In The News

Careful What You Wish For

January 22, 2008
Many challenges await the next US president, and all demand immediate fixes, report a team of reporters for Newsweek. Candidates make promises about 12 million illegal immigrants, with 500,000 more entering every year; a strained health care system that is unaffordable for the millions of uninsured; an overextended military in Iraq and Afghanistan; record oil prices; a battered economy; global...

The Scourge of Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria

Laura H. Kahn December 28, 2007
Antibiotic-resistant bacteria – including Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA – are a growing public-health problem. Complicating matters is the tendency of high-strength antibiotics to kill or change regular bacteria that live in the human body; people with low levels of the regular bacteria can be more susceptible to infections. The agriculture industry’s practice of feeding farm animals with...

China Being Poisoned by Its Food Industry, Says Author

Jochen Schönmann December 19, 2007
Risking his life, Chinese journalist Zhou Qing investigated China’s food industry over the course of two years and wrote “What Kind of God?” – a book that analyzes the value placed on food by the Chinese people and the outrageous measures companies take to reduce production costs. “His book is a dark account of a ruthless food mafia that stops at nothing to maximize its profits, for example by...

How Not to Repeat the Mistakes of the Kyoto Protocol

Scott Barrett November 14, 2007
Most countries recognize the need for a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. But for any climate treaty to succeed at reducing emissions, all countries – especially the big emitters – must participate. Otherwise, trade leakage will result, as emitting industries concentrate in the nations with the fewest restrictions. For such reasons, the Kyoto Protocol to the UN Framework Convention on...

Organic Food Is Healthier and Safer, Four-Year EU Investigation Shows

Emily Dugan October 30, 2007
With the rhapsodizing of moms who want healthy children and the battle cries of right-wing skeptics, it can be difficult to depoliticize the debate about organically grown foods and root out scientific information about how they compare to conventionally grown counterparts. The European Union funded a four-year long study comparing the nutritional value of organic and conventional produce. The...

UN Warns of Environmental Threats

James Kanter October 26, 2007
A report released by the United Nations Environment Program warns that the planet’s resources are not enough to provide for the current consumption patterns of the world population. Highly industrialized regions have developed habits of living beyond their means and pass these habits on to people in every corner of the globe. The rapidly expanding world population has increased the speed of...

Israeli Surgeons Helping Swaziland in Drive to Curb HIV

Craig Timberg October 24, 2007
A series of studies conducted in the past several years finds that circumcised men are 60 percent less likely to contract HIV than their uncircumcised counterparts. In response to these results, Israeli doctors, well-versed in the procedure, reach out to areas afflicted by the HIV/AIDS epidemic. In countries such as Swaziland, with the world’s highest reported rate of HIV infection, the problem...