Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is off to India to talk of many things, not the least of which is climate change. In a session at the Council on Foreign Relations earlier in the week, she said “We know that India and China have understandable questions about what role they should be expected to play […]
Although the fact is often underestimated, there is a significant number of people in the U.S. who face hunger each day. According to Bread for the World, 35.5 million people (including 12.6 million children) in the United States are faced with hunger or the risk of hunger. On July 14th and 15th, the organization Feeding […]
Last week, the Obama administration announced new initiatives designed to improve food safety in the United States, which has had some high profile incidents of contamination in the past year. First, the White House has established a new website, www.foodsafety.gov as a “Gateway to Government Food Safety Information.” The website serves as a clearinghouse of […]
Desertec Takes Another Giant Leap – I’ve written a few times about this project, bursting with promise to provide clean energy, build bridges and make the desert bloom, most recently here. The “FT” said today that Desertec has been embraced by several major European financial, utility and industrial concerns. “A dozen companies are today set […]
Senatus Populusque Romanus – The Senate and the People of Rome. The old Roman Senate was, on paper, representative of the people. Because the US is a representative democracy, the US Senate was meant, up to a certain point, to perpetuate this same principle. It was, however, certainly less representative, from Day One, than its […]
The Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate (MEF) issued a declaration today after its leaders met in Italy. There were no big surprises, as I predicted yesterday. (See last post below.) However, there was some potentially useful language regarding the role of the developing economies. “Developing countries among us will promptly undertake actions whose […]
Australian Foreign Minister Steven Smith stated today that Stern Hu, General Manager of Rio Tinto China, was detained on espionage charges earlier this week. Hu’s firm, Rio Tinto, is a major Australian supplier of iron ore (a necessary ingredient for making steel). The company is currently negotiating annual contracts with China that dictate pricing terms […]
There’s some good news from Italy, and some bad news. I reported on the G-8 summit from a couple of years ago here. Then, President Bush (who?) derailed any substantive agreement. Now, although the G-8 itself seems fully loaded to attack climate change, the leading developing nations involved in the Major Economies Forum on Energy […]
I just had to flag this article, from the “NY Times” Sunday magazine, by Elizabeth Royte, a terrific writer with an unbeatable subject: Will Allen, an urban farmer who’s got a model that needs to be replicated, taught and otherwise advanced everywhere. This guy is really on it! He’s reducing waste (six million pounds of […]
In a lightly publicized event over the weekend, a trader in London at PVM Oil Futures, the largest oil trading firm, made “unauthorized” purchases of oil contracts at 2 am. The trades pushed the price of Brent crude up to $73.50/bbl on Tuesday, the highest price this year, before dropping to $66 by the end […]
I want to mark July 4th, Independence Day for Americans, by noting a few good renewable energy stories. There are scores of these stories, all over the world, every week, and I’m just sharing what I think are some of the plums that I’ve been seeing. Renewables are a theme I’ve visited here time and […]
I’ve written several times about the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate (MEF) convened by President Obama to seriously address the critical international negotiations this year. Most of the governments that contribute 80% of the total GHG emissions have been engaged since April in extensive discussions. The leaders of the MEF countries will be […]
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