From Seed, an article on The China Experiment: Inside the revolution to green the biggest nation on earth. The negotiations over the third part of the United Nations report on climate change are expected to be particularly tough. China and the US are already trying to water down the final version, arguing that immediate action may be futile and too costly. Many people in southern Bangladesh have never even heard of climate change. Yet should ocean levels rise even slightly, their existence would be imperiled. New research reveals Arctic ice has been vanishing about 3 times faster than the models have predicted.
From the Sierra Club, a debate on Climate Exchange: Cool heads tackle our hottest issue. An excerpt from George Monbiot's Heat: How to Stop the Planet From Burning. From Time, a special section on global warming and innovation. Weaponized Weather: In a race to solve global warming, some scientists are declaring war on the weather.
Black Gold of the Amazon: Fertile, charred soil created by pre-Columbian peoples sustained surprisingly large settlements in the rain forest. Secrets of that ancient “dark earth” could help solve the Amazon’s ecological problems today. A review of Brewing Justice: Fair Trade Coffee, Sustainability, and Survival. A look at why slaughtering horses and using them for meat is cost effective, and it's more humane and environmentally friendly.
From Prospect, why home doesn't matter: We assume that studying children with their parents will help us understand how their personalities develop. But this is a mistake: parents influence their children mainly by passing on their genes. The biggest environmental influences on personality are those that occur outside the home. A review of Everything Conceivable: How Assisted Reproduction Is Changing Men, Women, and the World, and Waiting for Daisy: A Tale of Two Continents, Three Religions, Five Infertility Doctors, an Oscar, an Atomic Bomb, A Romantic Night, and One Woman's Quest To Become a Mother.
Scott Lemieux reviews Safe, Legal, and Unavailable? Abortion Politics in the United States by Melody Rose. How Feminism Got Corrupted: Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters: The Frightening New Normalcy of Hating Your Body seeks to unravel the mystery of how intelligent women and girls have such unhealthy notions about food and the body. A look at how many female lawyers are dropping off the path to partnership. The work of a stay-at-home mother has an annual monetary value of $138,095, according to a new survey.
