….actually, not true. For once, I listened without fidgeting and kicking the seatback of the person in front. Except during the breaks, over breakfast, lunch, tea, dinner, in the bar, walking on the beach, on the bus, where I talked too much – I blame the coffee – listened and enjoyed the company of a [...]
Category Archives: Green issues
It's still true: you can't eat money
August 23, 2009 – 7:33 am
“Only when the last tree has died and the last river been poisoned and the last fish been caught will we realise we cannot eat money.” – Cree Saying. This quote, possibly the biggest cliché in the environmental literature, inspired Jared Diamond’s seminal work “Collapse“. But humans seem to succumb to boredom fairly quickly, so [...]
Its the environment, stupid…
May 3, 2009 – 6:56 am
The recent revival of Marx on the Continent is causing a lot of chatter. Das Kapital is now selling like the latest batch of hot cakes, proving that even commies prefer to own the book. Ironic because they could watch David Harvey’s lecture series on Das Kapital online for free. By Daniel Taghioff. This development [...]
The problem with world fisheries is nobody sticks up for the fish
April 16, 2009 – 8:18 pm
“The problem with world fisheries is nobody sticks up for the fish.” Charles Clover, The End of the Line. While Somali pirates are taking hostages, killing and getting killed by the French navy, French trawlermen are blockading Calais, Boulogne and Dunkirk. The Somalis claim they have taken to robbery and kidnapping because their traditional fishing livelihoods have [...]
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 [...]
An open letter to Gordon Brown, saviour of the world's banks, apart from Iceland, the UK and . . .
March 17, 2009 – 12:52 am
As Gordon and Alastair puff out their chests and iron their M+S Let’s Pretend We’re Businessmen suits (made in Indonesia) to host the G20 Global Summit on the global economy, a letter from Steven Katirai, whose Google search reveals him as a capital markets consultant based in the North East of England, has been doing the rounds [...]
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 [...]
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) [...]