In The News

Islanders Without an Island

Anwen Roberts September 19, 2007
As evidence of climate change continues to mount, international legal experts now debate liability. Climate-change law matters for the residents of low-lying island nations such as Tuvalu, in the southeast Pacific. If sea levels continue to rise at rates reported in recent years, Tuvalu country will go underwater in 50 years. International law is ill equipped to handle massive numbers of...

Japan Sweats It Out as It Wages War on Air Conditioning

Sebastian Moffett September 18, 2007
In August, Japan's three biggest banks joined the ranks of the "Cool Biz" initiative, a movement to reduce energy use and decrease carbon output. "Cool" businesses maintain building temperatures at 82 degrees Fahrenheit. Bank officials discovered that the move was good for both the environment and business. Concerned about global warming, Japanese customers avoid firms...

Globalization Was Good Then, Not Now

Mark Thirlwell September 17, 2007
Even as economists fret about sustaining global economic integration and politicians in the wealthiest nations make opposition to globalization a winning campaign theme, the phenomenon continues to connect the world. Such a dichotomy may not continue for long, warns economist Mark Thirlwell. Growing alarm in the developed nations stems from the emergence of powerful competitors in the developing...

Biofuelling the Food Crisis

John Vidal September 10, 2007
The notion of an automobile powered by fuel produced from plants appeals to any nation worried about dependence on foreign oil or declining oil reserves. A biofuel boom presents ostensibly environmentally-friendly implications, yet leads some analysts to predict a food crisis for the world’s most vulnerable populations. Plants for fuel will inevitably compete with food-plants, prompting rising...

Storm Surge

Bjorn Lomborg September 7, 2007
Extreme weather events spur public worries about global warming, and costs associated with such events have increased steadily in recent years. Yet the high costs are linked to increased development in low-lying coastal areas more so than climate change, suggests author Bjorn Lomborg. Governments have developed a “blinkered focus” regarding ways to slow costs associated with extreme storms and...

The Great Leap Backward?

Elizabeth C. Economy September 7, 2007
China has become a leading polluter in the world, with its citizens suffering from air pollution, decreasing supplies of potable water and reckless development. Consumers around the world buy inexpensive goods from China, but do not pay the true costs. The country has environmental laws, but businesses and local leaders ignore them in order to increase jobs and profits. The nation is capable of...

India’s Third Liberation

John Elkington September 4, 2007
India has experienced liberation, first winning independence from the UK in 1947 while also enduring partition with the creation of Pakistan and Bangladesh, and then loosening state control of the economy in the 1990s to accept reform, privatization and globalization. But great poverty still lingers in the nation, calling for a third stage of liberation, suggests John Elkington writing for...