2 July 2008
Time for Plan B: Cutting Carbon Emissions 80 Percent by 2020
When political leaders look at the need to cut carbon dioxide emissions to curb global warming, they ask the question: How much of a cut is politically feasible? At the Earth Policy Institute we ask a different question: How much of a cut is necessary to avoid the most dangerous effects of climate change? Read more...

4 June 2008
Falling Water Tables, Falling Harvests
Scores of countries are overpumping aquifers as they struggle to satisfy their growing water needs. The drilling of millions of irrigation wells has pushed water withdrawals beyond recharge rates, in effect leading to groundwater mining. The failure of governments to limit pumping to the sustainable yield of aquifers means that water tables are now falling in countries that contain more than half the world’s people, including the big three grain producers—China, India, and the United States. Read more...

12 May 2008
Bicycles Pedaling Into the Spotlight
The world produced an estimated 130 million bicycles in 2007—more than twice the 52 million cars produced. Bicycle and car production tracked each other closely in the mid-to-late 1960s, but bike output separated sharply from that of cars in 1970, beginning its steep climb to 105 million in 1988. Following a slowdown between 1989 and 2001, bike production has regained steam, increasing in each of the last six years. Read more...

16 April 2008
World Facing Huge New Challenge on Food Front: Business-as-Usual Not a Viable Option
A fast-unfolding food shortage is engulfing the entire world, driving food prices to record highs. Over the past half-century grain prices have spiked from time to time because of weather-related events, such as the 1972 Soviet crop failure that led to a doubling of world wheat, rice, and corn prices. The situation today is entirely different, however. The current doubling of grain prices is trend-driven, the cumulative effect of some trends that are accelerating growth in demand and other trends that are slowing the growth in supply. Read more...

9 April 2008
Carbon Dioxide Emissions Accelerating Rapidly
Global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from the burning of fossil fuels stood at a record 8.38 gigatons of carbon (GtC) in 2006, 20 percent above the level in 2000. Emissions grew 3.1 percent a year between 2000 and 2006, more than twice the rate of growth during the 1990s. Carbon dioxide emissions have been growing steadily for 200 years, since fossil fuel burning began on a large scale at the start of the Industrial Revolution. But the growth in emissions is now accelerating despite unambiguous evidence that carbon dioxide is warming the planet and disrupting ecosystems around the globe. Read more...

2 April 2008
THE BEGINNING OF THE END FOR COAL - A Long Year in the Life of the U.S. Coal Industry
With concerns about climate change mounting, the era of coal-fired electricity generation in the United States may be coming to a close. The contraction in financial support for new coal-fired power plants is escalating toward a de facto moratorium on coal. The timeline that follows is witness to what may well be the beginning of the end of coal-fired power in the United States. Read more...