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Obama: partisan battles in Washington holding back US economy

Mon, 20 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - May. 20 (News) - President says US must get beyond 'short-term tactical thinking' and gives highly personal commencement address in Atlanta President Barack Obama complained on Sunday that partisan battles in Washington are holding back stronger US economic growth as he tried to recover from one of the most difficult weeks of his presidency. On a trip to Atlanta, Obama did not specifically mention the three controversies that engulfed his administration last week and raised questions as to how much of his second-term agenda he will be able to achieve. His message was clear when he told Democratic donors that an American economic revival is being held back by a "tendency in Washington to put politics ahead of policy, to put the next election ahead of the next generation, and that mindset is what we need to change." Obama's appearance in Atlanta came as he seeks to regain his footing from one of his worst weeks since taking office in early 2009. His Internal Revenue Service was found to have targeted his ...

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Population growth and climate change explained by Hans Rosling

Fri, 17 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Claire Provost, Claudine Spera - May. 17 (News Report) - Han Rosling demonstrates the dynamics of population growth, child mortality and carbon dioxide emissionsClaire ProvostClaudine Spera

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World's tallest dam approved by Chinese environmental officials

Fri, 17 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Jonathan Kaiman - May. 17 (News Report) - Authorities push forward plans for 314 metre-high dam on Dadu river which would affect rare plants and fish Chinese environmental authorities have approved construction plans for what could become the world's tallest dam, while acknowledging that the project would affect endangered plants and rare fish species. The 314 metre-high dam (1,030ft) will serve the Shuangjiangkou hydropower project along the Dadu river in south-western Sichuan province, according to China's state news agency, Xinhua. A subsidiary of Guodian Group, one of China's five major state-owned power companies, will complete the project over a decade at an estimated cost of £2.9bn. The dam will be far taller than the 185 metre-high Three Gorges dam along the Yangtze river – the world's most powerful hydroelectric project – and slightly edge out the current record holder, the 300 metre-high Nurek dam in Tajikistan . The world's second-tallest dam, the 292 metre-high Xiaowan dam on the Lancang (Mekong) river, is also ...

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Greek addicts turn to deadly sisha drug as economic crisis deepens

Fri, 17 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Helena Smith - May. 17 (News Analysis) - Growing popularity of 'cocaine of the poor' in Athens has overwhelmed public health authorities already under strain Nobody knows which came first: the economic crisis tearing Greece apart or shisha, the drug now known as the "cocaine of the poor".

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We need to talk about masculinity

Fri, 17 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Laurie Penny - May. 17 (Opinion) - The crisis facing men and boys cannot be solved by reviving the tired stereotypes that oppress and constrain them We need to talk about masculinity. Across a country torn by recession and struggling to adapt to social change, men and boys are feeling lost and powerless, unsure what the future holds and what role they might play in it. Most feel as if they're not allowed to question what it means to be a man today – or discuss what it might mean tomorrow. The Labour MP Diane Abbott, launching a new campaign this week, is not the first person to kick up a fuss about this "crisis of masculinity". In a speech to the thinktank Demos on Thursday she said that millions of young men are in distress, acting out violently or sinking into depression. Unfortunately, the only solution many in the audience could offer is not giving men and boys more power over their own lives, but restoring their traditional power over women, as "breadwinners" and "male providers". Nobody seems to have bothered to ask ...

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UK's climate change adaptation team cut from 38 officials to just six

Fri, 17 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Fiona Harvey - May. 17 (News Report) - Former senior official John Ashton attacks government for 'spooking potential investors' in energy infrastructure The number of people employed by the government to work on the UK's response to the effects of climate change has been cut from 38 officials to just six, triggering accusations that David Cameron's promise to be the greenest government has been abandoned. The UK is facing a multi-billion pound bill over the next few years for the costs of adapting to the effects of climate change – including flooding , much fiercer storms, droughts, heatwaves and more extreme weather. The government's advisers, the Committee on Climate Change, have warned that the measures needed to prepare the UK's infrastructure will include defences for power stations, transport and communication networks, changes to how buildings are constructed, and new ways of trying to prevent flooding, such as an upgrade to the Thames Barrier. But the number of officials charged with dealing with the issue within the ...

