Environment & Sustainability
Environment & Sustainability
Fair Observer's analysis of the latest debates on climate change, pollution, sustainable development, clean and renewable energy and environmental conservation.
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Anthony Orlando / Ethanol / Manhattan Project / Renewable Energy / United States / Focus Article / Global Change / Environment & SustainabilityAmericans still want investment in renewable energy in a bid to distance themselves from Middle Eastern oil producers. James Gaddy knows manure. Chicken manure, to be exact. He’s spent years working with it. That may not sound like much fun to you and me, but Gaddy is on a mission to power the earth — and, in the process, save it. Specifically, Gaddy has figured out a way to produce ethanol from the bacteria in chicken manure. And it’s cellulosic ethanol, not the corn-based kind that siphons land in Iowa, jacks up the price of food, and results in almost as much greenhouse gas emissions as gasoline. No, this stuff is the real deal. It dramatically reduces greenhouse...
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360° Analysis / Carbon Emissions / Energy Descent Action Plan / Rob Hopkins / Serena Carta / Symbio Cities / transition movement / Europe / Global Change / Environment & SustainabilityBy Serena CartaFounded seven years ago in Ireland, and now spread throughout the world, the Transition Movement aims for the creation of an alternative system based on resilience and happiness as a response to current environmental and economic instability. To switch from a world based on oil resources and disposable objects to a new society built on the philosophy of degrowth, awareness, respect, and value of relations between humans and nature. This is the idea upon which the Transition Movement is based. Also known as “Transition Towns,” it consists of a social and cultural movement founded in 2005 in the town of Kinsale, Ireland with the purpose to support the society, in order to create...
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Ban Ki Moon / carbon dioxide / Carbon Emissions / climate change / Cristina Simonetti / greenhouse gases / United States / Europe / 360° Context / Global Change / Middle East / Americas / Africa / Asia / Environment & SustainabilityAs the last significant climate change conference took place six months ago, it is essential to observe developments and create awareness about the issue. Background It was not until after the efforts of a few highly committed scientists in the 1950s and 1960s, such as Hubert Lamb in England and J. Murray Mitchell in the US, that climate change was accepted as a scientific concept. Today, however, the issue is no longer about finding proof, but solutions. At the simplest level, we can define weather as what is happening to the atmosphere at any given time, while climate is what would be expected to occur at any given time of the year based on statistics built up over a long period of time....
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360° Analysis / Beirut / Exclusive Economic Zone / Hassan Nasrallah / Hezbollah / Lebanon / March 14 Coalition / March 8 Coalition / Natural Gas / Nicholas A. Heras / Petroleum / United States / Middle East / Global Security / Environment & SustainabilityNicholas A. Heras analyzes the challenges associated with potential resource revenues for the Lebanese state. The fault lines of a potential political conflict would further entrench pre-existing divisions. [Note: This article was originally published by The Jamestown Foundation.] As the Lebanese government moves towards establishing commercial extraction of the country’s natural gas and petroleum resources in its maritime Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), questions remain over whether regional instability coupled with Lebanon’s ongoing political deadlock, sometimes deadly social conflict, and insufficient infrastructure will prevent it from benefiting from resource...
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Farming / Food Production / Green Revolution / Health / Nutrition / Focus Article / Asia / Environment & SustainabilityWhat are the Risks to Human Health if use of Chemical is not Restricted Pesticides target harmful pests along with useful insects. This results in disappearance of useful insect species such as honey bee. Evidence suggests that the number of honey bee colonies dropped in US farmland by 57% from 1985 to 1997. Honeybees provide an essential natural service by pollinating $ 10 billion worth of US crops. Such change was attributed to the large scale use of pesticides in the US. The World Health Organization states, “there is no segment of the general population that is sheltered from exposure to pesticides and from its potentially serious health effects, although a disproportionate...
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Farming / Food Production / Green Revolution / Health / Nutrition / Focus Article / Asia / Environment & SustainabilityThe analysis done in the previous issue points at the opportunity cost of practicing Industrial farming which is equal to the cost of increased amount of nutrition produced through ecologically intensive organic farming. Although stock markets were flooded with excess of a few food commodities, the nutrition produced across the entire nation to feed our population declined drastically leading food inflation; the prices of pulses and oil seeds shot up as India which was once oilseed and pulses independent now has to import the same. As a result of hiked up food prices, food became unaffordable and inaccessible to the poor in India who were forced to harbor the burden of green revolution in...
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Farming / Food Production / Green Revolution / Health / Nutrition / Focus Article / Asia / Environment & SustainabilityThe introduction of chemicals and, thereby, progression to chemical intensive conventional farming led to simultaneous development of two types of trends in Indian agriculture- that of investing huge sums of money in seeds, fertilizers to nourish these seeds, and pesticides to protect them, and that of growing one type of crop in a huge area leading to production of relatively fewer crops in the whole state or region. The new development, initially projected, advertised, and promoted keeping a scientific whip in hand seemed the only solution towards an imaginary hunger free prosperous society. The notions that technology is the only answer to develop better ways of doing things leading to...
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Carbon Tax / climate change / Corporate Tax / United States / Finance & Economics / Focus Article / Environment & SustainabilityA carbon-for-corporate tax swap may be a recipe for environmental and economic improvement, but it isn’t a complete one. Lawmakers should consider other policy initiatives that could help protect low-income households, and potentially make a carbon-for-corporate tax swap a more balanced policy option. Two great tastes often taste great together. Chocolate and peanut butter. Oreos and milk. Popcorn and butter. Could the same be true of carbon taxes and corporate tax reform? Done right, each could be flavorful. But would they be even tastier together? My Tax Policy Center colleague Eric Toder and I explore that question in a new paper. We find that using a carbon tax to help pay for...
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360° Analysis / ASEAN / Cambodia / Civil society / dam / dam construction / Environment / hydropower / Laos / mekong / mekong river commission / relocation / social unrest / Thailand / Vietnam / Asia / Environment & SustainabilityGovernments are struggling to decide whether the Mekong River should continue to feed 60 million people or become a source of hydroelectric power. What started as a debate about a hydroelectric dam has become a high profile dispute over the future of food security in the Mekong region. The controversial Xayaburi Dam in Laos has resulted in increasing political tensions and a crackdown on civil society, culminating in the disappearance of a Lao activist in December. Over 60 million people living in Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam depend on the Mekong River. It is the world’s largest inland fishery and the second most biodiverse river, behind only the Amazon. The river’s...