The International Organisation for Migration (IOM)predicts there will be somewhere between 25 million and 1 billion people [internally or externally displaced] by the effects of climate change by 2050, with 200 million the closest specific estimate. The fate of these people is a distinctly moral question for developed nations that have contributed the majority of greenhouses gas emissions for decades and continue to do so today. Are those responsible for rising sea levels responsible for those who end up underwater?

At a time when many in the West question Russia’s geopolitical actions, especially regarding Ukraine, one might ask why it is a priority for American scientists to work on the ground with Russians to research and save arctic animals. The answer is simple: Conservation is the provenance of all. Irrespective of geography, animals have no voice.Climate change in the Arctic is more rapid than in other areas.

A new survey shows the youngest bloc of voters is decidedly progressive, nervous about money—and not especially energized about voting.One big takeaway is that Millennials are strongly supportive of governmental intervention in society on a wide array of social issues. The survey also suggests Millennials place a high value on equality.

Super Typhoon Haiyan, one of the most powerful storms in recorded history, has affected over 4 million people and is estimated to have killed more than 10,000, according to officials in the Philippines. Some coastal cities, including Tacloban whose population is about 220,000, were almost completely flattened, which means that aid efforts around the country remain severely hindered.

The background of the Syrian conflict can seem obscure to outsiders, but the spark that started it all is often traced back to the city of Dara'a, in February of 2011. A group of young people writing Arab Spring protest slogans on a wall are arrested and beaten. "When that news broke there was a massive demonstration on the street, and that was the first spark one can call of the Syrian uprising," Nayan Chanda tells NPR's Jacki Lyden.

Recently, the president of Iceland, Olafur Ragnar Grimsson, was in Washington to announce the launch of a new group called the Arctic Circle, which would include all counties and entities interested in greater involvement in Arctic-related decision-making. The Centre for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank, proposed a series of reforms to US Arctic policy.

With climate change rapidly opening up new opportunities for shipping and resource extraction across the once permanently frozen Arctic, the United States and other northern countries are being compelled to re-examine their policies, both national and collective, towards this region of growing geostrategic importance.