A vital source of agricultural crops, fish and shrimp, the Mekong Delta is Vietnam’s most fertile area. But it’s also the most fragile.
Tag: climate change
From zoning laws and insurance polices to the realities of climate change, there are ways to prevent such widespread suffering. But it requires political will.
And the rest of ours too…
-Analysis- On Sunday, the G20 summit concluded in Hamburg with a lot of hoopla but scant results. Seen by many as an opportunity for Donald Trump to advance his international agenda, the gathering of world leaders petered out when it became clear that few, if any, were willing to follow the American President’s lead on […]
-Editorial- PARIS — The world is witnessing an unprecedented diplomatic event. America is retreating as the world faces one of the most serious issues of our time — climate change. It’s deciding not to exert its leadership. It will be neither model nor guide. This continent-sized country is shrinking and retreating into itself, as it […]
Yesterday, as he announced the United States’ withdrawal from the historic Paris climate agreement, President Donald Trump appeared particularly eager to deride the perceived exploitation of America in past international negotiations. “We don’t want other leaders and other countries laughing at us anymore, and they won’t be.” No, Mr. President, no one is laughing today. […]
U.S. President Donald Trump has announced that the United States will withdraw from the Paris climate agreement and seek a new deal. “The planet’s enemy,” a “coup against the future” — and even some barely printable expletives: Here’s how international newspapers reacted to the news Friday. UNITED STATES New York Daily News, a play on […]
PARIS — Monsanto, the multinational producer of pesticides and genetically-engineered crops, has sought to discredit virtually anything that stands in the way of its business, reports leading French daily Le Monde in a multi-part investigative series that began Thursday. Among the targets of the U.S.-based agro-chemical giant are scientists, regulators and even the World Health […]
DIBRUGARH — A blazing sun is shining on Jyoti Khaund’s plantation, where rows of green foliage stretch as far as the eye can see. This hot and damp district in the Brahmaputra Valley, in the northeastern state of Assam, is where India’s best tea is produced. But Khaund is frustrated this morning looking over his […]
Climate change is giving meteorologists an added incentive to make accurate, ever more timely predictions. Supercomputers are helping them do it.
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From Oil Pipelines To Green Bonds
PARIS — Even as President Trump appears clearly convinced that eight years of Obama environmental policy were bad for business, other governments are betting on the massive investments that energy transition requires. Le Figaro reports that France has become the world’s second country to issue green bonds, raising a record 7 billion euros ($7.5 billion) […]
-Analysis- In his half-century as leader of Cuba, Fidel Castro oversaw grand changes on the island. In the wake of his death, new changes may — or may not — be on their way under the helm of the late leader’s brother, President Raul Castro. Nowhere is the future more uncertain on the island nation […]
Steak or avocado, which is worse for the environment? And other pressing questions for an omnivore flirting with a flip to the vegan life.
Climate change is drying up the Earth and making Bolivians search for new livelihoods in Latin America’s poorest country.
ACCRA — It’s a hot and humid night in this capital city and a long line waits at the entrance of Papaye, Ghana’s top fast-food chain and a symbol of the country’s burgeoning middle class. But the restaurant seems closed, its neon lights turned off. The restaurant’s staff struggle to turn on the generator. A […]
SVALBARD — A cave 80 meters under a mountain looks like the entrance to a war bunker. Or a secret weapons factory. It could be the stuff of fiction: We almost expect Darth Vader to emerge from a wall. Or it could be the gate to an underworld that is populated with dwarfs and trolls […]
SPOTLIGHT: MIXED GREEN FEELINGS Even as we’ve been consumed by a news cycle that includes wars, elections and the biggest European reorder after World War II, our planet is quietly waiting for some attention. Nature reveals that pledges taken by countries during the Paris COP21 climate summit may need a big boost “to maintain a […]
The psychology of global warming helps explain why we can’t solve it. “It triggers nothing in our brain,” says one psychologist. “It lets us sleep calmly in a burning bed.”
Of the various measures emerging to combat global warming, a small Canadian company says its solution to manipulate Carbon Dioxide is both easy to set up, and scalable.
