In The News

Where the Wild Things Were

Steven Sanderson December 2, 2009
With the run up to the Copenhagen Climate Summit, cap-and-trade and lowering emissions have somewhat overshadowed discussions about the loss of biodiversity. But Wildlife Conservation Society President Steven Sanderson shows how they are all linked. Indeed, regions of high biodiversity, like rainforests, not only support endangered species, but also function as a carbon sink – vast, natural...

Forest Clearances Sealed Ancient Civilisation's Downfall

November 17, 2009
New evidence involving plant remains and pollen samples from areas in Peru formerly inhabited by the Nasca civilization has led a team of archaeologists to conclude that the fall of the Nasca society was triggered by human intervention in the delicate ecosystem on which it depended. The evidence collected suggests that as the Nasca intensified maize and cotton cultivation around 1,500 years ago,...

Awaiting Climate Accord, Governments Toy With Dubious Measures

Doaa Abdel Motaal November 6, 2009
In the lead up to the Copenhagen Climate Summit in December, developed and developing nations are already preparing themselves for the outcome, a multilateral deal or not. This approach is bound to harm the prospects for reversing global warming, for fostering free trade, and for ensuring competition, according to World Trade Organization Counselor Doaa Abdel Motaal. Many countries plan to enact...

More Carrot and Less Stick Needed to Fight Global Warming

Emmanuelle Ganne October 28, 2009
With the convention on climate change in Copenhagen in December fast approaching, countries tend to be focusing on measures that punish carbon users. As 2009 Yale World Fellow and trade specialist Emmanuelle Ganne puts it, governments favor a stick approach. But while popular, such policies place significant costs on households and create an image of fighting climate change as a burden. They do...

Shifting the World to 100 Percent Clean, Renewable Energy as Early as 2030 – Here Are The Numbers

Louis Bergeron October 22, 2009
The key to reducing fossil fuel energy use in the future is to switch to renewable sources of energy that generate electricity instead of relying on combustion to drive vehicles or generate power. Two scientists argue that this difficult task is possible with already-existing forms of technology and walk through the numbers of how to get there. Switching to these renewable sources of energy –...

Beyond Copenhagen: How to Cool the Planet

Peter Heap, Barry Carin, Gordon Smith October 21, 2009
At this stage, it looks unlikely for the climate change convention in Copenhagen in December to achieve much in terms of lowering greenhouse gases. Moreover, there are many technical aspects to concluding a climate accord that replaces, let alone surpasses, the Kyoto Protocol that still need to be hammered out. Indeed, getting 192 signatories to agree on a multi-sectoral plan seems unlikely,...

Stumbling Blocks Threaten Kyoto, Copenhagen

Yolandi Groenewald October 16, 2009
It is no secret that global community must act swiftly and decisively to curb carbon emissions and thus halt climate change. Originally, the Kyoto Protocol was one attempt to solve such problems, its many critics notwithstanding. Now the US and a small group of developed nations want to dismantle Kyoto and incorporate its best provisions into a new treaty to be drafted in Copenhagen. One reason...