If you’ve been betting on Copenhagen, as many of us have, then things are looking up. “President Barack Obama will attend climate-change talks in Copenhagen next month, offering an emissions-cut goal of about 17 percent by 2020…” reports Bloomberg News here. The White House blog confirms this and bullets the major initiatives that the administration […]
Here is a post from climate change blogger Bill Hewitt: “I wrote about The Earth here a while back. It was really about soil and focused on a fantastic article in National Geographic Magazine. I’ve become more and more interested in ‘cool farming,’ teach this stuff in my climate change classes, and have even had […]
TheAlliance for International Education and Cultural Exchange notes [t]he Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved last week a measure that would make changes to foreign assistance programs, including the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), CQ.com and Foreign Policy.com both report. The approved bill would authorize $255 million over six years to establish a council within […]
I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the […]
Returning from two weeks in India – with my mind full of thoughts, I came across Hans Rosling’s video from Ted India. I adore how excited Rosling is about statistics (b/c I’m not), and think GapMinder is quite clever (b/c helps people like me to “get it”). Since my mind tends probe the non-Western experience, […]
This week it was announced, to the surprise of many, that the U.S. will indeed commit to a greenhouse gas reduction target, in time for the Copenhagen summit. There is much speculation that the target will be consistent with the proposed 17-20% reduction targets (from 2005 levels, by 2020), contained in the climate legislation currently […]
GUINEA: Shoring up children’s health amid turmoil Some 1.6 million children throughout Guinea are receiving vaccinations, nutritional supplements and mosquito nets in a bid by UNICEF and the Health Ministry to shore up children’s health, which experts say has been hit hard by unrest in recent years. After some progress in the late 1990s and […]
26 journalists were reportedly murdered in the Philippines earlier this week. The murders brought a swift response from the international journalism community. In a letter to Philippine President Arroyo, the Overseas Press Club said, in part: “The members of the Overseas Press Club of America are stunned by the news received today of the massacre […]
Dr. Margaret Hamburg, Commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, was awarded the Foreign Policy Association medal at the organization’s Fall Dinner on November 18th. Watch the video of Dr. Hamburg’s remarks. A partial transcript can be found below: And so, as I take on my new role as Commissioner of the Food and […]
OK, that’s not really what he said. But he may as well, choosing to blame India for Taliban attacks inside Pakistan. Dawn has the quote: “India should refrain from such nefarious activities,’ said Mr Qureshi, speaking of India’s alleged support of militants. ‘Unless (India) dispenses with its visceral animosity towards Pakistan, attaining viable peace and […]
I wrote about The Earth here a while back. It was really about soil and focused on a fantastic article in “National Geographic Magazine.” I’ve become more and more interested in “cool farming,” teach this stuff in my climate change classes, and have even had the opportunity to write an article about biochar. Here is […]
Iran recently rejected a compromise plan proposed the UN Security Council members that would have sent uranium to Russia and France, where it would be processed into fuel rods and sent back to Iran for use in a research reactor . This would have been a classic compromise, one that satisfied no one and yet […]
Obama will announce his Afghanistan strategy next week. Reports indicate that troop levels will most likely be close to the 40,000 requested by General McChrystal. According to the New York Times, the three possibilities being seriously considered were: 1) Send 40,000 troops. This plan involves sending about 10,000 troops to Kandahar (where now there are […]
The International Energy Agency is out with its 2009 World Energy Outlook. Some of the revelations presented at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York on Monday were hardly startling: energy demand and investment down due to global recession, but demand expected to return and grow, China using more energy, etc. But a couple […]
Rumors persist in recent days that JP Morgan CEO, Jamie Dimon is being considered as the most likely replacement for Tim Geithner at U.S. Treasury, as confidence in Geithner wanes because he is too cozy with Wall Street as he insists on soft reforms for the industry.