Assessing Nutritional Diversity in African Villages

What is the nutritional diversity provided by this system?

In Sub-Saharan Africa, 40% of children under five years in age are chronically undernourished. As new investments and attention galvanize action on African agriculture to reduce hunger, there is an urgent need for metrics that monitor agricultural progress beyond calories produced per capita — they also need to address nutritional diversity essential for human health.

A new research paper, “Assessing Nutritional Diversity of Cropping Systems in African Villages,” demonstrates how an ecological tool, functional diversity (FD), has the potential to address this need and provide new insights on nutritional diversity of cropping systems in rural Africa. The nutritional functional diversity metric is based on species composition on the farm and the nutritional composition of these species for nutrients that are critical for human health.

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Executive pay for women - Hundred years' war?

Women managers already more than £10k behind men doing the same job and may not get parity till 2109, according to CMI
WILL it be a century before female managers in Britain earn the same as men? That is the claim today from the Chartered Management Institute (CMI). It has released the results of a survey, which shows that male executives earn, on average, over £10,500 more than their female counterparts for doing the same job—£42,441 compared with £31,895. Women’s salaries may be rising faster than men’s (2.4% in 2010 compared with 0.3%) but even so, says CMI, at those rates it will take 98 years for women to catch up—thus giving the headline-writer an irresistible angle.

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Adidas se compromete a "descontaminar" su cadena de producción - elEconomista.es

Adidas se ha unido hoy al compromiso de sus competidoras, Nike y Puma, de eliminar los vertidos de sustancias peligrosas en toda su cadena de suministro de aquí a 2020.

La marca deportiva hizo esta promesa después de que la ONG ecologista Greenpeace publicara varios informes que ponían en evidencia a las principales marcas de ropa.

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Climate Cycles Are Driving Wars, Says Study

A Review by Susan FroetschelWhen El Niño Warmth Hits, Tropical Conflicts Double

In the first study of its kind, researchers have linked a natural global climate cycle to periodic increases in warfare. The arrival of El Niño, which every three to seven years boosts temperatures and cuts rainfall, doubles the risk of civil wars across 90 affected tropical countries, and may help account for a fifth of worldwide conflicts during the past half-century, say the authors. The paper, written by an interdisciplinary team at Columbia University’s Earth Institute, appears in the current issue of the leading scientific journal Nature.

In recent years, historians and climatologists have built evidence that past societies suffered and fell due in connection with heat or droughts that damaged agriculture and shook governments. This is the first study to make the case for such destabilization in the present day, using statistics to link global weather observations and well-documented outbreaks of violence.

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Climate-Change Challenge for the Poor – Part II

Unpredictable weather patterns, diversion of grain for biofuels, contribute to growing food shortages

Increased consumption by rich and newly rich nations combined with effects of climate change set the stage for a global food crisis. Decreased supplies of world dietary staples like wheat, corn and rice have already increased prices significantly this year, and a few nervous governments brace for possible social unrest by hungry citizens. In this second article of a two-part series that explores how climate change will affect the world’s poor, Mira Kamdar of the World Policy Institute predicts climbing prices as population growth and excessive consumption exacerbate a decline in food production throughout this century. For countries near the equator, global warming will further erode agricultural capacity already hurt by Western subsidies on agriculture products. The era of inexpensive food has already ended for both rich and poor. Kamdar concludes that only strong, forward-looking leadership on global warming, agriculture-policy reform and food habits can prevent catastrophe in the near future.

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Women executives could wait 98 years for equal pay, says report

Women managers already more than £10k behind men doing the same job and may not get parity till 2109, according to CMI

Women may have had equal voting rights since 1928, but they may have to wait another 98 years for parity in pay, research has found.

While the salaries of female executives are increasing faster than those of their male counterparts, it will take until 2109 to close the gap if pay grows at current rates, the Chartered Management Institute reveals.

