Searching for the Wildest Strawberries to Save Crop Diversity
ClimateWire/ New York Times, Mar ’10– It has been a long journey for the latest shipment of seeds to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. The vault, built into a Norwegian mountain near the North Pole, is the final defense for agriculture in the face of growing populations, a changing climate and rising threats to food [...]
Read MoreCompanies Work to Harness the Power of Waves
Harnessing the ocean waves for emission-free power seems like a tidy concept, but the ocean is anything but tidy. Waves crash from multiple directions on a seemingly random basis, and converting the kinetic energy into electricity is a frontier of alternative energy research that requires grappling with large unknowns. But with several utility companies and [...]
Read MoreIndia’s Future Energy Business Plan — Shop the World for More Coal
BOKARO, India — The men who work at Bokaro Steel City (there are few women) behave as though they are in the Wild West. Some are slick and charming with their words. They stand in air filled with fine coal dust that gets into every crevice of the skin and upper respiratory system, while saying [...]
Read MoreInjecting Tiny Proteins Into the Hunt for ‘Clean Coal’
As big engineering fixes go, “clean coal” has proved an elusive concept. Carbon capture projects remain experimental, expensive and energy intensive. But working with some of the tiniest things in nature, scientists are engineering proteins found in living things to trap carbon dioxide from coal-fired power plants. “Biomimetic design” is the idea of using nature [...]
Read MoreDoes the Huge China-Australia Coal Deal Square With the Copenhagen Accord?
Environmental activists are attacking a $60 billion deal that will keep Chinese power stations supplied with Australian coal for at least the next two decades. Under the agreement announced last week, the Australian coal and iron ore mining company Resourcehouse will build a new mining complex to give China Power International Development 30 million tonnes [...]
Read MoreA roaring economy is hitched to a galloping coal addiction
JHARIA, India — Night falls here by 5 p.m. and people stream into the open-air market to catch the latest political news. They have much to discuss, because elections are currently on in the state of Jharkhand, which is famous for three things: corruption, a home-grown terrorism threat called Naxalism, and this area’s economic life, [...]
Read MoreAutomakers Hit Pay Dirt in Rural India
Rickshaws and bullock carts may be anachronisms elsewhere, but they are the standard means of transportation in rural India. But with government incentives and aggressive salesmanship by manufacturers, cars are making inroads into these untouched markets.
India is currently the 11th-largest passenger car market, and in the next five years it will become the seventh-largest, according to Ernst & Young. By 2030, the nation is expected to be the third-biggest after China and the United States. The country adds 1.5 million cars every year to its roads, and experts say sales could explode, a move that could greatly inflate India’s greenhouse gas emissions.
Read MoreNew Studies Point to ‘Carbon Starvation’ as a Cause for Tree Mortality
Tree death rates could increase globally because of rising temperatures and prolonged droughts linked to climate change, according to multiple studies.
Read MoreRunners World: NYC Marathoners in Photos
Some 39,000 runners from all 50 states and more than 100 countries will participate in the 2008 ING New York City Marathon. See Photos in Runners World.
Read MoreIndependence in East Timor
Kira Kay and Jason Maloney report on the tenth anniversary of East Timor’s independence from Indonesia, and efforts to build a lasting democracy in one of the world’s most fragile states. Credits: Reporter: Kira Kay Producer / Camera / Editor: Jason Maloney Production Associates: Gayathri Vaidyanathan, Elspeth Montgomery A production of the Bureau for International [...]
Read MoreHow to Get to Sesame Street? Visit 64th and Broadway
Big Bird, Elmo, Oscar, and the Sesame Street gang got together today to celebrate on the eve of their 40th anniversary. Big Bird towered over puppet lovers at a busy intersection near Columbus Circle, providing a yellow splash of color to the skyline. Mayor Bloomberg has declared tomorrow “Sesame Street Day” and temporarily named the [...]
Read MoreWhy India’s Garment Factories Are Unreliable for New Workers
In recent years, India has sewn its way toward a more reliable income for nearly 35 million garment industry workers. Agricultural laborers left the fields to work in factories that sprouted up as the economy gained steam. But as demand for exports has dropped amid the global financial crisis, hundreds of thousands of Indian garment workers have found their new line of work is on shaky ground. Sudden job losses highlight an industry where workers have few rights and where the support systems that help laborers in developed markets are lacking, according to experts interviewed by India Knowledge@Wharton.
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