Published on Aug 1, 2014
Starting over Bangkok and flying over Hanoi, the Hainan Islands, Hong Kong and more, these spectacular nighttime views of the major Asia cities were captured from the ISS. With the exception of Pyongong, most of North Korea is dark.
Credit: Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, NASA-Johnson Space Center
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Published on Aug 1, 2014
Presentation and panel discussion from the July 25, 2014 launch of “Securing Rights, Combating Climate Change: How Strengthening Community Forest Rights Mitigates Climate Change”, a report by WRI and the Rights and Resources Initiative. Find out more at http://www.wri.org/events/securing-ri…
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Published on Aug 1, 2014
Plans are underway to bring back the two American aid workers sick with Ebola from Africa. The U.S. State Department and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are helping to arrange the evacuation. (Aug. 1)
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Published on Aug 1, 2014
The Great Recession of 2008 was officially over in 2009, but in 2011 U.S. unemployment remains above 9%, consumer confidence is low, European and Asian economies are nervous, and there is recurrent talk of a double-dip recession. James Galbraith, calls this “One Great Crisis,” examining how it came about and why economists did not understand what was at stake or warn us to modify our troubled economic structures in time to avoid the crisis itself.
Most citizens are not experts in economic theory, yet the prevailing theories can have a profound impact on our individual well-being. Why didn’t current theory predict the economic melt-down? How could the public – from investors to employees to retirees – have been better served? What theories can best lead us out of the Great Recession?
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Published on Aug 1, 2014
Proposed rules to cut pollution from the nation’s 600 coal-fired power plants are generating a heated debate in the United States. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, charged with writing and implementing the plan, has already received 300,000 written comments. As VOA’s Rosanne Skirble reports, another 1,600 people are lining up this week at EPA headquarters and at satellite offices around the country to give their testimony in person.
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1 August 2014 Last updated at 14:05 ET 
The WHO says that when well managed, an Ebola outbreak can be stopped
Ebola crisis
The Ebola outbreak in West Africa is spreading faster than efforts to control it, World Health Organization (WHO) head Margaret Chan has said.
She told a summit of regional leaders that failure to contain Ebola could be “catastrophic” in terms of lives lost.
But she said the virus, which has claimed 729 lives in four West African countries since February, could be stopped if well managed.
…(read more).
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1 August 2014 Last updated at 06:19 ET 
The WTO had seemed on the verge of reaching its first major agreement
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The World Trade Organization says its 160 members have failed to agree a global customs pact drawn up in meetings in Bali last December.
The Trade Facilitation Agreement would have streamlined global customs procedures, and should have been finalised by Thursday.
But it was blocked over a number of rifts, including India’s demands for concessions on the stockpiling of food.
The WTO said it had not been possible to find a breakthrough.
‘Uncertain ground’
“We have not been able to find a solution that would allow us to bridge the gap,” WTO director-general Roberto Azevedo said.
He asked WTO members “to reflect long and hard on the ramifications of this setback”.
And US ambassador to the WTO, Michael Punke, said that the failure to agree a deal had “put this institution on very uncertain new ground”.
The WTO had seemed to be on the verge of reaching its first comprehensive agreement since it was founded in 1995.
….(read more).
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Published on Aug 1, 2014
According to farmers in Brazil, GMO Bt corn seeds made by Monsanto, Dow Chemical, DuPont, and Syngenta are no longer resisting pests, namely the corn leafworm, or Spodoptera frugiperda. The farmers want the companies to reimburse them for the three rounds of pesticides they’ve had to spray on top of their GMO crops, since the companies’ products failed to deliver on their promises. The Brazilian government is wary of how dependent its farmers have become on toxic chemicals, and the farmers are worried they’ll no longer be able to plant anything but GMO seeds. When is humanity going to learn that it has to co-exist with some bugs – that when you fight bugs, they will fight back…and will most likely win?
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Published on Aug 1, 2014
In the United States, proposed rules to cut pollution from the nation’s 600 coal-fired power plants are generating a heated debate. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, charged with writing and implementing the plan, has already received 300,000 written comments. As VOA’s Rosanne Skirble reports, another 1,600 people are lining up this week at EPA headquarters and at satellite offices around the country to give their testimony in person.
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Published on Jul 31, 2014
Environmentalists in India are fighting to extend a ban on coal mining in the northeastern state of Meghalaya. The National Green Tribunal put a stop to the lucrative industry in April because of pollution and concerns over working conditions. Villagers complained that rampant and unregulated mining had poisoned the rivers, allowing heavy metals such as iron, and sulfuric acid to seep into the surrounding environment. But despite communities reeling from the impact, the government’s environment minister is fighting against the move. Al Jazeera’s Karishma Vyas reports from Meghalaya state.
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Transition Studies 