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Time to Move to a Second Generation of Biofuels

The indirect costs of growing biofuels outweigh any benefits, report two studies in the journal Science. A new political and economic response is required on biofuels, suggests Christopher Flavin, president of the Worldwatch Institute, in response. The US government now provides tax incentives to farmers for growing crops that can be turned into energy, which has increased prices of biofuel crops as well as other displaced crops. Such price hikes encourage farmers halfway across the world to clear new land and compete in growing similar crops. Loss of forests and other release more carbon into the atmosphere than biofuels save. Flavin urges governments to retool incentives, to encourage alternative types of biofuels and other, more efficient sources of renewable energy. “The main message the world should take from the new biofuels studies is that the current world agricultural system, like the world energy system, is unsustainable,” writes Flavin. Sensible incentives for the global market can both keep prices reasonable and protect the environment.

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Global Concern for Climate Change Dips Amid Other Environmental and Economic Concerns

Global concern about climate change has taken a back-seat to other environmental issues such as air and water pollution, water shortages, packaging waste and use of pesticides, according to the 2011 Sustainable Efforts & Environmental Concerns report from Nielsen, which surveyed more than 25,000 Internet respondents in 51 countries.

The bi-annual report shows that while 69 percent of global online consumers say they are concerned about climate change/global warming (up from 66 percent in 2009, but down from 72 percent in 2007), concern for other environmental issues are increasingly taking a higher priority in the minds of consumers.

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Climate-Change Challenge for the Poor – Part I

All nations have a responsibility to strive for lifestyles that are sustainable

Although climate change has been brought about largely by development in industrialized rich nations, it will impose the most hardship on the poorest countries. In the first article of this two-part series, Ambassador Chandrashekhar Dasgupta of India argues that accelerated social and economic development may offer the only hope for poor nations who have a long way to go in adapting to climate change. But developed countries pressure poor ones to curb greenhouse gas emissions now, even if it means an abrupt slowdown in their economic development. Slowing development for the poorest countries will decrease their ability to adapt to the challenge and increase their vulnerability. For the poor nations, accelerated development will lead to sustainable development. Any further agreements regarding climate change should conform to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and its principle of equity. Problems associated with climate change can’t be resolved without cooperation from all nations along with fair policies based on both past and future behavior. As weather patterns change, those who pursue unsustainable lifestyles today must know that they contribute to the suffering of millions tomorrow.

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World on the Edge: How to Prevent Environmental and Economic Collapse

A Review by Susan Froetschel

The global economy’s most pressing challenge is not so much a diminishing supply of fossil fuel, but rather food shortages, climbing prices and the unrest that can follow. Food security emerges as a new priority for nations, complicated by long-distance transportation and an over-reliance on fossil fuels.

Suddenly, the practice of pushing costs of fossil energy onto future generations is no longer a foolproof way to avoid today’s sacrifices. The world is already stretched to supply food for a fast-growing population, and prices are rising. Developing economies certainly cannot afford business as usual or trust the blithe promises from economists or climate skeptics that necessity will lead to adequate technologies or new avenues of trade.

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2010: Récord histórico en las emisiones de CO2

Las emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero en 2010 fueron las mayores de la historia, lo que reduce las esperanzas de controlar el calentamiento global, asegura la Agencia Internacional de Energía, AIE.

Tras un caída de las emisiones de CO2 en el año 2009 causada por la crisis financiera global, la AIE estima que las emisiones en 2010 subieron a un récord de 30,6 gigatoneladas (Gt).

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Cepal: Centroamérica es "altamente vulnerable al cambio climático"

Centroamérica produce "una muy mínima parte de las emisiones globales de gases de efecto invernadero, pero ya es una de las regiones más vulnerables al cambio climático", asegura un nuevo estudio de la Cepal, la Comisión Económica para América Latina de Naciones Unidas.

Si no se toman medidas pronto, la región sufrirá sequías y huracanes más intensos, advierte el trabajo titulado "La economía del cambio climático en Centroamérica: Reporte técnico 2011".

