Salty or Sweet? Harnessing the Sun for Desalination

Here is one for all of the science buffs! Two Canadian engineers recently unveiled a cheaper desalination method that harnesses the sun to power the desalination process, which in turn could lower the cost of desalination by almost 80%. This process requires a bit more ingenuity than the typical prototype, but if it does work [...]

A Crisis of Democracy

This past Saturday, I packed into a small Unitarian church with 500 other people to catch a glimpse of former Vice President Al Gore. He came to Harvard Square to discuss his new book, Our Choice, which is a follow-up to  An Inconvenient Truth. With only one short month before Copenhagen, I  jumped at the [...]

The U.S. and China on Climate Change: Who Has the Better Hand?

As President Obama gears up to make his first presidential trip to China later this month, environmental groups and other research organizations are becoming increasingly more vocal regarding the need for greater cooperation between China and the United States on the issue of climate change. Three prominent American organizations, the Asia Society, the Center for American [...]

In the European Union, Consensus is Lacking on Climate Change

The European Union (EU) has been meeting regularly to come up with a consistent position on climate change going into Copenhagen in December. The big ticket item in all of these meetings is how to fund global climate change in terms of adaptation and mitigation. So far, the EU has failed to find common ground. [...]