³ÉÈËÂÛ̳

Simon Zadek's on the threat from global warming (in that excellent web magazine openDemocracy.net) will probably be condemned as warmed over Marxism. But I was engaged by his theory that political leaders in rich countries are too well protected from the effects of climate change to pass the laws that would make a difference.

He says: "no rich-nation leader will pay the human and financial costs of the Iraq war, or compensate for the poverty resulting from the failure of the Doha trade round."

Simon uses the example of the religious elite in Easter Island who (according to ) deforested the landscape making log rollers to roll the stones to build bigger and bigger totems. They didn't suffer the environmental effect until too late - because they were the elite and lived better than anyone else.

Neat theory, but a bit of a stretch from the available archaeological evidence which is of growing population and shrinking food resources - porpoises, apparently.

Who were the members of the elite, and how do we know they couldn't work out what was going wrong?

Maybe the two thousand Easter Island survivors found by the first European to arrive there in 1722 were the ones left behind. A bit like the hairdressers and phone sanitizers sent off by the cleverer Golgafrinchan's to 'discover new worlds' in the Ark Fleet Ship B in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

"Just look after the statues, we'll be back shortly... and don't eat the last porpoise all at once..."

Are there any photographs? Just a guess, then.

And I do worry just a bit when people blame "them" for society's problems.

Today, when people can make choices to cause less pollution they probably don't.

Do middle class voters in Britain who are most politically active and most likely to disapprove of polluting industries and uncontrolled economic growth all walk their children to school - or are they more likely to drive their children to school rather than walk? Take a guess.

Messing up the planet is a bad thing, but blaming "them" may not be the answer.

• Bookmark with:
• |
• |
• |
• |
• - What's this?

With a strong warning about content and balance, of the unrest in Oaxaca, the story on which Frank Contreras has been updating us.

• Bookmark with:
• |
• |
• |
• |
• - What's this?

Perhaps the reason for the cancellation of the Prince's visit to Peshawar was not only the threat of anti-Western demonstrations.

If this is correct, anyone with a grudge has had longer to prepare for revenge than security services would find comfortable.

• Bookmark with:
• |
• |
• |
• |
• - What's this?

If Sir Nicholas Stern's report is correct, we'll all have wet feet if we're not careful - and the global economy will catch a cold.

The full report is available with full coverage on the website.

and global comments on climate change can be read

• Bookmark with:
• |
• |
• |
• |
• - What's this?

Not in the same breath, you understand, but we covered the tightening of Nicaragua's abortion laws on today's programme, and Gerhard Schroeder's view of George W. Bush.

Nicaragua's legislature is expected to approve a law that outlaws all forms of abortion, including those procedures intended to save the life of a pregnant mother.

The measure has been supported by most major political parties as they seek to win over voters in this overwhelmingly Roman Catholic country as it heads into the Nov. 5 presidential election. Leaders of the Catholic Church helped draft the bill and have mobilized followers to support it.

And the former German chancellor tells us he was worried by the US president's religiosity.

Read the rest of this entry

• Bookmark with:
• |
• |
• |
• |
• - What's this?

With the political pressure building in the US in the last few days before the midterm congressional elections, speculation fever has also risen over the next big test, presidential elections in 2008.

The New Republic ponders chances.

Recent commentary runs and a Hillary Clinton candidacy.

Conservatives seem to think Hillary would frighten so many Democrats that would . Liberals are .

• Bookmark with:
• |
• |
• |
• |
• - What's this?

We've just interviewed Dr. Richard Horton, editor of the medical journal The Lancet. His journal has just published an estimate for the number of civilians killed in Iraq since the 2003 invasion that greatly increases the death toll.

He told us that using door-to-door interviews with families across Iraq, based on population rather than level of violence, this new survey puts the figure above 600,000.

The margin of error puts the lowest figure at more than 400,000.

President Bush said in December last year that the figure had reached 30,000.

You have to make up your own mind who to believe - or if the number matters when the level of violence is obviously far too high whatever the real figures.

What's also intriguing about the latest estimate, though, is the place of publication.

Read the rest of this entry

• Bookmark with:
• |
• |
• |
• |
• - What's this?

Not the name of a band, but a chance to show you a picture of our intrepid New York reporter Tara Gadomski, who is currently working in London for a few days and took the chance to put together a report on the floating within giant booms on the Palm House pond at Kew Gardens.

So put your hands together for Tara and the Cranberries.

Photo credit: Mike Hodder

• Bookmark with:
• |
• |
• |
• |
• - What's this?

I like surprises in digital tech.

We've long guessed that music and news will go on getting easier to hear - downloads and podcasts are just the start.

Some broadcasters, though, have worried that users choosing their own content would undermine the 'channels' that give us a living.

Would the audience forget us; would listener loyalty become a thing of the past?

Like my teenage daughter, who makes her own 'channel' compiling track listings on her MP3 player.

(She doesn't miss the DJ wittering on about the tabloid newspaper stories he's been reading. I can't imagine why.)

Now there's another clue that while people will make their own choices, they might still want channels.

Read the rest of this entry

• Bookmark with:
• |
• |
• |
• |
• - What's this?