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Big Four accountancy firms face Competition Commission probe

The "Big Four" accountancy firms have been told to brace themselves for a full investigation by the Competition Commission in a decision that is expected today.

The Office of Fair trading has warned the auditors – PriceWaterhouseCoopers, KPMG, Ernst & Young and Deloitte – that it is planning to announce its decision on whether to refer them to the monopoly authorities. Sources said the firms were expecting a full referral, their first ever.

In May the OFT "provisionally" declared that the UK auditing profession suffers obstacles to competition that merit a referral. However, the companies may yet avoid an investigation on the grounds that the Competition Commission is ill-equipped to solve the problem.

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How to Accommodate 9 Billion and Save the Environment – Part II

Those who care about the life of future generations recognize that today’s unbridled economic growth is unsustainable, and the world must prepare for 9 billion inhabitants by 2050, contends Chandran Nair in the second article of a two-part YaleGlobal series. Asia cannot afford to mimic the American lifestyle and would be wise to ignore western encouragement for greater consumption in pursuit of economic growth, notes Nair. India and China each have triple the US population. “Asian governments must immediately recognize that a bleak future lies ahead if Asians attempt to live out an aspiration to consume like Americans,” he writes. Instead, Asian nations could step up as global leaders by emphasizing sustainability and challenging conventional thinking in the US that disregards traditional lifestyles, prioritizes individual rights over the public good, and craves rather than penalizes excess. Resource management must be central to all policymaking, Nair writes, and requires that non-essential goods and services reflect true costs.

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Oxfam's Barbara Stocking: 'Climate change is having a dramatic effect on poor farmers' - video

Oxfam GB director Barbara Stocking on the wider food crisis affecting millions across east Africa, and what can be done to tackle it

In the US, Clean Water Is No Guarantee

Americans use twice as much water as Europeans do and pay half as much for it. Low fees lead many Americans to take their abundant supplies for granted. Globally, most water is used for irrigation purposes, but in the US, thermoelectric generation requires more water. “During an economic recession, protecting water supplies takes a back seat to industries that promise jobs,” notes journalist Susan Froetschel. “Anti-government fervor dangerously coincides with industry resistance to government protections.” The small not-for-profit water industry is highly fragmented, with tens of thousands of waterworks under state and local jurisdiction and a hodgepodge of laws that can only lead to shortages and conflicts. Severe drought throughout the South already strains groundwater supplies. Conservatives express anxiety about dependence on foreign oil supplies, yet show little concern about the future of water supplies. The United States could be making a mistake prioritizing energy production over protection of its water supply.

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The Economics of Happiness

We live in a time of high anxiety. Despite the world’s unprecedented total wealth, there is vast insecurity, unrest, and dissatisfaction. In the United States, a large majority of Americans believe that the country is “on the wrong track.” Pessimism has soared. The same is true in many other places.

Against this backdrop, the time has come to reconsider the basic sources of happiness in our economic life. The relentless pursuit of higher income is leading to unprecedented inequality and anxiety, rather than to greater happiness and life satisfaction. Economic progress is important and can greatly improve the quality of life, but only if it is pursued in line with other goals.

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In Seattle, a groundbreaking for 'greenest' office building

The Bullitt Center is billed as the first commercial building designed to carry its own environmental weight. It'll be six stories, but expectations are sky-high.

These days, there are plenty of "green" buildings, with solar heating, insulated windows, self-generated electricity. But what would it take to construct an office building at competitive leasing rates that generated its own energy and processed its own waste — for 250 years?

That's what they're trying to find out in Seattle, where groundbreaking began Monday on a six-story building billed as the greenest commercial building on earth. The Bullitt Center — which eventually will use only its own rainwater, generate its own power and compost its own sewage — is the first big office building designed to carry its own environmental weight.

