In The News

The Limits of Growth – Part I

Bo Ekman November 21, 2008
The double whammy of two global crises – recession and climate change – emerged after too many of the world’s citizens pursued lifestyles that the planet simply cannot sustain. This YaleGlobal series explores the limits of growth and calls for global governance that will encourage sustainable lifestyles that could ensure the planet’s survival. Fractured regional or national governance only...

Birds v. Coal: South African Court Asked to Decide

November 19, 2008
Wildlife conservationists have filed suit to stop a British–South African mining company from extracting coal from an area of wetlands and grasslands, habitat for 300 bird species, reports the Environmental News Service. The mining company claims that no threatened species are in the area, but “BirdLife South Africa, supported by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds based in the UK, has...

A Spanish Blowout: The Iberian Giants of US Wind Energy

Mark Scott November 4, 2008
Because they enacted strict emissions limits early and their business models adapted, two countries have a head start in developing alternative energy from wind – Portugal and Spain. As a result of that head start and a global credit crisis, major wind-energy companies from Spain and Portugal are aggressively pursuing wind projects overseas, including the US. Small wind-farm firms in the US find...

Calling for a Green Revolution: An Interview with Tom Friedman

October 31, 2008
Developing alternatives to fossil fuels – solar, wind or other energy technologies yet undiscovered – is the most pressing task confronting the globe, presenting a new frontier of opportunity. Tom Friedman, best-selling author and columnist with the New York Times, decries a planet being destroyed by climate change in his latest book, “Hot, Flat and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution and How...

Gulf to the US: Thanks, But No Thanks

Dilip Hiro October 22, 2008
Some financial analysts anticipated the cash-rich sovereign wealth funds of the Middle East to swoop down on giants in the financial and industrial world struggling with a global credit crisis – a notion arousing both fear and hope throughout Europe and the US. But such rescue investments have not materialized, explains author and Middle East analyst Dilip Hiro. Hiro reports that operations of...

Green Energy Is Not a Middle-Class Conceit, More the Only Way Forward

Geoffrey Lean October 22, 2008
Despite a global credit crisis, environmental protection and development of alternative energy sources by no means should be pushed to the back burner, argues Geoffrey Lean for the Independent. The current financial crisis could be quite mild compared with future crises, as supplies of natural energy decline and climate change causes raging storms, rising seas and fluctuating temperatures. The...

Our Vanishing Night

Verlyn Klinkenborg October 20, 2008
The growth of cities across the globe has obscured the line between night and day. Artificial lights that regularly brighten the night sky for human activity in metropolises and their suburbs has repercussions on humans and other living organisms that are only now beginning to be understood. Increased light disrupts the migratory patterns of birds, confuses newborn sea turtles, upsets amphibious...