BY MEGAN TAYLOR MORRISON
The icy ocean between Sweden and Canada was home to NATO’s and Russia’s latest war games two months ago. This previously inaccessible seaway is opening because of global warming, and large maritime nations see opportunity in the warming waters. Continue reading
BY ROSA LIN
The G8 summit resulted in a number of statements about energy security, emphasizing diverse energy sources, especially renewables; safety and sustainability; and energy efficiency. Continue reading
BY KELLY GUSTAFSON AND GLORIA OH
Thousands of protestors showed up during the NATO Summit. One group aspired to feed them all … for free. Watch the video here. Continue reading
BY MEGAN TAYLOR MORRISON A recent update on G-8 actions to improve food security left some international organizations calling for more. The Camp David Accountability Report detailed the progress of G-8 members on fulfilling commitments to the L’Aquila Food Security Initiative that began in 2009. The $22 billion program was created to help low-income countries … Continue reading
Crude oil remains consistently above $100 a barrel, with intermittent spikes caused by unrest in the Middle East. Rising countries such as China and India press their demands on the world oil supply. The most viable alternative to crude oil, nuclear power, took a blow from the 2011 Fukushima disaster. Despite all this, energy security likely won’t be on the agenda at the NATO summit this year. Continue reading
Cybersecurity is a shared concern of all NATO nations but one that is almost impossible for them to discuss openly. Not only are the issues highly technical, but talking about them in public is unlikely in diplomatic meetings or even among defense departments and ministries. “This is a highly technical area. The people who count are maybe the intelligence communities of the countries, some quasi-governmental organizations, (and) some defense contractors” said Kenneth Dam, a former deputy secretary of the State Department. “So how do you really get such a diplomatic conversation going?” Continue reading
Biodiversity, once a strictly scientific concept, captured the limelight when G8 member countries meeting in Italy issued in 2009 the landmark Syracuse Charter, vowing to significantly reduce the disappearance of species. However, with the conflict in Afghanistan and global economic recession seeming more pressing concerns, biodiversity has a bleak chance of being addressed by either G8 or NATO this month. Continue reading
The nightmare cyberattack scenarios: Hackers shut down electricity for millions of people. Hackers cause the banking system to collapse. Hackers manipulate the military’s global positioning system, disrupting communications in combat. Even worse, it might be impossible for the U.S. to know who’s really behind the attacks—or how to respond. Continue reading
G8 leaders may duck serious discussions on controlling a major source of pollution that includes black soot from cooking fires, methane from dairy farms, and gases released from aerosol cans. Such talk is uncomfortable because it can appear to shift responsibility for climate change away from industrialized nations and onto poorer, have-not countries. Continue reading
President Obama may have nudged a few eggs down the South Lawn during the annual Easter Egg Roll, but outside the White House, advocates from ActionAid, a nonprofit organization working to eliminate poverty and injustice, gave the U.S. leader a not-so- subtle push of their own. A life-size cutout of the president humorously depicted as a “Hunger Hero” stood next to a large poster emblazoned with, “Obama: Find the will to be a hunger hero at the G8 summit.” Continue reading