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Las empresas españolas aumentan su preocupación por el cambio climático

Las cuatro empresas españolas que figuran en el rango más alto han superado un filtro integrado por cuatro apartados: estrategia, gobierno corporativo, comunicación con grupos de interés y resultados.

La adaptación al cambio climático y la forma de mitigar sus efectos se han convertido en uno de los grandes retos para la economía mundial. Las empresas españolas son ya conscientes de ello y aumentan considerablemente su preocupación y sus actividades en este sentido. Así lo revela el último informe del Carbon Disclosure Projet (CDP), que incluye a Ferrovial, Iberdrola, Repsol y Telefónica en el Carbon Perfomance Leadership Index, la categoría internacional más alta.

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Planes y actuaciones - Cambio Climático

Se ofrece información sobre las políticas de Cambio Climático y las Emisiones de Gases de Efecto Invernadero (GEI).

Determinadas emisiones a las atmósfera son causantes del incremento del efecto invernadero y, por tanto, del Cambio Climático. Por ello, el Gobierno de Castilla-La Mancha dispone de una Oficina de Cambio Climático, como órgano horizontal para el seguimiento de este tipo de emisiones y de asesoramiento en materia de políticas y actuaciones encaminadas a la mitigación y adaptación de las políticas sectoriales para hacer frente a este fenómeno, en el marco del desarrollo sostenible.

La lucha contra el Cambio Climático no sólo plantea retos, sino también oportunidades. La mitigación puede permitir a Castilla-La Mancha reducir su dependencia de los combustibles fósiles en base a un nuevo modelo energético de producción y desarrollo definido en base a parámetros y objetivos más sostenibles.

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How to Accommodate 9 Billion and Save the Environment – Part I

Global warming is extracting real costs, even in states where the governors are in denial.
Crises anticipated from climate change won’t wait for political action. This YaleGlobal series examines the challenges awaiting political leaders seeking solutions to a global problem that requires tough decisions on new energy policies, investments and consumption. In the first of two articles, Yvo De Boer, former executive secretary for the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and global advisor on the issue, describes distrust among nations that led to the failure of the Copenhagen summit. In a highly interconnected world with discussions stretching over decades, small adjustments in energy policies or carbon emissions create winners and losers. Maneuvering for competitive advantage is so intense that setting agendas for talks has evolved into a long process; developed countries refuse to accept terms approved by previous conventions, and developing nations hedge on monitoring, reporting and verification.

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Which electric car is the most green?

The Times business section is taking a look at a new crop of electric cars.

The Times' Jerry Hirsch found there are significant difference in how these cars fare when it comes to carbon emissions:

Is it worth the added expense to reduce your dependence on oil? What are you willing to pay to reduce carbon emissions in your neighborhood? The Nissan Leaf creates about 1.8 tons of carbon emissions in a year's driving, or about 13,500 miles, according to federal estimates. A Honda Accord spews 6.2 tons of carbon emissions traveling the same distance. If you can keep a Chevy Volt — which has a gas engine to kick in and make electricity when the battery runs out — on mostly electric power, you will put up carbon numbers closer to the Leaf.

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Everything you need to know about climate change - interactive

Our one-stop guide to the facts of global warming, from the science and politics to economics and technology, drawn from our ultimate climate change FAQ.

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States ignore climate change at their own (and our) risk

Global warming is extracting real costs, even in states where the governors are in denial.

Leon Trotsky is reputed to have quipped, "You may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you." Substitute the words "climate change" for "war" and the quote is perfectly suited for the governors of Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico, all of whom have ridiculed or dismissed the threat of climate change even as their states suffer record-breaking heat and drought.

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Market Solutions, the Environment, and Morocco

Experiments with market_based mechanisms -- for example, eco-tourism or the trading of factory emissions -- have multiplied over the past decade. Across Africa, these approaches often aim for a "win_win" outcome: the poor benefit and resources are conserved. But the actual net effects of these programs are poorly understood.

