Africa
-
What if population grows faster than the experts project?
Many demographers believe that global population will peak at 9.5 to 10 billion this century and then gradually decline as poorer countries develop. But what if they're wrong?
-
Climate change could cause a chocolate shortage
Chocolate lovers have two decades to consume all the Godiva they can before climate change drinks their milkshake. After that, global warming will cause production to dwindle in current cocoa-producing regions, like Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire, according to a new study by the International Center for Tropical Agriculture.
That doesn't necessarily mean that humanity will lose chocolate, though. It just might have to come from somewhere else.
-
Critical List: Spilt oil tars New Zealand shores; climate change is a top issue for Europeans
Oil has reached New Zealand beaches, after an oil tanker ran into a reef last week. The tanker was carrying 1,700 tons of oil and 200 tons of diesel.
All these attacks on obscure regulations about boilers and concrete might seem boring, but in reality, they're part of a campaign that could destroy decades of environmental progress.
Europeans think that climate change is one of the top two issues facing the globe. (Although the No. 1 concern was a sort of Voltronesque mega-problem: poverty, hunger, and lack of drinking water.)
Rick Perry used to be against ethanol, but now he's in Iowa, so … he's not sure what he thinks.
-
The crude reality of oil in Nigeria
The director of Sweet Crude talks about what it's like to spend time with people who know the true cost of oil. Her film is now out on DVD.
-
Critical List: Wangari Maathai passes away; NASA satellite didn’t kill anyone
Wangari Maathai, who won the Nobel peace prize for her work planting trees, passed away. She was the first African woman to win the prize and the first Kenyan woman to earn a Ph.D.
Around the world, thousands of people met in more than 2,000 demonstrations to rally for a Moving Planet.
That massive NASA satellite managed to plop back to earth without killing anyone. -
Nobel-winning environmentalist Wangari Maathai dies
Wangari Maathai, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004, passed away. She was the first African woman and first environmental activist to win the prize.
-
Sunlight can disinfect water
Turns out the nonsensical yuppie idea that bottled water is “cleaner” is actually true, in very very specific circumstances. In areas where it’s hard to find drinkable water, plastic bottles and sunlight can save lives.
SODIS, or solar water disinfection, is a fancy way of saying, "Leave germy water in a plastic bottle out on your hot roof and eventually all the bad stuff will die." It's a simple idea, but remarkably effective at dealing with water contamination. -
Bill Gates plans to get gas from your butt. (No, really.)
Bill Gates' latest clean energy investment gives a whole new meaning to the term "natural gas." The Gates Foundation is putting $1.5 million towards developing a "Next-Generation Urban Sanitation Facility" in Accra, Ghana. The facility takes human poop and turns it into biodiesel and methane, the same stuff natural gas companies are so eagerly pumping […]
-
Critical List: Hurricane Adrian rises; Romney’s climate change problem
Here we go: first hurricane of the year. Wild elephants killed one person in a rampage through an Indian city. Poor guy, but also, poor elephants! They were probably only there because their habitat is shrinking. Obama's meeting with the heads of oil-rich African states. Romney believes in climate change, but not in doing anything […]