Business and Economics
Flying Solo
The Conservation Hero Re-examined
Eco Barons: The Dreamers, Schemers, and Millionaires Who Are Saving Our Planet
By Edward Humes, Ecco Press 2009.
Review by Florence Williams
How important are individuals to social change? The question has been a topic of lively debate since at least the Enlightenment. In Eco Barons: The [...]
Biofuels Déjà Vu
Lured by dreams of “green” fuel, could we end up trampling biodiversity in the name of saving the planet?
Story by David Malakoff
Illustration by Randy Lyhus
April-June 2009
These days, Jason Clay walks around with an eerie sense of déjà vu. Over the past few years, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) anthropologist has become deeply entangled in the [...]
Biofuel Bust
The potential for farming fuels has been inflated
Johnston, M. et al. 2008. Resetting global expectations from agricultural biofuels. Environmental Research Letters DOI:10.1088/1748-9326/4/1/014004
From corn and castor to sorghum and sweet potato, it seems like almost any crop is capable of running our cars these days. But as biofuel boosters talk up production potential of these [...]
The Nature of the Fiscal World
Will the environment gain or lose from the financial meltdown and its economic aftermath?
Power Walk
New device harvests energy one step at a time
Photo courtesy of Simon Fraser University
By Justin Matlick
July-September 2008 (Vol. 9, No. 3)
Max Donelan is giving new meaning to the term “power walker.” An assistant professor at Simon Fraser University and chief science officer at Bionic Power Inc., Donelan and his colleagues have developed an [...]
The Problem of What to Eat
Organic farming and eating locally make intuitive sense. But does conventional wisdom about eating sustainably hold up to the science?
By Natasha Loder, Elizabeth Finkel, Craig Meisner, and Pamela Ronald
July-September 2008 (Vol. 9, No. 3)
At first glance, it doesn’t seem that tough a question. Organic farming and eating locally make intuitive sense. Yet does [...]
Ecological Freakonomics
How does tourism drive deforestation? How are divorce rates linked to resource consumption? What’s the connection between clean water and international terrorism?
Trade Barriers
Reduced tariffs benefit wildlife
Do Trees Grow on Money?
After years of failed attempts to merge market economics with rainforest conservation, the US$60 billion carbon market might finally be the ticket. That is, if money is all it’s going to take.
An Agricultural Crime against Humanity
It doesn’t get madder than this. Swaziland is in the grip of a famine and receiving emergency food aid. Forty percent of its people are facing acute food shortages. So what has the government decided to export? Biofuel made from one of its staple crops, cassava.