The theory behind market_based conservation strategies is simple: create markets for derivative products in order to increase the value that local people place on the resource, thus inducing them to conserve it. With this logic in mind, several groups seeking to protect Morocco's unique argan forests enthusiastically embraced commercialization of argan oil. The results should make other Africans cautious about the potential of market_based approaches to their environmental/development problems.

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Climate Change as a Business Problem

Some political problems can be solved overnight; others take years to tackle. But, in the distant future, when the financial crisis and the euro’s troubles are long forgotten, we will still be facing the consequences of climate change.

A challenge of this scale and depth demands an unprecedented level of cooperation – between countries, between political parties, and between government, business, and citizens. It is for this reason that some of Britain’s biggest businesses, including Lloyds Banking Group, came together in the Prince of Wales’s Corporate Leaders Group on Climate Change (CLG). In other words, we have committed ourselves to working together to confront this challenge, and our work so far has been extremely promising: we supported the Climate Change Act; we helped set strong, scientifically robust targets for carbon reduction; and we have supported each successive Carbon Budget up to the latest, fourth installment.

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Can all barriers to implementing energy efficiency policies be overcome by putting a price on carbon?

IEA report identifies several areas which are not addressed by carbon pricing

New analysis published today by the International Energy Agency examines whether energy efficiency policies are redundant once carbon pricing is implemented.

To date, many academics and government officials have argued that putting a price on carbon – most commonly through taxes or emissions trading – is all that is needed to overcome every possible barrier to delivering cost-effective energy efficiency improvements.

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The daughter also rises

Women are storming emerging-world boardrooms

ZHANG YIN (also known by her Cantonese name, Cheung Yan) was the eldest of eight children of a lowly Red Army officer who was imprisoned during the Cultural Revolution for “capitalist offences”. Today she is one of the world’s richest self-made women, with an estimated fortune of $1.6 billion. In the early 1980s, as a dogsbody in a paper mill, she noted that the waste paper her superiors so casually discarded was actually worth something. She has been capitalising on her insight ever since. Nine Dragons Paper, which she founded with her husband in 1995, is now one of the world’s largest paper recyclers.

The emerging world is home to many businesswomen like Ms Zhang. Seven of the 14 women identified on Forbes magazine’s list of self-made billionaires are Chinese. Many firms in emerging markets do a better job of promoting women than their Western rivals, some surveys suggest.

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Climate science (II): Clouds in a jar

A new experiment with old apparatus reveals a flaw in models of the climate

CLOUD chambers have an honoured place in the history of physics. These devices, which generate vapour trails that mark the passage of high-energy subatomic particles, were the first apparatus that allowed such passage to be tracked. That was in the 1920s and led, among other things, to the discovery of cosmic rays. Science has moved on since then, of course, and cloud chambers are now largely museum pieces. But the world’s leading high-energy physics laboratory, CERN, outside Geneva, is dusting the idea off and putting it into reverse. Instead of using clouds to study cosmic rays, it is using cosmic rays to study clouds. In doing so, it may have thrown a spanner into the works of the world’s computer models of the climate.

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A Dim Light on Global Warming

Amid a growing wave of concern about climate change, many countries – including Brazil, Australia, the United States, and the members of the European Union – passed laws in the 2000’s outlawing or severely restricting access to incandescent light bulbs. The intention was understandable: if everyone in the world exchanged most light bulbs for energy-efficient compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs), we could save 3.5% of all electricity, or 1% of our CO2 emissions.

The current attempt by Republicans in the US Congress to roll back America’s effort to ban incandescent bulbs has revived this discussion. Many contend that the agenda is being driven by knuckle-dragging climate-change deniers. But it’s worth taking a closer look at the premise that banning things is the smartest way to tackle global warming.

Let’s be clear: we do need to tackle climate change. But this does not mean that we should just cut all emissions. Burning fossil fuels also has significant benefits, and we should weigh those benefits against the costs.

