USA - Global warming: Sink or swim: Miami’s perilous future facing climate change

With its white-sand beaches and glittery high-rises, Miami is still a vacation hotspot. But lapping at those shores is another reality.

The city is also a "possible future Atlantis, and a metonymic stand-in for how the rest of the developed world might fail — or succeed — in the climate-changed future," writes Miami journalist Mario Alejandro Ariza in his forthcoming book, "Disposable City: Miami's Future on the Shores of Climate Catastrophe."

This may not be news to some. The city's plight has been the subject of investigative reporting and even viral news stories after an octopus showed up in a parking garage following an especially high tide.

Read more at:
Sink or swim: Miami’s perilous future facing climate change | Salon.com

Immigration: EU migration is essential for a healthy economy, says CBI's John Cridland - by John Cridland

As a proud Bostonian, the change in my Lincolnshire home town over the past decade is striking. West Street is now interspersed with vibrant Polski skleps selling an array of Eastern European goods. And while it was unusual to hear so many languages spoken when I was a boy, Slav languages are now being taught in local schools.

I understand that immigration has social and cultural impacts that can’t be ignored. But as head of the UK’s biggest business group, I am concerned about where the debate on immigration is heading. I know business leaders share this unease.

Across the political spectrum, there is a mismatch between rhetoric and reality. Immigration has helped keep the wheels of this recovery turning by plugging skills shortages. This has led to more jobs for British people and driven growth. Without free movement of workers, the recovery would grind to a halt.

Our hospitals and care homes couldn’t function without overseas workers; building sites that we need to deliver more homes and big infrastructure projects, such as the roll-out of broadband, would also stall.

EU migration also has a positive impact on the UK’s fiscal position. Research from University College London shows that over the decade since 2001 EU migrants made a positive net contribution of £2,732 per person per year.

Businesses benefit too, with 63pc of CBI members saying free movement of labour has been beneficial. And that free movement cuts both ways: well over a million Britons live and work in the EU. Of course, there are concerns around immigration.

Note EU-Digest: Regardless what Eurosceptics and Nationalists, Ultra Conservatives are saying the EU needs more not less immigrants.

 Read more: EU migration is essential for a healthy economy, says CBI's John Cridland - Telegraph

EU-USA Trade - Did you know ?

Did you know …

• EU and U.S.-based companies account for nearly two-thirds (65 percent) of the top R&D companies worldwide.  (Source: Transatlantic Economy 2014)

• EU-U.S. trade climbed to $787 billion in 2013, double the level of 2000. (Source: Transatlantic Economy 2014)

• The transatlantic economy generates close to $5 trillion in total commercial sales a year and employs up to 15 million workers in mutually “onshored” jobs on both sides of the Atlantic. (Source: Transatlantic Economy 2014)

• The transatlantic economy is the largest and wealthiest market in the world, accounting for over 50 percent of world GDP in terms of value and 40 percent in terms of purchasing power. (Source: Transatlantic Economy 2014)

• The U.S. and Europe are each other’s primary source and destination for foreign direct investment, together accounting for 56.7 percent of the inward stock of foreign direct investment (FDI), and a whopping 71 percent of outward stock of FDI. (Source: Transatlantic Economy 2014)

• U.S. investment in the Netherlands since 2000 was 14 times more than US investment in China during the same period. US investment in the UK was more than 10 times more, and in Ireland nearly six times more, than in China. (Source: Transatlantic Economy 2014)

• Eliminating or harmonizing just one-quarter of current non-tariff barriers in bilateral trade could boost a combined EU and US GDP by $106 billion. (Source: Transatlantic Economy 2014)

• According to a 2013 study, gains from a free trade agreement between the EU and U.S. could add up to a €210 billion (approximately $273 billion) boost to the two economies. (Source: Center for European Policy Research)

• The EU and US together contributed over $120 billion in official development assistance in 2012.  (Sources: OECD, USAID,EuropeAid)

• As of January 2011, nearly 1.7 million refugees from around the world call the US or an EU Member State home. (Source: Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees)

• In 2011/12, more than 168,000 students from the US and EU studied abroad on the other side of the Atlantic. (Source:Institute of International Education)

• More than 11 million EU tourists traveled to the US in 2012. (Source: US Department of Commerce, International Trade Administration) ---------------------------------------------------
• EU-Digest