In The News

African Land Grab

Gwynne Dyer May 26, 2009
The scarcest of scarce resources, land for agricultural use in Africa has attracted a slew of foreign buyers. While some proclaim this “neo-colonialism.” Profit seeking and concern over food security appear to be the main culprits. The purchases started in 2006 – as oil prices began shooting up – and the land was intended to grow crops for bio-fuels. But some buyers also hail from countries that...

Can Asia Reverse Global Climate Change?

Chandran Nair May 19, 2009
Calling on Asia to boost its consumption to pull the rest of the world out of the financial crisis is wrongheaded and could lead to an environmental disaster, according to Chandran Nair, CEO of the Global Institute for Tomorrow. If Asia were to approach the consumption levels of the West in just about any commodity – fish, meat, automobiles, or housing, for example – the environmental damage...

Can We Reverse Global Climate Change?

Jim Hansen May 14, 2009
Cap-and-trade of carbon, preferred by governments, will not reverse global warming because it does not effectively reduce carbon emissions, according to NASA scientist Jim Hansen. Rather, it creates a situation ripe with opportunities to exploit loopholes, enrich traders, and lower public accountability all the while actually increasing carbon emissions. The European experience stands as a good...

China Outpaces U.S. in Cleaner Coal-Fired Plants

Keith Bradsher May 12, 2009
As China’s rate of building coal power plants has increased in recent years, fears of global climate change have followed apace. But looking closer at the newer plants reveals that China’s massive construction scheme may actually help to reduce emissions. Many of the new plants are more efficient and also come with a government condition that an older, less efficient plant be retired to ensure...

How to Prevent the Climate Change Summit From Failure

Scott Barrett May 1, 2009
The Framework Convention on Climate Change set to meet in Copenhagen in December 2009 could be a lame duck session if the US is not ready to meet international targets, according to environmental economist Scott Barrett. The chances of the US Congress agreeing on climate change targets prior to the convention are unlikely given the timetable. A solution, as Barrett argues, would be to draft a...

China Vies to Be World’s Leader in Electric Cars

Keith Bradsher April 3, 2009
China’s plan to become the world leader in electric cars may not reduce pollution as much as reallocate it. While greenhouse gas emissions would decline by roughly 19 percent, according to a McKinsey study, if electric cars replaced gas-powered ones in China, such emissions would shift from car exhausts to power plants – in other words from the city to the country. But pollution reduction is only...

China Reluctant to Lead

Orville Schell March 11, 2009
As US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton emphasized during her first trip overseas, the US has great expectations for China's leadership and help on fixing the economy, and reducing climate change. Following the model of Richard Nixon in the 1970s, who sought to make common cause against the Soviet threat, Clinton emphasized common challenges for the two nations, playing down any differences...