Nothing has been more influential in shaping the United States and the world in the first decade of the 21st century as the terrorist attacks in New York City on September 11, 2001 (9/11). As a response, then-U.S. president George W. Bush’s administration initiated two wars: in Afghanistan in 2001 and in Iraq in 2003 […]
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Getting Down to Business: Deepening Environmental Transparency in China
A series of high-profile environmental disasters in 2013, including northern China’s winter “airpocalypse” and the discovery of thousands of dead pigs littering Shanghai’s main water source, have indelibly illustrated the stakes of not enacting stronger environmental policies. In recent years, the Chinese government’s policies have started to reflect the need to balance economic growth with […]
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The Venezuelan Food Sovereignty Experiment
As I wandered through the streets of Caracas on my first trip to Venezuela nine years ago, a huge urban farm in the midst of concrete high-rises caught my attention. It wasn’t tucked away on a side street or in a residential area, but was right out in the middle of the bustling downtown. I […]
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A Natural Dollar Currency for Ecological Resource Transactions and Management
Unconstrained free markets by their nature pose a threat to the natural environment. Few people believe that without regulation of these markets, the environment can avoid irreparable damage. However, experts disagree on the cause of this threat. Some authors see this as a system failure, which can be addressed only via a significant restructuring of […]
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The Future of Global Urbanization and the Environment
A recent global assessment by hundreds of scientists, the Cities and Biodiversity Outlook (CBO) examined how the coming massive global urban growth will interact with the natural world.1 By 2030, there will be almost 2 billion new urban residents, and this rapid urban growth has significant implications for the fate of human society and the […]
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Translating Big Data into Big Climate Ideas
Global climate change has emerged as the significant challenge of the 21st century. While discussions tend to center on greenhouse gases, other factors such as technological developments, land and energy use, economics, and population growth play a critical role in understanding climate change. As a result of the interconnected nature of these factors, traditional and […]
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Conditions and Trends of Ecosystem Services in New Zealand—a Synopsis
The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA) identified many services provided to humans by nature, termed ecosystem services (ES),1 and demonstrated that these services make major contributions to improving human well-being. More recently, the Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) study advocated that ecosystem services should be measured and valued to facilitate their inclusion into decisions.2 The […]
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Resilient Urban Systems: Where We Stand Now and Where We Need to Go
By the year 2050, close to seven billion people will be living in urbanized areas worldwide, which is almost double the number of urban inhabitants of today. Provision of adequate infrastructure service to this massive urban population in order to ensure their health, wealth, and comfort is going to be a daunting challenge for engineers, […]
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Community Action and Science Help Restore New Zealand Lakes
LakesWater Quality Society and the Restoration of the Rotorua Lakes A community group, the LakesWater Quality Society (LWQS), successfully initiated action to restore water quality in a major group of lakes in the Rotorua district. This account is written from the perspective of the chair of the Society from 2000 to 2006. It deals with […]
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Are We Doing Our Best To Restore Watersheds? Lessons from a 10-Year Watershed Restoration Strategy
For more than 10 years, the Bonneville Environmental Foundation (BEF) has explored ways to make community-based watershed restoration more effective. During this time, we have seen many well-meaning nonprofit watershed organizations struggle to match ambitious restoration goals with needed actions on the ground. Many groups operate on a shoestring budget, endure year-to-year funding uncertainties, experience […]