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Why is India’s future brighter than China’s, especially in a warming world? Because India has more good agricultural land per person. That will get more and more important as the temperature goes up. I first encountered the concept of Real Population Density (note the “Real”) when I was interviewing people in the Netherlands last year [...]
India’s environment minister has blocked the construction of mines, power plants and dams. He’s held up a new airport and describes diesel cars as criminal. He’s even taken Harry Potter to task for promoting threatened owls as pets. Just a year and a half into the job, Jairam Ramesh has turned a once-marginal Environment Ministry [...]
Shaikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Minister of Foreign Affairs, has called for transparency in the UN Climate Change Conference (COP 16) that concludes on Friday. Hosting a reception for dignitaries on his arrival here for COP16 (16th session of the Conference of the Parties), Shaikh Abdullah commended the Mexican government and Executive Secretary of [...]
A new study has revealed that the soil on Mount Everest contains dangerous levels of arsenic and cadmium. Both heavy metals were found at levels higher than those the US Environmental Protection Agency considers acceptable, says Samantha Langley-Turnbaugh of the University of Southern Maine in Gorham. Langley-Turnbaugh’s student Bill Yeo collected soil and snow samples [...]
New research highlighting coastal locations where coral can better withstand rising sea temperatures, a leading cause of stress to coral reefs, may guide efforts to conserve the largest living structures on Earth. The findings hold promise for an estimated 100 million people living along the coasts of tropical developing countries whose livelihoods and welfare depend [...]
Glaciers are retreating and parts of the ice sheets on Greenland and Antarctica are melting into the ocean. This must result in a rise in sea level, but by how much? A new measurement of the gravity everywhere around the globe with a pair of orbiting satellites provides the first ever map detailing the rises [...]
The threat to tropical rainforests from global warming may have been exaggerated, says a new study. Researchers have shown that the world’s tropical forests thrived in the far distant past when temperatures were 3 to 5 Celsius warmer than today. They believe that a wetter, warmer future may actually boost plants and animals living in [...]