In The News

A Green Revolution Blooms in the Desert

Elisabeth Rosenthal January 15, 2009
Countries in the Middle East have bountiful supplies of oil, but the leaders also recognize that such fossil fuels are limited and make what Elisabeth Rosenthal calls in the International Herald Tribune “a concerted push to become the Silicon Valley of alternative energy.” The countries are using their oil wealth to invest in alternative technologies, create alternative-energy investment funds...

Russian Gas Politics

Yoo Chul-jong January 14, 2009
Russia began supplying gas via pipeline to Western Europe during the Cold War, a result of the contract between n Leonid Brezhnev, chairman of the Soviet Communist party, and Willy Brandt, chancellor of West Germany. “Despite consistent pressure from the United States, Brandt, who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1971 for his ‘Ostpolitik’ policy of reconciliation with socialist countries in...

Why Iran Seeks Nuclear Weapons

Arch Roberts Jr. January 8, 2009
With the US at war in bordering Iraq and Afghanistan, with Israel invading the Gaza Strip, any quest by Iran for nuclear weapons does not seem so outlandish. Iran insists its uranium-enrichment program is for peaceful purposes, but by sending rockets to its proxies, Hamas in Palestine and Hezbollah in Lebanon, to cause harm to Israel, it has not proved peaceful intentions. The success in its...

Ukraine Says Russia Shuts Down All Gas Supplies to Europe

David Jolly January 7, 2009
Russia ranks first in the proven reserves of natural gas, and Europe relies on Russia for about 20 percent of its natural gas. But that supply is disrupted as the result of a dispute between Russia and Ukraine, with both sides pointing to the other as responsible for shutting down the pipelines that supply gas to Romania, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Greece, Turkey, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia and Italy...

Battle in a Poor Land for Riches Beneath the Soil

Lydia Polgreen December 29, 2008
Africa's natural resources – oil, diamonds and now uranium – immediately invite conflict among factions. Increased energy needs of emerging economic giants like China and India, as well as the rising interest in nuclear power as an alternative energy source due to climate change, increase global demand for uranium. On paper, increased trade profits would seem a huge benefit to Niger, one of...

Powering Africa's Future

Vera Kwakofi December 12, 2008
About two thirds of Africa’s people lack electric power. Eager to secure electric power that would help struggling economies, African nations must decide on an energy source and are inpatient about waiting for alternative sources like solar power. South Africa once produced enough power to share with neighbors like Zambia, Botswana and Zimbabwe, but now finds itself in short supply. “Now, the...

The Limits of Growth – Part II

Chandran Nair November 24, 2008
Governments pursue rapid growth as a path to prosperity, and policymakers generally depend on markets to reveal and control problems. In the second of this two-part YaleGlobal series on the limits to growth, Chandran Nair, founder of the Global Institute for Tomorrow, points to parallels between the global economic crisis and climate change. Both challenges are rooted in the pursuit of excessive...