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How to talk to a climate sceptic

Even as the impacts of climate change intensify, many Americans remain confused by the issue. Climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe discusses how to talk with climate sceptics

Katharine Hayhoe is an associate professor of atmospheric sciences at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas, where temperatures during this summer of record-breaking heat have surpassed 100 degrees on 43 days. While Hayhoe would certainly not argue that this scorching heat is unequivocal evidence of global warming, she is sure of one thing: it's a sign of things to come.

Hayhoe is well known not only for her scientific work on the regional impacts of global warming in the U.S., but also for her efforts to reach out to conservative communities — particularly evangelical Christians — to speak with them about the realities of climate change. In an interview with Yale Environment 360,

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Who Will Win the Clean-Energy Revolution?

After less than a year and a half in which so much energy news seemed troubling – nuclear meltdowns, oil spills, rising gas prices – it might be startling to find out that worldwide installed capacity of renewable energy has now surpassed that of nuclear power. In fact, global investment in clean energy, driven by enlightened, forward-looking national policies, grew to a record $243 billion in 2010, up 30% from the previous year.

Indeed, in less than a decade, clean energy has grown from a niche industry to a significant source of trade, investment, manufacturing, and job creation. Since 2004, annual investment in the sector has increased by an impressive 630%. We need to ensure that this encouraging trend continues.

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Breaking the cycle of energy addiction

Our dependence on oil is only part of the problem – the real issue is the inability of consumers and corporations to change destructive behaviour

In his 2006 state of the union address, then-US president George W Bush admitted that "America is addicted to oil". A few months later, when asked about the advisability of extracting oil from tar sands in Canada, former US vice president Al Gore quipped, "well, junkies find veins in their toes". This use of the addiction metaphor across the political spectrum marked a major attitude shift, from embracing fossil fuels as a near-miracle in energy intensity that fuelled the greatest expansion of prosperity in history, to anxiety over petroleum's greenhouse gas emissions and related negative environmental and social impacts, spurring interest in low-carbon alternatives and renewable energy sources.

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WikiLeaks reveals China's failure to measure dangerous pollution

Pollutant levels were not measured and made public because findings would have been 'too sensitive' for the authorities

China has not measured data on the most dangerous types of air pollution because it is afraid of the political consequences, according to US diplomatic cables.

This assessment, which comes to light as the government prepares to upgrade its air quality monitoring system, was among the central findings of cables from the US consulate in Guangzhou that were relased on Wednesday by WikiLeaks.

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What men can learn from women about leadership in the 21st century

A new Northwestern University meta-analysis, an integration of a large number of studies addressing the same question, shows that leadership continues to be viewed as culturally masculine. The studies found that women experience two primary forms of prejudice: They are viewed as less qualified or natural than men in most leadership roles, and when women do adopt culturally masculine behaviors often required by these roles, they may be viewed as inappropriate or presumptuous.

When generalizing about any population segment, especially such large and diverse segments as male and female leaders, there is bound to be a degree of inaccuracy and stereotyping. Still, research finds that predominantly communal qualities, such as being nice or compassionate, are more associated with women; and predominantly agentic qualities, such as being assertive or competitive, are more associated with men.

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Walmart and class-action lawsuits: A Supreme Court ruling worth checking out

MONDAY’S Supreme Court decision in Dukes v Walmart (PDF) looks tailor-made to worry those who think the court has become too business-friendly. On one side was a mammoth corporation, little loved on the left. On the other, 1.5m women (personified in the case by one Walmart greeter, Betty Dukes, pictured above) suing Walmart for alleged discrimination in pay and promotion. The court sent them home unhappy, ruling unanimously against them on one procedural question and 5-4 on the legal heart of the matter.

Although two statisticians gave evidence that Walmart promoted fewer women than men, and fewer women than its competitors did, the question before the Supreme Court judges was not, in fact, whether the giant retailer discriminated against women. It was whether the women had suffered a single wrong that allowed them to sue Walmart as a block.

