JULY 7-14, 2008 DOUBLE ISSUE

To book guests, contact Brenda Velez at 212-445-4078—Brenda.Velez@Newsweek.com—or Grace Huh at 212-445-5831—Grace.Huh@Newsweek.com. Articles are posted on www.Newsweek.com.  This issue will remain on newsstands for two weeks. 

COVER: Green Speed (All overseas editions). Assistant Managing Editor Fred Guterl and Special Correspondent Barrett Sheridan look at the environmental challenges the world faces and how well individual countries—the poor, the wealthy and the middling—are responding. The report is based on the Environmental Performance Index, or EPI, jointly produced by Yale’s Center for Law and Environmental Policy and Columbia’s Center for International Earth Science Information Network. The EPI boils all the activities of a nation that relate to the environment down to a simple metric that runs from 100 (the greenest) down to zero (the least green). The Yale-Columbia team released the first complete version of the index in January, and it is the statistical backbone of this special issue on the world’s most and least green nations.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/143678

            Where Poor Is a Poor Excuse. Beijing Bureau Chief Melinda Liu and Special Correspondent Jonathan Ansfield report that despite stunning rates of economic growth, many Chinese remain poor and rural, prone to ungreen behaviors such as tossing pollutants and trash into the rivers. Although government leaders have set serious ecological goals, they have yet to institute the tough regulatory reforms needed to achieve them.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/143693

            The New Scandinavians. Moscow Bureau Chief Owen Matthews and Special Correspondent Karin Rives report that although the Baltics’ green movement may have been born in anti-nuclear activism in Lithuania, many now realize that nuclear power can also be a valuable source of clean energy. Lithuania’s high scores in Yale and Columbia’s EPI—it ranks 16th overall—are largely due to its reliance on nuclear power, rather than gas or coal, for its energy.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/143684

            Putrid Rivers of Sludge. Special Correspondent Jason Overdorf reports on the delays slow- acting bureaucrats have caused in the campaign to clean the sacred Yamuna River in Delhi. After a half-billion-dollar, 15-year program to build 17 sewage treatment plants, raw sewage still spills into the river at the rate of 3.6 billion liters a day. Meanwhile the state-government-controlled water board has been bickering with the municipal government over whether the state’s leaky sewer pipes or the city’s clogged sewer drains were to blame for a recent cholera epidemic.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/143694

            Winning The Peace. Special Correspondent Steven Ambrus reports that Colombia’s war on drugs has actually helped preserve its wilderness. The guerrilla war over the manufacture of illegal drugs has scared developers away from rural areas, making it easy for the country to put aside land for wildlife.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/143686

                The Threat From Trees.  Special Correspondent Thomas Lovejoy reports that 85 percent of Indonesia’s carbon emissions is from its forests, which have been in retreat for decades. Although much of the current loss was initially due to harvesting for timber and forest products, in recent decades illegal logging has been more widespread. Another disturbing trend is the conversion of peat forests, which hold huge amounts of carbon, into plantations by international companies.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/143691

The Myth of Water. Jerusalem Bureau Chief Kevin Peraino and Special Correspondent Joanna Chen report that although the Yale/Columbia EPI ranks Israel 49th overall and best among desert nations, in part for managing the stress irrigation puts on water supplies, some scientists worry about the environmental cost of building an economy in the desert.      

http://www.newsweek.com/id/143688

When Gray Looks Green. Owen Matthews reports that Russia’s high ranking on the Yale/Columbia EPI may come as a surprise to some. One reason for the disconnect is the very vastness of Russia, which includes pristine wilderness that dilutes the effect of heavy industry. Russia, alone among big nations, may also be cooking the numbers. Indeed, officialdom now seems to spend more time cracking down on ecologists than tackling ecological problems.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/143695

            Coasting on Past Glory. Special Correspondent Mac Margolis reports that the Amazon’s future hinges on Brazil’s ability to find creative ways to stem deforestation. Brazil is the fourth biggest contributor of greenhouse gases globally, of which 75 percent comes from the felling and burning of forests. Fortunately, Brazil has options: all it needs to do is go back to its old habit of making the right environmental moves.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/143696

            The Least Green Country on Earth. Africa Bureau Chief Scott Johnson reports on why Niger came in last in the Yale/Columbia EPI.  Poor scores across the board, from the burden of disease to water quality and education rates, confirm Niger as an example of the disaster that can result when environmental weakness, poverty and poor governance collide.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/143697

Not in This Africa. Assistant Managing Editor Jonathan Tepperman reports that as a result of the violence that erupted in Zimbabwe during the run-up to the country’s presidential election, the chorus of condemnation from African leaders of Robert Mugabe’s tactics became deafening. As an increasingly isolated leader, Mugabe is now dragging down the reputation of South Africa’s President Thabo Mbeki, who refuses to denounce his old ally.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/143693

One Mob, One Vote. Tepperman reports on what is driving the spate of demonstrations that have broken out in many Asian countries. The countries in question, which include some of Asia’s strongest economies, have suffered enormous street protests, parliamentary meltdowns, threats of military intervention and other forms of bare-knuckled politics. One underlying common cause is a lack of democratic maturity.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/143660

Brown’s Battleground. London Reporter William Underhill reports that with soldiers heavily committed overseas, British commanders fear the armed forces are dangerously close to the breaking point. They’re starting to speak out, breaking a long-established rule: serving officers don’t publicly criticize their political masters.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/143729

WORLD VIEW: How to Lose Iraq. Karl Meyer, editor at large of the World Policy Journal, writes that the Bush administration’s desire to seek Status of Forces Agreement—a type of compact that governs the treatment of U.S. personnel abroad—with Iraq could be a mistake. “Most SOFAs grant U.S. personnel immunity from prosecution by the host country,” Meyer writes. “In this case, according to leaked accounts from Iraqi leaders, Washington is demanding even more.”

http://www.newsweek.com/id/143674

THE LAST WORD: The Karmapa. Buddhism’s third highest leader, the Karmapa, says that he is against  boycotting the Beijing Olympics. “China is a big country and does not belong only to the Communist Party. It belongs to the Chinese brothers and sisters. The world needs to give them more chances and opportunities to show their growth and express their views…I am not for the boycott, and His Holiness the Dalai Lama is also [against it].”                           

http://www.newsweek.com/id/143672

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