On February 28, 2009, China upgraded its 1995 food hygiene law by passing a new law creating a food safety commission which can increase compensation to those harmed by tainted food or impose severe penalties on those involved with producing and promoting tainted food products. The new law is intended to improve China’s food safety […]
I wrote about the anthropogenically induced environmental catastrophe that is looming in The Melting Himalayas. As a long-time student of Tibetan culture, Buddhism and someone who has delved into the politics of Tibet, I offered an observation regarding the politics of China and Tibet. In New York today, I joined a march and rally in […]
One suggestion for combating future global food crises is to launch a new Green Revolution. The first Green Revolution took place in the mid-20th Century, and was a campaign that encouraged farmers, particularly in the developing world, to increase the success of their crops by using better seeds and farming methods. The Green Revolution succeeded […]
Lobby groups representing the ethanol industry appealed to the Obama administration on Friday to put more federal funding into supporting the industry and to increase the amount of ethanol allowed in gasoline blends to 15%. Currently, the limit stands at 10%. According to this New York Times article, the ethanol industry is flagging amid the downturn in […]
Tom Friedman, a High Panjandrum of the Cognoscenti, has a column today that indicates that his sense of the dire pass into which this civilization of ours has fallen is growing. I’ve written about Galloping Consumption and I’ve noted, here, that one important commentator, Bill McKibben, has taken Friedman to school on his Green Fantasia. […]
Recent food safety scares in the U.S. have sparked an investigation by The New York Times* into an over-reliance on private (or third-party) food inspectors to certify the safety of food processing plants. In some cases, as in the Peanut Corporation of America scandal, the inspectors were hired by the companies being inspected, leading to […]
Countries hit heavily by food shortages often rely greatly on foreign food aid to prevent starvation. The United States is the leading donor in food aid worldwide, but its food aid policies have come under heavy criticism by analysts. Often this criticism comes as a result of the practice of “dumping,” as described in […]
Henry Waxman has been My Man ever since the Acid Rain Wars of the 1980s. He has been quietly but forcefully reconfiguring the House Energy and Commerce Committee to achieve an optimum environmental effect with the critical energy and climate change legislation that will be forthcoming this year. In an article from ClimateWire in yesterday’s […]
In “Climate of Change”, I celebrated the first Obama budget proposal, along with the economic stimulus package and the renewables tax credit package from the autumn, as just what the doctor ordered for the push to decarbonize the economy and create hundreds of thousands of green jobs. Two of the world’s most eminent economists, Joseph […]
At the World Affairs Councils of America’s (WACA) Annual Meeting in February, Charles MacCormack , president and CEO of Save the Children, spoke about how the 2008 Global Food Crisis has impacted the UN Millennium Development Goal (MGD) for fighting global hunger. Watch the video of his remarks at the conference and hear him address […]
Looking at climate change as much and as often as I do, I have come to have a heightened sense of the danger looming and the urgency of our situation. Therefore, knowing that snow reflects solar radiation back into space, thus diminishing the radiative forcing on the earth, snow is something that has come to […]
Here are some reviews of some books on two environmental visionaries, an article about a world-famous campaigner against the looming specter of climate change, and a lucid, comprehensive and deep report on managing solid and hazardous wastes. In The Ecstasy of John Muir, Robert Pogue Harrison reviews an apparently magisterial biography, A Passion for Nature: […]
Kipling had it right. I was at an event recently at NYU’s Center for Global Affairs (where I’m teaching) and Elisabeth Rosenthal, the “NY Times” environmental reporter based in Europe, was being interviewed. She touched on a number of important subjects including the talks in Poznań in December, some of the international politics of climate […]
That’s the title of Paul Krugman’s column today at the “NYT.” As I’ve been saying here, that sure seems to be the gestalt of the Obama administration and the new Congress when it comes to energy, the environment and climate change. Krugman says here, among other things, “…it’s also heartening to see that the budget […]
The BBC Special Report page entitled “The Cost of Food” features a collection of resources on the current global food crisis. The page includes the latest news, analysis, video reports, and image galleries on food security issues. Also contained within the Special Report page are links to a food prices Facts and Figures page, providing […]