World Bank

Coming this August: You, made of garbage

The World Bank's report on the world's garbage creation reveals big differences in how rich and poor countries dispose of waste – both today and in the future.

Critical List: Lucy Lawless occupies oil ship; Maine fisherman catches child-sized lobster

Lucy Lawless, best known for her role as Xena, Warrior Princess, teamed up with Greenpeace to occupy an oil drilling ship. The panel on Morning Joe posited that environmentalists think the alternative to fossil fuel is granola. (In case this wasn’t clear already, everyone on Morning Joe is a jerk.) A Pew Research Center poll […]

We need a whole new kind of capitalism as we aim for sustainability

It’s time to have a broader vision.Photo: MorBCNToday we stand at the crossroads. In one direction lies business as usual, the road we’ve traveled for decades. Down that path, we’d forgo serious measures to rein in our oil consumption, we’d continue buying oil from the dwindling number of oil-rich nations to drive our SUVs a […]

World Bank to the poor: ‘Coal’s good enough for you!’

The World Bank — famous for funding gobsmackingly huge, planet-killing coal-fired power plants — is changing its tune, sort of. Under a new set of proposed rules, the Bank would only be allowed to fund gobsmackingly huge, planet-killing coal-fired power plants in the world's poorest countries. Progress! Okay, that sounds dastardly, but it’s a little […]

Take action: phase out fossil fuels at the World Bank

The Sierra Club is joining activists from around the world to call on the World Bank to free us from fossil fuels and the landscapes of extraction, hidden conflict, and increasingly frequent natural disasters associated with their consumption. Today, we join our international colleagues in a day of action that will flood the World Bank’s […]

The world is one poor harvest away from chaos

An Indian woman sifts grain from a previous harvest. Water shortages could drastically affect this year’s harvest.Photo: World BankIn early January, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) reported that its Food Price Index had reached an all-time high in December, exceeding the previous record set during the 2007-08 price surge. Even more alarming, on […]

The Climate Post: Cancun climate talks limp to a compromise at close of hottest year on record

It's official, at least according to NASA: worldwide, 2010 was the hottest year on record.

World Bank President Zoellick on the need for REDD: "We don’t want silent forests"

Robert Zoellick has been pushing hard on a REDD agreement, primarily as a vehicle to fund impoverished programs to preserve biodiversity.

Our Orwellian Nightmare: Coal's Low Carbon Pitch

This week, I’m happy to introduce Justin Guay of the Sierra Club’s International Climate Program, who is in Cancun at the international climate negotiations, and who draws our attention in this post to a little-known problem that could spur coal development around the world: In Cancun all eyes are on climate finance and the role […]