Will Rio+20 Advance Sustainable Development?

Twenty years ago CERN released the code for the world-wide-web to the public free of charge, inventing what we now think of as the modern Internet. (Yes, they were also the same guys who have that giant particle collider that’s helping solve the mysteries of the universe.)

As President Barack Obama heads to Asheville, N.C., Wednesday to push the themes outlined in his State of the Union address, the White House has unveiled a four-step plan it claims would make the U.S. a "magnet for jobs" by investing in manufacturing.

Twenty years ago today Sgt. Pepper wasn't teaching the band how to play.  Back in January 1993, I was on the job market giving talks at Cornell and Duke.  On February 6th 1993, I gave my Columbia talk and quickly accepted their offer and cancelled my other talks.  I share these details because I'm amazed that 20 years have passed.   Unlike 20 years ago, this isn't a stressful January.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Economic Development John Fernandez was in Boston this week with Mayor Thomas Menino for the groundbreaking of the Fraunhofer Center for Sustainable Energy Systems, a sustainable energy research and building innovation center at 5 Channel Center in Boston's Innovation District.

By Bob Johnson:The United States released a position paper on Friday indicating that it will abstain from voting on the World Bank's affiliate agencies' proposed $4.5 Billion loan for the expansion of the huge Mongolian mine at Oyu Tolgoi.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- Representatives from around the world will be returning to Rio de Janeiro this June - 20 years after the U.N. Earth Summit - but this time the focus will be on sustainable development, not climate change, a Brazilian diplomat said Tuesday....

A summit on sustainable development to be hosted next year in Rio, 20 years after the UN Earth Summit in the same city, will be a "top priority" for the UN, the world body's chief said Thursday."This will be the most important top priority for the UN," Ban Ki-moon said, as he prepared to meet Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff as part of a Latin America tour meant to bolster his re-election bid as UN secretary general.