 | Economist - The Environment |
| |
Current Headlines | Most Read | Archives |
|
| |
 |
Conservation In wolfs clothing (19 November 04:09) |
| Wolves are being blamed for damage actually done by dogsFARMERS have never liked wolves. That is why wolves are rare where farmers are common. Fashion, though, is swinging round to the wolf&... |
| |
|
Tuna fishing Changing tides (19 November 04:09) |
| The bluefin tuna is still being managed badly. A trade ban is on the cardsIN A world where wildlife is under increasing pressure, good management can mean the difference between survival and... |
| |
|
Economics focus Green with envy (19 November 04:09) |
| The tension between free trade and capping emissionsSTATEMENTS by Barack Obama on his travels through Asia have lowered expectations that December’s global summit on climate change in ... |
| |
|
Peru and Brazil Messing around with dams (19 November 04:09) |
| First build a road, then flood itJOSE CHAVEZ, a farmer, is one of the few people in the Inambari area who welcomes a plan to build a huge hydroelectric dam where the departments of Madre de ... |
| |
|
British Columbias salmon Socked (19 November 04:09) |
| Another inquiry into vanishing stocksA MYSTERIOUS decline in the numbers of spawning salmon has become one of the rites of autumn in British Columbia, bringing worries of financial and job l... |
| |
|
Maines cod Something new (19 November 04:09) |
| A brave attempt to save local fishIN THE bright midday sun, boats idle as fishermen unload the day’s haul. This scene is commonplace in Maine’s small fishing hamlets; but Port Cl... |
| |
|
America China and climate change Lets agree to agree (19 November 04:09) |
| Barack Obama and others admit that Copenhagen will at most produce only an outline climate agreement. But that would be a lot better than nothingEXPECTATIONS for the Copenhagen climate confe... |
| |
|
Robert Rines (19 November 04:09) |
| Robert Rines, scientist and Nessie-hunter, died on November 1st, aged 87EYEWITNESS evidence may be all very well in a court of law, but it cuts no ice with scientists. Robert Rines knew that... |
| |
|
Barcelona The Spanish prisoners (18 November 02:15) |
| Does failure in Barcelona augur poorly for Copenhagen?THERE is an odd crowd on my late-afternoon flight from London to Barcelona. Peeking at the reading material of my seatmates, I notice th... |
| |
|
Not-so-wonderful Copenhagen (18 November 02:12) |
| A forthcoming climate-change summit will not produce a binding deal on emissionsEXPECTATIONS for the Copenhagen climate conference, held next month in Denmark, have been steadily dwindling. ... |
| |
|
Lexington Farmers v greens (12 November 04:33) |
| The biggest obstacle to a climate-change bill is rural AmericaAMERICA will not pass a cap-and-trade law in time for the global climate-change summit in Copenhagen next month. To understand w... |
| |
|
Techview Fighting fire with fire (06 November 01:10) |
| Wildfires are getting fiercer and more frequentAS WOODLANDS in the warmer parts of the northern hemisphere come to the end of their fire season and their counterparts south of the equator pr... |
| |
|
Religion and climate change Sounding the trumpet (05 November 04:31) |
| A link-up between faith and greenery brings unlikely people together ENVIRONMENTALISM is a hard corner to fight in Louisiana, a state where oil, gas and chemical companies are big in the eco... |
| |
|
Climate change and public opinion Not yet marching as to war (05 November 04:31) |
| Even as politicians and protesters gear up for a fateful climate-change meeting in Denmark, some of their fellow citizens have little stomach for a fight IF THE forthcoming United Nations me... |
| |
|
Agriculture and satellites Harvest moon (05 November 04:31) |
| Artificial satellites are helping farmers boost crop yieldsFOR farmers, working out the optimal amount of seed, fertiliser, pesticide and water to scatter on a field can make, or break, the ... |
| |
|
Climate change For peats sake stop (05 November 04:31) |
| The world’s wetlands are big sources of greenhouse gasesBOGS, mires, marshes, swamps, fens and quagmires—whatever they are called, and wherever they are found, peaty wetlands emi... |
| |
|
Endangered species Red alert (03 November 02:43) |
