In The News

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...

Global Rush to Energy Crops Threatens to Bring Food Shortages and Increase Poverty, Says UN

John Vidal May 25, 2007
No one denies that there are benefits when a country adopts biofuel to supplement oil as a source of energy. But while production of biofuels could help stabilize oil prices and create new markets, the poor could also experience higher commodity prices. Not surprisingly a recent UN report warns governments to take into consideration the human and environmental impacts, which could have dire...

Tainted Chinese Imports Common

Rick Weiss May 24, 2007
US inspection records are showing that imports from China are unfit for human consumption.The US Food and Drug Administration has detained more than one thousand shipments at ports containing tainted Chinese dietary supplements, toxic cosmetics and counterfeit medicines. Consumer activists and politicians, upset about contaminated food products, are demanding action. With the numerous pet deaths...

Fury at Zimbabwe UN Role

Tracy McVeigh May 16, 2007
A major environmental group of the United Nations, in a secret ballot, has chosen Zimbabwe as its leading member. The post typically rotates among nations, and developing countries rejected concerns from the West by choosing the environment and tourism minister of the troubled African nation to lead the Commission on Sustainable Economic Development. One commission goal is to integrate social,...

Deforestation: The Hidden Cause of Global Warming

Daniel Howden May 15, 2007
Trees absorb carbon dioxide, and governments should take steps to protect forests in the battle against global warming. The practice of cutting and burning tropical forests to clear land accounts for about 25 percent of carbon emissions, second only to the energy sector, according to a report from the Global Canopy Programme, an alliance of rainforest researchers. Governments could put a dent in...

When Development and Tradition Clash

Joan Martínez-Alier May 11, 2007
Protests and violent clashes are becoming common throughout India, as business and government leaders team up to select agricultural land for industrial projects. Most citizens rely on farming in the world’s largest democracy, and many question the transfers. “If violence escalates, the result may be the undermining of civil rights and of the very fabric of Indian democracy,” write analysts Joan...

If They're Alive, You'll Read About Them Here

Jeremy Manier May 11, 2007
“Constantly reconfiguring, morphing, decaying, the natural world is at once confounding, sublime, brutal and unspeakably elegant.” These words welcome viewers to a new online “Encyclopedia of Life” that will list and describe all species of life – 1.8 million known and some of the millions more yet unknown. Museums, universities, philanthropists and researchers from around the world are teaming...