First of all, I have to apologize for not being so much in evidence here over the past couple of weeks. It’s been busy: Last weekend had three – count ’em – three birthday parties, including a big (successful) surprise for my wife with many old friends, followed the next day by a museum extravaganza […]
Allegations that “as much as half” of UN food aid for Somalia was diverted to militias, local power brokers and even UN staff based in Somalia, were detailed in a recent UN Security Council report. The New York Times, which initially presented details of the report last week, has reported today that some of the […]
Here’s a story that I wanted to flag to you quickly. It hearkens back to what I wrote recently about some sublime and ridiculous aspects of offshore wind development. Regarding the sublime, I reported that the United Kingdom’s Crown Estate had leased offshore areas for a series of massive wind power projects. What the Crown […]
A CROSS POST By Sean Patrick Murphy Monday, March 15 3:56 pm EST What is refreshing about this documentary is that it is balanced. It is about the 17-year, $27.3 billion lawsuit brought against Chevron for allegedly dumping toxic oil waste in the Amazon sector of Ecuador. The 30,000 residents of the area have filed a […]
The Svalbard Global Seed Vault was created two years ago as a repository of the Earth’s seed supply, to “safeguard against wars or natural disasters wiping out food crops around the globe.” On Thursday, the vault crossed a major threshold with the addition of the 500,000th seed, coming close to ensuring that the planet’s existing […]
I wrote about The Brouhaha Over the Science a month ago, saying, among other things, that the premise, as posited in a particular “NY Times” article, that there are “two sides in the climate-change debate” is way off the mark. There is deep, broad and unequivocal science that has long since ended any reasoned contention […]
Last Sunday, the New York Times reported on the wind energy industry in Wyoming (the eighth windiest state) and how the governor is pushing for a tax on wind energy. The wind power lobby has, of course, expressed its horror that the state would consider such a thing, practically comparing it to killing a newborn. […]
Today, March 9, is the day about twenty countries, including Nigeria, Gabon, and Equatorial Guinea, who have signed on to the Extractive Industries’ Transparency Initiative (EITI) were supposed to finish and have filed their Validation forms. Validation is EITI’s “quality assurance mechanism,” a step toward achieving Compliance with the EITI standards. The Initiative is designed […]
To commemorate International Women’s Day yesterday, Isatou Jallow, chief of the World Food Program’s Gender Unit, gave an interview discussing the role of women in global agriculture and the combating of hunger. Her interview addresses the key role that women play in agricultural labor and food security for the household. She also discusses the risks […]
Tom Friedman’s latest column, Dreaming the Possible Dream, touches on some companies and their promising technologies that we’ve seen here, namely Calera (cement) and Bloomenergy (fuel cells.) Everybody has seen the hype for Bloomenergy. I sincerely hope they live long and prosper. I quoted Bill McKibben here a while ago in his review of a […]
I don’t write about fossil fuels much here because I consider them, well, to be fossils. The fossil fuel industries are rather large dinosaurs lumbering to their long, drawn-out deaths as the earth continues to get hotter. It’s a scene from “Fantasia.” Unfortunately, so is my vision. Coal, oil and gas are going to be […]
I have the pleasure of teaching at the Center for Global Affairs at NYU, in both the graduate and Continuing Education programs. Every month, the MS in Global Affairs folks have a discussion (followed by a lunch) and this past Friday the topic was “New Directions in News Reporting.” Veteran reporter and professor of journalism, […]
Popular from Press
