Entries by J. Carl Ganter

China Faces “Reign of Sand” in Inner Mongolia

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Let me indulge in some timely self promotion for my colleagues at Circle of Blue, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars China Environment Forum and the Pacific Institute. The Circle of Blue team, which I direct, publishes today its compelling multimedia report, “Reign of Sand,” about the water crisis in Inner Mongolia, China. The […]

A Driving Rain in Northern Michigan; Rings Around Southwest’s Deepening Drought

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By Keith Schneider Circle of Blue Senior Editor (posted from Modeshift.org) The era of global climate change has produced such rainy and warm conditions in northern Michigan that a winter’s worth of snow and ice melted completely here over the last two days. Meanwhile it’s dry, desperately so, in several huge and significant regions of […]

Reign of Sand

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By Keith Schneider Circle of Blue Senior Editor excerpted from Modeshift.org Late last summer we sent a reporting team to Inner Mongolia, China to cover the front lines of the freshwater crisis in Asia. The members included a writer based in South Korea, a Getty Images photographer from Malaysia, an artist and grasslands specialist from […]

Defining drought: A duty to see

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At the opening reception last week for Water Stories at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, we talked about iconic images that define and punctuate eras. Matthew Brady’s plates of the Civil War that captured the still, anonymity of death. Eddie Adams and Nick Ut’s black and white photographs from Vietnam that etched war’s […]

Water: We still don’t get it

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Nearly three years ago, I was part of a group of journalists convened by the Aspen Institute to address climate change and why, at the time, it was so hard to look at ourselves in the mirror and admit that we had a problem. Why do we deconstruct complicated science and politics into oversimplified “he […]

Circle of Blue recognized at Clinton Global Initiative

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At the 2007 Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting, Circle of Blue’s commitment to ‘to elevate the freshwater crisis to a global priority and to generate the knowledge, civic will, technology, and resources needed to solve this crisis’ was recognized. J. Carl Ganter (l), Circle of Blue director, and Keith Schneider (r), Circle of Blue senior […]

I Wish, I Will

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NEW YORK — The three-day Clinton Global Initiative concluded with a flurry of new commitments including a five-year, $4 billion pledge by Pacific Gas & Electric and Ausra to build solar thermal generating stations that both companies says is cost-competitive with fossil fuel generation. California-based Ausra will build at least 1,000 megawatts of solar power plants and PG&E will purchase at least 1,000 megawatts of solar thermal, and the deal will eliminate over 36 million tons of CO2 emissions in California and neighboring states over the next 20 years. Other projects announced here were these:

Online, Televised, Blogged, YouTube and More New Media at the Clinton Initiative

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BY KEITH SCHNEIDER Senior Editor, Circle of Blue (also posted on Modeshift) NEW YORK (September 29th, 2007) – Live television images from the various plenary and working sessions are everywhere at the Clinton Global Initiative. They appear on screens as big as king size bed sheets in the main conference hall. They illuminate flat screens […]

Climate Change Is A New Global Organizing Principle

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BY KEITH SCHNEIDER Senior Editor, Circle of Blue NEW YORK – The X Prize Foundation, which developed a new philanthropic idea called “revolution through competition,” told participants today at the Clinton Global Initiative that it would commit $300 milion in the next seven years to help solve global crises in each of the four CGI […]

Straightening The Noodles at Clinton Global Initiative, Plus Jolie-Pitt

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BY KEITH SCHNEIDER Senior Editor, Circle of Blue (reposted from Modeshift.org) NEW YORK – This morning at the opening session of the Clinton Global Initiative, Lee Scott, Wal-Mart’s chief executive, explained to hundreds of international leaders why his corporate behemoth, one of the iconic companies of this age, has very quickly embraced environmental sensitivity and […]

Onward to Clinton Global Initiative in New York

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Three years ago when he founded the Clinton Global Initiative, which has emerged as one of the most influential and prestigious annual gatherings of world leaders, former President Bill Clinton understood that the new century’s formative operating principles depended on collaboration, not hierarchy. Only through the efforts of untraditional allies working together could people make progress on any idea or project of real significance.