In The News

Norway and the Environment: Binge and Purge

January 29, 2009
Along with its Northern European siblings, Norway has long been viewed as a leader in sustainability, a reputation earned by prodigious domestic efforts to become carbon neutral by 2030. The nation is well on its way: gas taxes are high, public transportation is booming, and 99 percent of Norwegian electricity is generated by hydroelectric plants. On the world stage, Norway is a strong voice in...

New Study Shows Climate Change Largely Irreversible

January 28, 2009
A new scientific study by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration warns that the world approaches the point of no return with regards to climate change. Soon, even halting carbon-dioxide emissions altogether would not reverse the crucial planetary shifts in rainfall, surface temperature and sea level that threaten human life, not to mention geography itself, as huge coastal regions...

Western US Forests Suffer Death by Degrees

Elizabeth Pennisi January 27, 2009
It's suspected that some redwoods, yellow cedars and hemlocks of the temperate rain forests of the Pacific Northwest can live 1000 years and well beyond. But a new study from the US Geological Survey, reported on in Science, suggests that the lifespan for such confers is on the decline. “Warmer temperatures and subsequent water shortfalls” are pinpointed as the likely cause of the trees...

Politically Incorrect

Nayan Chanda January 23, 2009
Battles rage to save some products ill-suited in a world worried about energy shortages: In the US, CEOs of auto companies who long depended on oversized vehicles for profits now lobby politicians for financial aid, while protesters in Kolkata aim to protect noisy, polluting auto-rickshaws by burning buses and disrupting traffic. “Allowing the city’s 60,000-odd auto-rickshaws to carry on...

Global Downturn Dooms Prestige Construction Projects

Uwe Klußmann January 20, 2009
Architecture reflects a society’s values and aspirations for how governments, businesses and families might make use of space. With the 21st century emerged a desire around the globe to display wealth and power quickly, explains an article prepared by staff of Spiegel Online, and “Yearnings for pomp and prestige were transformed into architecture.” But the global credit crisis and recession, as...

A Green Revolution Blooms in the Desert

Elisabeth Rosenthal January 15, 2009
Countries in the Middle East have bountiful supplies of oil, but the leaders also recognize that such fossil fuels are limited and make what Elisabeth Rosenthal calls in the International Herald Tribune “a concerted push to become the Silicon Valley of alternative energy.” The countries are using their oil wealth to invest in alternative technologies, create alternative-energy investment funds...

Running Dry, Running Out

Juliette Jowit January 13, 2009
Struggles in supplying enough water to meet demand are not limited to dessert or developing nations, and nearly half of the population in England and Wales live in areas with “water stress,” explains Juliette Jowit in an article for the Guardian. She reports on a government environment report, which “warns that many rivers, lakes, estuaries and aquifers are already being drained so low that there...