We had a fabulous trip in, in the immortal phrase of Donald Rumsfeld, “Old Europe.” The only problem, Rummy, with your formulation is that … well, it’s wrong. France, in the Southwest, where we were for part of the trip, is smart, prosperous, progressive and with friendly folks. France, though, is far too reliant on […]
Oil giant Exxon Mobil has secured a contract with Russia’s state oil company, Rosneft, to explore the floor of the Arctic Ocean for oil. At a surprise signing ceremony in Sochi, site of the coming Winter Olympics, Vladimir Putin stated, “The scale of the investment is very large. It’s scary to utter such huge figures.” […]
International organizations with interests in the Horn of Africa crisis are stepping up their contributions to both alleviating the current crisis and preventing similar crises in the future. The Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) pledged $350 million after an emergency donor conference held in Istanbul, Turkey two weeks ago. The African Union Commission organized […]
We’ve been on vacation – and happily quite busy – thus have I been away from blogging. A little bit relative to the trip itself and some thoughts regarding sustainability, renewables, etc. perhaps in a couple of days. For now, here’s this on some of the recent talks under the auspices of the Framework Convention. […]
Hurricane Irene is making its way across the eastern seaboard of the United States, a rare trajectory for such a powerful storm. With damage expected in the billions of dollars and uncertainty about the degree to which storm damage will disable access to utilities and supplies for the large population on the East Coast of […]
Deutsche Bahn, Germany’s national train operator, currently gets about 20% of its power from wind, hydro and solar generation. It has just announced its intention to raise that to 28% in 2014 and to be carbon free by 2050. Nuclear had been the favored source of electricity in the train operators plans, but the decision […]
Nina Federoff, who served as the science and technology adviser to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton until 2010, takes on the Obama administration in an Op-Ed that appeared in The New York Times titles, “Engineering Food for All.” Now a professor of biology at Pennsylvania State University, Federoff writes that while the Obama administration has […]
Depending how you feel about the subject, reading about eating insects can make one as squeamish as actually eating them. But in an effort to portray the many dimensions of food security, this post addresses two recent articles that discuss the possibility of insects as a food source. Dana Goodyear’s article in The New Yorker, […]
(Thanks to ProPublica for this graphic.) Thankfully, we are, slowly but certainly, entering a new ballgame on hydraulic fracturing. Yes, we need the gas trapped in shale – in the medium term. Long term: renewables. But, for now, as we transition to renewables, we’ve got to reduce the carbon footprint of the electric power, transportation […]
We refer to the American dream. You know how it goes: house with a yard (with a blisteringly bright green lawn, swimming in fertilizers and pesticides), two cars in the garage, AC at a touch (freezing your brain, making you sick and drawing more and more power), that big plasma TV on which to watch the […]
I’ve written about White Roofs, Green Roofs, Solar Roofs and even Green Curtains. They’re all good. But Gary Trudeau, in his unbeatable way, brings it all back home.
As if we needed more proof that the world is now a single market, 800 British workers will lose their jobs at the nuclear fuel processing plant in Sellafield, Cumbria, UK, because of the uncertain future of nuclear power in Japan. The plant takes used plutonium and mixes it with uranium to create what is […]
For those interested in conducting research about topics in food security, the New America Foundation is now taking applications for its Schmidt Family Foundation Fellowship. “The ideal candidate is a policy-minded writer with an interest in exploring how agroecology informs, or should influence, policy debates on the right to food, resilience/adaptation to climate change, agricultural […]
