The state of the world’s environment is one of the most important stories of the new century. Debates over the impact of climate change reverberate throughout the globe. So do disputes about what actions might be necessary, both to preserve the environment and to develop sources of energy for a growing global community.
The World’s environment coverage, led by environment editor Peter Thomson, examines the health of the planet and explores the impacts of human activity on everything from the earth’s ecosystems to the food we put on our plates.
Anchor Marco Werman talks to The World’s environment editor Peter Thomson about what some of the big environmental stories will likely be in 2012.
Scientists are establishing a worldwide network of deep-sea listening posts connected to the Internet. It allows researchers — and the public — to hear whales, ships, and other underwater sounds. But the US Navy is uneasy because these sounds might reveal the location of its submarines.
A Saudi Arabian company has leased tens of thousands of acres in western Ethiopia to grow rice for export. The Ethiopian government says it will help provide food security for its citizens, but some who live in the region, say they’re not seeing any benefits.
As many as 2 million songbirds a year are killed in the Mediterranean country, most to be eaten as a delicacy in local restaurants.
In the Philippines, authorities are investigating what went wrong on Mindanao Island over the weekend.
Japanese authorities said Friday that the reactors at the Fukushima nuclear power plant are under control.
Across Central America, large numbers of men are dying from kidney disease. The cause is unknown, but a growing body of evidence suggests that hard manual labor — especially in the region’s sugarcane fields — is partly to blame.
Marco Werman speaks with climate policy expert Kelly Sims Gallagher about the stalemate in the UN climate negotiations.
At the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Durban, South Africa, the nations of the world are struggling to address a problem that’s racing far ahead of our response so far. The UN process remains gridlocked on the big issue of hard commitments from major polluters like the US and China to cut their greenhouse gas emissions.
But incremental progress may yet be made in Durban.
This week The World presents on-the-ground coverage of the conference as well as updates on some of the latest climate science and a special report from the Maldives, one of the countries most imminently threatened by rising sea levels.
The Maldives is one of the countries most imminently threatened by rising seas from climate change. But as Lily Jamali reports, even many people in the tiny Indian Ocean nation don’t sense a real threat to their lives and livelihoods.
Climate scientists say that as the world is warming up, polar ice is melting a lot faster than expected.
International climate change negotiators are back at it his week in Durban, South Africa. Negotiators are scrambling to make significant progress in a process that seems to have fallen far behind the urgency of the the problem.
Paris’s famed Avenue des Champs-Elysees is all lit up for the holiday season. And all its electricial needs are to be fulfilled by a solar energy farm.
China may not be the first place that comes to mind when thinking about places that American organic farmers could learn from. But a group of American advocates of a safe and sustainable food chain learned a few things on their recent trip to organic farms near Beijing.
Stories this week on Uganda’s electric car, Liberia’s new undersea fiber optic cable, and some Nigerians who are recycling plastic bottles into houses. Also, Syrian web monitoring and an app called Instant WILD.