| The number of species in danger of extinctionMORE than a third of the 47,677 species of plant and animal surveyed this year by the International Union for Conservation of Nature were found t... |
| |
|
Greenview Tricks of the trade (02 November 10:13) |
| Can the world stop governments from paying for the over-exploitation of fish?OVERFISHING erodes future prosperity by destroying today a resource that could yield benefits indefinitely. Yet i... |
| |
|
Cheaper desalination Current thinking (29 October 05:23) |
| A fresh way to take the salt out of seawaterTHERE is a lot of water on Earth, but more than 97% of it is salty and over half of the remainder is frozen at the poles or in glaciers. Meanwhile... |
| |
|
A biography of Jacques Cousteau A creature of the shallows (29 October 05:23) |
| An explorer of the seas who wasn't quite what he seemedJacques Cousteau: The Sea King. By Brad Matsen. Pantheon Books; 320 Pages; $27.95. Buy from Amazon.comTHIRTY years ago Jacques-Yves Cou... |
| |
|
Greenview Freaking out (27 October 01:00) |
| The controversy over SuperFreakonomicsFOOLS rush in where climatologists fear to tread. That, at least, is what critics are saying about a book called “SuperFreakonomics”, which ... |
| |
|
The price of cleanliness (22 October 04:13) |
| China is torn between getting greener and getting richerTHE Taiyanggong Thermal Power Plant in north-east Beijing is delightfully green. Unlike most of China’s smoke-belching power sta... |
| |
|
Farmers and climate change Seeds of discontent (22 October 04:13) |
| America’s farmers threaten to block climate legislationAUTUMN is always a busy time in America’s farm belt. This autumn, however, it is particularly so. In early November farmers... |
| |
|
Californias water wars Of farms folks and fish (22 October 04:13) |
| A truce in California’s long and bitter fight over water at last appears possibleIN 2007 Oliver Wanger, a federal judge in California, ordered the huge pumping stations of the Sacramen... |
| |
|
Cap-and-trade The road to 60 (15 October 04:18) |
| Signs of bipartisanship on the climate-change billMANY commentators fear that Barack Obama’s plans for a cap-and-trade bill have got fatally stuck in the Senate. Their calculations wer... |
| |
|
Scotlands fishing industry Trawling for new ideas (15 October 04:18) |
| A chance to change Europe’s sclerotic fisheries policyIN THE pre-dawn gloom while the rest of the town still slumbers, the fish market at Peterhead is a blaze of light and activity. Bu... |
| |
|
Energy and climate change Questioning the invisible hand (15 October 04:18) |
| Can liberalised energy markets cut carbon emissions? Britain is starting to doubt itFOR many left-wingers, the credit crunch was proof that markets do not always know best. The near-collapse... |
| |
|
Japans eco-diplomacy Starry-eyed (15 October 04:18) |
| “Soft power” built on sandFOR an ocean-loving nation, Japan has an odd way of showing its affection for the sea. Out of a fear of typhoons and tsunamis, and an element of man-aga... |
| |
|
Climate change Bad policy will boil the planet (15 October 04:18) |
| Lessons from Britain about how to cut carbon, and how not toAS THE December Copenhagen conference on climate change approaches, the world’s attention is focused on international negoti... |
| |
|
Global-warming diplomacy Bangkok blues (15 October 04:18) |
| Gloom and pragmatism ahead of the Copenhagen climate-change summitTHE planet is warming, but the mood among climate negotiators seems as chilly as ever. On October 9th the penultimate round ... |
| |
|
Conservation and cookery Eat for the ecosystem (15 October 04:18) |
| A heartening tale of business and the environmentRED lionfish are pretty, but they are also greedy. A single one of them, introduced into a coral reef where the species is not native, can re... |
| |
|
Tyrannosaurs Selling bones (08 October 04:17) |
| The market for dinosaur bones tumblesThe dinosaur market is in the doldrums. At an auction held in Las Vegas on October 3rd the star lot, a Tyrannosaurus skeleton nicknamed Samson (whose sku... |
| |
|
Climate change and warfare Cool heads or heated conflicts (08 October 04:17) |
| A lesson from history on how to prevent climate-induced warsTHE starkest views of climate change paint war as a looming threat. The idea that violence will erupt as drought and rising sea le... |
| |
|
From ancient life to alien life Living where the sun dont shine (08 October 04:17) |
