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As Sea Ice Shrinks, Arctic Shipping Options Expand

December 19, 2013

On October 7, 2013, the Nordic Orion bulk carrier ship completed its journey from Vancouver, Canada, to Pori, Finland, having traveled northward around Alaska and through the Northwest Passage. It was the first large commercial freighter ever to make the voyage through these typically ice-covered Arctic waters. Avoiding the longer journey, through the Panama Canal, reportedly saved $80,000 in fuel costs and five days in travel time. Taking a deeper route than the Panama Canal also allowed the ship to carry a heavier load of its cargo: coal.

U.S. Bike-Sharing Fleet More than Doubles in 2013

August 28, 2013

The United States is now home to 34 modern bike-sharing programs that allow riders to easily make short trips on two wheels without having to own a bicycle. With a number of new programs in the works and planned expansions of existing programs, the U.S. fleet is set to double again by the end of 2014, at which point nearly 37,000 publicly shared bicycles will roll the streets.

Farmed Fish Production Overtakes Beef

June 12, 2013

The world quietly reached a milestone in the evolution of the human diet in 2011. For the first time in modern history, world farmed fish production topped beef production. The gap widened in 2012, with output from fish farming -- also called aquaculture -- reaching a record 66 million tons, compared with production of beef at 63 million tons. And 2013 may well be the first year that people eat more fish raised on farms than caught in the wild.

China's Growing Hunger for Meat Shown by Move to Buy Smithfield, World's Leading Pork Producer

June 6, 2013

Half the world's pigs -- more than 470 million of them -- live in China, but even that may not be enough to satisfy the growing Chinese appetite for meat. While meat consumption in the United States has fallen more than 5 percent since peaking in 2007, Chinese meat consumption has leapt 18 percent, from 64 million to 78 million (metric) tons -- twice as much as in the United States. Pork is by far China's favorite protein, which helps to explain the late-May announced acquisition of U.S. meat giant Smithfield Foods Inc., the world's leading pork producer, by the Chinese company Shuanghui International, owner of China's largest meat processor.

Dozens of U.S. Cities Board the Bike-Sharing Bandwagon

May 14, 2013

At the start of 2013, the United States was home to 22 modern public bike-sharing programs. By spring 2014, that number will likely double as a flurry of cities joins the more than 500 bike-sharing communities worldwide.With the expansions of current programs and new openings in larger markets like New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, the nationwide fleet of shared bikes is poised to quadruple in the next couple of years, from nearly 9,000 to above 36,000. And with a growing list of American communities exploring the possibility of setting up bike shares, this number is expected to continue to climb.

Bike-Sharing Programs Hit the Streets in Over 500 Cities Worldwide

April 25, 2013

Today more than 500 cities in 49 countries host advanced bike-sharing programs, with a combined fleet of over 500,000 bicycles. Urban transport advisor Peter Midgley notes that "bike sharing has experienced the fastest growth of any mode of transport in the history of the planet"

Falling Gasoline Use Means United States Can Just Say No to New Pipelines and Food-to-Fuel

March 28, 2013

Freeing America from its dependence on oil from unstable parts of the world is an admirable goal, but many of the proposed solutions -- including the push for more home-grown biofuels and for the construction of the new Keystone XL pipeline to transport Canadian tar sands oil to refineries on the U.S. Gulf Coast -- are harmful and simply unnecessary.

Warmest Decade on Record Brings Record Temperatures and Weather Extremes

February 13, 2013

In recent years weather events have whiplashed between the extremes of heat and cold, flooding and drought. Carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases -- largely from the burning of coal, oil, and natural gas -- have loaded up in the atmosphere, heating the planet and pushing humanity onto a climatic seesaw of weather irregularities. High-temperature records in many places are already being broken with startling frequency, and hotter temperatures are in store.

Global Grain Stocks Drop Dangerously Low as 2012 Consumption Exceeded Production

January 13, 2013

The world produced 2,241 million tons of grain in 2012, down 75 million tons or 3 percent from the 2011 record harvest. The drop was largely because of droughts that devastated several major crops -- namely corn in the United States (the world's largest crop) and wheat in Russia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, and Australia. Each of these countries also is an important exporter. Global grain consumption fell significantly for the first time since 1995, as high prices dampened use for ethanol production and livestock feed. Still, overall consumption did exceed production. With drought persisting in key producing regions, there is concern that farmers in 2013 will again be unable to produce the surpluses necessary to rebuild lowered global grain reserves.

Expanding Dust Bowls Worsening Food Prospects in China and Africa

December 20, 2012

Unfortunately, dust bowls are not just relics of the past. Today two new dust bowls are forming: one in northern China and southern Mongolia and the other in Africa south of the Sahara. Whereas the dust bowls in the United States and the Soviet Union were the result of overplowing, the main culprit in Asia and Africa is overgrazing. Although arid or semiarid grasslands are typically better suited for grazing livestock than for farming, once they are overstocked their protective grass covering deteriorates and they face erosion all the same.

Heat and Drought Ravage U.S. Crop Prospects--Global Stocks Suffer

September 14, 2012

High temperatures have combined with the worst drought in half a century to wreak havoc on American farms and ranches. Some 80 percent of U.S. farm and pasture land experienced drought.

Meat Consumption in China Now Double That in the United States

April 24, 2012

More than a quarter of all the meat produced worldwide is now eaten in China, and the country's 1.35 billion people are hungry for more. In 1978, China's meat consumption of 8 million tons was one third the U.S. consumption of 24 million tons. But by 1992, China had overtaken the United States as the world's leading meat consumer -- and it has not looked back since. Now China's annual meat consumption of 71 million tons is more than double that in the United States. With U.S. meat consumption falling and China's consumption still rising, the trajectories of these two countries are determining the shape of agriculture around the planet.