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Survey finds 97% climate science papers agree warming is man-made

Thu, 16 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - May. 16 (News) - Overwhelming majority of peer-reviewed papers taking a position on global warming say humans are causing it Our team of citizen science volunteers at Skeptical Science has published a new survey in the journal Environmental Research Letters of over 12,000 peer-reviewed climate science papers, as the Guardian reports today . This is the most comprehensive survey of its kind, and the inspiration of this blog's name: Climate Consensus – the 97%. The survey In 2004, Naomi Oreskes performed a survey of 928 peer-reviewed climate papers published between 1993 and 2003, finding none that rejected the human cause of global warming. We decided that it was time to expand upon Oreskes' work by performing a keyword search of peer-reviewed scientific journal publications for the terms 'global warming' and 'global climate change' between the years 1991 and 2011. Our team agreed upon definitions of categories to put the papers in: explicit or implicit endorsement of human-caused global warming, no ...

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The real Obama scandal: fighting illegal wars in Libya and Pakistan

Thu, 16 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Michael Cohen - May. 16 (Comment) - The AP, IRS and Benghazi controversies are political sideshows. Obama's use of illegal force abroad is true concern Washington DC appears to have reached peak hysteria this week. The confluence of not one, not two, but three potential scandals involving the White House has given practically every Beltway scribe a case of the vapors as they don their Woodward/Bernstein capes and doggedly uncover the truth behind the Obama Administration's lies. What's missing, however, is actual evidence of wrongdoing. The IRS scandal is certainly the most politically toxic, but it remains unclear that anyone from the Obama Administration knew what the IRS was doing or that the agency was even targeting conservative groups for partisan political reasons. The Department of Justice's subpoena of phone records from the Associated Press is far more troubling because it offers a glimpse into the prosecutorial zeal that has defined DoJ's investigation of leaks from within the Obama Administration. Finally, there ...

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IT security in India under scrutiny after $45m cash machine heists

Wed, 15 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - May. 15 (News Report) - Millions stolen after gang broke into two card-processing firms based in India and raised balances and withdrawal limits A breach of security at two payment card-processing companies in India that led to heists at cash machines around the world has reopened questions on the risks of outsourcing sensitive financial services to the country. Global banks that ship work to be processed in India, either in-house or to large IT services vendors, were already under pressure to step up oversight of back-office functions after a series of scandals last year. Last week, prosecutors in the United States said a global criminal gang stole $45m (£29.5m) from two Middle Eastern banks by breaking into the two card-processing companies based in India and raising balances and withdrawal limits. "India is exposed in two ways: the threat that the same theft could happen in India and the fact that the outsourcing industry will also get affected," said Arpinder Singh, partner and national director for fraud ...

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European energy chief puts forward case for funding coal

Mon, 13 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Terry Macalister - May. 13 (News) - EBRD chief Riccardo Puliti warns Europe not to be hasty in adopting 'ideological' policy on carbon intensity funding One of Europe's most influential government-owned investors in the energy industry has hinted it may expand funding of high-carbon coal projects despite mounting pressure from climate change campaigners to rule out such investments. Riccardo Puliti, energy chief at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), warned against an "ideological" policy on carbon intensity in funding decisions without giving weight to other considerations. The EBRD, which is based in London and owned by more than 60 countries, including the UK, is reviewing its energy policy. It has a €37.5bn (£32bn) loan book, with 41% of its investments last year channelled into the energy and infrastructure sectors. Puliti's comments came as scientists declared the highest day-long concentration of C0 2 in human history and a line of global institutions such as the International Energy ...

