In The News

Hundreds of Thousands Used ‘Lethal’ Water

Peter Goff November 28, 2005
Days after a massive chemical spill in industrial northern China, water supplies are still cut off in the major city of Harbin. Residents of Harbin must count themselves lucky, however, because their neighbors upstream learned of the contamination too late to avoid exposure to lethal levels of benezene. The authorities of Jilin and Heilonjiang provinces concealed the danger for 10 days, in...

Sugar Powers a Revolution on Brazil’s Roads

Tom Phillips November 23, 2005
Brazil has found an alternative to oil that it is touting as the future of fuel. “Alcohol,” a bio-ethanol fuel made from sugar cane, is increasingly powering Brazilian automobiles, and President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva speaks of an “energy revolution,” led by his country. Biodiesel, a renewable fuel, is seen as a way to make Brazil,and indeed the world, less dependent on oil. Its manufacture...

Nigeria Can Help Create More Moral Global Economy

Ken Wiwa November 9, 2005
Nearing the tenth anniversary of the execution of nine Nigerian political and environmental activists, questions still remain as to whether their sacrifice has been in vain. Ken Wiwa, a journalist whose father Ken Saro-Wiwa was instrumental in voicing the unjust corporate practices of Shell and other oil companies in the Niger Delta, here writes of the opportunity for Nigeria to escape the dark...

China’s Next Big Boom Could be the Foul Air

Jim Yardley October 31, 2005
China’s rise has both staggered and threatened the rest of the world. Sometimes the portrayal of China's military power as a threat has been exaggerated. An announcement by a top Chinese environmental official last week, however, introduced a statistic that is true cause for anxiety. Pollution levels in China could more than quadruple in the next 15 years if China does not slow its energy...

Migrant Birds "Should Not Be Bird Flu Scapegoats"

Mike Shanahan October 26, 2005
Since the avian flu broke international headlines again this year, most reports have focused on the poultry business and how governments can best tighten health standards within the industry. Many scientists are now concerned about the spread of the potential pandemic in the wild, beyond the control of health officials and government regulators. Worse still is the possibility that migratory birds...

China Builds Its Dreams, and Some Fear a Bubble

David Barboza October 18, 2005
China is experiencing a building boom, the scope of which means that cities like Shanghai now dwarf New York in terms of skyscrapers and vast networks of upscale apartment complexes. As a result of its unprecedented construction sector growth, China is scouring the world for energy and natural resources so that its cities, 170 of which have more than 1 million people, can meet and surpass Western...

As Polar Ice Turns to Water, Dreams of Treasure Abound

Clifford Krauss October 11, 2005
What will be left when the Arctic's polar ice cap is gone? The answer, in the eyes of the nations who border the Arctic Ocean, is untapped economic opportunity. New oil deposits, new fisheries, and new trade routes – including the fabled Northwest Passage – all promise tantalizing riches to what are now barren, frozen outposts. But who will get to tap those riches? Russia, Canada, Norway...