In The News

Promises to Keep

Ayman El-Amir October 11, 2007
The United Nations' membership and mission has grown significantly in the six decades since its founding. Ayman El-Amir, a former director of UN Radio and Television, suggests that a proliferation of issues and the bureaucracy designed to address them have made the organization incapable of efficiently tackling the world's major problems. The stalling of reform initiatives begun in 1997...

In Greenland, Potatoes Thrive as Seal Hunting Wanes

Colin Woodard October 8, 2007
Rising average temperatures may transform life for millions over the coming decades, and dramatic changes in Greenland, near the Arctic Circle, could foreshadow some of the turmoil for the rest of the world. For centuries, the island's residents lived off ice fishing and seal hunting, accessing resources by dog sledding across the frozen sea. Today, however, climate change has thinned the...

Spread of Viral Diseases

Paul Reiter October 5, 2007
Yellow fever in Tennessee? Malaria in Russia? Chikungunya in northern Italy? There is no denying the fact that mosquito-borne diseases once thought of as strictly tropical now conquer cooler climes. The World Health Organization blames global warming, but Paul Reiter, writing for the Straits Times, suggests that that the spread of mosquito-borne diseases has more to do with the dramatic increase...

Beneath Booming Cities, China’s Future Is Drying Up

Jim Yardley October 2, 2007
China teeters on the edge of a water crisis. The country has five times the population of the United States, but less water, with the bulk of that supply in the south. Past policy mistakes, a dense population, climate change and galloping economic growth has shrunk China’s water supply. Agricultural irrigation accounts for most water usage, and pollution taints sources nationwide. The...

Climate-Change Challenge for the Poor – Part II

Mira Kamdar September 28, 2007
Increased consumption by rich and newly rich nations combined with effects of climate change set the stage for a global food crisis. Decreased supplies of world dietary staples like wheat, corn and rice have already increased prices significantly this year, and a few nervous governments brace for possible social unrest by hungry citizens. In this second article of a two-part series that explores...

Huge Effort Urged on Global Warming

Chrystia Freeland September 28, 2007
Contrary to a recent United Nations report that the fight against global warming will be costly, former US President Bill Clinton argues that a serious and ambitious program will save money and create jobs. For example, businesses investing in new, energy-efficient technology can dramatically decrease their utilities costs. Other analysts have also noted that the costs of future natural disasters...

Climate-Change Challenge for the Poor – Part I

Chandrashekhar Dasgupta September 26, 2007
Although climate change has been brought about largely by development in industrialized rich nations, it will impose the most hardship on the poorest countries. In the first article of this two-part series, Ambassador Chandrashekhar Dasgupta of India argues that accelerated social and economic development may offer the only hope for poor nations who have a long way to go in adapting to climate...