Statistics demonstrate that the extinction rates of animal species are much higher than had been predicted only a few years ago. Scientists are warning of an alarming increase in the extinction rates because of threats to biodiversity and ecosystems posed by pollution, climate change and urban spread. Freshwater species are most affected, becoming extinct six …
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Category:2 Geopolitics
The recession has not slowed humanity’s consumption of the planet.
You would have thought that an economic recession, which has slowed spending, raised unemployment and impacted trade, would have had a beneficial effect on humanity’s ecological footprint. But it has not. The Consumption Explosion continues. Humanity’s footprint is still as large as ever. Today is “ecological debt day”, the day that humanity has used the …
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Happy Planet Index 2.0
See here the Happy Planet Index by NEF (pdf).
Dirty politics costs you millions.
Transparency International’s 2009 corruption survey is out. There is no improvement in the swathe of corruption that stifles the work of everyone. It is a dirty scum of waste that feeds the rich, all over the world. The report notes that in the US corporations spent an average of $200,000 a year on lobbying every …
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Peace Day
International Day of Peace – Wikipedia International Day of Peace website
US to cut missile defence plan. A good start.
The US has cancelled or postponed the plan to emplace missiles in Poland. This is good news. Increasing the volume of armaments is a ludicrous policy in a world where people are dying of malnutrition and thirst and where a gun has no practical purpose except to kill another person. The resources would be better …
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Will the new Japan stop barbaric imprisonment and death?
There are 100 people on death row in Japan. Many of them are elderly and have spent decades in near isolation. Conditions are primitive. The new government will be able to abolish the death penalty. Will Japanese people call for it? Will they allow it? It would be a healthy step towards cultural maturity if …
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Japan to lead climate change fight?
Incoming Prime Minister Hatoyama has said that Japan will adopt a goal of cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 25% at the Copenhagen talks in December. This is the bottom end of the range proposed by the UN (15%-40% cuts), but far more than considered by Japan and other rich emitters so far. Japan is the …
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Change in The East too.
Japan has voted for change. After more than half a century of nearly unbroken rule the LDP was defeated in a landslide victory by the Democratic Party of Japan. Of course, it is not easy to win an election in the face of an economic recession – people are naturally unhappy with the status quo. …
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The mother of “people power”
The Mother of ‘People Power’ FEER Corazon Aquino January 25, 1933 – August 1, 2009