| July 2005
Biotechnology | Climate Change | Environment | HIV/AIDS | Millennium Development
Goals | Space
Biotechnology
D1 - Universities Gird for Battle for Bioscience Supremacy
Hopkins, Jim
USA Today, June 24, 2005, p1B
Biotechnology, "one of this century's most promising industries"
is drawing the attention of U.S. universities nationwide. The
article analyzes the battleground between universities of the
East coast and the West coast to pick up their share of funds
for biotechnology research and for being on the frontline for
business start-ups. The author also discusses potential risks:
"...schools cozying up to biotech and other industries will
be ethically compromised in the pursuit of riches. A scientist
with a corporate consulting deal might be less willing to publish
research that could be useful to other scientists." Jim
Hopkins is money and small business reporter at USA Today.
Fulltext
Climate Change
D2 - Climate Change Policy after the G8 Summit
Bate, Roger
Speech at the Marshall Institute of Science and Public Policy
Roundtable , August 2, 2005, online edition
"Last month's G8 summit was momentous. Not only did its headlines
manage to compete with the worst terrorist attack London has endured,
but remarkably a few concrete agreements were made--and most were
a triumph for US diplomacy. In many respects US positions on aid
and debt relief, notably tying future assistance to democratic
reforms in African nations, and pushing total debt relief rather
than partial relief through debt servicing, were adopted by G8,
and welcomed by African nations. It was as though pre-G8 discussions
were entirely straightforward -- "we know you're not going
to pay this back so let's get real." ... The G8 promoted
the usual rhetoric about preventing dangerous anthropogenic interference
with the climate system. But without trying to identify what such
interference would look like, the leaders sensibly pushed the
problem out til the 2007 4th assessment report of the IPCC, and
later G8 meetings in Japan in 2008, when a G8 climate report is
apparently due. But on the whole there were few platitudes and
more calls for realistic actions." Roger Bate is a resident
fellow at AEI. Fulltext
D3 - Way Beyond Kyoto
Glassman, James K.
Scripps Howard News Service, August 3, 2005,online edition
"In a surprise move that caught Europe's smug moralists and
the environmental movement's noisy extremists flatfooted, the
United States announced in Vientiane, Laos, last week that it
was joining five other nations--China, India, Japan, South Korea
and Australia--in a new pact that offers a refreshing and effective
alternative route to tackling the problem of climate change. While
given short shrift by the puzzled media, this is a big deal in
many ways. First, it breaks the climate-change deadlock... Second, the new deal was negotiated and settled without the involvement
of the United Nations or the European Union--a clear message from
the United States that multilateralism does not have a single
definition... Third, the agreement comprises countries that account for 45 percent
of the world's population and about half the world's economic
output and greenhouse-gas emissions, mainly carbon dioxide, implicated
in raising surface temperatures. More Asian countries may soon
join the pact. Fourth and most important, it takes a pro-growth approach to combating
the possibility of global warming in the century ahead."
James K. Glassman is a resident fellow at the AEI. Fulltext
D4 - The Single Greatest Threat
Speth, James Gustave
Harvard International Review, Summer 2005, v27, #2, pp18-22
While critical of the Bush administration position on climate
change and what he perceives as a public apathy to the urgency
of the issues involved, Speth focuses on positive initiatives
already under way. He emphasizes the significance of national
energy legislation that is currently on the agenda of the US Congress,
and how it could move the country toward a low-carbon future.
O state and local levels, 28 states fve developed or are developing
action plans to reduce GHG emissions. Many corporations are undertaking
voluntary initiatives to reduce their GHG emissions, in anticipation
of future regulation, shareholder pressure, consumer campaigns,
lawsuits and liability for damages. The financial and insurance
sectors are also waking up to climate risks. Climate protection
requires he concludes widespread involvement of civic, scientific,
environmental, religious, student, and other organizations. James
Gustave Speth is the Dean of the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental
Studies. Fulltext
D5 - A Change in the Political Weather
ConservAmerica Web Report. June 2005l
This article provides a brief overview of energy legislation currently
on the agenda of the U.S. Congress. It emphasizes the political
consequences of the recent resolution which a bipartisan majority
passed calling for mandatory steps to limit and reduce greenhouse
gas emissions. Legislation is already in place in many states
but the resolution is important because "patchwork regulation
doesn't suit the interests of large businesses, especially multinational
companies doing business in countries that have adopted greenhouse
gas emissions limits." Fulltext
D6 - Setting a New Course on Climate Change
Hagel, Chuck
USA Today, July 2005, v134, #2722, pp14-15
Senator Hagel summarizes his proposed package of climate change
legislation that authorizes new programs, policies, and incentives
to address the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. He maintains
that what is needed is "comprehensive climate change legislation
that authorizes new programs, policies, and incentives to address
the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions [focusing] on the role
of technology, private and public partnerships, and developing
countries." Technology Tax Incentives Act." Chuck
Hagel (R.-Neb.) is a member of the Senate Foreign Relations and
Intelligence committee's. This article is adapted from a speech
given at the Brookings Institution, Washington, D.C. Fulltext
Environment
D7 - Is "Conservative Environmentalist"
an Oxymoron? How to End Environmental Policy Gridlock
Steven F. Hayward
Philanthropy Roundtable Meeting (Big Sky, Montana), June 20,
2005. Posted: Tuesday, August 2, 2005, online edition
"Most of the landmark environmental legislation of the early
1970s passed with overwhelming bipartisan majorities, which contrasts
sharply with today's near-total legislative gridlock. At that
time, the environment was seen as the new consensus domestic policy
issue around which the nation could move forward in a bipartisan
fashion after the train wreck of social policy in the 1960s. The
irony, of course, is that by the 1990s, we had re-forged a consensus
on several highly contentious areas of social policy such as welfare,
crime, and to some extent education, while the environment has
become a highly polarized domestic policy issue." Hayward
traces similarities between the roots of conservatism and environmentalism.
