Choking China: The struggle to clear Beijing's air
As pollution levels return to normal in China's capital after a record-breaking month of smog, what can be done to banish the smog?
New Scientist
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New technologies promise biofuel 'plan B'
Ten years ago, running your car on biofuels meant covertly topping up your tank with chip fat. Now petrol is routinely mixed with ethanol made from corn, and diesel with squeezed rape, oil palm and soya. The current generation of biofuels was rushed onto the market in response to escalating concern in Europe about climate change, and in the US about energy security. But almost before the biofuels industry has got going, it has run into major problems. It has swiftly become a victim of its own success, gobbling up land and water in a way that has frightened the world.
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How science can help feed the world
We thought wide-scale food shortages were behind us. Just a few years ago, most countries - with the exception of some in Africa - were looking as if they would be capable of adequately feeding their people, and the rich world was trying to figure out what to do with its food mountains. How things have changed. Droughts, high oil prices, changing diets, the rush to grow biofuels and other factors have caused shortages of most of the major food crops. On every continent there is concern over high food prices, and in some places even rioting. (Editorial)
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We must avert the water wars
The surface of our planet is mainly water, yet usable water is in short supply. In some parts of Africa people have to walk several kilometres a day to get water, and they are the lucky ones. There, and in Asia, the prospect of conflicts over water is increasing. A particular example is the scheme to bring more water into Turkmenistan and its capital city, Ashgabat.
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What price more food?
What do a student in New York, a farmer near Mexico City, a family in London and a nurse in Bangkok have in common?
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New guide to help investors target ethical Pharma
The Access to Medicine Foundation, based in Haarlem, the Netherlands, has developed a set of criteria to assess how ethically pharmaceutical companies perform towards developing countries. It will make its ranking available online from 16 June and hopes investors will use it to decide which companies to invest in, while encouraging big pharma to make medicines available to poor people.
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Is China a climate saint or sinner?
China's average ecological footprint has doubled since the 1960s, says a joint report from the environment group WWF and a Chinese government agency, the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development. The average footprint per person, however, is still smaller than the world average, as well as being only a third that of a European and a sixth that of the average US citizen.
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Ocean seeding fails the acid test
It all seemed too easy by half: to beat global warming just sprinkle some iron in the ocean, then watch as algae bloom en masse, sucking up carbon dioxide by the tonne. Now the idea is looking increasingly unlikely to go ahead in a big way. In the wake of a UN moratorium on the practice, the latest research suggests that seeding will trigger the build-up of an acid that can be lethal to marine organisms and humans.
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China's dams in the danger zone
China has more dams than any other country, and many of them are in Sichuan, an earthquake-prone, mountainous region. The majority of them produce hydroelectricity. The region is well-placed to supply power to large industrial cities down the Yangtze valley, and when the dams were built this must have appeared a logical strategy. Now it looks foolhardy. Hundreds of Sichuan's dams have been damaged by the earthquake and could collapse during the coming monsoon season. (Editorial)
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Climate scientists go with the floe
In September 2006, Tara, a 36-metre schooner crewed by eight scientists and engineers, moored up on the Arctic sea ice and spent the next 15 months moving slowly with it across the top of the world. The expedition wasn't aiming for the pole: it was an ambitious attempt to record what is happening to the polar climate in unprecedented detail.
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Algae oil promises truly green fuel
This is one biofuel that lives up to its green billing in more ways than one. It's an emerald-green crude oil, produced by photosynthesis in algae, which could fuel cars, trucks and aircraft - without consuming crops that can be used as food.