Environmental news and related issues
One year into the presidency of Donald Trump, how has the environmental landscape changed in the United States? Mary-Anne Hitt, Director of the Sierra Club Beyond Coal Campaign, gauges how climate change issues have fared since.
Humanity has just about run out of time to address climate change. Scientists have pointed out that a rise in temperature of 2º Celsius above pre-industrial levels will put the Earth in dangerous, uncharted territory. Yet we currently are on a path toward [...]
"While in Britain we applaud the courage of people in poorer nations and celebrate their successes, while we send money abroad to conserve large wild animals and, rightly, become upset if people start killing them, we seem determined not to participate. [...]
As evidence mounts that excessive use of light is harming wildlife and adversely affecting human health, new initiatives in France and elsewhere are seeking to turn down the lights that flood an ever-growing part of the planet.
Wider use of already-existing best practices and technologies could significantly help sector reduce outputs of global warming gases
The philosopher Daniel Dennett once compared science to the construction of a huge pyramid. Its base comprises the mass of well-established knowledge – no longer controversial and seldom discussed outside academia. More recent research is piled toward the [...]
Les hausses astronomiques des frais d’entretien et, dans un grand nombre de cas, les coûts de mise à niveau dictés par la catastrophe de Fukushima, s’avèrent dévastateurs pour l’industrie nucléaire : l’énergie nucléaire est en fait en train de vivre une « [...]
In the last two decades, the story of the Somali nomad has become far less romantic – and far more complex. Nomads have been victims of famine, violent conflict, and circumstances of the deaths – as many as one million – caused by 22 years of civil war. [...]
Unsuccessful development initiatives offer vital lessons — but only if we are open about failure, says Ben Taylor.
In the Mekong Delta, farmers obtain 6-7 tons of rice per hectare in dry seasons and 4-5 tons per hectare in wet seasons, using fast-maturing rice varieties that allow up to three consecutive yields annually. By contrast, West African rice farmers harvest [...]
Paradoxically, it is likely that there is not enough fire on the planet; but, thanks to fossil fuels, there is certainly too much combustion. Overall, the developed world has too few good fires, and the developing world has too many bad ones. Nearly every [...]
Following the rape and the murder of a young woman in a bus in India, Cecilia Tacoli, head of research for the International Institute for Environment and Development, tells us about the specificities and risks of female poverty in urban
As capital moves to find the cheapest locations for production in a race to the bottom, the ugly side of globalization is brought home to the world through horrific pictures of the tragic collapse of the Bangladesh textile factory.
TB is linked with a deadly silicosis epidemic hidden for decades in rural South Africa. Gold mining firms must make amends, says Jaine Roberts.
The annual migration of an estimated 50 billion birds – around 19 per cent of the world’s 10,000 bird species – is one of the world’s great natural wonders, yet the critical staging areas migratory birds need to complete these journeys are being degraded [...]
When Radoslaw Sikorski, Poland’s foreign minister, went to Ukraine for talks last month, his Ukrainian counterparts reportedly laughed at him because he was wearing a Japanese quartz watch that cost only $165. A Ukrainian newspaper reported on the [...]
The growth in demand for metals, which could see needs rise by almost ten times current levels, calls for a rethink of recycling practices in order to address negative environmental impacts, according to two reports released today by the UNEP-hosted
For decades, the idea of the electric car has captured the imaginations of innovators – including Henry Ford and Thomas Edison more than a century ago. Celebrities, pundits, and political leaders alike have cast these vehicles as the apotheosis of
“When the winds of change blow,” says an old Chinese proverb, “some build walls, and others build wind mills.”CommentsThese same words closed the meeting in March of the Climate Parliament, a forum in Brussels that brought together legislators from around
How to save elephants, crocodiles, mahogany or many other species? The GoodPlanet Foundation partners with CITES, the Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species, which now protects over 35000 animal and plant species. Astonishingly, one of [...]