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Climate change 'will make hundreds of millions homeless'

Sun, 12 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Robin McKie - May. 12 (Comment) - Carbon dioxide levels indicate rise in temperatures that could lead agriculture to fail on entire continents It is increasingly likely that hundreds of millions of people will be displaced from their homelands in the near future as a result of global warming. That is the stark warning of economist and climate change expert Lord Stern following the news last week that concentrations of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere had reached a level of 400 parts per million (ppm). Massive movements of people are likely to occur over the rest of the century because global temperatures are likely to rise to by up to 5C because carbon dioxide levels have risen unabated for 50 years, said Stern, who is head of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change. "When temperatures rise to that level, we will have disrupted weather patterns and spreading deserts," he said. "Hundreds of millions of people will be forced to leave their homelands because their crops and animals will have died. The trouble will ...

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Climate change: swift political action can avert a carbon dioxide crisis

Sun, 12 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - May. 12 (Editorial) - Carbon dioxide levels have reached an all-time high. But there is some hope if governments take the figures seriously The news that concentrations of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere reached a level of 400 parts per million last week might not appear to have immediate significance. The level is only a couple of units higher than last year, after all. Yet the development has undoubted importance. With the realisation that carbon dioxide levels have achieved that symbolic 400ppm figure, it is now clear that two decades of warnings from scientists have fallen on deaf ears and that our leaders have failed completely to curtail rising outputs of greenhouse gases across the world. Indeed, they have allowed them to accelerate. In the 1960s, levels rose at 0.7ppm a year. Today, they rise at 2.1ppm, as more and more nations become industrialised and increase outputs from their factories and power plants. As a result, the most conservative of scientific calculations suggest Earth now faces a 50-50 ...

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'Climate change sceptics are turning Earth into dying patient'

Fri, 10 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Fiona Harvey - May. 10 (News Report) - Heir to throne intervenes on issue dividing coalition, making outspoken criticism of attempts to tackle global warming Prince Charles has attacked corporate lobbyists and climate change sceptics for turning the Earth into a "dying patient", making his most outspoken criticism yet of the world's failure to tackle global warming just when the heir to the throne is assuming a growing number of the duties of what is supposed to be an apolitical monarchy. Hosting a two-day conference for forest scientists at St James's Palace in London, the Prince of Wales satirised those who stand in the way of climate action, characterising them as "the confirmed sceptics" and "the international association of corporate lobbyists". Faced with these forces of opposition, "science finds itself up the proverbial double blind gum tree", he added. At the debate on environmental issues, hours after the prince attended the Queen's speech, Charles attacked businesses which failed to care for the environment and ...

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Shell presses ahead with world's deepest offshore oil well

Thu, 09 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Simon Goodley - May. 09 (News Report) - Company will drill almost two miles underwater in Gulf of Mexico as part of next generation of deep-water developments Royal Dutch Shell is pressing ahead with the world's deepest offshore oil and gas production facility by drilling almost two miles underwater in the politically sensitive Gulf of Mexico. The move is being viewed in the oil industry as a demonstration of Shell's confidence that its technology can deliver returns on expensive and risky offshore projects, despite a recent downturn in oil prices. It comes a day after ExxonMobil said it would start work on a $4bn (£2.6bn) project to develop the Julia oilfield, also in the North American ocean basin, and weeks after BP delayed development of its biggest Gulf of Mexico project – Mad Dog Phase 2 – citing rising costs. John Hollowell, a Shell executive vice-president, said: "This important investment demonstrates our ongoing commitment to usher in the next generation of deepwater developments, which will deliver more production ...

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Rupert Murdoch must step down as News Corporation chair – shareholders

Thu, 09 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - May. 09 (News) - Christian Brothers Investment Services demands action to 'dramatically revise corporate governance practices' Dissident shareholders are pressing once more for the media mogul Rupert Murdoch to step down as chairman of News Corporation . Shareholders from the US, UK and Canada filed a resolution on Tuesday, calling for News Corp to appoint an independent chairman. A similar resolution attracted strong support at the media company's annual shareholder meeting last year . The proposal was introduced by Christian Brothers Investment Services (CBIS), which manages $4.6bn for Catholic institutions worldwide. It is backed by the UK's Local Authority Pension Fund Forum, with assets of £115bn ($178.9bn), and British Columbia Investment Management Corporation, one of Canada's largest institutional investors. In a separate resolution, Nathan Cummings Foundation, an ethical investment group, has called on News Corp to end the dual-class share structure that allows the Murdoch family to control ...

