In The News

Poverty Breeds Insecurity

January 19, 2005
At the United Nations Millennium Summit in September 2000, world leaders placed development at the heart of the global agenda by adopting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which set clear targets for reducing poverty, hunger, disease, illiteracy, environmental degradation, and discrimination against women by 2015. To devise a plan for implementation and recommend strategies for developing...

Invisible Export – A Hidden Cost of China's Growth: Mercury Migration

Matt Pottinger December 20, 2004
When an American hockey player suffered symptoms from mercury contamination, he never expected that he might have power plants half way across the world in China to blame. With its growing appetite for energy, China is finding its many coal-burning power plants hard at work generating the much needed electricity power – as well as huge amounts of air pollutants like sulfur dioxide and mercury....

From Free Market to "Our Power"

Liam Salter December 13, 2004
Though enshrined in the United Nation's Millennium Development Goals, clean sustainable energy looks a long way off in much of Asia. Demand for coal in India and China has risen exponentially in recent years, fuelling fears of an imminent pollution crisis. Efforts to steer Asia away from the "hard energy path" – reliance on traditional energy sources – have met with only gradual...

South America Seeks to Fill the World's Table

Larry Rohter December 12, 2004
Though the United States remains the world's largest exporter of agricultural goods, it faces a stern challenge from Brazil. Agriculture has boomed in Brazil in recent years thanks to market-friendly economic policies and increasingly sophisticated methods of cultivation. Many Brazilian farmers have settled what has been termed Brazil's "untapped frontier" – its vast tracts of...

The Green Beast Is Out of Control

Miranda Devine December 2, 2004
The clout of environmental groups in influencing the decisions of multinational corporations may be greater than is appropriate. US-based animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), through widespread "greenmail" campaigning, has managed to change the policies of Abercrombie and Fitch, among other clothing companies, to the detriment of the Australian wool...

More Heat Than Light Shed on GM Corn

Kenneth Emmond November 30, 2004
Genetically modified (GM) corn has ballooned into a major source of debate between the United States and Mexico. However, the public has a surprisingly muddled grasp of the situation. Respected news agencies have drawn completely opposite conclusions from the same NAFTA research report. According to this columnist, confusion is only natural, because the safety of GM products is not the real point...

Warning Issued on GM Maize Imported to Mexico

Mike Shanahan November 16, 2004
A report released by an environment panel under the North American Free Trade Agreement announced that GM maize imported to Mexico should be handled with caution. New genes contained in American maize could "persist indefinitely if they are beneficial or neutral to the local varieties," according to the report. The quantity of this kind of genetic transfer, however, is relatively small...