Environment

Recent headlines have been shocking: 16,000 decaying pig carcasses in Shanghai’s Whampoa River, dire air quality reports in Beijing, and hundreds of thousands of people dying prematurely because of environmental degradation. China's pollution problem is holding back its economy -- and is endagering its people and the rest of the world in the process.

With predictions about climate change growing direr every week, geoengineering (which includes everything from fertilizing the oceans in an attempt to cajole great blooms of carbon-sucking phytoplankton to spraying particles into the upper atmosphere to make the earth more reflective) is starting to look more attractive. But the science still lags behind the ambitions. To understand how such schemes would work in practice -- and what their consequences would be -- it is time to start small-scale field tests.

Mongolia enjoys one of the fastest-growing economies in the world. But the dramatic increases in the country's GDP are riddled with ambiguity, as widespread corruption and an unsustainable dependence on mining raise questions for the future. Absent better planning and more government regulation, Mongolia's problems will only worsen.

The policy community has long prophesied about the coming water wars. But don't expect them anytime soon. More likely, tensions over access will merely exacerbate existing regional conflicts.