Stephen F. Hayward is the F. K. Weyerhaeuser Fellow at AEI.
Fulltext
D8 - The Political Economy of Mercury Regulation
Gayer, Ted; Hahn, Robert
Regulation, Summer 2005, v28, #2, pp26-33
The regulation of mercury emissions from power plants "began
with the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments, which required the Environmental
Protection Agency to evaluate mercury and other toxic emissions
to determine if they warranted more stringent regulation. ...
The 15-year saga that concluded with the Bush administration's
mercury rule offers insights into the politics and economics of
environmental regulation. The mercury saga also illustrates several
policy lessons for future regulation." This article offers
insights into improving environmental policymaking. Ted Gayer
is an associate professor of public policy at Georgetown University.
Robert Hahn is cofounder and executive director of the AEI-Brookings
Joint Center for Regulatory Studies and a resident scholar at
AEI. Fulltext
D9 - Buy Now and Save!
Zeller, Frank
World Watch, July/August 2005, v18, #4, pp24-29
When a U.S. millionaire couple purchased a huge tract of South
American wilderness and turned it into a preserve, they joined
a small but growing movement. The so-called "eco-philanthropists"
are eschewing the incremental methods of environmental advocacy
groups and the bureaucracy of land trusts for direct entrepreneurial
activism. Privately-owned preserves are proliferating in the United
States as well as abroad. But some environmentalists question
the effectiveness of this approach, while some local inhabitants
and even national governments have mounted opposition. The article
presents an overview of the types and use of the preserves, and
their impact in the overall environmental protection movement.
Frank Zeller is a journalist with a special interest in nature
and ecology. Order Article
D10- Alternatives for Community and Environment: Where
Justice and Sustainability Meet
Agyeman, Julian
Environment, July/August 2005, v47, #6, pp10-23
"For decades, the gap between the environmental sustainability
and environmental justice movements in the US and elsewhere has
been wide -- a mystifying phenomenon to many who believe they
have much to gain from each other. However, a number of locally
based organizations, including one in Boston's Roxbury neighborhood,
may have bridged the divide. Agyeman highlights the Alternatives
for Community and Environment, which employs the discourse of
"just sustainability"--with its overlapping threads
of environmental justice and environmental sustainability--to
leverage influence and thereby bring positive, demonstrable benefits
to this low-income and minority community. Julian Agyeman
is assistant professor of Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning
at tufts University. Fulltext
D11 - A Cross of Green? Reflection on Eco-Theology
Hayward, Steven F.
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research,
Environmental Policy Outlook, July-August 2005, 5p.
"Growing evangelical interest in environmental issues has
made news headlines in recent months. This paper reflects on the
inherent difficulties of this dialogue and speculates on what
environmentalists and evangelical Christians can learn from each
other." Steven F. Hayward is the F. K. Weyerhaeuser Fellow
at AEI. Fulltext
D12 - Promoting Environmental Cooperation as a Peace-Building
Tool
Conca, Ken, Alexander Carius, and Geoffrey D. Dabelko
Worldwatch Institute, Global Security Brief #6, June 2005
"Environmental degradation triggers intense social conflict
that is sometimes accompanied by violence. ... Recognizing the
potentially critical linkages between environment and insecurity,
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan called for integrating environmental
contributions to conflict and instability into the U.N.'s conflict
prevention strategy and the deliberations of his High-Level Panel
on Threats, Challenges, and Change. ... Although governments around
the world are beginning to recognize the possibilities of using
environmental initiatives as trust-building, conflict-transforming
tools, much remains to be done." The authors outline several
policy initiatives that could help strengthen the peacemaking
potential of environmental cooperation.Ken Conca is associate
professor of Government and Politics at the University of Maryland
and director of the Harrison Program on the Future Global Agenda.
