For most of its existence, the UN hasn’t dealt with oil, gas or mining much. It has gotten involved on mostly small scale, small bore development projects, and, of course, the disastrous oil-for-food program in Iraq. Natural resource development is considered an internal matter, and one involving the private sector — a part of the […]
The venerable Matt Wald at the “NY Times” had a revealing story yesterday: Fossil Fuels’ Hidden Cost Is in Billions, Study Says. He cites a study, commissioned by Congress, just out from the National Research Council. Monetizing the value of human life cut short by air pollution – “small soot particles, which cause lung damage; […]
Someone in my class at Pace University in NYC a couple of years ago mentioned that she thought that earthquakes and other similar phenomenon were being influenced by climate change. I pooh-poohed the idea, saying that climate change was responsible for a lot of ills – with more to come – but that it couldn’t […]
Last week I dropped in, along with bloggers in 155 countries across six continents, for Blog Action Day ’09: Climate Change. CNN covered the story and the organizers report that 13,484 blogs reached 18,076,782 readers. A big part of the reason for this effort was to further enlighten folks around the world about this coming […]
There is a potentially dramatic change in the location and availability of natural gas globally. If all comes to pass as predicted, it would alter the geopolitical power of some countries like Russia, while lessening American, and possibly Chinese, Indian, and European, dependence on foreign oil and gas. Unlike normal natural gas, which is often found […]
I’ve been irremediably optimistic about renewables for some time. Here are just a few more reasons why: Army to Build Out 500 MW of Solar in the Mojave – I recently pointed out where the world’s solar hotspots are. No surprise to find the Mojave is among them. So, as Reuters reports here, the US […]
Plant scientist Dr. Gebisa Ejeta was awarded the 2009 World Food Prize for his development of drought resistant sorghum seeds, which have helped African farmers increase their crop yield. The $250,000 prize is awarded each year by the World Food Prize Foundation, which was established by Norman Borlaug, known as the “Father of the Green […]
October 16th is World Food Day, an opportunity for education and action on food issues, both globally and locally. Throughout the past year, the Global Food Crisis blog has posted about a variety of issues including the security, availability, safety, trade and organizations that deal with food. We invite you to mark World Food Day […]
One heart-warming story I have been following has been the epic international showdown between the IRS and the Swiss banking giant UBS. Until recently, if you were to ask any American to name a “good” country, Switzerland would probably have come to mind first, because of its role in World War II. More recent events […]
Another important meeting taking place during World Food Week is the World Food Prize symposium taking place in Des Moines, Iowa. With leaders from business and government agencies, the symposium has been discussing how public-private partnerships can increase sustainable production of food. Read more about the proceedings of today’s symposium by reading or watching online.
There’s a great front-page article at the “NY Times” today about how three trillion cubic feet of methane leak into the air every year, much of it from oil and gas operations, and how some companies are attempting to stem the tide of leaks. The article says “This amount has the warming power of emissions […]
Every day is action day on climate change for this blog, but the good folks at Change.org and The Alliance for Climate Protection are sponsoring an international event today, Blog Action Day, that hopes to unite the blogosphere to discuss, promote and move folks to action to help avert climate catastrophe. (Clean and renewable energy, sane […]
Here’s a very good little video from SmartPlanet.com, a CBS Interactive website. For more, see my posts here on Carbon Markets.
I wrote in July on a number of comprehensive reports on how climate change is devastating many parts of the world and many different sectors. (See Impacts.) I also referenced a stunning “National Geographic Magazine” article on the drought in Australia. Well, the “Financial Times” has a story on drought right here in the US, […]
A new edition of the annual The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2009 report was released jointly today by the UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) and World Food Programme (WFP). Subtitled “Economic Crises – Impact and lessons learned,” the report looks at the convergence of the recent global food crisis that hit […]