The Wall Street Journal reports the Ethiopian appeal for massive amounts of foreign aid, as a severe drought in the country puts the East African nation on the border of a potentially drastic humanitarian crisis concerning low levels of food and water. Paul Lomas, Oxfam International’s regional director for East Africa, states that this is […]
I went to an interesting show a few weeks back at the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, a division of the Smithsonian Institution. Design for a Living World has been mounted with the Nature Conservancy. It’s an in-depth look at how a number of designers are putting sustainable materials to excellent use in products like wool […]
Right now, with oil rising to $80 a barrel, it is important to recognize that the price of oil does not reflect the value of oil but the value of the dollar. There is still fairly weak demand for oil. Meanwhile, the fate of the greenback is being tugged in different directions by different international […]
As you know, there has been a tremendous amount of activity on climate change and energy on The Hill over the past year. The House of Representatives got going fast, even before the 111th Congress got underway. A leading progressive, hardball-playing Congressman from Los Angeles, Henry Waxman, assumed the chairmanship of the critical Energy and […]
The Financial Times reports that according to a UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), foreign direct investment (FDI) flows in agriculture jumped to $3bn (€2bn, £1.8bn) annually in the 2005-2007 period, up from $600m during the 1990s. Though at first glance the numerical increase appears quite significant, on the overall scale FDI flows in […]
In the spirit of Step It Up 2007 and Earth Hour, 350.org reports that yesterday’s International Day of Climate Action brought people together in 181 countries, at over 5,200 events, for the “most widespread day of environmental action in the planet’s history.” See a great slide show plus videos and other reports here on this […]
I hope the new Nigerian peace plan works. For years, Nigeria has been the poster child for everything that can go wrong when a country discovers oil. Instead of the prosperity, thousands have died violently, the country’s infrastructure has crumbled, the Niger River delta has been environmentally devastated, the army has run amok among the […]
The BBC reports on the Mozambican government’s agricultural program designed to permit inmates of its burgeoning prison population the ability to grow their own food. The idea of producing and varying the current diet of beans, rice, and porridge to include potatoes, pumpkins, lettuces, and other vegetables, and allowing inmates to work outdoors, is a […]
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 […]
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