In The News

US Can Meet Paris Climate Deal Goals Despite Court Ruling: White House

February 11, 2016
Almost 200 countries reached an historic agreement in December to reduce carbon emissions. The Obama administration imposed limits on power plants’ carbon emissions, but the US Supreme Court “took the unusual step to delay implementation of the Clean Power Plan until legal challenges to the regulation are completed,” reports Reuters. A Los Angeles Times editorial was blunt, suggesting “What'...

The Sun Gets Brighter

T.N. Ninan February 3, 2016
Oil prices are dropping and so, too, are the capital costs of solar energy installations. “Solar power is now cheaper than what electricity would cost if based on either oil at $50 per barrel, or its coal equivalent – or for that matter liquefied natural gas,” writes T.N. Ninan for Business Standard. “Solar energy has become the new energy source in many countries in Africa and South America, and...

Why Are Chinese Fishermen Destroying Coral Reefs in the South China Sea?

Rupert Wingfield-Hayes February 1, 2016
Good stewardship typically accompanies a sense of ownership – but greed can interfere and claims over ocean commons are difficult to enforce. A BBC News report by Rupert Wingfield-Hayes backed up claims from Filipino politicians, suggesting “that Chinese fishermen were deliberately destroying reefs near a group of Philippine-controlled atolls in the Spratly Islands.” The reporter describes reefs...

Hidden Truths Behind China’s Smokescreen

Tim Harford February 1, 2016
Amid reports on China’s ongoing battles with pollution, Tim Harford searches for patterns. “In the early 1990s, Princeton economists Gene Grossman and Alan Krueger coined the phrase “environmental Kuznets curve” to stand for the idea that as countries become richer, their emissions first rise but then fall, as richer citizens demand cleaner air from the governments they elect and the companies...

Flint's Lead Problem Extreme Example of Chronic Global Problem

Carolyn Beeler January 25, 2016
Elevated levels of lead in a US city’s water supply have drawn global attention to the neurotoxin. To cut costs, officials in Michigan and the city of Flint shifted the public water supply from a lake to a corrosive river without applying a required treatment. The water corroded the city’s pipes and contaminated tap water, exposing 100,000 people to lead poisoning. PRI reports on common sources...

The World Is Hemorrhaging Methane, and Now We Can See Where

Christina Nunez January 19, 2016
Since late October, a natural gas storage well in California has been leaking 100,000 pounds of methane per hour. The colorless and odorless gas is hazardous to health and the environment. The Aliso Canyon leak is accidental but many companies deliberately burn off excess natural gas at energy sites, explains Christina Nunez for National Geographic. Researchers with the US National Oceanic and...

Warming World Promises More Refugees

Richard D. Lamm January 14, 2016
Climate change combined with war and a growing population could pose challenges of unimaginable magnitude. “Last summer’s Mediterranean crisis, a migration of Biblical proportions from Syria to Europe, is likely merely a preview of the dislocation to come,” writes Richard D. Lamm, former governor of Colorado. “It is not too apocalyptic to consider the possibility that ultimately a warming world...