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Stephen Hawking's support for the boycott of Israel is a turning point

Thu, 09 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Ali Abunimah - May. 09 (Opinion) - Boycotting Israel as a stance for justice is going mainstream – Israelis can no longer pretend theirs is in an enlightened country A standard objection to the Palestinian campaign for the boycott of Israel is that it would cut off "dialogue" and hurt the chances of peace. We've heard this again in the wake of Professor Stephen Hawking's laudable decision to withdraw from Israel's Presidential Conference in response to requests from Palestinian academics – but it would be hard to think of a more unconvincing position as far as Palestinians are concerned. One of the most deceptive aspects of the so-called peace process is the pretence that Palestinians and Israelis are two equal sides, equally at fault, equally responsible – thus erasing from view the brutal reality that Palestinians are an occupied, colonised people, dispossessed at the hands of one of the most powerful militaries on earth. For more than two decades, under the cover of this fiction, Palestinians have engaged in ...

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Is Cameron's Britain what we fought for in the war?

Thu, 09 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Harry Leslie Smith - May. 09 (Opinion) - At 90 I'm too old to fight those who seek to wreck the civilisation we shed blood, sweat, and tears for in the second world war Every year, the spring rains fall hard and heavy to a parched and hungry earth. Life is reborn from the long slumber of winter. For me the beauty in this annual transformation stings as if I caught my finger on a thorn from a rose. These lengthening days remind me of another time, when I was a young man. Back then the sun's rays were just as warm and sensuous but the splendour of nature being reborn was tainted with death. It was 1945, and Europe was still caught in the dying grasps of a cruel and unforgiving world war . It was a conflict that consumed tens of millions of lives through military battles, air bombardment and pure and simple mass murder. For five years of war, through defeat and bitter struggle, the calendar changed from humid summers to crisp fall days, to the bitterness of winter and then back to the optimism of spring. As clocks in every household ...

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Israel: Syria air strikes not intended to further destabilise Assad government

Mon, 06 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Harriet Sherwood - May. 06 (News Analysis) - Israel sought to avoid a direct confrontation with the Syrian regime on Monday by stressing that air strikes across its northern border at the weekend were intended to prevent weapons reaching Hezbollah in Lebanon rather than further destabilise the government of President Bashar al-Assad.

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Brittany villages blazing a trail in energy self-sufficiency

Sun, 05 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Hervé Kempf - May. 05 (News) - Residents of Côtes D'Armor in northern France hope a series of green schemes can also reinvigorate the local economy Jacky Aignel, the leader of Saint Gouéno council in Brittany, looks at the cranes hoisting blades to the top of a wind-mast: "We've been waiting so long for this," he sighs.

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Pakistan's women face battle for the right to vote

Sat, 04 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Tracy McVeigh - May. 04 (News) - Female activists plan to deploy protection teams to polling stations in forthcoming elections Fears over the safety of women voting in next week's elections in Pakistan are rising after letters have been circulated in regions of the country warning men not to allow their wives, sisters and daughters out to the polling stations. In an increasingly fraught and violent runup to the 11 May vote, leaflets are appearing stating that it is "un-Islamic" for women to participate in democracy. Now a group of young female activists are planning to challenge what they call the government's inability to protect women's right to vote by organising their own protection teams at individual polling stations in tense and volatile Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, one of the four provinces of Pakistan, formerly known as the North West Frontier Province. In what is being called Pakistan's youth election – almost a third of the electorate is between 18 and 29 – a growing tide of young women are determined to overcome ...

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The nudge unit – has it worked so far?

