I’m no Cousteau, as you will plainly see from this article, but it has come to my attention that several species of the world’s fish stocks are running close to extinction. The success of the whaling moratorium serve as an example that positive action can lead to permanent results. By John J Kelly Over Easter [...]
Category Archives: Development
Call me Ishmael, but I'm pleased that the Japanese whaling fleet missed its quota
April 15, 2009 – 10:49 am
Adaptation, not mitigation, is the fairest way to address climate change effects
March 31, 2009 – 2:33 pm
The poor must use every form of leverage they can find to get the support they need to survive climate change. Control of land is key. By Daniel Taghioff, India. Foolish people have argued that there is a choice between preventing the worst effects of climate change and adapting to unavoidable changes, despite compelling evidence, such [...]
The big money is at the end of the rainbow, same as it ever was
March 3, 2009 – 4:58 pm
Writing in Wilmott, Rudi Bogni argues that banker-bashing may be a convenient way to mask the inconvenient truth that the demands on our financial systems are unsustainable. Western productivity was not up to the task of generating sufficient wealth to fuel perpetual growth, nor is it likely to be. It required a collective suspension of [...]
Oil on troubled waters
February 5, 2009 – 8:25 pm
We need to double food production, but we’re running out of oil and water. Obviously the market will sort this one out… By Daniel Taghioff, India When the Food and Agricultural Organisation says that another 40 million were pushed into hunger in 2008, what images spring into your mind? Is it possible to imagine that [...]
This is not a detour on the road to Shangri-la. It's the path to perdition.
January 30, 2009 – 10:33 pm
Sally Buchanan made an important point about the inflation/deflation question in her comment below. We may require a re-alignment of our entire value system. The much-misued Utilitarian term ‘greatest good for the greatest possible number’ might depend on thinking about what we do and how we do it based upon what we, and the planet, [...]
So, where are the poor in the Brave New World?
January 13, 2009 – 3:03 pm
Authors and filmmakers can answer this question but policy makers and pundits seem not to have a clue. Perhaps it’s because they see them as statistics, not people. By Daniel Taghioff, India. Aravind Adiga’s Booker winner White Tiger and Danny Boyle’s Golden-Globe-harvesting film Slumdog Millionaire (based on Indian Diplomat Vikas Swarup’s novel Q and A) [...]
Update: Israeli F-16s blitz Gaza in a run-up to the February elections
December 27, 2008 – 11:29 am
Forget about sending aid – the previous post has unfortunately been rendered redundant by the news that Israel has attacked Hamas-run security compounds in Gaza, killing hundreds of civilians and wounding others – including the almost-obligatory deaths of two small girls allegedly killed by Hamas – in the process. See Gaza attacks. Although rocket attacks [...]