Living with Coal

Climate policy’s most inconvenient truth
David G. Victor and Richard K. Morse

One of the dirtiest, most carbon-intensive fuels on earth is also one of the fastest-growing. How can government soften the blow?

View from the Mountaintop

Peak coal and the future of energy
Richard Heinberg

In 1905, the first scientific survey of coal reserves suggested that the United States had a 5,000-year supply. By the 1970s, it was estmitated that we had enough left for 250 years.

The Rising Tide

Time to adapt to climate change
Michael D. Mastrandrea and Stephen H. Schneider

"Even as the world struggles to fashion fair and effective forms of mitigation, adaptation will be essential to minimize the worst consequences of climate change."

Jay Hubert 2006, courtesy of Photoshare

Case Study: Water Technologies

What works best for small countries?
Michael Kremer, Edward Miguel, Clair Null, and Alix Zwane

The task at hand is to figure out which of these technologies is most useful in poor countries, recognizing that the women who use them will ultimately decide whether a particular product is desirable and meets their needs.

State of the Nation:
Getting Warmer

Jon Krosnick, Ariel Malka, and David Scott Yeager

More Americans now believe that the planet has been heating up, that the consequences will be bad, and that the government should act more aggressively.

Giles Clement / solophotography.com

Our Daily Bread

Without public investment, the food crisis will only get worse
Rosamond Naylor and Walter Falcon

"The current situation is quite unlike the food crises of 1966 and 1973. It is not the result of a significant drop in food supply caused by bad weather, pests, or policy changes in the former Soviet Union. Rather, it is fundamentally a demand-driven story of 'success.'"

Every Last Drop

Manging our way out of the water crisis
Frank Rijsberman

"So, is the planet drying up? Not exactly, but a growing number of people are sharing a fixed amount of water, and that water is badly managed and increasingly polluted."