In The News

The Guardian: Global Pollution Threatens Human Survival

Damian Carrington October 20, 2017
Humans tend to ignore threats that are slow emerging or ubiquitous – and pollution is such a threat. “Toxic air, water, soils and workplaces are responsible for the diseases that kill one in every six people around the world,” writes Damian Carrington for the Guardian. He describes a report by the Lancet Commission on Pollution and Health. “[T]he true total could be millions higher because the...

Fortune: Yellowstone Supervolcano Could Erupt Sooner Than We Thought

Grace Donnelly October 19, 2017
An eruption of the Yellowstone supervolcano in the western United States may occur sooner rather than the centuries once assumed, suggest researchers at Arizona State University. They examined minerals of fossilized deposits that showed changes in temperature and composition from a previous eruption, and also found that the supervolcano’s magma reservoir is large and could fill more quickly than...

New Statesman: A World Without Animals

Simon Barnes September 8, 2017
Biodiversity is under threat. The Red Data Book of the International Union for Conservation of Nature suggests that one third of wild-animal species are in danger; the Living Planet Index from the World Wildlife Foundation and the Zoological Society of London predicts that numbers of wild animals could decline by two-thirds before 2020. Writing for New Statesman, Simon Barnes reminds that a sixth...

The New York Times: More Than 1,000 Died in South Asia Floods This Summer

Jeffrey Gettleman September 1, 2017
South Asia is enduring severe flooding with the death toll this summer at more than 1000 and climbing. Monsoon rains pummeled the region since June and are expected to continue through the end of September. Jeffrey Gettleman for the New York Times describes relentless rain. “And while flooding in the Houston area has grabbed more attention, aid officials say a catastrophe is unfolding in South...

Spiegel Online: “Made in Germany” Label Badly Damaged By Car Scandal

Susanne Amann, Sven Becker, Kristina Gnirke, Peter Müller, Michaela Schießl and Gerald Traufetter August 8, 2017
US researchers discovered that Volkswagen and other automakers were intentionally manipulating software to avoid high emissions readings during test conditions. German carmakers are an economic powerhouse – with 800,000 jobs and more than €450 billion in sales – and engineering staff managed to fool European and US regulators. A proposed solution is an inexpensive software update that won’t...

The Hollywood Reporter: How the Globalization of the Academy Shakes Up the Race

Scott Feinberg July 11, 2017
In June, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences released its annual list of filmmakers invited to join its ranks. Both this year and last year, the Academy selected invitees from more than one quarter of the world’s nations to help select award-winners. The organization’s increasingly international composition is “the biggest game changer represented by the new members,” asserts Scott...

Spiegel Online: Only Radical Thinking and Action Can Tame Globalization

Alexander Jung July 8, 2017
A growing global economy expanded the middle class and wealth for many nations that were once poor. That is of little comfort to the 800 million people who live in extreme poverty. Widening inequality and climate change are serious threats. “The G-20 nations represent two-thirds of the global population, just over three-quarters of its economic output and four-fifths of its greenhouse gas...