In The News

Once a Dream Fuel, Palm Oil May Be an Eco-Nightmare

Elisabeth Rosenthal February 5, 2007
In the race to find alternatives to traditional fossil fuels, an eager public often hails any new find as the solution to world energy shortages. Initial enthusiasm often fades as the reports of harmful complications emerge – and such is the case with biofuels derived from palm oil. Palm oil decreased carbon-dioxide emissions in the Netherlands, but environmental groups suggest that the emissions...

Climate Panel Issues Urgent Warning to Curb Gases

Elisabeth Rosenthal February 2, 2007
Human activities are almost certainly the main cause of global warming since 1950 and immediate action will only blunt some of the damage, reports the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Humans must strive for conservation and slow use of carbon-based fuels, such as oil and gas. Severe weather patterns, deteriorating habitats and species decline are accelerating as a result of climbing...

China’s Poison for the Planet

Andreas Lorenz February 2, 2007
Researchers around the globe are monitoring weather patterns that push the billowing smoke from China’s factories around the globe. The factories that lack state-of-the-art environmental protections produce huge clouds of pollution that know no borders. “Just as trade is global these days, so too is the threat against nature,” write Andreas Lorenz and Wieland Wagner in “Der Spiegel.” Japan,...

Elite Ponder Threats to Globalization

D. Ravi Kanth February 1, 2007
World leaders meeting for the World Economic Forum have identified plenty of problems, but few solutions for global challenges. Risks to globalization include global warming, sharp inequality and increasing conflict. Yet the consensus on the list of challenges has failed to push leaders into action. A poll revealed that more than half of chief executive officers for major corporations express...

China Soon to Be World's Biggest Internet User

Randeep Ramesh January 29, 2007
With one out of ten Chinese using the internet and more signing on every day, China’s users will soon outnumber Americans online. The Chinese government encourages internet use for business or education purposes, reports Randeep Ramesh in The Guardian, and censors any controversial material on politics, history or entertainment. Eager for profits and influence, major internet companies...

Africans Ponder Globalization Pros and Cons

Stephen Mbogo January 24, 2007
A debate is underway among anti-globalization activists attending the annual World Social Forum, held this year in Nairobi. The activists have traditionally expressed concern about how unrestricted trade and development can disrupt environmental protection, education, health care or culture in developing nations. But global interactions also provide opportunity and innovation, argue Africans who...

Who Screwed Up Globalization?

Steven Weber January 23, 2007
Activists who attend the World Social Forum in Africa look for ways to slow or even reverse some parts of globalization. The activists worry about common global problems that go unsolved – pollution, global warming, health risks, overpopulation – because no profits stem from tackling such issues. Favorite targets for activists’ wrath, since the first World Social Forum gathering in Porto Alegre...