The most important news from China in decades was conveyed by official statements on September 26th. These statements described the effects of the much-lauded and just-completed Three Gorges Dam as a possible environmental “catastrophe.” Such candor marks a dramatic reversal of the long-running campaign of celebrating this dam, which stands at the point where the Yangtze River spills from the highlands of Sichuan into the China plain, as a triumph of engineering and marvel of the world, as a new Great Wall.

The worst news is about pollution. Immense quantities of waste—ranging from simple sewage to high-nitrogen fertilizer runoff, paper and chemical plant waste, non-biodegradable organic phosphorus pesticides, toxic metals, and even radioactive isotopes discarded by hospitals—are poured into Chinese waterways every day. Much water in China is already so toxic that it cannot be used even for irrigation. The building of the dam and the consequent slowing …

BIOFUELS firms are demanding the British government and the European Union take action to stop American rivals exploiting subsidies to flood the European markets with cut-price fuel.

The Renewable Energy Association, an industry group, contacted the Department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform and European Union trade commissioner Peter Man-delson in recent weeks. The European Biodiesel Board is also lobbying the EU to protest to the US government.

Since the start of the year, American biodiesel groups have flooded the European markets with cheap fuel. The volumes are so large that US imports are thought to account for more than 50% of demand for biodiesel.

European biodiesel groups, including Biofuels Corporation, the UK’s largest producer, and listed group D1 Oils, have warned that the glut of cheap American imports could drive many firms out of business.
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/natural_resources/article2557242.ece

Our current world of globalization, technological advancement and the widening schism between rich and poor stems from the Industrial Revolution. Indeed, the Industrial Revolution is arguably the most important historical watershed in human history. So why did it happen in eighteenth-century England? Furthermore, how come the unprecedented economic growth it produced only served to make parts of the world even poorer?

Conventional wisdom is that the Industrial Revolution resulted from the development of stable, political, legal and economic institutions in seventeenth-century Europe. Many assume factors such as geography, natural resources or exploitation were behind the Industrial Revolution. A decade ago, Jared Diamond postulated in his best selling and Pulitzer prize winning book, Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies, that natural endowments such as geography were largely responsible for differences in the wealth of nations.

Gregory Clark, a professor of economics at the University …

An increasing number of lawmakers, policymakers, and heads of major corporations worldwide have expressed a willingness to address climate change. They believe the scientific evidence is clear enough to warrant action. But some scientists, economists, industry groups, and policy experts continue to insist there is no need for policy changes. They point to the uncertainty of climate models and predictions. Others, conceding the trend, insist the entire problem has been blown out of proportion. The debate is at times acrimonious, with its seemingly endless series of claims and counterclaims on both the science and on proposed policy solutions. Although alternative views of climate change often have been labeled denial—a few researchers say the world is cooling—most climate-change skeptics do concede the planet is warming. Instead, they debate the cause, its potential impact, and whether human intervention can affect it.
http://www.cfr.org/publication/14318/alternative_views_on_climate_change.html

Die Europäische Union ist bei der Zivilluftfahrt-Konferenz im kanadischen Montreal mit ihrem Vorstoß für mehr Klimaschutz beim Fliegen gescheitert. Zwar einigten sich die Teilnehmer der Tagung der Internationalen Zivilluftfahrt-Organisation ICAO auf Leitlinien zur Bekämpfung der Erderwärmung. Sie lehnten aber die konkreten EU-Forderungen nach einer Begrenzung des Ausstoßes an klimaschädlichem Kohlendioxid (CO2) in der Luftfahrt und der Teilnahme des Luftverkehrs am Emissionshandel ab. Die Europäische Kommission in Brüssel reagierte enttäuscht.

Die Delegierten in Montreal lehnten nicht nur die Teilnahme von Fluglinien am Emissionshandel ab. Zudem verabschiedeten sie eine Entschließung, die die Teilnehmerstaaten auffordert, sich nicht einseitig auf Emissionsziele zu verpflichten. Giovanni Bisignani, Generaldirektor des Internationalen Luftverkehrsverbandes (IATA) erklärte, die europäischen Initiativen seien fehlgeleitet: “Das ist enttäuschend und unverantwortlich.” In der IATA sind 240 Fluggesellschaften organisiert.
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5iaAZsO7uPc23kH2-e4tLZ8SB7ySA

The administration of George W. Bush seems to have discovered a new interest in the issue of climate change, starting just before the G8 summit last summer in Germany. Common wisdom holds that this interest is either shallow or, more cynically, an effort to derail ongoing international negotiations via distraction. But when President Bush proposed that a new international framework for climate change be developed by the end of 2008, his last year in office, he had no trouble getting other world leaders to agree enthusiastically, and a first meeting is scheduled for this week in Washington. [...]

A 2005 paper in Presidential Studies Quarterly by William Howell and Kenneth Mayer finds that “having lost in November, presidents usher through the regulatory process roughly 25 percent more rules and directives during the final three months of their terms.” The effect is much larger when the White House changes …

"I speak in the name of the entire German people when I assure the world that we all share the honest wish to eliminate the enmity that brings far more costs than any possible benefits… It would be a wonderful thing for all of humanity if both peoples would renounce force against each other forever. The German people are ready to make such a pledge.”
Adolf Hitler - 14th October 1933

“The assertion that it is the intention of the German Reich to coerce the Austrian State is absurd”
Adolf Hitler - 30th January 1934

“Germany neither intends nor wishes to interfere in the internal affairs of Austria, to annex Austria, or to conclude an Anschluss.”
Adolf Hitler - 21st May 1935

“Germany has concluded a Non-Aggression Pact with Poland… We shall adhere to it unconditionally… we recognize …

During a recent seminar organised by the German Marshall Fund in Brussels, I heard EU commission expert for biofuels Paul Hodson express his growing frustration with all the negative news about the agro-fuels in the last twelve months. “Once I was proud of what I was doing”, Paul said, “but now I feel more and more like I am being looked upon as a pornographer”. Knowing Paul personally I really understand his predicament. With very ambitious EU targets (5.75% biofuels to be used for transport by 2010 and 10% by 2020), Hodson and his colleagues are trying hard to keep up the credibility of the EU’s biofuels action by defining sustainability certification criteria for the use of the alternative fuels. But maybe, in view of some recent reports, they should have the courage to question the policy alltogether and propose a moratorium on further promotion of biofuels until more research …