In The News

Can We Reverse Global Climate Change?

Jim Hansen May 14, 2009
Cap-and-trade of carbon, preferred by governments, will not reverse global warming because it does not effectively reduce carbon emissions, according to NASA scientist Jim Hansen. Rather, it creates a situation ripe with opportunities to exploit loopholes, enrich traders, and lower public accountability all the while actually increasing carbon emissions. The European experience stands as a good...

China Outpaces U.S. in Cleaner Coal-Fired Plants

Keith Bradsher May 12, 2009
As China’s rate of building coal power plants has increased in recent years, fears of global climate change have followed apace. But looking closer at the newer plants reveals that China’s massive construction scheme may actually help to reduce emissions. Many of the new plants are more efficient and also come with a government condition that an older, less efficient plant be retired to ensure...

How to Prevent the Climate Change Summit From Failure

Scott Barrett May 1, 2009
The Framework Convention on Climate Change set to meet in Copenhagen in December 2009 could be a lame duck session if the US is not ready to meet international targets, according to environmental economist Scott Barrett. The chances of the US Congress agreeing on climate change targets prior to the convention are unlikely given the timetable. A solution, as Barrett argues, would be to draft a...

Somalia’s Piracy Offers Lessons in Global Governance

Christopher Jasparro April 6, 2009
Contrary to common perception, the swift and coordinated international response to piracy off Somalia’s coast has been less of a success than reports make it out to be. In fact, it masks deeper problems of unfairness in international economic order and local governance. Somalia’s pirates are a motley crew: some are fishermen defending their turf, while others are guns for hire. And the...

China Vies to Be World’s Leader in Electric Cars

Keith Bradsher April 3, 2009
China’s plan to become the world leader in electric cars may not reduce pollution as much as reallocate it. While greenhouse gas emissions would decline by roughly 19 percent, according to a McKinsey study, if electric cars replaced gas-powered ones in China, such emissions would shift from car exhausts to power plants – in other words from the city to the country. But pollution reduction is only...

“Stem Rust” Fungus Threatens Global Wheat Harvest

John Vidal March 23, 2009
With global stockpiles of grain already low and food prices high, a deadly airborne fungus, known as stem rust or Ug99, could compound famines and unrest in developing countries that cannot afford fungicides for their crops. “Plant breeders are now racing against time to develop new resistant wheat strains and distribute the seeds around the world,” reports John Vidal for the Guardian. The fungus...

Population: Some Boom, Some Decline

Joseph Chamie March 18, 2009
World population nearly quadrupled during the 20th century, and in early March, US National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair told the Senate Armed Services Committee Tuesday that by 2025 it could grow by another 1 billion people. That would put pressure on the global environment as well as on food, water and energy supplies, setting up the potential for conflicts over resources. While...