Saturday, April 16, 20 at Sanborn Square in Boca Raton, Fla.

Text SizePrintE-mailReprints By Dan Balz,

In his brief flirtation with a possible presidential campaign, Donald Trump has offered up a head-turning agenda to accompany his swaggering presidential style: a bellicose foreign policy and a domestic economic policy long on generalities and short on ideological certitude.

The New York businessman has grabbed headlines with his provocative remarks on President Obama’s birthplace. He continues to question whether the president was born in Hawaii, despite ample evidence that he was. But what he has had to say about real issues deserves as much attention as his “birther” comments.

In the past week alone, he has held forth on a range of serious topics in interviews with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, CNN’s Candy Crowley, NBC’s Savannah Guthrie, and Fox’s Greta Van Susteren and Alisyn Camerota. The transcripts tell the story. Being Trump apparently means being able to say about nearly everything, “It’s so easy.”

Trump is militaristic. His Libya policy is simple. Obama is “weak and ineffective,” there and elsewhere, he says. What would he do? “I would go in and take the oil. .?.?. I would take the oil and stop this baby stuff.” Otherwise, he would not go into Libya at all. As for the Libyans, “I’d give them plenty so they can live very happily,” he says.

He holds similar views on Iraq. Trump worries that once U.S. troops leave, as they are set to do by the end of the year, the Iranians will move in. What is his solution? “We stay there, and we take the oil,” he says. He is not happy that the United States has spent, in his estimation, $1.5 trillion on the Iraq war. “We could have rebuilt half the United States” with that money, he argues.

Stephanopoulos asked, “So, we steal an oil field?” Trump responded: “Excuse me. You’re not stealing anything. You’re taking — we’re reimbursing ourselves. And we reimburse all of our allies. And we give every family a million or $2 million or $3 million who lost a son or a daughter. And all of the wounded that are all over the streets of all of the cities and all of the country.”

Trump believes the United States has acted like a chump militarily. He longs for the times when empires acted like empires. “In the old days,” he told Crowley, “when you have a war and you win, that nation’s yours. This country is a laughingstock throughout the world.”

Obama and Defense Secretary Robert Gates may believe it’s time to cut the defense budget, but Trump doesn’t. He wouldn’t touch it. “We need great defense,” he told Guthrie. “I guarantee you, of all the Republicans, I’m the strongest on defense.”

Unlike the feeble Obama, Trump says, he could bring down rising gasoline prices and force the Chinese to compete on an even playing field. As he says, “It’s so easy.”

A consummate dealmaker as a real estate developer, Trump declares he would bring those same skills to negotiating with the Chinese or OPEC nations. On the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, he says: “We don’t have anybody in Washington that calls OPEC and says, ‘Fellows, it’s time. It’s over. You’re not gonna do it anymore.’?”

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