As part of the Carnegie Council Centennial Thought Leaders Forum, Carnegie Council's Devin Stewart corresponded via email with Dr. Hans Küng. Dr. Küng is a Catholic priest and president of the Foundation for a Global Ethic.

DEVIN STEWART: What is morally distinct about the age we live in?

HANS…

As part of the Carnegie Council Centennial Thought Leaders Forum, Carnegie Council's Devin Stewart spoke with Mary Robinson, former president of Ireland, and a former UN high commissioner for Human Rights. She is currently chancellor of the University of Dublin (Trinity College) and president of the Mary Robinson Foundation - Climate…

Now that China's leadership transition has been completed, its new president Xi Jinping faces numerous challenges, from maintaining economic growth to combating corruption, pollution, and food supply scandals. Yet disagreement has been stirring on the best path to achieve…

A group of students at my alma mater in Minnesota have created an online petition and campaign demanding that the college adhere to its proclaimed sustainability vision. Arguing that its current plan is too opaque, they are asking the college to set transparent and measurable goals, and to give students insight into the progress toward attaining them.…

DEVIN STEWART: Dr. Ariely, it's so good to have you here today.

When you look at the world today, how do you see the world? How would you describe it, particularly from a moral perspective?

DAN ARIELY: I think morality has a few elements to it. It's a real struggle between what's good for me and…

The Party's Over

In the wake of an unremitting and worsening cascade of killer storms, droughts, floods, heat waves there is a growing and irreversible global understanding of the need for common action for survival and to build a sustainable future. This does not mean the masters of fossil fuel business as usual have seen the light. Their determination to wring the last dollop of fossil fuel and with it the last dollar from an afflicted…

DEVIN STEWART: How do you see the world today? Is it distinct from previous eras and, particularly from a moral perspective, how would you describe the world?

SRDJA POPOVIC: It's a mix of good news and bad news. It's definitely faster. It's definitely more globalized. That means definitely people are…

The center does not hold. The weather becomes increasingly erratic and dangerous. It's long past time for effective action to avoid global climate catastrophe. And yet periodic global climate conferences end with declarations, described by José Manuel Durão…

DEVIN STEWART: Professor Pogge, as we were talking about earlier, you have been thinking about the arc of history and your thoughts about the world we're living in today. If you could just start off by telling us, how do you see the world we live in today, especially from a moral perspective?

THOMAS POGGE:…

LORRAINE ELLIOTT, Professor of International Relations at the Australian National University, delivered a public lecture entitled "Ethics, International Relations, and Global Environmental Governance" in Singapore at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological…

DEVIN STEWART: Professor Walzer, the first question is: What's morally distinct about the age we live in today?

MICHAEL WALZER: I thought about that when I read your list of questions. You mean what is different between our world and, say, the world of the…

DEVIN STEWART: Dr. Slaughter, please tell us about this Atlantic article. First of all, we believe the idea might have started with something that happened at Carnegie Council. Do you want to tell us a little bit of background?

ANNE-MARIE SLAUGHTER: This article that I wrote, called "…

DEVIN STEWART: Professor, how would you describe the world we live in today? How is it unique?

KWAME ANTHONY APPIAH: I think what has changed in the world, basically I suppose over the course of my lifetime, which is since the 1950s, has been an enormous increase in the flow of information across societies.…

DEVIN STEWART: Going to the big picture here for the Thought Leaders Forum that we're hosting at Carnegie Council: Looking at the big picture and the planet, looking back at your experiences in Europe and the United States and Asia—you have been based all around the world; you have government, NGO, international organization…

A very interesting book review over at the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists caught my eye this morning. In it, Tad Daley takes a look at the dawn of the nuclear disarmament movement as documented by Lawrence Wittner in his 2009 book Confronting the Bomb. Wittner takes as his jumping…

Last week, the Global Peace Index 2012 (GPI) indicated that the world is more peaceful this year than in 2011. But how should we interpret this in light of the more sober conclusions of the latest Happy Planet Index (HPI)?

The Global Peace Index…

Rain

A liquefied slice of heaven fell on a rose petal one day

It toggled, turned, danced and swayed

As it moved, it shone different shades of red and purple hue

The shades changed as it made its way gliding down the velvety rue

Then another drop of diamond fell gently on the red carpet as it exuded sweet perfume

That one too made its way to…

The adoption of sustainable-development for responding to the exigencies of our time warrants a major rethink in all sectors of an economy.  Other than science and technology, even services and non-technical sectors would have to revamp their activities to minimize their carbon footprint.  In fact, the urgent urge to adopt sustainability has currently stoked a race among rich and developing…

A letter to the editors of the New York Review of Books:

Reading the exchangebetween William Nordhaus and global warming skeptics led by Roger Cohen, former ExxonMobil Director of Strategic Planning (NYRB 4/26), raises the question of what can be done…

"Fruits of Our Labor," published in Policy Innovations, describes the symbiotic arrangement between the tribal communities of South Gujarat (India) and the fast moving consumer product company ITC for organic mango cultivation. ITC picked up the cost of…