海角大神

In efforts to reduce deforestation levels in the Amazon region, Brazil is at the forefront of an experimental climate-change prevention strategy known as 鈥渞educing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation,鈥� or REDD.

In Foreign Affairs, Jeff Tollefson describes the REDD system, which places monetary value on the amount of carbon dioxide that can be stored in trees. Wealthy nations or corporations pay countries to protect their rain forests, and thus offset carbon emissions.

Through its Amazon Fund, Brazil received funding from Norway starting in 2010. Spending almost $152 million, Brazil executed projects that paid landowners to preserve forests and educated farmers and ranchers on sustainable practices. The result: Brazil has seen a plunging rate of deforestation, registering record lows from 2009 to 2012.

Despite the remaining challenges for implementing a universal plan, Mr. Tollefson writes, 鈥渁t a time when expectations for progress on climate change are falling, Brazil has given the world a glimmer of hope. In many ways, the hard work is just beginning, but the results so far more than justify continuing the experiment.鈥�

Kenya's 'Iron Lady'

During the run-up to Kenya鈥檚 March 4 presidential election, the media focused on the two front-runners, Raila Odinga and Uhuru Kenyatta. But among the six other candidates, there is one to keep watching: Martha Karua, Kenya鈥檚 own 鈥淚ron Lady.鈥�

A profile by Al Jazeera details Ms. Karua鈥檚 rise in national politics, from a magistrate to a member of parliament and minister for justice under President Mwai Kibaki. She was the only woman to run in this year鈥檚 election, during which she pledged to create a universal health-care system and increase Internet access to 50 percent of Kenyans within five years.

鈥淗er manifesto, perhaps reflecting her legal background, emphasises 鈥榓 new spirit of constitutionalism鈥�, prioritising the fight against corruption and respect for national diversity,鈥� Al Jazeera writes.

Her outspoken condemnation of her fellow candidates, particularly those implicated in stoking the postelection violence in 2007, best explains her Iron Lady nickname. She accuses Mr. Odinga of ethnic cleansing, and Mr. Kenyatta is facing charges of crimes against humanity from the International Criminal Court.

She said he should be cleared of those charges before he can be elected president.

鈥淗ow do you seek votes, yet grave accusations of causing death, arson and mass displacements are on your head?鈥� she told reporters. 鈥淚f your cow鈥檚 leg is broken, do you strap a plough on it and head to the farm 鈥� or do you first get it treated and allow it time to heal?鈥�

Future of drones

Drones have drastically changed the strategy of modern warfare, playing an effective, albeit controversial, role in the US fight against Al Qaeda. The government and private companies are now looking homeward for the next development in drone technology. Potential uses include crop dusting, traffic control, border patrol, and weather forecasting, reports John Horgan in National Geographic. But even with these benefits, people are worried about potential breaches in privacy 鈥� and the possibility for errors.

As new, more sophisticated drones take to the skies in the United States, and in other countries where drones are manufactured (such as China, Israel, and Iran), Mr. Horgan says that limiting risk is crucial.

鈥淭he invention that escapes our control, proliferating whether or not it benefits humanity, has been a persistent fear of the industrial age 鈥� with good reason,鈥� Horgan writes. 鈥淣uclear weapons are too easy an example; consider what cars have done to our landscape over the past century, and it鈥檚 fair to wonder who鈥檚 in the driver鈥檚 seat, them or us."

Depardieu and income inequality

As G茅rard Depardieu takes up residency in his newly adopted countries (Belgium and Russia), Lauren Collins in The New Yorker explains why the French have dismissed the once beloved actor.

Mr. Depardieu famously renounced his French citizenship after the government promised to impose a new supertax on the wealthy 鈥� 75 percent on incomes greater than 1 million euros. French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault called Depardieu鈥檚 move 鈥減athetic.鈥�

This was the ultimate insult for a man who came from a poor background and built his wealth through acting and entrepreneurial ventures. He鈥檚 leaving France, he said in a letter to Mr. Ayrault, 鈥渂ecause you believe success, creation, talent, anything different, to be grounds for sanction.鈥�

But 60 percent of his former countrymen support the supertax, drawing 鈥渙n the republican ideal of taxation as an institution that would foster social cohesion,鈥漺rites Ms. Collins. Taxes on the rich are seen as a way to prevent income disparities.

鈥淭here鈥檚 a very egalitarian idea of what society should be, whatever hypocrisy it entails,鈥� Christine Ockrent, a veteran journalist, told Collins. 鈥淚t dates back to the French Revolution, which, by the way, was a very bourgeois revolution. The myth of equality is something which strangles any discussion about income.鈥