Altered Genes and Their Vendors
08/12/2010
The evidence on both sides of the genetic modification debate is inconclusive, but attentive regulation could ensure crop safety in developed and developing countries.
08/12/10 › Publications › Archive › Policy Innovations Digital Magazine (2006-2016) › Briefings
A Renewable Energy and Efficiency Transformation
07/19/2010
The Declaration of Support for an Efficient Renewable Energy Future calls for moving quickly to understand how a renewable power system can be optimized technically, economically, and ecologically. If not us, who? If not now, when?
07/19/10 › Publications › Archive › Policy Innovations Digital Magazine (2006-2016) › Commentary
Declaration of Support for an Efficient Renewable Energy Future
07/19/2010
Fossil fuel business as usual courts ecological catastrophe, resource wars, failed states, and mass migration of the desperate. Ten prominent clean energy analysts, researchers, and engineers voice their support for eliminating 80 percent of fossil fuel use in the next 20 years.
07/19/10 › Publications › Archive › Policy Innovations Digital Magazine (2006-2016) › Innovations
Brain Scan Lie Detection
07/19/2010
Brain scan data can be powerfully persuasive, but has the science behind it progressed far enough to warrant its use in the courtroom?
07/19/10 › Publications › Archive › Policy Innovations Digital Magazine (2006-2016) › Briefings
Education for Innovation
06/07/2010
The symptoms of science illiteracy are spread across the United States, and in many cases they're getting worse. The education system is overdue for a dose of innovation.
06/07/10 › Publications › Archive › Policy Innovations Digital Magazine (2006-2016) › Briefings
A Permaculture Strategy for Haiti
02/09/2010
Geoff Lawton of the Permaculture Research Institute discusses how to strategize and deploy sustainable local food production across Haiti as part of earthquake relief and long-term recovery.
02/09/10 › Publications › Archive › Policy Innovations Digital Magazine (2006-2016) › Innovations
Taking the Waves
02/05/2010
An innovative tidal power installation off the coast of Scotland could help demonstrate the ocean's potential for delivering renewable energy.
02/05/10 › Publications › Archive › Policy Innovations Digital Magazine (2006-2016) › Innovations
Minding Our Minerals
10/09/2009
Certain resources are destined for depletion if they become locked into built infrastructure or recovery costs prove too high. But this could all change if more attention is paid globally to material cycling and consumer responsibility. We need a global strategy for efficient minerals extraction, use, and reclamation.
10/09/09 › Publications › Archive › Policy Innovations Digital Magazine (2006-2016) › Innovations
Institutional Trappings
07/02/2009
The institutionalization of religion seems symptomatic of the human tendency to mistrust our own intuitions, which can result in an abdication of responsibility.
07/02/09 › Publications › Archive › Policy Innovations Digital Magazine (2006-2016) › Commentary
Setting the Bar at 350
06/15/2009
Where do we draw the political and ecological lines on climate change? How much carbon will the atmosphere take? Policy Innovations Managing Editor Evan O'Neil talks with Phil Aroneanu, director of creative media for 350.org, an international campaign to limit greenhouse gas emissions.
06/15/09 › Publications › Archive › Policy Innovations Digital Magazine (2006-2016) › Briefings
The Consensus before the Consensus
06/09/2009
Building mini-consensuses before the Consensus is the best way anything will get done at the December climate negotiations in Copenhagen. Here is a quick glance at five areas with friction and promise.
06/09/09 › Publications › Archive › Policy Innovations Digital Magazine (2006-2016) › Briefings
Our Biology Makes Us All Truly Equal
05/19/2009
"Race" is a persistent example of our imagination.
05/19/09 › Publications › Archive › Policy Innovations Digital Magazine (2006-2016) › Commentary
When Swine Flu Strikes
05/01/2009
Given the small overall number of confirmed swine flu cases, the current situation warrants the caution associated with a normal flu season. But domestic and international health care inequities are an underlying pandemic risk factor in a world of global travel.
05/01/09 › Publications › Archive › Policy Innovations Digital Magazine (2006-2016) › Briefings
Black Carbon an Easy Target for Climate Change
02/09/2009
The particulate matter called black carbon is the second most potent greenhouse warming agent after carbon dioxide. Filtering it out of diesel emissions today would have a quick impact on climate change.
02/09/09 › Publications › Archive › Policy Innovations Digital Magazine (2006-2016) › Innovations
The New Science of Sustainable Dynamics
12/18/2008
The concept of sustainability is used as a policy guide today, but beyond this important sense of applied ethics sustainability must also become a science.
12/18/08 › Publications › Archive › Policy Innovations Digital Magazine (2006-2016) › Innovations
Time Out
12/18/2008
As vital as it has become to modern life, keeping track of Coordinated Universal Time is no mean feat.
12/18/08 › Publications › Archive › Policy Innovations Digital Magazine (2006-2016) › Briefings
Rats and Robots Sniff Out Landmines
10/22/2008
A small-but-growing number of private humanitarian efforts, some using rats and robots, are helping to address the global problem of landmines.
10/22/08 › Publications › Archive › Policy Innovations Digital Magazine (2006-2016) › Briefings
Northeast Puts on the Carbon Cap
09/26/2008
The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative could give northeastern states an advantage over other states if a nationwide cap-and-trade system emerges.
09/26/08 › Publications › Archive › Policy Innovations Digital Magazine (2006-2016) › Briefings
Fuel Costs Clip Airline Wings
07/23/2008
The rising price of jet fuel has the global airline industry struggling to cut costs and stay aloft, but it also incentivizes the development of alternative power sources and experimental planes.
07/23/08 › Publications › Archive › Policy Innovations Digital Magazine (2006-2016) › Briefings
Rising Powers in Space
06/11/2008
Balancing development and security in outer space will be an important international challenge in coming decades as rising powers force realignment here on Earth.
06/11/08 › Publications › Archive › Policy Innovations Digital Magazine (2006-2016) › Briefings