In The News

Mystery of the Vanishing Bees

Norman L. Carreck August 30, 2007
Honey bees contribute much to agriculture and the delicious variety of foods we eat. But the social insects are under stress. The reasons could be many: Mites that attack bees increasingly become resistant to pesticides; researchers have also theorized about modern society’s reliance on cell phones, insecticides and genetically modified crops. Policies to protect bees are in order, argues Norman...

Bee Decline Threatens Our Dinner and the Countryside

Jimmy Lee Shreeve August 30, 2007
Imagine a food market with fewer apples, nuts, soybeans, asparagus, squash, tomatoes, citrus fruit, strawberries or melons. People may not notice small insects in the course of daily life, but alarm would emerge if species of bees suddenly vanished. Wildflowers and many agricultural plants depend on bees for pollination and production of seed. “It's hard to believe that one small creature...

The New Myth About Climate Change

Idean Salehyan August 17, 2007
Global warming is a serious problem and could result in a decline of basic resources such as water or food in some regions of the world. But Idean Salehyan rejects the notion that climate change will necessarily lead to civil wars, uncontrollable immigration and global violence. “Dire scenarios like these may sound convincing, but they are misleading,” writes Idean Salehyan for Foreign Policy. “...

Huge Dust Plumes From China Cause Changes in Climate

Robert Lee Hotz August 13, 2007
Nations can impose the strictest of environmental standards – but that does not stop the pollution seeping in from other nations. Plumes of “man-made sulfates, smog, industrial fumes, carbon grit and nitrates” collect over manufacturing powerhouse China and then move with prevailing winds around the globe. On some days, almost one third of the air pollution in cities like Los Angeles can be...

Other Cities Sign Up to Turn Off

John Huxley August 9, 2007
Earth Hour is a global-warming awareness initiative that originated in Sydney, but is spreading through Australia and New Zealand and beyond. Polls show that 2 million people, including entire schools and businesses, participated on March 31, 2007, turning off all their lights for an hour. The small gesture demonstrates widespread public support for tackling global warming. Organizers admit that...

Food That Travels Well

James E. McWilliams August 8, 2007
In the US, some fruits and vegetables travel thousands of miles before reaching the dinner table. It would seem logical that food products grown close to home require less energy than those from far away. Environmentalists tout domestic products, farm markets and labels that promise reduced consumption of carbon fuel. But the carbon print of vegetables should not be measured in miles alone....

Ocean Explorers Plant Russian Flag on Arctic Sea Floor

Randy Boswell August 3, 2007
Canada, Russia, the US, Norway and Denmark all have some overlapping claims throughout the Arctic, each hoping to secure a big share of the rich oil, gas and mineral reserves believed to rest under the ice. “Under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, a country can secure rights to seabed territory reaching far beyond the 200-mile limit if it can prove that a portion of the ocean...