Waterways in remote, pristine tropical forests located in the Caribbean and Central America contain levels of nitrogen comparable to amounts found in streams and rivers flowing through polluted forests in the United States and Europe. This discovery by a Princeton University-led research team raises questions about how tropical forests might respond if they were to […] … learn more→
Tag Archives: United States
Natural levels of nitrogen in tropical forests may increase vulnerability to pollution
What the U.S. and Chinese school systems have in common: Inequality, segregation
Americans who visit Chinese schools quickly realize that many of our beliefs and assumptions about education hold little water in China: In the United States, our urban public schools perform relatively poorly, but in China the urban systems rate among the nation’s best. Here we often regard private schools as a cut above public ones […] … learn more→
Who owns the sun? Patent law and clean energy
There is a trade war brewing between the United States and China over intellectual property relating to clean technologies – particularly solar power. Steven Chu, a scientist, Nobel Laureate in Physics, and Secretary of the United States Department of Energy, commented: “When it comes to the clean energy race, America faces a simple choice: compete […] … learn more→
Global economy expanded more slowly than expected in 2011
Eco-Economy Indicators are twelve trends that the Earth Policy Institute tracks to measure progress in building a sustainable economy. Given the way the world now does business, economic growth is a measure of the mounting pressure on the environment. The global economy grew 3.8 percent in 2011, a drop from 5.2 percent in 2010. Economists […] … learn more→
‘Storm of the century?’ Try ‘storm of the decade’
With climate change, today’s ‘100-year floods’ may happen every three to 20 years. … learn more→
US global shift and the imperative for Higher Education
As the American era of global dominance draws to a close, higher education becomes more important than ever. … learn more→
How on earth do we cleanup this darn green mess? With love, the Solyndra story.
According to Friday’s edition of the Huffington Post (dated 10.28.2011), I noticed an article written by L. Graves describing potential changes to be made with existing stimulus funding and its loans. It turns out that Washington D.C. and the White House are in the process of fully reviewing, monitoring and controlling financing that have been […] … learn more→
Fuel economy of new vehicles still at lowest point in the past year
For the second straight month, the average fuel economy of all new vehicles sold in the United States remained the same, according to a researcher at the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute. The average fuel economy of vehicles purchased in September was 22.1 mpg, unchanged from August. According to Michael Sivak, research professor and […] … learn more→
U.S. postsecondary edge shrinking among G-20 countries
The United States still leads the world in having a college-educated workforce, but it is the only country among the G-20 members whose incoming workers are less educated than those retiring, according to a study released by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. In 2009, Americans accounted for more than one in every four […] … learn more→
Learning from China: Why the existing economic model will fail
For almost as long as I can remember we have been saying that the United States, with 5 percent of the world’s people, consumes a third or more of the earth’s resources. That was true. It is no longer true. Today China consumes more basic resources than the United States does. … learn more→