In The News

Russia Plants Arctic Flag

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...

China Cancels Environmental Report

Mitchell Landsberg July 27, 2007
Governments around the globe continue to prioritize the short-term gains of economic growth over the long-term costs of environmental destruction. But with mounting property damage and increasing reports of illnesses such as asthma, nations can’t help but be embarrassed about the costs associated with environmental neglect. In early July, China convinced the World Bank to alter parts of a report...

Global Fishing Trade Depletes African Waters

John W. Miller July 23, 2007
Fish is a favorite food for the global palate. Since 1982, a United Nations treaty allowed countries to restrict fishing within 231 miles of their coasts. Poor African nations, such as Mauritania or Senegal, found a lucrative source for cash when they started selling fishing rights to wealthy European and Asian countries that had already depleted stocks in their own waters. Most of the African...

Global Safeguards for a Global Economy

Harold Meyerson July 12, 2007
Strategies that created mass prosperity in the US and Western Europe – by establishing safety networks and consumer trust – could be applied throughout the world, suggests Washington Post columnist Harold Meyerson. He urges the creation of a global safety agency to review and offer regulations on issues ranging from unsafe food imports to climate change. Meyerson suggests that it is unrealistic...

Canada Heats Up Rhetoric Over Claims to North Pole

Ed Pilkington July 11, 2007
Canada means business when it comes to claiming, protecting and using the Arctic. With climate change gradually melting arctic ice, potentially exposing oil and minerals, Prime Minister Stephen Harper has warned other nations to stay away from the region. Canada is investing in a deepwater port to support eight military ships that will patrol Arctic waters. Canada, Denmark, Russia, the US,...

The Arctic, the Tropics and Ottawa

James Allen July 9, 2007
Despite their distance, the circumpolar North and the countries in the Pacific, Caribbean and Indian Oceans, known collectively as the Small Developing States, have much in common. Both regions feel threatened by increasing evidence of global warming – melting ice and changing species in the north, hurricanes and rising sea levels in regions closer to the equator. Both express concern about...

Immigration, Populations, Climate Change, Ideologies

J. Russell Tyldesley July 6, 2007
Conflict over immigration, economic growth, climate change, territorial claims, limited energy or water supplies all increase as the world grows more crowded. Such conflicts would be easier to resolve if population growth slowed, argues J. Russell Tyldesley. The world’s population now stands at more than 6.5 billion, as compared with 1.5 billion in 1900, 2.5 billion in 1950, with more than 9...