Protesters opposed to the construction and operation of the Lynas Rare Earth Metals refinery organized in Malaysia over the weekend. With most of the rare earth metal trade dominated by China, this is promoted by the company as a way to increase competition and supply significant amounts of rare earth metals to the world. However, … Continue reading »
Posted in February 2012 …
Rio+20 Interview 1: Ricardo Navarro
This is the first part of a series of interviews with key actors in global environmental politics about the Rio+20 Conference in June 2012. The interviews aim to provide some of the contours of the debate, discussion, and wider impacts of the Green Economy and its articulation. By agreeing to the interview, the participants do … Continue reading »
Who Is Attending International Environmental Conferences?
Rio+20 is quickly approaching. Who will be going will be important. The NGO community will probably show up with sizable numbers. International organizations will be there from every possible niche of international law. And representatives of states too. If trends continue, NGOs will make up a larger share of the people in the meeting than … Continue reading »
Where Was Severe Drought in 2011?
This is a map of countries that experienced severe drought in 2011. A number of countries experienced drought of various types, but these countries had at least some amount of severe drought during 2011. This information is brought together from multiple sources: News Searches, Google Searches, and information at Drought Monitor. Just because a country … Continue reading »
Should the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) become a Specialized Agency?
As discussed earlier, one of the main discussions at the Rio+20 Conference this summer will be about the future of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The preeminent international environmental organization from 1972 until 1992, the situations became confused and disparate with the formation of the Commission on Sustainable Development in 1992. Now, there is … Continue reading »
The On/Off Switch in Energy Choices: A Deeper Problem with Oil, Coal, and Nuclear Energy
When we make energy choices, we have a variety of different ways to decide: carbon impact, cost, efficiency, security, toxic pollution, risky employment, ethics, etc. This is incredibly complex and everyone decides based upon a variety of different criteria. I have a simple way to make my decision: Does it have an off switch? This … Continue reading »
Photo 2- Rustenberg Mine Protest, South Africa
Protests organized by laborers and surrounding communities asking for mines to pay fairer wages to workers and to support surrounding communities have taken place throughout South Africa the past couple of days. The most significant involved the Rustenburg Mine (pictured here). But this is a larger debate about how the resources and hazards of mining … Continue reading »
Are Global Climate Negotiations all About Future Money?
Duncan Clark over at the Guardian puts this question bluntly in a well-written piece asserting that the size of carbon reserves in a country go along with their hesitance regarding climate change action. To quote his main articulation: We all know that Canada’s anti-green agenda is related to its tars sands, and that Saudi Arabia’s … Continue reading »
Valentine’s Day is Getting Hotter!
So, how hot is your Valentine’s Day? If you are in the East Coast USA, likely it is quite mild today. Below are the February 14th high temperatures in degrees Fahrenheit for the Central Park weather reading in New York City. Data is provided by Weather Underground, and there is a sizable gap in good … Continue reading »
A Deeper Problem: Carbon and soil erosion
The 2012 UNEP Yearbook highlighted the problem of carbon in the soil and its impacts on the global environment. The PDF version of the specific chapter regarding soil carbon is available here. Soil carbon loss contributes to global environmental problems like land degradation and climate change. Keeping Carbon in the Soil Loss of carbon in … Continue reading »
