In The News

Hazing Rituals

September 27, 2015
Palm oil farmers in Malaysia and Indonesia continue to set fires to clear land, with some getting out of control. A blanket of smog creeps over the region, drifting into Singapore and Malaysia. Singapore, a source of investment funds for the plantations, has passed laws allowing complaints about the foreign fires to be considered in its courts. “ASEAN was designed precisely to foster the kind of...

VW's Emissions Cheating Found by Curious Clean-Air Group

Jeff Plungis and Dana Hull September 25, 2015
A university lab in West Virginia, a state known for coal-mining and rejecting clean-air regulations, conducted exhaust tests that have rattled Volkswagen and a marketing strategy on “clean” diesel. Volkswagen is based in Germany, a country that promotes policies to protect the environment and stem climate change. The International Council on Clean Transportation had wanted to show European...

UN Development Goals Ignore Population Growth

Joseph Chamie September 22, 2015
Population growth is linked to conflict, water shortages and resource depletion, climate change and mass migrations. The global population is now 7.3 billion people, up from 2.5 billion in 1950, and is expected to swell to near 11 billion by the end of the century. World leaders convene this week at the United Nations and prepare to adopt new Sustainable Development Goals for 2030. The draft...

World Wildlife Federation: Fish Numbers on “Brink of Collapse”

Alister Doyle September 17, 2015
A study by the World Wildlife Fund and the Zoological Society of London suggests that ocean fish stocks have decreased by half since 1970. The decline is linked to over-fishing, mismanagement and climate change. “Damage to coral reefs and mangroves, which are nurseries for many fish, add to problems led by over-fishing,” reports Alistair Doyle for Reuters. “The study said the world's fishing...

Diplomacy at the Top of the World

James F. Collins, Ross A. Virginia and Kenneth S. Yalowitz August 31, 2015
Foreign ministers will convene to discuss the Arctic region August 31. James Collins, Ross A. Virginia and Kenneth S. Yalowitz, writing for Project Syndicate, point out the common interests for Russia and the United States. While at odds over the former’s interventions in Ukraine, the two cooperated on negotiating a deal on Iran’s nuclear program. Russia, the United States along with Canada,...

World Without Water: The Dangerous Misuse of Our Most Valuable Resource

Nicola Abé, Jens Glüsing, Felix Lill, Michaela Schiessl, Samiha Shafy and Helene Zuber August 20, 2015
The world is depleting its supply of freshwater, which represents 2.5 percent of the overall water supply. “The world's population has almost tripled since 1950, but water consumption has increased six-fold,” writes a team for Spiegel Online. The report reviews wasteful practices in Brazil, California, Spain and efforts to privatize water markets in Bolivia and Germany. About 70 percent of...

Clouds Over China’s Solar Power Industry

Kieran Cooke August 19, 2015
Expansion of the solar-panel industry is under threat, reports Climate News Network, due to the rout in China’s stock market. “Seven out of the world’s top ten manufacturers of solar panels are China-based companies, together providing about 40% of global solar supplies,” reports Kieran Cooke. Some companies have lost half their share value and investors have pulled back. For the solar-panel...