In The News

Leaking Siberian Ice Raises a Tricky Climate Issue

Arthur Max November 24, 2010
Climate change could be unfolding at a faster pace than predicted by most scientists. New research suggests that rapidly thawing permafrost in remote regions like Siberia and Alaska is expected to release methane and tons of carbon into the atmosphere, reports Arthur Max for the Associated Press. “As the Earth warms, the summer thaw bites a bit deeper, awakening ice-age microbes that attack...

Russia Hosts Summit to Save Tiger

November 23, 2010
Fewer than 5000 wild tigers roam Asia’s shrinking wilderness, but the large, powerful cats inspire awe around the globe. Russia hosted a conference of 13 nations to plan raising hundreds of millions for establishing preserves and protecting the remaining animals. The Global Tiger Initiative, launched by World Bank President Robert Zoellick, states that the tiger’s extinction would represent...

The World Is Adrift as Nations Skirmish

Kishore Mahbubani November 23, 2010
As the world becomes totally integrated, organizing principles and institutional structures have not kept up. Members of the G-20, the global group of powerful economies, continue to jockey, avoiding the tough assessments and sacrifices required to resolve pressing global issues from climate change and terrorism to economic crises. Former Singapore diplomat and author Kishore Mahbubani relies on...

Beijing's Threat to India's Water Security

Amit Ranjan November 15, 2010
Several of India's major rivers originate in Tibet and China's ongoing dam construction, diverting water away from other nations, raises alarm. “Population pressures and increased economic activity mean demand for water is growing inexorably while the supply is finite,” writes Amit Ranjan. China and India, the word's most populous nations, lack a water treaty, and analysts in India...

A Quick Fix for Climate Change?

Michael Richardson November 8, 2010
Spewing particles into the skies to block sunlight, releasing chemicals into the oceans to encourage plankton growth and carbon absorption, are just two examples of how geoengineering technologies might ease impacts of climate change. The interventions, still being tested, would be temporary and costly, warns Michael Richardson, senior research fellow with the Institute of South East Asian...

UN Report Warns of Threat to Human Progress From Climate Change

Larry Elliott, Mark Tran November 5, 2010
The United Nations' annual human development report mixes good news with bad. Despite global financial crisis, the vast majority of nations have made progress in poverty elimination, jobs, education continues, and only three – the Congo, Zambia and Zimbabwe – show declines in human development since 1990. Fast-growing emerging economies in Asia demonstrated the most progress. However, a...

Changing Climate's Irreversible Devastation for the Seas

Alex David Rogers October 29, 2010
Evidence of rapid climate change abounds in scientific research and routine observations. Yet policymakers are slow to act. Legislators and researchers attending international gatherings such as the 10th Conference of Parties for the Convention on Biological Diversity in Japan label climate change a “threat,” yet cannot agree to call for international agreements or action. Meanwhile climate...