Climate Change

WASHINGTON

Concerns Mount as U.S. Plans Major Natural Gas Exports

By Carey L. Biron
Environmentalists and others here are reacting with concern to a surprise announcement on Monday of a major deal that would see U.S. natural gas exported to the United Kingdom, marking the first time that such sales have been permitted.

Climate Change Now Seen as Security Threat Worldwide

By Jim Lobe
Defence establishments around the world increasingly see climate change as posing potentially serious threats to national and international security, according to a review of high-level statements by the world’s governments released here Thursday.

Q&A: Master Reforestation Plan to Save Haiti

By Patricia Grogg
Droughts and floods, devastating hurricanes and soil erosion with a drastic impact on food security make Haiti extremely vulnerable to climate change and in need of enormous adaptation efforts.

Visions of a Sustainable, Pollution-Free New York by 2030

By Stephen Leahy
As usual, midtown Manhattan is packed with whisper-quiet cars and trams while thousands walk the streets listening to the birds of spring sing amongst the gleaming, grime-free skyscrapers in the crystal-clear morning air.

How to Break the Stalemate on Global Sustainability

By Isolda Agazzi
The current growth model is not sustainable. Neither the green economy nor alternative sources of energy can prevent global warming. Solutions will come from concerted actions at the local and national levels, from the adoption of instruments and practices borrowed from other disciplines like peacebuilding, and from the move to a “no-waste economy”, according to experts here.

Obama Proposes Major New Renewables Research

By Carey L. Biron
President Barack Obama on Friday unveiled a broad new proposal to step up U.S. research into renewable energy technologies, particularly in transportation, which is responsible for around 70 percent of the United States’ oil use.

Transparency Could Tighten Drought Policy

By Isolda Agazzi
Scientists gathered in Geneva for the first High-level Meeting on National Drought Policy (HMNDP) in over 30 years have identified data collection and sharing as some of the main challenges to effective prevention of drought. Clear goals and strong political will are vital to building policies at the national level, they say.

Native Women Bring Solar Energy to Chile’s Atacama Desert

By Marianela Jarroud
Three indigenous communities from the Chilean highlands have just received solar panels, which will be set up and maintained by unlikely solar engineers: five native women who travelled halfway around the world to India and overcame language and other barriers to bring photovoltaic energy to their villages.

Drought Hits Policies

By Isolda Agazzi
Drought has dramatically increased as a consequence of climate change. Most countries react to it only after it has occurred, but don’t have national policies to prevent it. The high-level meeting on national drought policies in Geneva this week is trying to match scientific knowledge with political awareness.

Civil Society Wants Bigger Role in Green Climate Fund Planning

By Carey L. Biron
As the new board of the United Nations Green Climate Fund meets in Berlin this week, activist and watchdog groups here and around the world are expressing frustration over proposed rules they say are already significantly limiting civil society participation in the new initiative.

India Strives to Become ‘Drought Proof’

By Manipadma Jena
In a country of 1.2 billion people, the threat of drought takes on epic proportions. Over a period of two centuries (between 1801 and 2002), India experienced 42 severe droughts, according to the Indian Space Research Organisation. One of these, in 1979, cut food grain production by 20 percent; another, in 1987, damaged 58.6 million hectares of cultivated land, affecting 285 million people.

Changing Weather, Changing Fortunes

By Amantha Perera
Sri Lanka has paused for breath after the extreme weather conditions last year that many associate with climate change.

Necessary Extinction

By Kumi Naidoo
When the environment changes, smart creatures adapt. And, in the face of a changing climate and changing economics, smart people are backing green energy. In 2011 almost a third of new electricity came from renewable sources. But, just as the first mammals had to contend with a world of dinosaurs, the pioneers of green energy have to contend with a world based on an obsolete carbon-based energy system that refuses to upgrade.

Canada Losing Its Seasons

By Stephen Leahy
"Canada is not a country, it's winter," Canadians say with pride. But the nation's long, fearsome winters will live only in memory and song for Canadian children born this decade.

Across U.S., Health Concerns Vie with Fracking Profits

By George Gao
Peter “Pete” Seeger is a 93-year old U.S. folk legend who resides near Wappingers Falls in southern New York. He can be spotted occasionally on the traffic-heavy Route 9, flanked by world peace signs and armed with a banjo.
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