In The News

Water, Down The Drain

Nayan Chanda April 30, 2013
Subsidies can lead to excess and waste. India is an export leader in water-intensive crops like rice and cotton due to subsidy-driven overproduction, aiming to provide low-cost grain. “Huge subsidies and wastage of food grains belie record exports and reckless use of India’s precious water patrimony,” argues Nayan Chanda, YaleGlobal editor, in his column for Businessworld. One study suggests...

Beijing Is Booming; Talent Is Leaving Due to Bad Air

Peter Ford April 29, 2013
The most talented workers expect top workplace amenities, not to mention basics like clean air. A persistent cloud of foul, acrid air pollution is prompting growing numbers of expatriates and talented Chinese workers to abandon Beijing, reports Peter Ford for the Christian Science Monitor. Some companies offer extra hazard pay to keep employees in the city and can count on higher health costs for...

The Second Cooing: Raising Passenger Pigeons From the Dead

Philip Bethge April 24, 2013
Groundbreaking research in genetics draws both fascination and alarm. A California researcher is collecting DNA of passenger pigeons, extinct since 1914, from museums of natural history. “The Tasmanian devil, the wooly rhinoceros, the mammoth, the dodo and the gastric-breeding frog are all on the list of candidates for revival,” reports Philip Bethge, who explains how the animal’s flocking...

Baby Milk Rationing: Chinese Fears Spark Global Restrictions

Celia Hatton April 22, 2013
Any food-safety crisis drives consumers to seek alternatives. A series of reports of contaminated infant formula since 2008 have driven Chinese mothers to look for foreign brands of infant formula – though after the Fukushima tsunami/nuclear disaster, the consumers quickly shifted from Japanese to US imports. Chinese consumers pay double the price for foreign brands. “Fearful of the dangerous...

Baby Milk Rationing: Chinese Fears Spark Global Restrictions

Celia Hatton April 17, 2013
Any food-safety crisis drives consumers to seek alternatives. A series of reports of contaminated infant formula since 2008 have driven Chinese mothers to look for foreign brands of infant formula – though after the Fukushima tsunami/nuclear disaster, the consumers quickly shifted from Japanese to US imports. Chinese consumers pay double the price for foreign brands. “Fearful of the dangerous...

US Moves Toward Teaching Climate Change; Britain Does Opposite

Christoper F. Schuetze April 12, 2013
Guidelines for US science educators in at least 40 states will emphasize climate change and the human contribution in middle school and high school. Political opposition to the notion of human influence over a warming climate is intense in the US. In the United Kingdom, administrators have urged educators to avoid the topic for students under age 14, and top scientists even suggest that students...

US Rice Imports “Contain Harmful Levels of Lead”

Jason Palmer April 11, 2013
Agricultural crops can absorb heavy pollutants from soil and water. A report at the American Chemical Society Meeting suggests that rice imports from Asia, Europe and Israel, can exceed what’s called the “provisional total tolerable intake” level of lead, set by the US Food and Drug Administration by a factor of 120, particularly for Asian consumers who tend to eat more rice, reports Jason Palmer...