In The News

Treaty Curbing Mercury Emissions Becomes International

October 18, 2013
A new global treaty will limit products and processes that can release mercury – which attacks the nervous system – and require safe storage before the year 2020. This includes batteries, some fluorescent lamps, skin-whitening soaps, thermometers and blood pressure devices, and the convention will also control the biggest sources of mercury pollution including “emissions and releases from...

10 Things to Know for World Food Day

Lester Brown October 16, 2013
The world should be united in ensuring food security. In an essay for TreeHugger, Lester Brown lists the multiple threats: increasing population, especially in the most impoverished nations; an expanding middle class in emerging economies consuming more meat; limits on farm expansion because of limited water supplies; groundwater over-pumped in China and India; fast rising food prices; loss of...

Health of Oceans “Declining Fast”

Roger Harrabin October 7, 2013
The International Programme on the State of the Ocean reports rapid deterioration and multiple threats: heating up from climate change, becoming more acidic by absorbing carbon dioxide, expanding dead zones from fertilizer runoff, as well as overfishing and pollution. The report suggests that the world’s oceans have shielded humans from the worst effects of climate change by absorbing so much...

Nairobi Foreshadows Tomorrow’s Urban Conflicts

David Kilcullen October 1, 2013
The globe is more urban than ever with more than 65 percent of all people living in cities compared with 2 percent in 1800. Urbanization, the bulk of it near coasts, is a global megatrend challenging world leaders and planners along with climate change and population growth. The patterns expose vulnerabilities and encourage inequality: “The unprecedented pace and scale of urban growth will strain...

Climate Panel Says Upper Limit on Emissions Is Nearing

Justin Gillis September 27, 2013
A UN panel that assesses and advises on climate change reports the phenomenon is well underway and likely to get worse, with human emissions as the cause. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has also listed a carbon budget for the globe: “To stand the best chance of keeping the planetary warming below an internationally agreed target of 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit above preindustrial levels...

New Challenges for Global Food Security

Marion Guillou September 25, 2013
New stresses have emerged in recent years that threaten global food security, writes Marion Guillou of INRA for ParisTech Review. The globe produces, on average, 800 more calories for each person than needed. Yet climate change contributes to price volatility which in turn destabilizes developing countries. Poor nations tend toward younger populations, and the young require more calories than...

Global Warming Slowdown Complicates IPCC's Job

The Associated Press September 19, 2013
Scientists preparing the much-awaited report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change are in a quandary over data that go against the body’s broad conclusions on carbon emissions and a warming planet. In an exclusive report based on leaked documents the Associated Press says that scientists are puzzled by data suggesting that “global warming has slowed in the past 15 years even though...