In The News

Climate Scientists: It's Time for “Plan B”

Steve Connor January 5, 2009
Nations around the globe have failed to curb carbon emissions, and more than half of climate researchers surveyed in a poll agree that humans can expect to rely on technology to control the most volatile effects of climate change. Some “geoengineering” approaches, as listed in the article from the Independent, resemble strategies described in science fiction novels and include using artificial...

Tropics No Longer Museum of Plant Biodiversity

December 23, 2008
University of Calgary researchers report that the risk of extinction for plants is higher in habitats close to the equator than those that are more distant. The study by researchers by Jana Vamosi and Steven Vamosi also suggests that animals and plants undergo different extinction processes. Latitude could be more influential than human activity, the study also suggests. “"This is not to say...

Obama’s First Trip Abroad Should Be to China

Jeffrey E. Garten December 12, 2008
President-elect Barack Obama confronts a daunting array of immediate economic and security challenges. But that does not mean the Obama administration should neglect building stronger ties with China, urges Jeffrey Garten, international trade and finance professor at Yale and a former US undersecretary of commerce for international trade. China and the US need each other to boost a weakened...

Insecticide! (An Ecological Disaster That Will Affect Us All)

Michael McCarthy November 28, 2008
The suffix “-cide” means killer, and anyone who presumes that the effects of insecticides are limited to a few select pests are deluding themselves. Biologists explain that insects contribute to the intricate web of life on this planet, but some species are suffering severe population declines, including species of butterflies, bees, mayflies, beetles and moths, reports Michael McCarthy for the...

The Limits of Growth – Part II

Chandran Nair November 24, 2008
Governments pursue rapid growth as a path to prosperity, and policymakers generally depend on markets to reveal and control problems. In the second of this two-part YaleGlobal series on the limits to growth, Chandran Nair, founder of the Global Institute for Tomorrow, points to parallels between the global economic crisis and climate change. Both challenges are rooted in the pursuit of excessive...

The Limits of Growth – Part I

Bo Ekman November 21, 2008
The double whammy of two global crises – recession and climate change – emerged after too many of the world’s citizens pursued lifestyles that the planet simply cannot sustain. This YaleGlobal series explores the limits of growth and calls for global governance that will encourage sustainable lifestyles that could ensure the planet’s survival. Fractured regional or national governance only...

Birds v. Coal: South African Court Asked to Decide

November 19, 2008
Wildlife conservationists have filed suit to stop a British–South African mining company from extracting coal from an area of wetlands and grasslands, habitat for 300 bird species, reports the Environmental News Service. The mining company claims that no threatened species are in the area, but “BirdLife South Africa, supported by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds based in the UK, has...