In The News

Waste Not, Want Not: Industries Innovate With Trash

Susan Froetschel October 11, 2016
With urbanization and a swelling global middle class come enormous amounts of waste. Many governments and companies respond to this challenge with sustainable solutions including recycling. Organic material – food, in particular – is the largest part of household waste in Europe, Asia and the Americas. Countries are changing laws, allowing redistribution of food or flexibility on expiration...

Why You Should Care About Yahoo Secretly Scanning Emails

Amelia Tait October 10, 2016
Many computer users shrugged upon hearing reports that Yahoo had developed software for the US government to scan users’ incoming emails. Yahoo’s security staff did not even know about the program. Anyone who relies on a computer should care about all data breaches, argues Amelia Tait for the New Statesman. Other tech companies could be secretly offering similar services. Former employees exposed...

US to OPEC: Don’t Drill, Baby, Don’t Drill

Keith Johnson October 6, 2016
Economic and political concerns influence US responses to a potential slowdown in oil output from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. The Trump campaign advocates for more drilling and fewer regulations to increase jobs in America’s oil-producing heartland. Not everyone would benefit: “what’s good for the goose in the oil patch and parts of many red states, may not be good for the...

No Country Is Taking the 2 Degree Climate Target Seriously

David Roberts October 5, 2016
Cognitive dissonance is when thoughts and attitudes do not match behaviors. Humans are nervous about climate change, but they are not changing old habits around fossil fuels. “The more you understand the brutal logic of climate change – what it could mean, the effort necessary to forestall it – the more the intensity of the situation seems out of whack with the workaday routines of day-to-day...

Global Economic Growth “Sliding Back into the Morass”

Chris Giles October 4, 2016
A report from the Brookings Institution and the Financial Times indicates that global economic growth rates are slowing. The report was published before the meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, where global economic leaders plan to stress the value of inclusion and global cooperation and other main tenets of globalization. The Brookings-FT Tiger index compares numerous...

Study: Decline of Traditional Media Feeds Polarization

Ricardo Gandour October 3, 2016
Most citizens have access to more community information than ever before, especially online. But the struggle of traditional news outlets, especially the community newspaper with declining budgets and staff members, contributes to fewer informed voters. “[P]eople today are exposed to news mixed with gossip, opinion, hot takes, and branded content, from a variety of sources but often through a...

End of the Road for the Non-Aligned Movement?

Harsh V. Pant September 29, 2016
The Non-Aligned Movement was formed in 1961 by developing nations as a buffer from the tangle of Cold War machinations and legacies of colonialism. Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s prime minister at the time, was a co-founder of the movement, and non-alignment has since been an integral part of the nation’s foreign policy. But the outdated concept has become a platform for troubled states. The movement’...