All Commentaries
Emphasize Conservation, Alternative Fuels
Of the many lessons to be learned from the effects of Hurricane Katrina, none is perhaps more important over the long run than the obvious need for a new national energy strategy.
National Guard Sent to Protect Oil, not People
Hurricane Katrina blew apart President Bush’s rickety arguments about how invading Iraq would make us safe.
Round Two of Bush vs. North Korea
Hope springs eternal that the Bush administration, in its new post-election configuration, will finally get serious about the North Korean nuclear crisis. According to the most optimistic assessment, the new appointments at the State Department–Condoleezza Rice, Robert Zoellick, Christopher Hill–will leaven the administration’s hard-line policy with a measure of pragmatism. This more realistic diplomacy will attract North Korea back to the Six-Party Talks. Then the new team of U.S. negotiators will take over, having devised a magic formula of carrots and sticks that will persuade Pyongyang to shut down and then eliminate its plutonium facilities as well as its not-yet-acknowledged highly enriched uranium program.
Can Debtors be Choosers?
On February 4th and 5th, leaders of the G-7 nations convened in London to discuss options for ending the grievous cycle of debt that has plagued the world’s most impoverished nations for years. Announcements and proposals prior to the meetings by officials from the United States and Britain calling for 100% cancellation of multilateral debt spurred optimism that a deal could and would be reached over the weekend. Unfortunately, disagreements between John Taylor, the Under Secretary of the U.S. Treasury, and Gordon Brown, Finance Minster for Britain over how to finance the cancellation prevented debt-laden nations from receiving the solutions they need.1 Furthermore, the proposals on the table also failed to include provisions that would eliminate the contentious conditions attached to the current Highly Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) debt-sustainability framework that have caused fierce objections among some debtor nations.2
The Kyoto Protocol, and Beyond
The first thing to say about Kyoto’s entry into force (Feb 16th) is that it is a significant victory, won particularly by the Europeans, over social and economic complacency, cash-amplified, flat-earth pseudo-science, the carbon cartel, and, of course, the Bush administration. The second is that, if itÂs not soon followed by other victories, deeper and even more challenging ones, the EarthÂs climate will soonÂthink 2050 or even soonerÂbe transformed into one that is far more inhospitable, and even hostile, than even most environmentalists imagine.
A Carbon Rush at the World Bank
As the Kyoto Protocol comes into force this month, a carbon rush is gaining steam in the financial industry. Investors predict that the carbon trade could become one of the largest markets in the world with a trading volume of $60 – $250 billion by 2008 and some unlikely actors are gearing up to profit from this new, invisible market. Foremost among them is the World Bank.
The Last Porto Alegre
ItÂs not Paris or Tokyo, Beijing or New York. Nor is it São Paulo or Rio de Janeiro. Enthusiastic residents of Porto Alegre, Brazil will tell you that their modest city of 1.5 million people in the countryÂs deep South is Âthe last bastion of socialism and rock Ân roll. Indeed, stalls covered with black Iron Maiden t-shirts stand in the public markets, and the municipality long served as a stronghold of the Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT), the Brazilian Workers Party. But today Porto Alegre is best known around the globe, especially among those inclined to hold a critical opinion of capitalism, corporate power, and U.S. military aggression, as the original home of the World Social Forum.
The Dangerous Implications of the Hariri Assassination and the U.S. Response
The broader implications of the February 14 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, who was seen by many as the embodiment of the Lebanese peopleÂs efforts to rebuild their country in the aftermath of its 15-year civil war, are yet to unfold. A Sunni Muslim, Hariri reached out to all of LebanonÂs ethnic and religious communities in an effort to unite the country after decades of violence waged by heavily armed militias and foreign invaders.
Explosion of Youth Activism Around the Iraq War
As goes Greensboro, so goes the nation.
Iraq: Two Years Later
In a series of articles written between June 2002 and February 2003, I predicted that if the United States invaded Iraq, it was highly unlikely that we would find any of the weapons of mass destruction or WMD programs that the Bush administration and the congressional leadership of both parties claimed Iraq possessed in their effort to justify an American takeover of that oil-rich country. I also predicted that no operational links between the Iraqi regime and al-Qaida would be found and that a U.S. invasion would encourage terrorism rather than discourage it. Finally, I predicted that we could find ourselves virtually isolated in the international community facing a bloody counter-insurgency war with no end in sight.