Energy war jeopardises progress

For years the superpower politics of the cold war blocked efforts to end global poverty. Today it is the hot war of energy economics and global warming that present an impossible obstacle. They also threaten something far worse – a great reversal of human progress.

Australia: Sun and wind going to waste

In this vast, burned continent, where the sun shines seven out of 10 days and anticyclones pump wind steadily out to sea in winter and on to shore in summer, Australians sate their rapacious hunger for energy by digging underground and fouling the air.