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Oil, Greed, and Grievances in the Middle East and North Africa
›Between 1961 and the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, Iraqi Kurdistan’s quest for independence has led to the violent death of an estimated 180,000 people. At least 12 independent political groups represent the Kurdish minority in the north of the country. These groups have pursued wildly different strategies to reach their goals, some orchestrating terrorist attacks or larger-scale violence, others choosing education and propaganda campaigns, the provision of social services to gain popular support, and demonstrations.
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Finding Resilience in the Aftermath of Cyclone Roanu in Bangladesh
›In 1970, Cyclone Bhola slammed into East Pakistan – present day Bangladesh – with sustained winds of 150 miles per hour, killing as many as half a million people. In 2007, Cyclone Sidr killed 3,406 people in Bangladesh. This year, Cyclone Roanu killed just 30. What’s behind this huge decline in mortality? What has Bangladesh done differently?
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Perception Matters: New Insights Into What Determines Resilience
›Resilience is increasingly recognized as a powerful concept to help practitioners, academics, and policymakers better understand how people respond to shocks and stressors, and how those responses can be linked to longer-term positive or negative development outcomes, such as wellbeing or food (in)security.
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In Cities, the New Battlefield for Sustainable Development, Women and Girls Need Help
›Last month, the world came to Copenhagen to focus on how to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for girls and women. The Women Deliver Conference, the largest gathering on girls’ and women’s health and rights in the last decade, was a huge success. Convening over 5,700 likeminded people from 169 countries was important to reenergize the movement and inspire action. Preaching to the converted is sometimes important. But now it’s time to focus on those who are not yet converted.
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Four Cattle and a Farm: On Finding More Inclusive Solutions to Climate Change
›As early as 1911, coal miners in Britain carried caged canaries into mining pits. Any sign of distress from the small birds, which are incredibly sensitive to the presence of harmful gases such as carbon monoxide, meant immediate evacuation. Today’s canaries in the coal mine are low-income, minority communities whose exposure to environmental risks in the United States and elsewhere puts them at the frontlines of the global climate crisis.
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Singapore and the Climate Dilemma: There’s No Way to Go it Alone
›Anyone visiting Singapore, as I did recently, quickly realizes it is exceptional. A tiny, rich, stable city-state of nearly 6 million people perched uneasily in a region of sprawling mega-countries full of poverty and instability, it also a thriving free market trading and financial center that is meticulously planned and where 80 percent of people live in public housing.
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Global Population and Reproductive Health (Book Preview)
›Population, reproductive health, and environmental sustainability are inextricably linked. Growing populations place increasing demands on the environment, while meeting the reproductive health needs of populations usually slows their growth. Often, however, policymakers, scholars, and journalists discuss these issues separately, as if unrelated.
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Forest Guardians and Discount Clinics: Rethinking How to Save the Environment in Kalimantan
›In the southwestern part of Indonesian Borneo, known as Kalimantan, there’s a small town on the outskirts of an incredibly diverse forest where the community has turned from illegal logging to stewards of the land.
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