Other writing
Kids suffer most in one of Earth's most polluted cities
March 26, 2019
ULAANBAATAR, MONGOLIA — Coal is everywhere in Mongolia’s frigid capital. It sits beneath the towering smokestacks of power plants in piles as big as football fields. Drivers haul it through town in the open beds of pickup trucks.
Three Quirky Projects Make Art Out Of China's Polluted Air
May 19, 2017
BEIJING, CHINA — Dirty air is part of life in China, unavoidable and in your face. It has inspired a tremendous boom in renewable energy, as the Chinese government begins to try to wean the country off coal. It has also inspired a level of citizen action that is unusual in an autocratic country.
U.K. Universities Face Uncertainty as Brexit Looms
April 5, 2018
Nicole Grobert is German, but she has spent almost all of her career in Britain, developing tiny nanomaterials and figuring out how to use them in everything from artificial bones to super-efficient batteries.
Three Reasons to believe in China's Renewable Energy Boom
May 12, 2017
HAINING, CHINA — The squares of silicon are hardly thicker than sheets of paper, each about six inches by six, with narrow stripes of silver. They come into the factory by the thousands, stacked in cardboard boxes, and within hours, they’ll be ready to leave again.
Is your wood stove choking you? How indoor fires are suffocating cities
Febuary 22, 2018
A wood stove emits more harmful air particulates than a diesel truck. Does their newfound popularity in cities threaten to wipe out progress in reducing air pollution?
China's Surprising Solutions to Clear Killer Air
May 5, 2017
TANGSHAN, CHINA — In 1976 this city by the Yellow Sea, some 100 miles east of Beijing in Hebei Province, was obliterated by an earthquake that killed at least 240,000 people—around a quarter of the population. Afterward the city was rebuilt, and it helped build modern China.