In The News

Spread of Viral Diseases

Paul Reiter October 5, 2007
Yellow fever in Tennessee? Malaria in Russia? Chikungunya in northern Italy? There is no denying the fact that mosquito-borne diseases once thought of as strictly tropical now conquer cooler climes. The World Health Organization blames global warming, but Paul Reiter, writing for the Straits Times, suggests that that the spread of mosquito-borne diseases has more to do with the dramatic increase...

Number of Obese Growing on Global Scale

Stephen J. Hedges October 5, 2007
While some countries suffer from hunger, a growing part of the world struggles with the opposite problem of obesity. The problem is no longer confined to rich countries: Nigeria and Uganda struggle simultaneously with hunger and obesity. With a 2000 percent increase in the share of China’s population considered obese, the growth in waistlines outpaces the nation's economic growth. Obese...

Huge Effort Urged on Global Warming

Chrystia Freeland September 28, 2007
Contrary to a recent United Nations report that the fight against global warming will be costly, former US President Bill Clinton argues that a serious and ambitious program will save money and create jobs. For example, businesses investing in new, energy-efficient technology can dramatically decrease their utilities costs. Other analysts have also noted that the costs of future natural disasters...

Children Trafficked From Asia to UK to Work in Cannabis Factories

Nina Lakhani September 27, 2007
In 2004, Britain declassified cannabis, decreasing the penalties for growing or possessing the controlled substance. As fear of punishment faded, demand grew and so did the appeal of producing the drug for greater profits. Organized crime rushed to fill the gap between supply and demand, and with record levels of production, Vietnamese gangs rely on children to tend plants. So declassification...

Japan Sweats It Out as It Wages War on Air Conditioning

Sebastian Moffett September 18, 2007
In August, Japan's three biggest banks joined the ranks of the "Cool Biz" initiative, a movement to reduce energy use and decrease carbon output. "Cool" businesses maintain building temperatures at 82 degrees Fahrenheit. Bank officials discovered that the move was good for both the environment and business. Concerned about global warming, Japanese customers avoid firms...

Biofuelling the Food Crisis

John Vidal September 10, 2007
The notion of an automobile powered by fuel produced from plants appeals to any nation worried about dependence on foreign oil or declining oil reserves. A biofuel boom presents ostensibly environmentally-friendly implications, yet leads some analysts to predict a food crisis for the world’s most vulnerable populations. Plants for fuel will inevitably compete with food-plants, prompting rising...

Bee Decline Threatens Our Dinner and the Countryside

Jimmy Lee Shreeve August 30, 2007
Imagine a food market with fewer apples, nuts, soybeans, asparagus, squash, tomatoes, citrus fruit, strawberries or melons. People may not notice small insects in the course of daily life, but alarm would emerge if species of bees suddenly vanished. Wildflowers and many agricultural plants depend on bees for pollination and production of seed. “It's hard to believe that one small creature...