In The News

UN Report Warns of Threat to Human Progress From Climate Change

Larry Elliott, Mark Tran November 5, 2010
The United Nations' annual human development report mixes good news with bad. Despite global financial crisis, the vast majority of nations have made progress in poverty elimination, jobs, education continues, and only three – the Congo, Zambia and Zimbabwe – show declines in human development since 1990. Fast-growing emerging economies in Asia demonstrated the most progress. However, a...

Changing Climate's Irreversible Devastation for the Seas

Alex David Rogers October 29, 2010
Evidence of rapid climate change abounds in scientific research and routine observations. Yet policymakers are slow to act. Legislators and researchers attending international gatherings such as the 10th Conference of Parties for the Convention on Biological Diversity in Japan label climate change a “threat,” yet cannot agree to call for international agreements or action. Meanwhile climate...

Climate Change Threatens Global Rice

October 21, 2010
The high-yield IR8, so-called Miracle Rice, was developed in the 1960s and saved millions in Asia from starvation. But now, climate change seems to be reducing yields. According to research by Shaobing Peng in the current edition of the journal Field Crop Research, yields have fallen by 15 percent, primarily due to hotter nights, and also air pollution and changes in soil properties from...

40 Percent Decline in the Ocean's Phytoplankton

Steve Connor October 1, 2010
Researchers have found that phytoplankton – the microscopic plants at the base of the ocean’s food chain – have declined by 40 percent over the past century. The change is the biggest for the global biosphere, with more implications than deforestation, reports Steve Connor for the Independent. Warmer ocean waters could prevent the flow of nutrients, food for the micro plants, from the ocean’s...

Steps Out of the Global Development Crisis

Jens Martens September 20, 2010
As world leaders gather in New York to review the progress of the Millennium Development Goals set a decade ago, the enormity of the task ahead is clear. As the economic crisis spread across the globe, the government quickly adopted stimulus packages to stave off collapse. The fixes were temporary, though, failing to address immense structural challenges of trade imbalances, wage inequality and...

Another New World Order

Kevin Lynch September 17, 2010
This century’s diverse series of threats – from the Y2K computer glitch to terrorist attacks, war, financial meltdowns and environmental degradation – have both raised expectations and eroded faith in government leadership, observes Kevin Lynch for the Globe & Mail. He lists four structural trends driving a new world order: globalization, demographics, the information revolution and climate...

The Food Crisis

Martin Walker September 10, 2010
The world’s food supply is based on limited natural resources. Any disruptions in water supplies or weather patterns – exacerbated by growing populations and increased development of land – can quickly lead to food shortages, high prices and unrest. Martin Walker, writing for UPI.com, predicts “pressure on food supplies for decades to come.” Climate change and a fast-mutating fungus Ug99 that...