In The News

Oil Hits $100, Jolting Markets

Neil King Jr. January 4, 2008
The global economy depends on oil – and most of the world’s major economies are in short supply. Western oil companies now control about 10 percent of proven reserves, and with increasing demand from emerging economies, governments and industries belatedly scramble to improve efficiency and find energy alternatives. High demand for oil and the increasing price is shifting priorities and shaping...

What’s Your Consumption Factor?

Jared Diamond January 3, 2008
The average citizen of a wealthy nation consumes at a rate 32 times that of the average citizen of a poor nation, and a rising human population will present major problems if people consume at levels on display in the wealthiest nations. High consumption levels exacerbate environmental devastation, resource shortages, waste and other social problems. Citizens of the poorest countries are fully...

Canada's Aid Seeded China Dam

Ian Johnson January 2, 2008
Environmental and human-rights activists around the globe criticize the world’s largest hydroelectric dam, Three Gorges Dam in China, for its displacement of more than a million people and environmental devastation. Yet governments and companies of the West provided assistance that allowed the controversial project to proceed. “In the midst of a domestic political crisis, the Canadian government...

“The Biggest Environmental Crime in History”

Cahal Milmo January 1, 2008
The record profits earned by oil companies could go for researching oil substitutes – energy alternatives – rather than developing technology to extract every last drop of oil from the ground, argue environmentalists. BP executives made a pledge to move beyond oil and explore energy alternatives, but the company also has invested in technology to extract oil sands in Canada. The reserves in...

A Young Tinkerer Builds a Windmill, Electrifying a Nation

Sarah Childress December 31, 2007
Forced to drop out of school at age 14 because his family could no longer afford tuition, William Kamkwamba of Malawi set out to study energy and build windmills on his own. “Energy poverty” limits development, economies and jobs in the world’s poorest nations, explains Sarah Childress for the Wall Street Journal. Kamkwamba, now 20, built his windmill, by lashing blue-gum tree trunks together for...

Fishing for Compliments

December 23, 2007
Marine biologists have urged the creation of ocean reserves for decades – for both environmental and economic reasons. Overfishing occurs in areas without restrictions, with catches including increasing numbers of young fish that have not yet produced offspring and other unsustainable practices. Reserves, though, mark part of the ocean as off-limits for all or part of the year to fishermen. Such...

A Bad Idea Is About to Deploy in Darfur

Julie Flint December 19, 2007
As reports of atrocities pour out of the Darfur region, activists have great expectations for a peacekeeping force led by the United Nations. But author Julie Flint, writing for the Daily Star in Lebanon, questions whether a small peacekeeping force, with minimal equipment, can end the violence. The numbers are staggering: The UN force numbers about 26,000, expected to assist 2.5 million refugees...