In The News

The Limits of Growth – Part II

Chandran Nair November 24, 2008
Governments pursue rapid growth as a path to prosperity, and policymakers generally depend on markets to reveal and control problems. In the second of this two-part YaleGlobal series on the limits to growth, Chandran Nair, founder of the Global Institute for Tomorrow, points to parallels between the global economic crisis and climate change. Both challenges are rooted in the pursuit of excessive...

The Limits of Growth – Part I

Bo Ekman November 21, 2008
The double whammy of two global crises – recession and climate change – emerged after too many of the world’s citizens pursued lifestyles that the planet simply cannot sustain. This YaleGlobal series explores the limits of growth and calls for global governance that will encourage sustainable lifestyles that could ensure the planet’s survival. Fractured regional or national governance only...

Birds v. Coal: South African Court Asked to Decide

November 19, 2008
Wildlife conservationists have filed suit to stop a British–South African mining company from extracting coal from an area of wetlands and grasslands, habitat for 300 bird species, reports the Environmental News Service. The mining company claims that no threatened species are in the area, but “BirdLife South Africa, supported by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds based in the UK, has...

The Last Days of Paradise

Jon Henley November 11, 2008
Rising seas threaten to overwhelm the Maldives, and the first democratically elected president plans to put together a sovereign wealth fund directed at finding a new, environmentally secure home for a population of more than 350,000. President Mohamed Nasheed is looking at Sri Lanka, India, Australia and other nations with climates similar to that of the Maldives, known for its beautiful...

Lump Together and Like It

November 10, 2008
The statistics on urbanization worldwide are startling – in the past 30 years alone, urban populations have gone from 1.6 to 3.3 billion people, while the next 30 years project additional growth of 2 billion people. The scale and speed of urbanization today is unprecedented in history, with projections of 2 billion slum-dwellers in 2030. Developing countries like Egypt, with more than 18 million...

Evicted from Coastal Homes

Dave Bull November 10, 2008
Spain’s 1988 "Ley de la costa," forbids homes within 550 yards of the coast, and the government is taking action to enforce the law. Owners may get leases, up to 60 years, to use the property, but can’t resell. Some analysts suggest the government is less forceful with developers and owners of commercial properties. Up to 500,000 homes are threatened, and complicating matters is many...

A Spanish Blowout: The Iberian Giants of US Wind Energy

Mark Scott November 4, 2008
Because they enacted strict emissions limits early and their business models adapted, two countries have a head start in developing alternative energy from wind – Portugal and Spain. As a result of that head start and a global credit crisis, major wind-energy companies from Spain and Portugal are aggressively pursuing wind projects overseas, including the US. Small wind-farm firms in the US find...