Issues & Trends

Scientists and doctors are calling for a new national policy in Japan that mandates the testing of food, soil, water, and the air for radioactivity still being emitted from Fukushima's heavily damaged Daiichi nuclear power plant.

For a company like Goldman Sachs, water represents a potential risk lurking in its investment portfolio. For GE, it may also offer a potential business opportunity to help its clients overcome their challenges.

A landmark United Nations study into the long-term environmental impact of oil production in Nigeria says that oil spills have led to acute health risks for area residents and widespread environmental damage that may take as many as 30 years and $1 billion to clean up.

CO2, birth & death rates by country, simulated real-time

The United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) voted to establish a committee on global geospatial information management in order to enhance international dialogue and cooperation on spatial data infrastructures.

LONDON, Aug 8 (Reuters) - Markets in water rights are likely to evolve as a rising population leads to shortages and climate change causes drought and famine.

But they will be based on regional and ethical trading practices and will differ from the bulk of commodity trade.

 A quarter of the world's plant species may be headed toward extinction. Seed banks aim to prevent that.

According to the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, a quarter of the world’s known plant species – some 60,000 to 100,000 species – are threatened with extinction.

People who live in the poorest and remotest parts of the developing world often have their lives cut short by disease -- preventable or curable disease. The first essential step to fighting these diseases is correctly identifying them. But in the developing world, disease detection is often prohibitively expensive.

Ecological footprints measure humanity's demands on nature.  Everything we do has consequences.

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