sustainability
Is China Heading for Collapse?

Is China Heading for Collapse?

An implicit social contract underlies the Chinese people’s relationship with its government. The people accept the autocratic Communist Party of China regime with its corruption and minimal public participation, and the regime delivers a continuous and rapid improvement in the economic standard of living. But that social contract is now at risk, as China is on an unsustainable path that will result in economic stagnation or decline in the coming decades. 

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Ghosts Threaten to Return to Haiti

Some of the advice for how Haiti ought to rebuild after the earthquake sounds hauntingly familiar. There are echoes of the same bad development advice Haiti has received for decades, even before the nation faced its current devastating situation. To avoid repeating past failures, we would be wise to review how previous aid models led down the wrong path.

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Sweatshops Won’t Save Haiti

The United Nations will host a Haiti donors’ conference at the end of March.

This conference will be quite different from last year’s event, of course, coming as it does on the heels of the worst earthquake to strike Haiti in two centuries. An agenda has already begun to take shape: It’s already clear that a future Haiti must be populated with environmentally sustainable, earthquake-resistant buildings, for example, and it’s also clear that the international community must do something to ease Haiti’s massive debt burden.

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Will Cash Cool the Planet?

Will Cash Cool the Planet?

Call it guilt money, a long-overdue environmental debt payback, or a smart investment in a hurting planet. Whatever it’s called, climate-change repair funds are on the way.

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Cities Can Save the Earth

The climate crisis won’t be solved by changing light bulbs and inflating your tires more, planting a tree and driving a little less. It’s going to require a truly fundamental shift in how we build our cities and live in them.   

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