Messing with Mother Nature—Building Dams and/or Levee Systems on Medium and Large River Systems

This, the second article in the series The Two-Headed Dragon–Energy/Water/Food Scarcity and Climate Change — the Top Ten Policies that Feed It; Two New Technologies (and One Old) that Could Enable us to Slay It and Save the Planet focuses on the unintended side effects of large dams and levee systems. It specifically discusses how they are causing serious environmental problems downstream that are becoming more damaging than the benefits that these dams and levee systems provide. In many ways this cautionary tale is applicable to many other technological and large scale engineering interventions into natural systems, especially when these technologies and engineered systems are not well understood.

Companies in Emerging Markets Catching Up on Environmental Issues

Corporate responsibility, long seen as the preserve of companies in developed economies, is gaining ground in developing countries according to a review of ESG practices in 40 large emerging market companies – a new report published by Sustainable Investment Research Analyst Network (SIRAN), a working group of the Social Investment Forum (SIF).
SIRAN has partnered with global sustainable investment specialists EIRIS to assess 40 leading companies in ten emerging markets against key environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria, including indicators on board practice, bribery, human rights, labor standards in the supply chain, health and safety, environment, climate change and biodiversity. Countries assessed in the study include Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Israel, South Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Russia and South Africa.