December 2015

A little-known US senator named Barack Obama said in 2002: “I don’t oppose all wars. [...] What I am opposed to is a dumb war. What I am opposed to is a rash war. [...] A war based not on reason but on passion.” Americans were angry after 9/11 and President George Bush Jr chose to channel their anger not against Saudi Arabia (most of the Al-Qaida terrorists involved came from there), but against Iraq, which the US invaded six months later. The media wanted the war and most Democratic senators, (...)

The Arab world, beset by divisions between ruling elites and local populations and between Sunni and Shia, is drawing an ever-widening circle of outside players into its domestic and regional conflicts. Among them is ISIS.

There isn’t one war, the West versus Isis. Not even after last month’s terrorist attacks in Paris. There are layers of Middle Eastern conflicts, all linked to international intervention, of which the most intractable are heightened by the Sunni-Shia divide.

The US and its partners now look to the Assad regime and its allies to negotiate a transition to peace and elections. Assad doesn’t see his, and Syria’s, future the same way.

Domestically and internationally, Saudi Arabia depends on its oil wealth. Without that money — now daily depleted by deliberate falls in oil prices — its rulers are losing their domestic support.

Despite Aung San Suu Kyi’s victory, the army still controls 25% of parliament, and the country has huge economic problems and civil and social conflicts to resolve.

The growth that has driven fossil fuel emissions and climate change has not only extracted resources from the poorest nations and people but left them to suffer in places wrecked by that process.

US banks, and the even more predatory check-cashing and payday loan chains, make most of their money in interest and fees from those who must borrow short-term to get by from day to day.

The world is actively restricting population growth; sub-Saharan Africa is not. The future projections threaten all improvement in local living conditions.

Tax breaks and tax obstacles help and hinder the collection of art in Brazil. The country itself — and its galleries and museums — can’t afford to collect Brazilian artists.

In a surveillance state we’re not just the unwillingly watched — we’re also the willingly watched, and the watchers.

Global trade brought huge quantities of brightly coloured and patterned Indian cottons to Europe in the 17th century. And that’s when fashion as we know it got its start.

The oceans moderate global warming, which in turn has major effects on their ecosystems. Within the framework of the Oceans 2015 Initiative, some 20 researchers from across the world have analysed the risks of impact on marine and coastal ecosystems. They warn that safeguarding our oceans must be a priority of the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 21) in Paris.

Last September the US established a huge marine reserve in the Pacific Ocean, covering nearly 1.3m sq km.  The Chilean government and the inhabitants of Easter Island are debating the creation of a ‘marine park’.

By protecting our marine resources we can help local economies, especially through ecotourism.

Climate talks too often neglect the world’s oceans. One of the key aims of the Paris climate conference (COP 21) is to define precise rules to protect oceans and manage them sustainably.