To blame our social and environmental problems on a population explosion in the developing world is to ignore the real bottom line, says Asoka Bandarage
Commercial banks should be forbidden from creating ‘virtual’ money, argues James Bruges – our debt-and-interest economies can only lead to collapse or war.
Commercial banks should be forbidden from creating ‘virtual’ money, argues James Bruges – our debt-and-interest economies can only lead to collapse or war.
Just as Sir Nicholas Stern’s report in October 2006 put a price on the effects of climate change, a new report by the UN has begun to cost out the threat of failing to conserve the world’s biodiversity – a cool £40 billion annually, and rising.
Just as Sir Nicholas Stern’s report in October 2006 put a price on the effects of climate change, a new report by the UN has begun to cost out the threat of failing to conserve the world’s biodiversity – a cool £40 billion annually, and rising.
With summer coming earlier and lasting longer each year, we can comfortably predict the annual summer headlines ‘A Water Meter for Every Home’ covering many a front page whenever no fresh photographs of Posh and Becks are to be had.
Revenues obtained from the often illegal extraction and supply of commodities such as timber and diamonds are directly bankrolling corrupt regimes and armed insurgency groups, and fund the purchase of weapons and other contraband goods that perpetuate cycles of conflict.
It’s fair to say that we have our share of robust discussions in this office. Opinions get aired, fingers get pointed, occasionally voices get raised. It’s all in a good cause. Setting the world to rights isn’t always a civilised tea party.
Sometimes it’s good to take a peep at what the enemy is up to. I spent last weekend reading the New York Herald Tribune, and I’ll sometimes look at The Economist. Both these publications are excellent in their way – the Tribune is far superior in writing and information to The Times, for example – but essentially feed the greed of a business-minded readership anxious to figure out what is going on in the world, the better to profit from it.
Don’t be afraid of the recession, says Andrew Simms , it may just be the lucky break we need to get our heads around a more sane economy and a better quality of life
Economist Herman E Daly argues that our future depends on a new economic model, one that needs to be defined by the dynamic balance – the steady state – of the natural world upon which it depends.
Economist Herman E Daly argues that our future depends on a new economic model, one that needs to be defined by the dynamic balance – the steady state – of the natural world upon which it depends.