In The News

China’s Plan for Global Warming: Wait for the US

Michael Richardson June 5, 2007
China is poised to become the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases, surpassing the US. Yet, at this point, while rhetoric from both governments shows growing recognition that climate change could wreak havoc with the global economy, both nations decline to set a mandatory cap on carbon emissions. Instead they claim to rely on improving industrial efficiency to reduce greenhouse emissions....

Globalization's Gains Come With a Price

Bob Davis June 3, 2007
After Mexico opened its economy to foreign trade and investment in the 1990s, low-income workers benefited, but only for a short while. “As trade, foreign investment and technology have spread, the gap between economic haves and have-nots has frequently widened, not only in wealthy countries like the U.S. but in poorer ones like Mexico, Argentina, India and China as well,” reports an article in...

Lost In Translation

June 1, 2007
As part of an ongoing blame game between China and the US, Washington officials want reevaluation of the yuan. However, China actually could gain the most from any reevaluation. First, the yuan may not be undervalued all that much. China’s large bilateral trade surplus reflects a changing supply chain in Asia. The US used to buy goods from other Asian nations, but today China imports goods from...

Snubbed By US, China Finds New Space Partners

Jim Yardley May 31, 2007
Space relations between the US and China have been anything but friendly in recent years. The US has prevented Chinese scientists from attending space conferences in the US and also imposed export restrictions on the use of American technology for satellites launched by China. So China has instead turned to developing countries, building relations with those looking to enter the space market....

Is Water the Next Oil?

Rohini Nilekani May 31, 2007
Water is more vital for human life than oil – and environmentalists, corporations, communities and governments increasingly recognize its unequal distribution around the globe could lead to severe environmental degradation and intense conflicts in the years ahead. Anyone who cares about water should observe the management of oil during the past century and not repeat the mistakes, argues Rohini...

Outsourcing a Womb

Gagandeep Kaur May 31, 2007
Physicians first relied on surrogate wombs to assist women who, for health reasons, could not bear children of their own. But healthy career women from Singapore and India, who did not want to take any time off from their work, have also turned to surrogates as well, reports Gagandeep Kaur in the Hindu Business Line. Many doctors reject such requests, but with the number of inquiries on the rise...

Worker Visas Intensify Debate on Immigration

Pamela Constable May 29, 2007
The US Congress hears two different tales when it comes to the need for high-tech workers: Older workers, once highly paid, complain that they cannot obtain work and must seek jobs in other industries; the high-tech industry complains of a dire shortage of workers with computer and math skills. A proposed US immigration reform bill gives priority to skilled labor and would almost double the...