Russia and the U.S. signed the new START Treaty today in Prague. It was the kind of international event that would have garnered major press coverage in times past, but no longer. If you were busy today, you may have missed the news. It has been some time since the world lived with the fear […]
By Sarah Rose Ch. 4: Shanghai to Hangzhou, September 1848 Robert Fortune was patient as the coolie attended to his new coif. A small blue and white tea bowl sat nearby on a dusty crate, and swirling its sediment of leaves, Fortune spilled the cooling liquid out onto the dirty deck. Floors were the place […]
Last week President Obama flew to Afghanistan to rally the troops before the upcoming offensive in Kandahar. He also paid a visit to President Karzai. According to the Associated Press, “The trip was intended to let Obama tell Karzai that he must deal with corruption and cut the flow of money from poppy production and […]
One of my students flagged a recent Dot Earth post to me about an artist and physicist who creates graphics that depict our carbon output. Adam Nieman is the creative director of Carbon Visuals Ltd which “…exists to provide a range of carbon visualisation services to government, companies, NGOs and any organisation that has a ‘carbon […]
The U.N. appealed for $133 million dollars in aid on Wednesday for the food crisis for the food crisis in Niger. Erratic rainfall cost the country its crops last year, and now 60% (7.8 million) of the population faces a food shortage. The statistics don’t get better from there. The UN claims 1.5 million cases […]
What is more harmful to a child, verbal or physical abuse? First let me start with saying that both are harmful and I personally find it reprehensible to abuse a child in any form. However I pose the question as I all too often hear people in an unwitting debate as to which is more […]
Looks like Bakiev’s government is out in Kyrgyzstan. Opposition Claims Control in Kyrgyzstan – NYTimes.com. This is wild and unexpected – your humble blogger spent a summer over there working with Internews, an independent free media advocate. It’s 5 years since they overthrew their last autocrat, but turned out to be a bummer of a […]
Today, as health crises are played out in an ever-increasingly inter-connected world, I believe that leaders (or at least the enlightened ones) are seeking methods to stabilize systems as a long-term risk mitigation strategy. Since health is one of the foundations upon which stable societies are created, it is increasingly important to analyze and incorporate all of the determinants that factor into the functioning of a healthy community and society.
The World Bank, quite rightly, has devoted a tremendous amount of time and money on water projects in recent years, according to the “NY Times” here. I highlighted World Water Day at the blog a few weeks ago and noted then some of the many critical shortfalls in clean water and proper sanitation that beset […]
In a dramatic departure from the strategic ambiguity that marked past nuclear doctrine, the Obama Administration has announced a new update of U.S. nuclear strategy. In this revision, the U.S. actually publicizes the kinds of attacks that would warrant an American nuclear response and those that would trigger only a conventional military counterattack. As this […]
We have made still another breakthrough on greenhouse gases. The EPA and the US Department of Transportation have established new standards for fuel economy and GHG emissions from cars and light trucks. The EPA release includes soundbites that have Lisa Jackson saying “We expect to reduce greenhouse emissions by the equivalent of 42,000,000 cars over […]
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