Opinion

Solar geoengineering research is a risk worth taking

Apocalyptic scenes open “The Ministry for the Future,” the latest novel by science fiction writer Kim Stanley Robinson. India is hit with a calamitous heatwave — one so sweltering, with humidity so high, that bodies struggle to sweat, and therefore to survive. Thousands die in the ...

Opinion

The pandemic’s end is as messy as the start

China has now delivered more than 1 billion vaccine doses, hitting that Covid-19 milestone the same weekend that Brazil passed one of its own: more than 500,000 deaths. Daily case numbers remain worryingly high, and those hospitalized and dying include larger numbers of young people. India, meanwhil...

Opinion

Now is the time to tackle vaccine-hesitant parents

More than 910 million Covid-19 vaccine doses have been given and the number is climbing daily. So far, though, the vast majority of those given a shot and targeted by campaigns have one thing in common: They’re adults. That was the right place to start the world’s largest vaccination dri...

Opinion

Canada is a test of climate ambition

Angel Gurria, preparing to step down after 15 years as secretary general of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, had parting words of advice as the world considers its post-Covid recovery: “Put a big fat price on carbon.”Canada is already there.The question of how t...

Opinion

Russia may be carbon’s last refuge

Second in a four-part series on oil-dependent economies and their transition to a zero-carbon future. Read part one on Saudi Arabia here. Part three on Nigeria and part four on Canada will appear tomorrow and Friday.When it comes to the energy transition, Russia is like Wile E. Coyote: suspended in ...

Opinion

How do we conquer vaccine skeptics?

Ask on the street in Hong Kong if passersby will get the Covid-19 vaccine, and you may hear what I did: “Sometime.” “Maybe.” “No.”Combating this hesitancy here and elsewhere will take more than opprobrium and exhortation. It requires tuning in.A combination of dee...

Opinion

Covid-19 is whipping up a cold Russian winter

Coronavirus infections are hitting records again in Russia, the world’s fifth hardest-hit nation in absolute terms. This time, the provinces are bearing the brunt, with nearly three-quarters of new cases registered outside of Moscow. Worrying reports suggest some areas are running out of beds,...

Opinion

Our Coronavirus world is undernourished

Bumper harvests and healthy stockpiles coming into 2020 have helped the world dodge the worst of food-security worries triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic. Staples have been plentiful enough — and oil cheap enough — to avoid a repeat of the 2007-2008 crisis, and supply lines have held. Nu...