In The News

India Cannot Afford Rural Failure

Mira Kamdar April 20, 2007
Buoyant optimism about India’s economic prospects overlooks a critical weakness in the country’s well being. Long accustomed to price supports, India’s farmers confront open markets, government programs that favor large farms, overwhelming debt and changing weather patterns that reduce arable land and water supplies. The story of small farmers, struggling to repay predatory lenders and losing...

Global Effort to Save Endangered Crops Gets $37.5 Million Infusion

Andrew C. Revkin April 20, 2007
The combined pressures of climate change with a growing population could threaten crop diversity and global food supplies. An international effort to save endangered crop seeds, including a global database on plant gene banks, is underway, from Global Crop Diversity Trust and the United Nations Foundation. Weather, neglect and war can eliminate rare strains of barley, coconut, taro, wheat and...

The World’s Growing Nuclear Club

Humphrey Hawksley April 16, 2007
The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), opened for signing in 1968 and in force since 1970, established a nuclear regime intended as temporary until decision could be reached on eliminating nuclear weapons altogether. While the treaty has proven remarkably enduring, its failure to address the ultimate goal and its inability to cope with the nuclear ambitions of North Korea, Iran, Israel,...

Big Powers Jockey for Oil in Central Asia

Fred Weir April 9, 2007
The US, the European Union, India, China and Russia compete for influence in Central Asia – a place crucial because of its oil and natural gas reserves, with vital pipelines crisscrossing the region. Currently, Central Asian states largely rely on Russian infrastructure to deliver and sell their oil. Analysts in the West question reliability of Russian oil supplies because of the monopolistic...

Time for Détente With Iran

Ray Takeyh April 3, 2007
After decades of pursuing a policy of containment and preaching virulent anti-communism, Richard Nixon traveled to China in 1972, marking a new era of negotiation, compromise and cooperation that became known as “détente.” China, a rising East Asian power, assisted the US in exiting the unpopular Vietnam War, tackling more serious threats and bringing stability to the region; the US could gain...

Poor Nations to Bear Brunt as World Warms

Andrew C. Revkin April 2, 2007
Global warming is a form of aggression imposed by rich countries on the poor, according to the president of Uganda. Africa accounts for less than 3 percent of the carbon emissions that trap greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, leading to a steady increase in global temperatures, a rise in sea levels and a shift in precipitation from the equator toward the poles. Developing nations contributed more...

Global Warming Can't Buy Happiness

Bill McKibben March 23, 2007
In a draft report for the United Nations, the US admits that its carbon emissions will continue to rise over the next decade, not drop. In sum, the US and others find it difficult to sacrifice – and blithely contribute to crisis by expending energy in wasteful ways. “For the last century, our society's basic drive has been toward more — toward a bigger national economy, toward more stuff for...