In The News

Putting Pollution on Grocery Bills

Elisabeth Rosenthal May 1, 2008
Shoppers like a steady stream of favorite fruits and vegetables year-round. “Consumers in not only the richest nations but also, increasingly, the developing world expect food whenever they crave it, with no concession to season or geography,” writes Elisabeth Rosenthal for the International Herald Tribune. Consumers get what they want with the help of global transportation systems combined with...

The IPCC: The Science Is In on Climate Change

April 21, 2008
Rajendra K. Pachauri, director-general of the Energy Research Institute, was elected chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 2002. For that work, he was co-awarded the 2007 Nobel Prize for Peace. In this interview with Nayan Chanda, Pachauri explains the IPCC’s purpose of collecting and disseminating science. Climate change affects countries in many different ways, and...

Global Approach Required to Tackle Food Prices

Dominique Strauss-Khan April 21, 2008
Warnings about climate change, biofuels, use of agricultural land for other purposes and the herd mentality of the financial markets have been ample over the past year. Still, food shortages, rising prices and the resulting humanitarian crisis have come as a surprise for some governments. The managing director of the International Monetary Fund calls for immediate global planning. “Unless we act...

Clock Running Out on Irreversible Climate Change – Part II

Bo Ekman April 18, 2008
The coming negotiations over the successor to the Kyoto Protocol appear doomed as states express more concern about their narrow rights than the planet’s health. Bo Ekman, founder of Tällberg Forum, argues for developing fallback policies that global citizens must consider in the event of failure of the Copenhagen Process. Ekman fears that the “world will descend into eco-protectionism, where...

The Fury of the Poor

Spiegel Staff April 18, 2008
People living in the world’s poorest countries often spend the bulk of their incomes on food. But with the prices of some staples doubling or more, food has become unaffordable. Despair and shame can quickly transform into violence, note a team of writers with Spiegel Online. An unchecked growing world population, climate change and loss of agriculture land, large refugee populations that cannot...

Clock Running Out on Irreversible Climate Change – Part I

Jim Hansen April 16, 2008
The goal of slowing climate change takes on urgency with growing populations, increasing emissions and melting polar ice that would irrevocably change the global environment. Energy suppliers often fend off worries about climate change by suggesting that the facts are not all known. The same could be said about industry estimates on oil, gas and coal reserves, suggests Jim Hansen, director of...

New Mapping Technique Offers Hope for Madagascan Wildlife

Jessica Aldred April 15, 2008
Environmentalists, governments, researchers and even some businesses have good reason to protect the world’s biodiversity. High-resolution satellite images allow researchers to identify and map biodiversity “hotspots,” reports Jessica Aldred in the Guardian. “Traditionally, conservation work has focused on protecting just one species or group, like the giant panda, in the belief that saving one...