| A Caribbean cruise may unlock one of biology’s oldest secrets—both on Earth and elsewhere in the universeMODERN life is powered by the sun. But photosynthesis, the process that c... |
| |
|
Easter Island Rapa Nui déjà vu (08 October 04:17) |
| Tourism threatens to trigger another ecological collapseSTEPPING off the plane, tourists are welcomed to Easter Island with a garland of flowers. They find themselves on a tiny dot in the Pa... |
| |
|
Air pollution Taken to the cleaners (08 October 04:17) |
| Cleaning up London’s dirty airLONDONERS have been complaining about air quality since at least 1858, when a heatwave cooked the sewage-choked Thames and fumes cloaked the city in what ... |
| |
|
Greenview Errors of omission (05 October 09:10) |
| Climate-change models must become even more complexBUMBLEBEES cannot fly—or so physical models are said to have shown. That the insects routinely become airborne demonstrates the short... |
| |
|
Regulating greenhouse gases Enter the EPA (01 October 04:34) |
| If Congress won’t legislate…OVER the past few days, America has moved towards a federal system for regulating its carbon emissions in three ways. First, several big companies hav... |
| |
|
Natural disasters A season of calamity (01 October 04:34) |
| Earthquake, tsunami and floodTHE powerful earthquake that struck off the west coast of Sumatra on September 30th, killing many hundreds of people and trapping thousands more under rubble, wa... |
| |
|
Fuel subsidies Fossilised policy (01 October 04:34) |
| The G20 decides to end subsidies on fossil fuelsHOPEFUL activists branded the annual UN get-together of world leaders in New York starting on September 20th “Climate Week”. In th... |
| |
|
Farmland and climate change Seasonally adjusted (01 October 04:34) |
| Global warming will make it harder to feed the world in 2050SINCE time immemorial, farmers have planted their crops according to the seasons. “That is what my forefathers have been doi... |
| |
|
A palaeontological mystery Dead in the water (01 October 04:34) |
| What killed Fossil Lake?SINCE the early 19th century, Fossil Lake, a 52m-year-old site in south-west Wyoming, has been known for its fish, insects, reptiles, birds and mammals. It contains m... |
| |
|
Palaeontology and conservation Avoiding the heffalump trap (01 October 04:34) |
| As the climate warms, conservationists might consider looking to the past to protect the futureTHE Earth is heating up—and, if a study presented by Britain’s Meteorological Offic... |
| |
|
The Pacific tsunami Paradise rocked (30 September 01:52) |
| Over 100 people are killed as tsunamis strike the PacificTSUNAMIS that struck in the South Pacific on Tuesday September 29th were nowhere near as devastating as the waves that hit countries ... |
| |
|
Greenview Urban metabolism (28 September 05:27) |
| Cities can learn from comparing their carbon footprintsHOW and why do greenhouse-gas emissions differ between cities? Since more than half of the world’s people now live in such metrop... |
| |
|
Airlines pledge to cut emissions Almost virtuous (24 September 04:23) |
| The aviation industry is promising a greener tomorrowAS BOSS of British Airways, Willie Walsh has received more brickbats than bouquets lately. So he must have been delighted with the headli... |
| |
|
East Africas drought A catastrophe is looming (24 September 04:23) |
| Governments are at their wits’ end to keep their hungry people aliveTHIS year’s drought is the worst in east Africa since 2000, and possibly since 1991. Famine stalks the land. T... |
| |
|
Water in California Stuck in the Delta (24 September 04:23) |
| Californians continue fighting over water, but vow to try making peaceCALIFORNIA’S notoriously partisan lawmakers ended their legislative session in the early morning of September 12th... |
| |
|
Climate change Avoiding a crash at Copenhagen (24 September 04:23) |
| How to get negotiations on the right track for a dealTHE diplomatic process leading up to the climate-change conference in Copenhagen in December is gathering speed. Preparatory meetings are... |
| |
|
America abroad The quantity theory of foreign policy (24 September 04:23) |
| Russia’s hint at sanctions on Iran looks like a win for Barack Obama. Elsewhere, problems are piling upAT THE start of his presidency Barack Obama squared up to the issues of the day w... |
|
