Philanthropy Action

Category: Environment

There are 38 entries in this category.

Nov 03, 2008

Can Food Solve Everything?

Given the high-stakes now attached to agriculture in the form of both food inflation and global warming, China’s evolving agricultural policy will prove to be as crucial to the globe as America’s broken system has been over the last 25 years.

Sep 26, 2008

Will Agricultural Yields Fall Off the (Water) Table?

A number of experts argue that the food crisis that dominated headlines this spring and summer has diverted attention from the far larger problem of groundwater depletion. Raising agricultural output is the natural solution to rising food prices and food shortages, but doing so without considering the impact on water supplies will make the problem worse.

Sep 05, 2008

The Road to Carbon Neutrality

The story of how a small agricultural Danish island became a net exporter of wind energy is compelling. And it may serve as a model which others can follow.

Jul 28, 2008

Pricing a Drop to Drink

Whether the motives are commercial or environmental, almost everyone seems to agree that the time to put a price on water has come.

Jul 24, 2008

Fertilizer No Substitute for Good Management

Providing fertilizers in parts of the world with poor soil quality will not only do little to improve agricultural productivity, and may do harm. A strategy more likely to be successful is to lay the groundwork for farmers to gain secure land rights.

Jul 11, 2008

The Role of Genetically Modified Crops in World Food Security

Most discussions of the role of GM crops in the current food crisis fail to address whether non-technical solutions such as land stewardship and efficient water use have been fully explored.

Jun 23, 2008

Putting a Price on Water

The huge underwater aquifiers that have sustained agriculture in water scare regions in India and the Southwest United States have run dangerously low due to decades of uncontrolled pumping and wasteful irrigation. Without intervention, this scarcity will become only more acute, as farmers and other landowners preemptively pump even more in an effort to get as much as they can for themselves before it is gone. Making water a trade-able commodity that costs something based on availability and price is one solution to the problem.

Jun 17, 2008

Doing the Right Thing is Not Always Easy

Message fatigue can come about for any number of reasons. For one, constant bombardment with information about how bad things are can cause people to feel that their individual actions are meaningless. Equally concerning, however, is that the information donors need to make good decisions often becomes contradictory as an issue gets more attention.

May 22, 2008

Silver Linings and Dark Clouds Surround the Food Crisis

It seems that everyone except for the US Congress has woken up to the food crisis. The topic has made the cover of many magazines, and is featured almost daily in major national newspapers. Most debate has now turned to the causes and solutions, if any, to the situation. While there are some silver linings, the biggest dark cloud of all is centered over Washington, DC this week where the US Congress will overturn a presidential veto and pass the 2008 farm bill.

Mar 27, 2008

The Bats and the Bees

An affliction similar to colony collapse disorder—a syndrome affecting commercial bee populations—is now appearing in bats in North America.

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