Entries by Keith Schneider

In China’s Coal Belt, A Refinery Drains Water and Life

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A Chinese researcher reveals massive groundwater use at a coal-to-liquids plant in dry Inner Mongolia. Photo © Keith Schneider / Circle of Blue Qingwei Sun, former Greenpeace campaigner, and lead author of Thirsty Coal, a two-part report on the rising water demands of China’s largest energy sector. Click to see an enlarged image. BEIJING — […]

China Takes a Keen Interest in Water-Energy Connections

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Circle of Blue’s Keith Schneider reports from Beijing on discussions about China’s resource challenge. Photo © Keith Schneider / Circle of Blue A team of American and Chinese water and energy specialists met in Beijing with the environmental scientists and sustainability experts of the Development Research Center of the State Council, the government research group […]

A Wild Ride Through Mongolia’s Resource Boom

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A huge country with a tiny population navigates the problems of modern development. Photo © Keith Schneider / Circle of Blue A taxi to the wild side in Ulaanbataar, capital of Mongolia. Click to see an enlarged image. ULAANBATAAR — A hard rock and coal mining boom that really got rolling about a decade ago […]

Breaking India’s Cycle of Waste and Risk

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Small-scale projects offer solutions to India’s water, food, and energy choke points. Still, India’s government seems determined to duplicate the frantic program of industrial development, economic growth, centralization, and one-size-fits-all silver bullets that China and the West are pursuing. The consequence is an endemic pattern of resource waste that is firmly embedded in India’s political system, causing economic and ecological havoc.

Mismanagement of Abundance: Constellation of Coal Mines Across India Not Enough to Prevent Blackouts

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Despite the push for renewable energy alternatives to address water and climate concerns, India plans to keep coal as its primary source of electricity. But corruption, bureaucracy, slow environmental reviews, and inefficient transmission lines are hampering domestic production and causing unstable power supply.

Scarcity in a Time of Surplus: Free Water and Energy Cause Food Waste and Power Shortage in India

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Farm policies intended to remove risk from the grain-producing economy have pulled India from the perennial fear of famine. But inefficient bureaucracy and rampant corruption also promote the squandering of resources and a glut of food that is not reaching the poor.

Choke Point: India — The Leopard in the Well

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Thanks in large part to the Green Revolution that catalyzed grain production in the mid-1960s, India ended the perennial fear of famine. But achieving food abundance has overwhelmed India’s mammoth and unwieldy bureaucracy, drained its freshwater reserves, and strained the energy sector and electrical grid.

Qatar Challenges Way of the Desert

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Circle of Blue’s director J. Carl Ganter and senior editor Keith Schneider find that, in this country of just under 2 million, desert extremes meet a high-octane economy, testing both the limits and responses to the competition between water, food, and energy.

The Metropolitan Lockdown of Boston: A Unique American Experience

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The four days of shock and outrage in Boston — which started on Monday with the Boston Marathon bombings and climaxed on Friday in Watertown with a flurry of bullets — was history in the making. Circle of Blue’s Keith Schneider was there for part of it.

Just As It’s Always Been, Earth Day Marks Big Problems and Big Choices

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Circle of Blue’s senior editor Keith Schneider spent Earth Day on the East Coast, reflecting on the celebration’s past accomplishments and future goals.