In The News

US Cold Snap Fuels Climate Debate

Jeff Tollefson January 10, 2014
A sudden drop in temperatures across the United States has ignited debate about the influence of climate change and polar melt over the stability of one of the world’s two jet streams. “The polar jet stream is a natural product of Earth’s rotation and climate system, created as warm air from the south merges with cold Arctic air,” writes Jeff Tollefson for Nature. “Most of the time it is fairly...

How We Decide Which Species to Save

Christine Dell'Amore December 31, 2013
Researchers have had some success in protecting some species once on the brink of extinction like condors, gray wolves, pandas or elephant seals. “But with dozens of new species going extinct every day – scientists say that more than 20,000 plants and animals are on the brink of disappearing forever – deciding which species to save is a tricky question,” writes Christine Dell'Amore for...

China: 5 Great Things About Toxic Air

Emily Rauhala December 12, 2013
As Time Magazine writer Emily Rauhala notes, you can’t make this stuff up. China and neighboring nations are blanketed in dangerous pollution and smog – and Chinese state-run media offered five “surprising benefits”; these include unifying Chinese people, making China more equal, making people more knowledgeable and providing a topic for humor. Perhaps the broadcasters were trying their hand at...

The Philippines’ Tough Rebuilding Task

Pacific Strategies and Assessments December 9, 2013
Disaster relief and reconstruction offers especially tough challenges for developing nations like the Philippines after Typhoon Haiyan. Displacement adds to immediate shelter, health, sanitation and economic problems, and that is a first priority. “The reconstruction and rehabilitation process, however, will also include rebuilding damaged infrastructures, restoring power and water supply, and...

Typhoon in Philippines Casts Long Shadow Over UN Talks on Climate Treaty

Henry Fountain, Justin Gillis November 13, 2013
Those worried about climate change are not waiting for scientific deliberation that Typhoon Haiyan is a consequence of a warming planet. The typhoon is reported to have killed thousands in the Philippines, and relief organizations struggle to reach survivors with needed food, water and supplies. Some delegates in Warsaw for UN talks on a climate treaty point to the typhoon as “the cost of...

Typhoon Haiyan and the Geopolitics of Disaster Relief

Rory Medcalf November 12, 2013
Powerful Typhoon Haiyan struck the Philippines, leaving perhaps 10,000 dead and a path of devastation. Like it or not, post-typhoon disaster relief for the Philippines involves both good-faith compassion and strategic calculations in an ongoing battle for influence, explains Rory Medcalf writing for the Interpreter, published by the Lowy Institute for International Policy in Australia. Australia...

Power From the Sea?

October 21, 2013
The nonstop movement of ocean wavers could make them an ideal source for energy. Zhong Lin Wang leads a team at Georgia Institute of Technology that developed “an inexpensive and simple prototype of a triboelectric nanogenerator that could be used to produce energy and as a chemical or temperature sensor,” reports Phys.org. The research was introduced in the journal Angewandte Chemie, and Phys....