In The News

The Price of Gold

Jane Danowitz December 11, 2007
An 1872 US law – designed to encourage settlement of the American West – allows mining companies to extract gold from the ground without environmental clean-up. The American West has long been settled, and most mining firms taking advantage of the law are foreign-owned, explains Jane Danowitz in a Los Angeles Times opinion essay. Most of the gold goes toward making jewelry, yet Danowitz writes...

A Hawkeyed Addition to Canada's Arctic Arsenal

Paul Taylor December 11, 2007
A Canadian satellite – Radarsat-2 – will monitor the Arctic and Antarctic and help defend Canada’s territorial claims in the Arctic, reports Paul Taylor in the Globe & Mail. Canada has had a similar satellite in orbit since 1995, which monitors the progress of melting polar ice, oil spills and agricultural growth. Research based on the satellite’s images contributed to Canada becoming a...

Woodman, Spare That High-Carbon Tree

James Cameron December 7, 2007
Worldwide deforestation is responsible for 20 percent of all carbon emissions, writes James Cameron in an opinion essay for the London Times. Trees, which absorb and store carbon, take a hundred or more years to grow, and Cameron urges that property owners think before cutting trees down in an economically shortsighted way. “Sir Nicholas Stern said in his ground-breaking climate change review...

How to Save Mother Earth Without Breaking the Bank

Marc Gunther December 4, 2007
By acting quickly, the US could cap greenhouse gas emissions with little sacrifice. Businesses and consumers must shift to using energy-efficient and pollution-reducing measures, suggests Marc Gunther for Fortune magazine, while alternative energy sources and innovation would also contribute to reductions. The strategy will work only if the society puts in a collective effort, according to the...

Bali Climate Change Conference: “We Have Very Little Time to Act”

Patrick McGroarty December 3, 2007
As evidence of climate change is increasingly accepted, the need to counter the phenomenon becomes more pressing. The Kyoto Protocol has been in effect since early 2005, and yet less than 800 million out of the world’s 6.6 billion people live in countries that have agreed to reduce emissions. Since then, carbon emissions continue to climb and deforestation has intensified. Without the support of...

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...

The Future Is Drying Up

Jon Gertner November 6, 2007
Populations continue to flock to the US West, despite shrinking water reserves. This dynamic, combined with falling water levels in lakes and diminishing flows in rivers, leaves cities and states scrambling to find innovative ways to secure freshwater. Constructing a pipeline goes quickly, but water security rests on the uncertainty surrounding prolonged droughts and the effects of climate change...