Archive for 2025
12 posts, newest first.
Beware the biomass economy: pellets, jet fuel and the carbon-neutral claim
The bioeconomy swaps fossil carbon for plant carbon. The biomass demand that implies, who controls supply, and whether burning it is carbon-neutral.
A very dirty green: how business got a seat at the UN table
From the Global Compact to Davos and the climate COPs: how companies won a seat at the UN table, and what to ask when a summit unveils a coalition.
Mapping the 'Mexican genome': the questions a 2009 launch skipped
In 2009 Mexico unveiled a 'map of the Mexican genome'. What the study found, what genomic sovereignty covered, and who has benefited since.
Bitter honey: Bt rootworms, GM pollen and the Mayan beekeepers
From resistant rootworms in Iowa to a European court ruling and Mayan honey in Campeche: how GM crops ran into bees, and how Mexico answered.
Farm data: who owns what your tractor knows?
Yield monitors, telematics and farm apps collect huge amounts of data. Who can use it, what the repair fight is about, and what to ask before signing.
Canada's biofuels law on trial: Bill C-33 and the warnings of 2008
In June 2008, mid food crisis, Canada's Senate passed a law to require biofuel blending. How did the critics' warnings hold up?
Gene drives: the case for caution and the case for trying
How CRISPR gene drives work, where the malaria mosquito work has got to, and why the argument about releasing one is harder than either side admits.
From Durban to Baku: the long life of 'climate apartheid'
Critics called the 2011 Durban climate deal 'climate apartheid'. The deal led to Paris, the phrase reached the UN. Who carries the risk in 2025?
The FAO, biotech and who gets to speak for farmers
In 2010 the FAO held a biotech conference in Guadalajara as Mexico opened fields to GM maize trials. How the agency has shifted since, and what hasn't.
Digital sequence information and the Cali Fund: paying for genes that live in databases
Genetic data in open databases slipped past the Nagoya Protocol. COP16 answered with the Cali Fund. What companies are asked to pay, and what to watch.
From Hong Kong to Tianjin: synthetic biology's turn to Asia
In 2008 synthetic biology held its first big congress in Asia. Since then China and its neighbors have made the field a pillar of industrial policy.
Solar geoengineering without the hype: questions and answers
Stratospheric aerosols and cloud brightening explained, why 2024's experiments were halted, and the fight over who gets to decide.