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When founders leave: lessons for Apple from Microsoft, Intel, and Sun

The Internet is crawling with Jobs reports today. Nearly every news aggregator puts Apple's new leadership situation ahead of hurricane Irene evacuations. (Though always-classy AOL promotes the 10-year anniversary of Aaliyah's death and some scandalous Blake Lively pictures instead. Finger on the pulse!)

So the CEO torch has been passed to Chief Operating Officer and occasional substitute CEO Tim Cook. Visionary founder and leader Steve Jobs takes a strictly strategic role as Chairman of the Board, and may dump his trademark turtlenecks for a Sinatra-style tuxedo.

Torches pass down all the time, sometimes even from standout leaders in Steve Jobs' class. So let's look at a few famous stories of charismatic leaders passing the baton to see what history suggests about Apple under the leadership of Cook.

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Raging climate debate fails to sway public

New surveys suggest Australians have largely maintained the same attitudes about climate change in the past year, despite increasing controversy over the science and politics.

Professor Iain Walker of CSIRO Ecosystem Sciences in Perth says the findings fly in the face of concerns that debate in the media is unduly swaying people's attitudes.

"The data seem to indicate that heated highly visible public 'argy-bargy' has done little to shift the broad constellation of beliefs in the public," he said.

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Should CFOs Get On-Board?

In old debate made new post-Sarbox, research shows that CFO directors seem to bring firms higher earnings quality and better internal control, though there are drawbacks.

The percentage of CFOs serving on their companies’ own boards is not large, thanks in part to Sarbox guidelines promoting board independence. But the logic of those guidelines -– which equate independence with earnings quality -– may not hold true in the case of the finance chief.

It’s an old debate, of course. But it is made new in post-Sarbox terms by Jean C. Bedard and Rani Hoitash of Bentley University’s Department of Accountancy and Udi Hoitash of Northeastern University. They looked at 2004-2007 records from 7,034 publicly traded companies, and found that the 549 of them that picked their own CFOs for board seats were less likely to report internal control weaknesses as described under Sarbox Sections 302 and 404.

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Carbon tax blame game has moved beyond reality

Has the Opposition reached the end of its list of things for which the carbon tax can be blamed?

I know - I know. It's a surprising suggestion, seeing as the list of potential blameables is so temptingly long. But I ask only because in Question Time yesterday, the Opposition's carbon tax questions concerned mainly things for which the carbon tax cannot be blamed.

Possibly the most memorable entry in this ledger was a question from Michael McCormack, the Nationals Member for Riverina, who rose late in the piece to acquaint the chamber with the news that in Sunday night's finale of The Block, Waz and Polly emerged victorious only by virtue of the fact that none of their competitors' properties even made reserve.

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UN chief reiterates need to accelerate efforts to achieve global anti-poverty goals

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon once again today stressed the need to accelerate efforts to accomplish the global poverty eradication and social development targets, urging all partners, including the private sector and civil society, to work with governments to ensure the goals are achieved by the 2015 deadline.

“Time is running out on our 2015 deadline. Now is the moment to sprint to the finish,” said Mr. Ban, speaking at the opening in New York of an international photo exhibition sponsored by the Yonhap News Agency of the Republic of Korea on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the global plan to reduce extreme poverty and hunger, infant and maternal mortality, disease, and promote universal access to basic education and health care.

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Who will win the clean energy race?

Germany now has more renewable energy installed than the USA. But the race is far from over and there is stiff competition in developing countries.

AFTER LESS THAN A year and a half in which so much energy news seemed troubling - nuclear meltdowns, oil spills, rising gas prices - it might be startling to find out that worldwide installed capacity of renewable energy has now surpassed that of nuclear power. In fact, global investment in clean energy, driven by enlightened, forward-looking national policies, grew to a record US$243 billion in 2010, up 30 per cent from the previous year.

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Humans will need 'three planets' by 2050

The World Wildlife Fund says three planets worth of natural resources will be needed by the middle of this century if current consumption rates continue.

