About $2.5 trillion of real estate assets in California are at risk, with a projected annual price tag of between $300 million and $3.9 billion, according to a report by UC Berkeley researchers.

By Margot Roosevelt  (LA Times)

Eroding beaches, disappearing snowpacks, subdivisions decimated by wildfires — climate change in California could be expensive.

For the first time, the costs of global warming’s projected effects in the nation’s largest state have been quantified: About $2.5 trillion of real estate assets in California are at risk from extreme weather events, sea level rise and wildfires, with a projected annual price tag of between $300 million and $3.9 billion, according to a new report, “California Climate Risk and Response,” written by UC Berkeley researchers Fredrich Kahrl and David Roland-Holst.

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On the heels of Veteran’s Day, a day in which we honor those who have served, we also pay tribute to the brave men and women currently serving for our country.

Pictured: U.S. Army Spc. Clayton Hodge, 22, rests after climbing a mountainside on patrol October 26, 2008 in the Korengal Valley of eastern Afghanistan. He and fellow members of the 1-26 Infantry are involved in some of the heaviest fighting between American forces and Taliban insurgents. (John Moore/Getty Images)

On the heels of an animated blockbuster movie, I was compelled to shed light on a more thought-provoking and relevant occurrence: mining and suffering in Iiakaka, Madagascar. Excerpt taken from the Boston Globe:

The tiny village of Ilakaka, Madagascar had barely 40 residents before 1998. Then, a large deposit of sapphires was discovered along a nearby riverbed, and caught the eye of some Thai businessmen in the gem trade. Word got out, and Ilakaka swelled to tens of thousands of residents - the center of a sapphire boom, today the source of nearly 50% of all the sapphires in the world. Illegal miners mixed with large-scale operations, all operating under little or no regulation, in a wild-west atmosphere of potential fortunes, lawlesness, violence and hardship. In the years since, the easily-mined sapphire fields have been picked clean, and the remaining miners often work in deep holes, climbing far underground. Mining is also a family effort - according to an official study, of the 21,000 children living in the region, 19,000 belong to working families.

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