In The News

A Link Between Climate Change and Joplin Tornadoes? Never!

Bill McKibben May 25, 2011
The US government and media are like children who have joined a strange cult, and environmentalists take on the role of frustrated parents trying to show connections between behavior and consequences. Many in the US stubbornly resist connecting extreme weather events with climate change. News anchors, reporters, government weather officials studiously avoid mentioning climate change, carbon...

Carbon Confusion

Emilie Filou May 18, 2011
Despite the uncertainty surrounding the Kyoto Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism, African nations and businesses anticipate global attitudes to swing against carbon emissions. Since Africa produces about 4 percent of annual global CO2 emissions, its mitigation potential is therefore negligible, reports Emilie Filou for This is Africa Online. Yet South Africa, the globe’s 13th largest emitter...

Seven Steps to Prevent Recurring Food Crises

Shenggen Fan April 30, 2011
Extreme weather events that disrupt harvests lead to rising food prices, hitting hard the world’s poor who spend the majority of their incomes on food. The poor often work in agriculture, but rising costs of inputs and consumer resistance against rising prices “can reduce farmers’ profit margins, distort long-term planning and dampen investment in improved productivity,” explains Shenggen Fan for...

Today's Weather Affects Attitudes on Global Warming

Jeanna Bryner April 14, 2011
By far, most climate scientists point to evidence that human activity contributes to volatile weather, severe storms and droughts, melting polar ice and climate change. But it’s human nature to ignore long-term evidence and instead rely on day-to-day observations. Individuals check a weather forecast – if it’s chilly or snowing outside, that’s enough to reduce evidence of global warming for them...

Study: Some Natural Gas Threatens Climate More Than Coal

Tennille Tracy April 13, 2011
Colorless, odorless natural gas is touted as a clean combustible with few emissions. But it’s composed of at least 70 percent methane. A Cornell University study suggests that extracting natural gas from shale with hydraulic fracturing can release methane. The greenhouse gas traps far more heat than carbon dioxide, also blamed for climate change. Tennille Tracy summarizes the study’s conclusion...

Multitude of Species Face Climate Threat

Carl Zimmer April 8, 2011
Biologists monitoring Earth’s loss of biodiversity predict a sixth great mass extinction could be underway. Overfishing, overhunting, deforestation, development and climate could be behind some eerie changes: polar bears losing ice; whales, fish and birds adjusting migration patterns; butterflies hatching from pupae earlier, mountainside animals and plants forced to move to new heights....

Mother Nature’s Melting Pot

Hugh Raffles April 4, 2011
Environmental preservationists often raise alarms about invasive species – whether it’s Asian carp in the US or Norway rats or Canada geese in China. The “natural landscape is a shifting mosaic of plant and animal life,” argues anthropologist Hugh Raffles in an opinion essay for the New York Times. Labels “native” or “alien” bestowed by humans on others are misnomers, ignoring how migration is an...