Beijing has developed into an impressive modern city over the past two decades. But a tourist visiting the Chinese capital over the past four days would have difficulty seeing many of its ancient and modern landmarks because of the horrendous pollution hanging over the city. An editorial in The China Daily warned the country had…
Developing nations are facing growing health and environmental risks from increased exposure to mercury, according to a UN report. It says a growth in small-scale mining and coal burning are the main reasons for the rise in emissions. As a result of rapid industrialization, South-East Asia is the largest regional emitter and accounts for almost…
A company’s sustainability efforts are becoming so desirable for employees that some are now willing to give up part of their salary to work for one, new research shows. More than 15% of employees in the U.S., U.K. and Germany have taken a pay cut to work for a sustainable company, a study by consulting…
Climate Innovation Centers can promote clean technologies but need backing with a coordinated effort
The Kyoto Protocol on climate change used to be a big deal. So big that the future of humanity was said to hinge on its implementation. Did you know it expired on New Year’s Day? We’re guessing you didn’t, but don’t worry. It’s no big deal. Adopted in 1997 and in force since 2005, the…
Well, it’s taken 80 years, but the post–New Deal, post-military-industrial-complex mega-state has finally come up with a single good idea: the construction and deployment of a mobile, moon-sized, planet-killing death ray in outer space. Here is the language of the official petition to build a Death Star–style “space-superiority platform,” submitted to the White House under…
No American should be denied a taxpayer-funded job because of what he or she believes about religion. Yet that’s exactly what is happening today under the “faith-based” initiative. It’s wrong, and it time for it to stop. The idea of awarding tax aid to religious groups to run various secular programs for people in need…
With each day, the so-called fiscal cliff looms larger as Congress and President Obama work to come to agreement on a federal-deficit compromise, which so far has proven elusive. Absent such an agreement by year’s end, far-reaching spending cuts will be triggered as result of the Budget Control Act of 2011, through a mechanism called…
From Mattew Yglesias and the Slate MoneyBox blog: There’s more to life than just this, but I’ve come to think that directly transfering cash money to people in need is the most underrated tool around for fighting poverty. So I was incredibly excited to read Dana Goldstein’s profile of GiveDirectly. They take advantage of the fact that Kenya…
Some economists dislike Christmas. They allege that it “destroys value,” which is, in Econoland, the first and only sin. The economist Joel Waldfogel, author of Scroogenomics, goes so far as to contend that the winter holiday season is “an orgy of value destruction.” Waldfogel’s main concern is that the value of gifts to their recipients…