In The News

Financial Times: Sharp Drop in US Emissions Keeps Global Levels Flat

Pilita Clark March 18, 2017
The world has kept emissions that cause climate change in check for the third year in a row during a period when the prices of fossil fuels were low and global economic growth averaged about 3 percent per year. Natural gas has quickly replaced coal as an energy source, seven nuclear power plants went on line in China and renewable energies are becoming more affordable. The trends suggest “a shift...

Phys.org: Indonesia Vows Action After UK Cruise Ship Ruins Coral Reef

Awa Mulalinda March 16, 2017
The tourism industry relies on environmental wonders and wildlife, but a 4,200-ton British-owned cruise ship carrying birdwatchers struck and damaged a pristine coral reef in Indonesia at low tide. Attempting to remove the vessel caused more damage. “Raja Ampat in eastern Indonesia has long been a top attraction for intrepid travellers and avid divers, home to palm-fringed islands surrounded by...

Project Syndicate: The Geopolitics of Environmental Challenges

Giulio Boccaletti March 8, 2017
Crises with immediate impact, including economic downturns or war, distract governments from the steady and creeping dangers of climate change. “Environmental degradation and natural-resource insecurity are undermining our ability to tackle some of the biggest global issues we face,” writes Giulio Boccaletti for Project Syndicate. “Environmental insecurity is a major, though often underestimated...

Independent: Investors With $2.8 Trillion in Assets Unite Against Climate Change Denial

Ben Chapman February 16, 2017
Taking steps to end reliance on fossil fuels and curb climate change is on the agenda at the meeting of foreign ministers of the world’s 20 largest economies in Bonn, Germany. “But as G20 foreign ministers meet on Thursday to prepare for a climate change summit in Hamburg in July, managers of funds with assets totalling more than $2.8 trillion - more than the entire annual GDP of the UK - called...

Asia Sentinel: Trouble in the Air

Neeta Lal February 7, 2017
Air quality is so poor in Delhi, the fifth largest metropolitan area in the world, that one official has described the city as a “toxic gas chamber.” Writing for Asia Sentinel, Neeta Lal explains that “The city’s thick layer of smog is no longer merely an inconvenience to residents or a danger to asthmatics.” Instead, the smog is harming health for all residents and economic investments. “A...

MIT Technology Review: Hotter Days Will Drive Global Inequality

David Rotman February 6, 2017
Extreme heat reduces labor productivity and will drive inequality among nations and regions. “The average global income is predicted to be 23 percent less by the end of the century than it would be without climate change,” reports MIT Technology Review on work by researchers from Stanford and University of California at Berkeley. “But the effects of a hotter world will be shared very unevenly,...

CSR Asia: Electronic Waste in Asia Is Piling Up

Nick Warelis February 3, 2017
Asia represented half of smartphone unit shipment and sales in 2016. “With populations in Asia becoming increasingly affluent, Asian consumers are using and disposing of more electronics,” reports Nick Warelis for CSR Asia. So Asia, a long-time destination for discarded electronics, produces its own hefty share of electronics waste. The waste includes chemicals harmful for the environment, like...