In The News

Water Challenges Asia’s Rising Powers – Part II

Rohini Nilekani July 14, 2011
India and China account for one third of the world’s population; each consumes more freshwater than other nations. Per inhabitant per year, though, India uses less than half what’s used in the US, China uses less than one third. This YaleGlobal series examines India and China’s water use, their expectations for rising demand and recognition that shortages will disrupt economic progress. The...

Water Challenges Asia’s Rising Powers – Part I

Keith Schneider July 12, 2011
Scarcity of water increasingly challenges economic growth of India and China. Water’s role in economic development is taken for granted, yet for running the growth engine it’s as precious a commodity as fossil fuels. This YaleGlobal series examines strategies for negotiating demands among competing industries. Conflicts over water could disrupt China’s steady economic progress, argues journalist...

BC Eyes Ban on Home Use of Pesticides

Randy Shore July 8, 2011
Flawless lawns without insects are unnatural, but that does not stop homeowners from striving for that goal. Canada’s British Columbia government is preparing legislation that would ban homeowners’ use of pesticides for cosmetic purposes, reports Randy Shore for the Calgary Herald. Lawn chemicals have been linked to leukemia and other cancers, with children especially susceptible. Nearly 40...

Megafires May Change the Southwest Forever

Brandon Keim July 1, 2011
Fires sweeping through remote areas is a natural occurrence. But the same can’t be said about the record-setting megafires raging in Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. The megafires, large and intensely hot, more regular in occurrence and more destructive, could permanently alter the ecology of that region of the United States, writes Brandon Keim for Wired. Drought has exacerbated fires, and...

Google: Delaying Clean Energy Transition “Only 5 Years Could Leave Trillions on the Table”

Stephen Lacey June 30, 2011
The global economy runs on energy, and most companies depend on limited fossil fuels, which are inevitably in decline. Delaying transition to renewable sources, even by five years, could cost the global economy trillions of dollars, suggests a Google.org study. The search-engine company analyzed economic impact by modeling scenarios and renewable energy’s influence on GDP growth and the...

Global Warming and the Science of Extreme Weather

John Carey June 29, 2011
Insurance industry research anticipates extreme weather events will become routine. Scientists who once hesitated to link extreme droughts, storms or other weather events with human activity, including burning fossil fuels, now report evidence of connections, reports John Carey in Scientific American and the second article of a three-part series. Carey points out that basic physics is behind...

Could Compost Piles Someday Heat a Home?

Kenneth Sturtz June 28, 2011
Organic waste is part of everyone’s garbage, and a group of high school students in upstate New York have set out to study if compost piles could someday heat homes. In that part of the world average low mid-winter temperatures dip below -10 degrees Celsius. Bacteria and microorganisms break down organic materials and produce heat as a byproduct. The students studied three industrial-sized...