Reafforestation in China and India

Image source: The Economist Here is an interesting chart if ever there was one. The Food & Agriculture Organisation (FAO) — a reliable source, one would think — has published data on the annual rate of deforestation over the past decade which shows that some countries are bucking the trend and have become net reafforestors [...]

A million zero rupee notes

Image source: india.5thpillar.org I was referred to this great story by my friend Girish Rangan today, that reports on a novel idea for combatting corruption in India. In short, 5th Pillar, an organisation dedicated to fighting corruption, has acted upon a suggestion from an Indian physics professor at the University of Maryland, who came up [...]

Political tipping points or natural tipping points?

ngopost.org Lester Brown’s book, Plan B 4.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization, asks whether we can cut carbon emissions fast enough to save the Greenland ice sheet, whether we can close coal-fired power plants fast enough to save the glaciers in the Himalayas, and whether we can we stabilise population by lowering birth rates before nature [...]