Alexander Carius is Director of Adelphi Research in Berlin. Geoffrey
D. Dabelko is the director of the Environmental Change and Security
Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.
Fulltext
HIV/AIDS
D13 - The Muslim Face of AIDS
Kelley, Laura M.; Eberstadt, Nicholas
Foreign Policy, July-August 05, # 149; pp42-49
"In the years immediately ahead, the AIDS pandemic will exact
a grim toll on a number of vulnerable populations with volatile
polities -- places unlikely to cope with the significant social
stresses and economic burdens that AIDS can cause. Officially,
the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) estimates
the total HIV population of North Africa, the Middle East, and
predominantly Muslim Asia at nearly 1 million people today. At
the end of 2003, UNAIDS estimated that up to 420,000 people in
Mali, 180,000 in Indonesia, 150,000 in Pakistan, and 61,000 in
Iran had HIV/AIDS. Those numbers, however, are severely understated.
Islamic culture and Muslim beliefs, unfortunately, are not sufficient
to inoculate populations against the spread of HIV. The trajectory
of the virus in predominantly Muslim regions of the sub-Sahara
proves this point." Laura M. Kelley is the principal
author of the U.S. National Intelligence Council's 2002 study,
The Next Wave of HIV/AIDS: Nigeria, Ethiopia, Russia, India and
China. Nicholas Eberstadt is the Henry Wendt chair in political
economy at the American Enterprise Institute, senior advisor to
the National Bureau for Asian Research. Fulltext
Millennium Development Goals
D14 - What Does It Take to Help the Poor?
Emanuele Baldacci, Benedict Clements, Qiang Cui, Sanjeev Gupta.
Finance & Development, Jun 2005, v42, #2. pp20-24
"Recent reports by the Millennium Task Force - set up to
measure progress toward the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)
- show that while economic growth has contributed to a rapid decline
in extreme poverty in China, India, and other parts of Asia where
the bulk of the poor live, little progress is being made in sub-Saharan
Africa, where the incidence of extreme poverty is the highest.
Progress toward meeting the other development goals has also been
uneven, with gender equality, maternal mortality, and environment
sustainability still lagging behind the targets. Vulnerability
to pandemic diseases, including HIV/AIDS, remains elevated in
most countries. These trends underscore the need for better public
policies to support growth and reduce poverty. For that reason,
Finance & Development undertook a study to try to help policymakers
evaluate the effects of different policies on social indicators
and growth. This article examines the results, which show that
while higher spending on health and education is worthwhile, poor
governance and macroeconomic instability may offset the positive
impact of social spending on growth and human development."
Emanuele Baldacci is a Senior Economist in the World Bank's
Human Development Department of the Latin American and Caribbean
Region; Benedict Clements is an Advisor in the IMF's Western Hemisphere
Department; Qiang Cui is a Senior Research Officer in the IMF's
Fiscal Affairs Department; and Sanjeev Gupta is an Assistant Director
in the IMF's African Department. Fulltext
D15 - Why Quality Matters in Education
Hanushek, Eric A.
Finance & Development, Jun 2005, v42, #2, pp15-20
Governments everywhere in the world have assumed a substantial
role in educating their citizens, and "providing education
for all" is a central pillar of the Millennium Development
Goals. A variety of motivations lead societies to provide strong
support for schooling. Some are purely economic, while others
are driven by ideas of using education to improve political participation,
social justice and, more generally, develop society. Most studies
of the economic aspects of education focus on school attainment,
or the "quantity" of education. This appears logical
from the perspective of both analysis and policy: the quantity
of schooling is easily measured and readily tracked over time.
But it distorts policies and potentially leads to bad decisions.
The policy challenges facing most countries at the beginning of
the 21st century-including developing countries-are ones that
have to do with quality, rather than quantity. Higher quality
translates into greater earnings for individuals over their lifetime."
Eric A. Hanushek is the Paul and Jean Hanna Senior Fellow
at Stanford University's Hoover Institution. Fulltext
Space
D16 - Postcards from Mars
Carroll, Michael
Astronomy, Aug 2005, v33, #8, pp40-46
"Before the Mars Exploration Rovers Spirit and Opportunity
landed in Jan 2004, the idea of a mobile mission lasting more
than a year on Mars seemed a long shot. Carroll details how NASA's
twin rovers have thrived in the martian surroundings far beyond
their projected life expectancies and what they found in the Red
Planet, which transformed humankind's view of Mars, past and present."
Fulltext
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