Recently I stumbled upon an interesting article that was originally published in the Yale Environment 360 online magazine — the title of the piece was “Are America’s Fears of a Greentech Race with China Unfounded?” At the bottom of the article there was a voting function where readers could opine on whether they...
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Energy & Environment
China and the U.S.: The Greentech “Race”
Building A “Solar India” – The Promise of Solar Power
With an average of 300 days of sunshine a year, India is a country where solar power can technically flourish. In an act of recognition and confirmation of this potential, the Government of India announced in November 2009 an ambitious nation-wide initiative to promote solar energy.
The Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission is...
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Copenhagen Distractions
We are only in the first week of the climate change summit and every day something new and exciting happens, both in the U.S. and in Copenhagen. Of course, the conference is politicized; that is a given. It is astounding to see how politicians, financiers and opportunists with different interests can come...
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Another sign that Copenhagen may not be the success the world needs to be
Peter Smith reports in the Financial Times from Sydney:
Tony Abbott, Australia’s new opposition Liberal leader, a plain-spoken former student boxer nicknamed the “Mad Monk” following his flirtation with the Catholic priesthood, on Tuesday declared his intention of taking a wrecking ball to the Labor government’s emission trading scheme.
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Countdown to Copenhagen: “Get Real,” says Steve Forbes
Steve Forbes talks about why cutting down on carbon with economically binding measures is not necessarily the best foot forward to tackle climate change at Copenhagen:
Copenhagen will be no more successful than was Kyoto. The reason: China. Last year China surpassed the U.S. in producing carbon dioxide, even though China’s overall economy is still...
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Philip Stephens on why Copenhagen should be a ’successful failure’
From the Financial Times:
There is a real danger, of course, that if Copenhagen does not live up to the Bali billing, the world’s political leaders will gradually back away even from more modest measures to slow the warming of the Earth. Given the condition of their economies, many of them need only the flimsiest...
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The Most Important Issue in Global Affairs Today: Global Climate Change
A new entry, from Joe Gurowsky:
As mentioned, there are various pressing issues that shape our studies in global affairs, but I believe Global Climate Change is the most significant. Global Climate Change is not constrained by borders, class, culture or ethnicity (even though much of the damage is a result of abuses from developed...
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“Global warming might be solved with a helium balloon and a few miles of garden hose.”
…or so suggests Intellectual Ventures, a Washington-based firm, as described in this bizarre yet interesting take on global warming.
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David Rohde cont’d and Trafigura’s “super injunction”
To follow up on the David Rohde story, here’s a great interview he had on NPR’s Fresh Air yesterday with Terry Gross.
In other news, last week, a five-week legal battle between oil trader Trafigura and the UK’s Guardian newspaper came to a close when Trafigura ended a secret injunction with the news organization. How...
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This Summer in Global Affairs…
Summer is nearly officially over (and the weather here in New York shows it). This means the Perspectives on Global Issues blog is back from its sun-drenched hibernation. Our editors have already been churning out their thoughts and analyses on the latest breaking news in the world of international affairs — but just...
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