ModeShift - Part 32

Water, Energy and the Ohio River Valleyâ€™s New Course

by Keith SchneiderAugust 26, 2013September 20, 20131

ATHENS, OHIO â€“ Few places in the United States better understand the economically essential and ecologically risky accord between energy and water than this southeast Ohio town. Athens, where Ohio University was founded in 1804 as a Northwest Territories frontier institution, was once surrounded by dozens of working underground coal mines. Thousands of miners spent much of the 19th and half of the 20th centuries digging long horizontal and vertical shafts that essentially hollowed out …

TIM: This Is Mongolia

by Keith SchneiderAugust 15, 2013August 26, 20134

Devan Horn, an endurance equestrian from Houston, was the first rider to finish the Mongol Derby, the longest horse race in the world. But she didn’t win because of a time violation related to her hard-charging strategy. Photo/Keith Schneider The braided hard-packed dirt roads of Mongolia are a feature of the country’s high steppes, the result of rain and mud forcing drivers to find alternative routes up and down long ridge slopes. Photo/Keith Schneider ULAN …

A Tank of Warm Water Brews A New Development Tea in Mongolia’s South Gobi Desert

by Keith SchneiderAugust 14, 2013August 16, 20131

Oyu Tolgoi, Mongolia’s largest company, installed this tank to satisfy herder concerns. Herders say it’s a joke. Rio Tinto says it was a temporary means to an end – supplying water to livestock. Photo/Keith Schneider KHAN BOGH, Mongolia — “And this,” says Battsengel Lkhamdoorov, a South Gobi herder who once managed 600 animals, “is our new spring.” Laughing, he lifted the lid of a brown steel box, its hard lines unusual in a landscape of …

In China’s Coal Belt, A Refinery Drains Water and Life

by Keith SchneiderAugust 10, 2013August 14, 20130

Qingwei Sun, former Greenpeace campaigner, and lead author of Thirsty Coal, a two-part report on the rising water demands of China’s largest energy sector. Photo/Keith Schneider BEIJING — Qingwei Sun, who investigated and wrote two revealing reports for Greenpeace in the last two years on how China’s giant coal sector uses, and in some cases abuses the nation’s water reserves, is a 36-year-old geographer from Lanzhou, the capital and largest city in Gansu Province. At …

Dust, Development, Determination in Mongolia

by Keith SchneiderAugust 9, 2013September 23, 20131

The levee road, one lane of dirt and stones, is the fastest way from the airport to downtown in traffic-snarled Ulan Bator, Mongolia’s furiously developing capital. Photo/Keith Schneider ULAN BATOR — A hard rock and coal mining boom that really got rolling about a decade ago is literally leaving Mongolia’s capital in the dust. It’s also yielded 1) an aged Communist-era airport that is too small for the rapid rise in passenger traffic, and 2) …

In China, Responding to Water-Energy Choke Point Now a Government Priority

by Keith SchneiderAugust 6, 2013August 9, 20132

Jennifer Turner (in red), director of the Wilson Center’s China Environment Forum, introduces the Water and Energy Team to policy experts at China’s Development Research Center of the State Council, the government research group that provides policy recommendations to China’s highest executive agency. Photo/Keith Schneider BEIJING — Almost three years ago a team of reporters and photographers from Circle of Blue, assisted by Jennifer Turner and her staff at the Wilson Center’s China Environment Forum, …

Back in Beijing

by Keith SchneiderAugust 3, 2013August 3, 20131

Beijing in summer is hot and a bit less polluted than in winter. Here at Tsinghua University. Photo/Keith Schneider BEIJING — On a hot morning here in China’s capital, the air is grey and the sky dark with pollution. It’s my seventh trip to China and the evidence of industrial overreach is so readily apparent. I’m here to participate in a speaking and convening event organized by Jennifer Turner, my colleague and director of the …

Buffalo’s Comeback in the New York Times

by Keith SchneiderJuly 31, 2013July 31, 20131

BUFFALO â€“ In 2002, when he was recruited to help turn 120 acres of this cityâ€™s underperforming downtown into a jobs-producing, world-class campus for medical research, education, and clinical care, Matt Enstice was among a select few of the cityâ€™s young professionals who was convinced the idea wasnâ€™t a joke. Mr Enstice knows jokes. Prior to returning home and becoming the president and chief executive of the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus, Inc., the non-profit group …

Frankfort, Michigan’s July 4: Fireworks and A Legacy of Jewish Discrimination

by Keith SchneiderJuly 8, 2013July 9, 20130

FRANKFORT, MI – The public event of the year in Benzie County, Michigan occurs here on July 4. The day begins with a parade on Main Street, continues with an art fair, a carnival, and this year a sand castle design contest on the Lake Michigan beachfront. Thousands of people roll into town while the sun is high. And as it sets thousands more come for the meteoric spectacle – the fireworks show that lights …

In New York Times: Akron Rubs Off Some Rust

by Keith SchneiderJuly 3, 2013July 3, 20131

AKRON, OH. â€“ Until LeBron James became this cityâ€™s signature global brand, that honor belonged to the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company.Â The worldâ€™s third largest tire manufacturer, with $21 billion in sales revenue last year, was founded here in 1898 and stayed put even as B.F. Goodrich, Firestone, and General Tire, its biggest competitors, closed their Akron plants and left in the 1980s. In a word, Goodyear and Mr. James, who was born and …