The streets of Mexico’s capital are littered with plastic and styrofoam, the constant remnants of an irresponsible culture of consumption, an essayist writes. If we can’t change simple habits only we can control, no summit or government in
TOLIARA — The heat and the years have taken a heavy toll on Rebokane Mahatsanga’s frail, scaly-skinned body. Squatting, almost prone, among a few bad-looking ears of corn on his patch of land, he doesn’t quite know his age anymore. “I think I’ll be 100 soon,” he says, his eyes half-closed. People don’t really celebrate […]
Too many wild boars are roaming Germany, causing considerable damage to farms and forests. Their numbers need to be severely reduced, but German hunters have their own code for proper conduct.
Deforestation is one of the primary causes of global warming, and much of it has happened across vast areas of the Amazon rain forest. Will pledges at the climate change conference in Paris really count?
BANYULS-SUR-MER — Up on these hillsides, vineyards descend steeply, almost falling into the blue waves of the Mediterranean. The soil is hard, and plowing is done by hand. But local winegrowers in Banyuls-sur-Mer and the neighboring towns of Port-Vendres, Collioure and Cerbère, just north of the border with Spain, wouldn’t have it any other way. […]
Muslims are supposed to save water, Christians and Jews energy. In the past, we blamed those ideologies for ecological crises.
An EU report issued to member states seven years ago offered an eerily accurate warning of what was to come — that areas affected by global warming and political tension (Yemen, Syria, etc.) would be vulnerable to destabilization.
Climate change is already starting to affect wine growers, who scientists say will have to use other varieties of grapes and periodically move vineyards, among other interventions.
On the eve of the pontiff’s visit to the United States, confidential Obama administration documents reveal a remarkable harmony with Francis’ objectives.
CAIRO — With its densely populated coasts and low-lying agricultural areas, Egypt is one of the most vulnerable countries to rising sea levels. According to World Bank data, a one-meter rise in the sea level would inundate a quarter of the Nile Delta and force 10.5 million people from their homes. Rising sea waters would […]
Since ascending to the papacy two years ago, Pope Francis has been quietly and not-so-quietly leaving his mark on the world, pursuing a number of ambitious foreign policy goals. His nine-day trip to Latin America that begins Sunday will be mostly focused on pastoral issues. But from Cuba to Vietnam, the Middle East and environmental […]
To the chagrin of climate change deniers, the pontiff’s environmental encyclical says there are no reasonable doubts that global warming is caused by human activity.
Unchecked urbanization is destroying what’s left of the Mexican capital’s pre-Aztec chinampas.
MINQIN — Here, where the sand threatens to encroach, China is waging a long-term war against desert expansion. Just a few steps beyond the cultivated fields, the desert stretches as far as the eye can see. Minqin is menaced by the Tengger Desert to the west and by the Badain Jaran Desert to the east, […]
The death toll after Cyclone Pam hit the South Pacific nation was notably low thanks to new warning systems and ancient shelters. But saving the local economy may be harder than saving lives.
Andean towns like Pariacaca, in Peru’s Cordillera Blanca, are keeping a cautious eye on rapidly melting glaciers, from which giant blocks of ice can break off into lakes, creating huge and potentially deadly waves.
TROMSO — Officials in China, now the second-largest economy in the world and a major global emitter of greenhouse gasses, now acknowledge that the country is important in the fight against global warming. It and many other Asian nations such as Singapore are also voicing greater concern about environmental changes in the Arctic region, changes […]
For months now the southeastern region of Brazil has been experiencing the most severe drought in living memory. The already crippling water crisis was made worse by a mercilessly scorching summer that saw record high temperatures in São Paulo, Brazil’s most populous city. The suffocating heat has complicated matters further still by prompting people to […]
Another so-so summit on the climate, and another set of tepid, if not useless, commitments to curb emissions. If the governments can’t get it together, the people must act on their own.
SURAT — It’s no longer a question of time. The city of Surat, on the western coast of India, will soon face flooding that could trigger outbreaks of malaria and dengue fever, and rising temperatures that could force companies to relocate their factories. Its 4.5 million residents are already preparing for the disasters triggered by […]
SÃO PAULO — When it comes to freshwater, Brazil, home to somewhere between 12% and 16% of the world’s total supply, is a very wealthy country. Inhabitants only use 0.7% of the 43,000 cubic meters of water per year that could, theoretically, be available to each and every one of them. In this regard, Brazil […]