In the run-up to the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen this December, African countries are boycotting climate change conferences. They allege that ‘the world’s rich nations must do more to cut emissions.’ This is just one of the hurdles being encountered by the controversial climate deal negotiations whose final agreements hope to be signed [...]

Geologists prefer to call the past two centuries as ‘the anthropocene period, a time when humans have reshaped about half of the Earth’s surface. We have dictated what plants grow and where. We’ve pocked and deformed the Earth’s crust with mines and wells, and we’ve commandeered a huge fraction of its freshwater supply for our [...]

With those clamoring for greener energy options and cleaner energy sources constantly keeping their focus fixed on solar power, there is no doubt that wind energy has taken a back seat for sometime now. But with the help of creative new engineers who are altering the traditional perception of windmills and some help from Mother [...]

When you talk of planes such as the Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk, which stay in the sky for a whole day without needing to refuel, have a range of over 3400 miles and can hit altitudes of up to 20,000 meters, you would think they would be used to spy on enemy nations, drop [...]

Cleantech depends on energy policy. US President Obama deals with two core climate issues: meeting the larger goal of reducing carbon emissions, and finding a way of rescuing the renewables industry from Wall Street’s collapse. The benchmark of 450 ppm is a crucial figure issued by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. ‘Limiting concentration to [...]

The Kyoto Protocol is an obvious failure in its mandate to enjoin countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. In fact, and quite ironically, ‘global carbon-dioxide emissions have grown by 25% since the protocol was adopted in 1997.’
There are glaring reasons why the soon-to-expire Kyoto Protocol did not succeed. This treaty left out of the [...]

According to Phil Edwards, a researcher from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, “We need to do a lot more to reverse the global trend towards fatness. It is a key factor in the battle to reduce carbon emissions and slow climate change.”
Edwards’ research found that ‘the average overweight person is responsible for [...]

Cassava is touted by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) as the savior of Africa, being a staple food of more than half a billion of the world’s poorest people. The crop augurs well in the continent because it is basically drought-resistant. But one of the most important foods on the planet is becoming [...]

If UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon were a puppet of the West, particularly of the US, as he is often criticized to be, he would ‘have supported the International Criminal Court and the Responsibility to Protect while on the hustings for the UN’s top job, nor would he have pushed so hard on climate change [...]

There are two major reasons behind the rise in disease transmission from animals to humans: humans encroaching on forested lands and rise in Earth’s temperature due to global warming. A new field called ‘conservation medicine’ looks into ‘how ecosystem disturbance and changing interactions between wildlife and humans can lead to the spread of new pathogens.’
One [...]