All life on Earth began in the sea some 3.5 billion years ago. Yet there is a twist to this story. New research shows that almost all fish species that inhabit the oceans today moved there from rivers and lakes. This sheds new light on the importance of...

Most of the world's poorest people lack access to basic services such as clean water and electricity. The World Bank and the Group of 20 are now proposing a new strategy to scale up infrastructure investment in developing countries. They pay lip service to the...

In a crucial decision for the people and ecosystems of the Mekong River Basin, the governments of Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam have just agreed to delay the Xayaburi Dam, the first of eleven dams proposed for the Mekong River. They agreed to first...

Democracy is a messy affair. It forces government officials and politicians to face parliamentary scrutiny, pesky journalists and grassroots pressure. While they uphold democracy and good governance in their rhetoric, governments and the World Bank have begun to shift important decisions about global development to the Group of 20, a...

If the World Bank and an Indian power utility have their way, the Rampur hydropower project in Northern India will increase global CO2 emissions by 15 million tons, at a cost of $164 million to unsuspecting energy consumers in Sweden. The project is a textbook example of how hydropower companies...

As food prices rise, the lands of rural communities are being snatched up for plantations at an alarming rate around the world. According to the World Bank, large agricultural land deals made up an area bigger than California in 2009 alone. A new report documents how the controversial...

When I was in fifth grade, we spent a week at the Marmorera Dam in the Swiss Alps, where we learned about the wonders of hydropower, the "white gold" of Switzerland. I loved the cute village which had been rebuilt on the reservoir, and admired how the 91...

According to a new report which the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published today, the sky is the limit for the expansion of renewable energy. With an investment of slightly less than 1% of global GDP, renewable energy could contribute up to 43% of the world's energy...

Only 140 kilometers from our Berkeley office, the Folsom Dam towers 100 meter high over the American River. When it was built in the 1950s, the project was supposed to withstand the most severe flood in 250 years. Yet after it was completed, strong floods suddenly became more...

The Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River is the world's largest hydropower project. It has often been touted as a model for dam building around the world. Now the Chinese government has officially acknowledged the project's serious social, environmental and geological problems. What are the...

With more than 150 dams proposed for construction and 11 projects in operation, Northeast India is one of the hotspots of global dam building. The biggest project under construction is the Lower Subansiri Dam on the border between the states of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh. Social movements...

The mighty Mekong River is about to face its greatest test. This month, the governments of Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam will decide whether to give approval to the first ever dam planned for the lower Mekong mainstream, the Xayaburi Dam.

Much is at stake in this...

Climate funds such as the Prototype Carbon Fund and the European carbon market prioritize support for renewable energy technologies, and exclude large hydropower from this definition. There are good reasons for this: Big dams irreversibly damage freshwater ecosystems, which are already reeling under the impacts of climate change. Slow, lumpy...

China may be the epicenter of the global environmental crisis. Along the Yangtze, Yellow and Pearl rivers, fragile ecosystems meet the world's largest population and most rapacious economy. In an epic journey, Jonathan Watts, the Guardian's Asia environment correspondent, has visited the places where the world's factory is...

Dams have impoverished tens of thousands of people and triggered serious human rights violations in Sudan. Now Chinese companies have won contracts to build three more hydropower projects in the country. Of particular concerns are plans to dam the Nile near Kajbar, on the lands of ancient Nubia. The

Energy efficiency appears to offer a perfect solution for our energy problems. Efficiency improvements not only reduce the energy consumption of appliances, cars and industrial processes, but typically pay for themselves. They are "not a free lunch, but a lunch you're paid to eat," Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker, Amory Lovins...

UBS, one of the world's biggest banks, has been accused of dirty business for years. The Swiss bank helped the Marcos and Mobutu clans stash away their ill-gotten wealth, and allegedly funneled more than $1 billion into Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme. It was a key financier of South Africa's apartheid...

Ten years ago on this day, Nelson Mandela launched the report of the independent World Commission on Dams (WCD) at a glitzy ceremony in London. The Commission -- composed of prominent members of governments, the dam industry, civil society and academia -- had carried out the first in-depth...

Miners work at the physical edges of our consumer society. Like the canary in the mine shaft, they are sentinels for the triumph, toil and tragedy of the global economic system. Only days after the miraculous rescue of the Chilean miners, Chinese supervisors shot and wounded 11 workers...

Southern governments, companies and banks are increasingly working together to drill for oil, build dams and develop other infrastructure projects. Southern civil society groups need to create their own transnational networks to protect the environment and human rights in such projects. At a global meeting of dam-affected people and their...