Publication archives

When genetically engineered (GE) crops were first marketed in the U.S. in the mid-1990s, the central promise biotech companies made to farmers was greater yields. The promise to everyone else was that GE crops would help feed the world.

In an article in the March/April issue of Mother Jones, author Paul Roberts takes a provocative view of U.S. foodies pushing for local and organic food.

While property owners struggle to protect their hemlock trees from the invasion of the hemlock wooly adelgid, research now shows the pest is killing trees more quickly than expected. The research came from the U.S. Forest Service Southern Research Station (SRS) in Otto, N.C. The research also suggests the rapid death of the hemlocks is altering the carbon cycle of the forests.

Deforestation, one of the main drivers of global warming, has barged its way to the heart of UN climate talks, which resumed in Bonn this week. But which makes the better incentive for saving the carbon-absorbing tropical woodlands: market mechanisms or public funding?

Longer, more intense heat waves and increased air pollution from smog and wildfires could adversely affect the health of Californians under scenarios for climate change. Heat waves have been increasing in recent decades in the state, and scientists expect air pollution to worsen in the coming decades, exacerbated by a longer fire season.

State officials say they've discovered a tree-eating beetle has spread to western Wisconsin. Officials with the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection say they've confirmed the emerald ash borer has been found in Victory, a Vernon County community on the Mississippi River about 20 miles south of La Crosse.

IATP's Anne Laure Constantin is in Bonn, Germany, this week for global talks to develop a new international framework to address climate change. The Bonn meeting is leading up to the larger global climate meeting in Copenhagen in December 2009.