In The News

Warming Sign: 1600 Years of Ice in Andes Melted in 25 Years

Justin Gillis April 9, 2013
Researchers are documenting glacier ice in the Peruvian Andes. “Rapid melting there in the modern era is uncovering plants that were locked in a deep freeze when the glacier advanced many thousands of years ago,” reports Justin Gillis for the New York Times. “Dating of those plants, using a radioactive form of carbon in the plant tissues that decays at a known rate, has given scientists an...

Is a Pandemic Being Born?

Laurie Garrett April 4, 2013
Epidemiologists are investigating whether the deaths of three unrelated Chinese individuals, showing symptoms of respiratory distress and pneumonia, are connected to thousands of dead pigs, ducks and swans found in three rivers, the Huangpu, the Xiang and the Sichuan. The events may be unrelated or, if connected, could signal the start of a flu virus mutating and crossing species, suggests...

Oklahoma Earthquake Linked to Oil Extraction Wastewater

Jason Palmer April 1, 2013
Injecting millions of liters of water and chemicals into the ground for drilling oil and gas has been linked to seismic events, including a 5.7 earthquake in Oklahoma in 2011. A study in the journal Geology suggests that related seismic activity can occur years after wastewater injections begin. “The new study adds to an increasing body of evidence that the injection of wastewater is correlated...

World With More Phones Than Toilets Shows Water Challenge

Randall Hackley March 21, 2013
Water is a necessity, but one that’s taken for granted. Randall Hackley, writing for Bloomberg about World Water Day, questions why the globe has 6 billion mobile phones when one out of three people do not have a toilet, and one out of seven lack access to safe drinking water. Water sanitation is a major contributing factor to high child mortality rates; more people die from sanitation-related...

Wind Rush

Edward Humes March 20, 2013
Wind turbines on vast ranches and fields of corn, soy and wheat have transformed US farmers into energy producers. Eight large turbines in one Iowa community produce 12.8 megawatts, enough to power 6,000 Iowa homes, and “generate healthy annual returns of up to 16 percent on the $12,000 to $50,000 individual investments from 180 local farmers,” reports Edward Humes for Sierra. “At four cents a...

Environmental Woes Could Reverse Global Development

Christopher F. Schuetze March 20, 2013
Storms, fires, rising seas, floods and other consequence of climate change could plunge one third of the world’s population into extreme poverty by 2050, according to the 2013 Human Development Report, released last week by the UN Development Programme. On a more positive note, the report says, “Extreme income poverty has plummeted from 1990, when 43 percent of the globe’s population lived on the...

“China Dream” – Unshaken Party Rule

Börje Ljunggren March 20, 2013
China’s new president is entering office with more charisma and more authority than has been credited to previous leaders. Xi Jinping is ambitious for big reforms, but must deal with corruption, environmental devastation and an unwieldy bureaucracy that’s mostly lacking vision and set on maintaining the status quo. Xi wants to continue economic reforms that would make China a respected,...