We can't reverse global warming by triggering another catastrophe
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1860053,00.html
Sulphate pollution killed hundreds of thousands of Africans. A plan to
use sulphur to fight climate change risks the same
George Monbiot
Tuesday August 29, 2006
The Guardian
Challenging a Nobel laureate over a matter of science is not something
you do lightly. I have hesitated and backed off, read and reread his
paper, but now I believe I can state with confidence that Paul Crutzen,
winner of the 1995 prize for chemistry, has overlooked a critical
scientific issue.
Crutzen is, as you would expect, a brilliant man. He was one of the
atmospheric chemists who worked out how high-level ozone is formed and
destroyed. He knows more than almost anyone about the impacts of
pollutants in the atmosphere. This is what makes his omission so odd.
Blinded by the cold war
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1860056,00.html
We can no longer deny the link between the eastern Europe exodus and
economic 'reform'
Neil Clark
Tuesday August 29, 2006
The Guardian
As the entry of Bulgaria and Romania into the European Union edges
closer, condescension towards eastern Europeans and their countries of
origin grows into a crescendo. The double standards could not be more
glaring. Both Bulgaria and Romania are routinely portrayed as backward,
mafia-ridden hell-holes that will infect the rest of the continent come
January 1. But is the political system in either country so much more
corrupt than in Berlusconi-tainted Italy or cash-for-honours Britain?
The ideas interview: Frank Kermode
http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,1860099,00.html
Britain's foremost literary critic tells John Sutherland why the study
of English lit needs to become a tough subject again
Tuesday August 29, 2006
The Guardian
Great (British) literary critics are like heavyweight boxing champions.
No one bothers to know their names any more. Lit-crit used to be big
time; Henry Cooper big. No longer.
Our very greatest living GBLC is Frank Kermode, now in his ninth
decade. Sir Frank (like 'Enery in his field of combat) was ennobled for
services to literary criticism. Something makes him a rather lone
figure among the sovereign's doughty band of knights.
Engineers race to steal nature's secrets
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1860075,00.html
Giant wind turbines based on a seed, and desalination plant that mimics
a beetle
John Vidal, environment editor
Tuesday August 29, 2006
The Guardian
A new generation of small green companies is emerging with radical but
proven ideas to revolutionise engineering and create anything from
intelligent fridges to colossal wind turbines moored at sea.
The designers hope their projects will transform energy supplies and
cut carbon emissions in the next 20 years. They include huge wind
turbines, more powerful than any seen before, anchored to the seabed 20
miles off the coast; fridges that monitor the national grid to use less
power; a desalination plant that is also a theatre; and a tidal lagoon
that protects the coast while generating electricity.
Cities in peril as Andean glaciers melt
http://www.guardian.co.uk/climatechange/story/0,,1860204,00.html
Ice sheets expected to last centuries could disappear in 25 years,
threatening water supplies
John Vidal, environment editor
Tuesday August 29, 2006
The Guardian
Andean glaciers are melting so fast that some are expected to disappear
within 15-25 years, denying major cities water supplies and putting
populations and food supplies at risk in Colombia, Peru, Chile,
Venezuela, Ecuador, Argentina and Bolivia.
The Chacaltaya glacier in Bolivia, the source of fresh water for the
cities of La Paz and El Alto, is expected to completely melt within 15
years if present trends continue. Mount Huascar=E1n, Peru's most famous
mountain, has lost 1,280 hectares (3,163 acres) of ice, around 40% of
the area it covered only 30 years ago. The O'Higgins glacier in Chile
has shrunk by nine miles in 100 years and Argentina's Upsala glacier is
losing 14 metres (46ft) a year.
Europe the peacekeeper
http://www.guardian.co.uk/eu/story/0,,1858502,00.html
Sending stabilising forces to Lebanon may be good for the EU's image,
but the task ahead has been dubbed 'mission impossible', says Ian Black
Friday August 25, 2006
Guardian Unlimited
Jacques Chirac may have saved the honour of France by pledging 2,000
men for the expanded UN stabilisation force in Lebanon. Now Italy is
expected to more than match this figure and other European countries
are signing up to ensure they also have respectable numbers serving
under EU flags. The mission remains extremely delicate and volatile,
with people of goodwill only able to wish it well. Still, it's a fair
bet that some participants may yet come to regret their decision.
Prodi comes before a fall
http://www.guardian.co.uk/elsewhere/journalist/story/0,,1857622,00.html
The Italian government has plenty of enthusiasm for sending peackeeping
troops to Lebanon but seemingly little grasp of the difficulties
involved
John Hooper
Thursday August 24, 2006
Guardian Unlimited
You know those cartoons where the cat, fox, wolf or whatever is chasing
some poor animal and charges over a cliff edge? You know how there is
always a moment - its legs are usually still whirling - when the cat,
fox, wolf or whatever realises it has gone too far, too fast? And how
it then turns to the viewer with a look of terror before plunging into
the abyss?
Well, observing Italy's efforts to get involved in solving the problems
of the Middle East over the past month or so has been like watching
that old animated clich=E9 being played out for real.
On Friday, in Brussels, at an emergency meeting of EU foreign
ministers, the Italian representative, Massimo D'Alema, will try to
persuade his counterparts to join Italy in pledging substantial
contributions to the new UN peacekeeping force for Lebanon. Italy has
said it will put in up to 3,000 troops and take command of the force.
Lazy, simplistic and stupid
Conor Foley
August 28, 2006 03:23 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/conor_foley/2006/08/lazy_simplistic_and=
_stupid.html
When does a UN-mandated peacekeeping force become an imperialist army
of occupation?
According to Andrew Murray, the "central issue of our time" is the "new
imperialism" of Anglo-American forces, which apparently stretches from
Iraq to Afghanistan, to Lebanon, but also includes Kosovo and
Bosnia-Herzegovina.
People's ambassadors
Oliver Miles
August 28, 2006 12:13 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/oliver_miles/2006/08/peoples_ambassador=
s=2Ehtml
So President Morales of Bolivia has asked the public to nominate people
who would make good ambassadors, and has appointed as ambassador to
Washington Gustavo Guzm=E1n, a "pony-tailed campaigning journalist" who
doesn't speak much English, and says he is willing to wear a tie if
necessary but not to have his hair cut.
Dull would he be of soul who did not feel a little excited at the
thought that, whereas Bolivian diplomats in the past were all from
"white European backgrounds", the aim now is to show that "Bolivia is a
multiethnic country where everyone can have an opportunity." There is a
problem with these populist initiatives though: they quickly come to
look a bit flyblown. Remember "people's peers", in the bright dawn of
new Labour? It would be unkind to name them now - enough to say that if
one were looking for 12 lords a-leaping to add gaiety to a Christmas
party, one would look elsewhere. 11 lords (and four ladies) a-limping,
yes maybe.
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