The philanthropist explains why a reduction in child mortality hasn’t led to an increase in population growth
Globalization
Fast, Cheap, Dead: Shopping and the Bangladesh Factory Collapse
Nearly 400 people were killed when a textile factory near Dhaka collapsed. It’s the worst disaster in the history of clothing manufacturing. How much blame do consumers deserve?
How Did Climate Affect Humanity’s First Steps Out of Africa?
We often use this little corner of the intertubes to think about how globalization is physically changing the earth – be it via our addiction to air travel or jeans made on the cheap. But we’re not sticklers. Recent research published in the journal Science presents archaeological evidence that might shed new light on exactly the …
The U.N.’s Human Development Report Shows Life Is Getting Better—and Money Isn’t the Only Reason
Sometimes, I admit, this green beat can be a little depressing. Shrinking icecaps. Rising seas. Endangered species. Air pollution. Acidifying oceans. Oil spills. Invasive Asian carp. And perhaps worst of all, the United States Senate. It can seem as if life is getting is worse every day—like a Beatles record played …
Cities: A Walled Green Utopia Rises in the Middle East
In Sunday’s New York Times—which I consumed along with a bagel on my iPhone—architecture critic Nicolai Ourousoff has a report from Masdar, the zero-carbon, ultra-sustainable city growing up in the deserts outside of Abu Dhabi. The Masdar project is the result of a government initiative by the sultans who control Abu Dhabi, the …
Health: Did Cities Help HIV Take Off?
In this week’s Science, researchers led by Michael Worobey of the University of Arizona and Preston Marx of the Tulane National Primate Research Center looked at the history of simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV)—the primate precursor to HIV—and found that the disease may be thousands of years older than scientists originally …