The group's Australian CEO, Dermot O'Gorman, told a meeting at Adelaide Town Hall the global population is likely to grow to 9 billion by 2050.

He says the world is already seeing the results of the population having doubled in the past 50 years.

"Everything from increasing water stress and pressures which of course Adelaide and South Australia know very well from the Murray-Darling Basin experiences, through to food shortages globally and the climate problem that we need to face," he said.

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De cómo la fotovoltaica puede ser negocio aún

La promotora navarra de parques solares Ríos Renovables resiste al recorte de las primas y a la fuerte competencia china con la internacionalización y diversificación del negocio

Ríos Renovables ha sabido esquivar el batacazo del negocio fotovoltaico en España. Cuando la actividad está prácticamente parada por el drástico recorte de las primas, el cierre del grifo crediticio de los bancos y el bajón de precios de los paneles solares por el insolente empujón chino, esta empresa con sede en Navarra ha hecho de la diversificación del negocio solar su mejor virtud.

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Fusion power: is it getting any closer?

For decades, scientists have been predicting that, one day, the same process that powers the sun will give us virtually unlimited cheap, clean electricity. Are they wrong?

A star is born. And, less than a second later, it dies. On a drab science park just outside the Oxfordshire village of Culham, some of the world's leading physicists stare at a monitor to review a video of their wondrous, yet fleeting, creation.

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1bn cars and counting - the global traffic jam just got worse

China leads growth in sales, traffic and pollution, as hopes falter that it might pioneer a shift to hybrid and electric vehicles

I am starting this post snared in traffic on Beijing's third ring road, breathing exhaust fumes and taking it on faith that the sun is up there somewhere behind the smog.

It is a fitting location to expunge a little car-related angst prompted by some stunning car industry statistics that have emerged in the past few days. If you are even slightly concerned about the environment, prepare to be depressed. If you are Jeremy Clarkson, start rubbing your hands with glee now.

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Planet Earth is home to 8.7 million species, scientists estimate

Latest bid to count and catalogue the living world is billed as the most accurate yet, but only a tiny proportion is known to science

Humans share the planet with as many as 8.7 million different forms of life, according to what is being billed as the most accurate estimate yet of life on Earth.

Researchers who have analysed the hierarchical categorisation of life on Earth to estimate how many undiscovered species exist say the diversity of life is not equally divided between land and ocean. Three-quarters of the 8.7m species – the majority of which are insects – are on land; only one-quarter, 2.2m, are in the deep, even though 70% of the Earth's surface is water.

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Solar roofs in Brazil

Project of the Week: 1,000 solar roofs in Brazil
Project goal: Introducing solar thermal water heating in social housing projects
Project scale: The pilot project foresees outfitting 500 social housing units in Rio de Janeiro
Investment: 1,217,555 euros

Approach: Installing solar thermal heating, training, developing national quality standards, drawing up strategies to implement these measures with the Brazilian environment ministry.

Solar power is still rarely used in Brazil, despite ideal climate conditions and rising gas and electricity costs. But a new residential complex with solar-thermal water heating is under construction in Rio de Janeiro. City authorities have earmarked the new housing for poor families from the favelas.

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Jornadas – Preservación de los bosques amazónicos mediante la custodia medioambiental y el desarrollo

Partying with a green conscience in Germany

Project of the week: melting away carbon emissions

Until the 1990s, huge excavators used to extract coal from the ground in the small town of Gräfenhainichen near Dessau in eastern Germany. The open-cast mining site, known as Ferropolis, has since been decommissioned. But the hulking, rusting mining machinery now provides the backdrop for one of Europe's biggest music festivals.

Every year for a few days in July, the place throbs with music, strobe lights and lasers as the Indie and electronic music festival Melt! takes center stage. Some 150 bands and DJs perform on several stages set amid the industrial ruins in front of an estimated 20,000 fans from all over Europe.

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