In The News

Bangladesh Tackles Climate Change, Fuses Rice Paddies With Fish Farms

Naimul Haq March 4, 2013
Low-lying countries like Bangladesh understand that they must adapt quickly to climate change – and explore a range of options. Saltwater intrusion is destroying rice paddies. Combining aquaculture with rice farming could increase nutrition levels of food, reduce environmental damage and increase output capacity of land and neighboring waters, suggests a report from a fisheries management...

A Report Card for Global Food Giants

Stephanie Strom March 1, 2013
NGO Oxfam has developed a scoring mechanism to evaluate multinational food companies and their effects on the environment, labor and health, reports a New York Times blog. “The goal of the scorecard, called ‘Behind the Brands,’ is to motivate consumers to pressure companies like Nestlé, Kellogg and Mars to improve their policies on land and water use and the treatment of small farmers, among...

Sea Urchin Nickel “Trick” Key to Capturing Carbon?

Matt McGrath February 18, 2013
It seems too easy. Newcastle University researchers have discovered that sea urchins use the metal nickel to turn carbon dioxide into shell or chalk, reports Matt McGrath for BBC News, and the process could serve as a model for a carbon capture-and-storage system. The researchers, including physicists and chemists, were studying sea-urchin larvae. McGrath reports, “Working with extremely small...

Is China Choking on Success?

Robert A. Manning February 15, 2013
China’s citizens are paying a steep price for rapid economic growth. The government struggles to mask environmental problems, yet China is home to seven of the world’s 10 most polluted cities. Smog often blankets the nation’s cities. Robert A. Manning, senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Brent Scowcroft Center for International Security and former US State Department official, points out that...

The Hidden Global Trade in Water

Jenny Kehl February 13, 2013
Water seems plentiful, but less than 3 percent of the Earth’s supply is fresh water, much of it polar ice. Agriculture represents about 70 percent of the globe’s annual water use. Exporting water-intensive crops like cotton produced in arid nations is essentially trading an essential resource away, resulting in net losses for water-scarce nations. Subsidies for water and agriculture, cross-border...

Middle East Rivers Losing Critical Water Reserves

Lee Rannals February 13, 2013
Water shortages and secrecy over how much is used will only exacerbate tensions in the Middle East. Researchers, in the journal Water Resources Research, report a rapid decline of freshwater in the Middle East region. Lee Rannals of redOrbit.com reports on the University of California’s Center for Hydrologic Modeling study that relied on NASA satellite images to show that most of the loss in...

APP to Preserve Indonesia’s Rainforests

Ben Bland February 8, 2013
Pressure from Greenpeace and awareness among Asia Pulp & Paper’s multinational customer base have prompted a promise from the firm to stop cutting natural forests and draining peatlands in Indonesia, reports Ben Bland for the Financial Times. The company is also calling on other logging firms operating in Indonesia to join the effort, as Indonesian people alone would have low carbon...