Thu, 02 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - May. 02 (Opinion) - Since 2010 David Cameron's pet project has been tasked with finding ways to improve society's behaviour – and now the 'nudge unit' is going into business by itself. But have its initiatives really worked? When the day comes to write the obituary of this curious coalition, a day that many feel can't come too soon, it won't be "the big society" that it is remembered for creating. It seems unlikely to be "fairness" either. There may, however, be a large section on "the nudge unit", otherwise known as the cabinet office's behavioural insights team . Set up in the summer of 2010 shortly after this government came to office, and well known to be a pet project of David Cameron's, it is essentially a little band of academics looking for ways to run the country better. (There used to be nine of them, but there are now 13, mostly economists and psychologists.) In part, the unit owes its reputation to Cameron, and to its nickname, a reference to the 2008 book Nudge by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein, ...

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EU debates biopiracy law to protect indigenous people

Wed, 01 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - May. 01 (News Report) - Pharmaceutical firms would need to compensate indigenous people for using their knowhow in creating new medicines The European parliament is debating a draft biopiracy law requiring industry to compensate indigenous people if it makes commercial use of local knowledge such as plant-based medicines. Under the law – based on the international convention on access to biodiversity, the Nagoya protocol – the pharmaceuticals industry would need the written consent of local or indigenous people before exploring their region's genetic resources or making use of their traditional knowhow. Relevant authorities would have the power to sanction companies that fail to comply, protecting local interests from the predatory attitude of big European companies. German firm patents South African herb The draft report on access to genetic resources by Green MEP Sandrine Bélier cites as an example a German pharmaceutical company's dealings in South Africa. Pelargonium sidoides, a variety of ...

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Girl, 14, forced to become pregnant with donor sperm bought by mother

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Caroline Davies - Apr. 29 (Special Report) - Judge describes 'wicked and selfish' motive of using daughter to provide parent with a fourth child A mother forced her 14-year-old adopted daughter to inseminate herself with donor sperm to provide a baby for her after she was prevented from adopting any more children, it can be revealed. The daughter, a virgin, is believed to have miscarried at 14, but went on to have a baby at 16 after regularly inseminating herself with sperm bought over the internet by her "domineering" mother because she was too scared to refuse. Details of the shocking case have emerged in a previously secret court judgment, which can be reported today for the first time and which raises serious questions over loopholes in international adoptions and the regulation of the global traffic in gametes. The adoptive mother, who cannot be identified for fear of identifying her daughter and grandchild, is now serving a five-year prison sentence after admitting child cruelty. In a high court judgment deciding welfare ...

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Carbon bubble makes Australia's coal industry ripe 'for financial implosion'

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Damian Carrington - Apr. 29 (News Analysis) - Much of the nation's coal reserves will be worthless if world's governments fulfil pledge to cap emissions, warns report Australia's huge coal industry is a speculative bubble ripe for financial implosion if the world's governments fulfil their agreement to act on climate change, according to a new report . The warning that much of the nation's coal reserves will become worthless as the world hits carbon emission limits comes after banking giant Citi also warned Australian investors that fossil fuel companies could do little to avoid the future loss of value. Australia is already the globe's biggest coal exporter and "mega-mine" plans in Queensland for more extraction are identified as the world's second biggest " carbon bomb " threatening runaway global warming. "Investments in Australian coal rest on a speculative bubble of climate denial, indifference or dreaming," said John Connor, one of the new report's authors and CEO of The Climate Institute , an independent research organisation ...

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Insecticide firms in secret bid to stop ban that could save bees

Sun, 28 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - Apr. 28 (News) - Last-ditch lobbying to sway vote in Brussels to halt use of killer nerve agents Europe is on the brink of a landmark ban on the world's most widely used insecticides, which have increasingly been linked to serious declines in bee numbers. Despite intense secret lobbying by British ministers and chemical companies against the ban, revealed in documents obtained by the Observer , a vote in Brussels on Monday is expected to lead to the suspension of the nerve agents. Bees and other insects are vital for global food production as they pollinate three-quarters of all crops. The plummeting numbers of pollinators in recent years has been blamed on disease, loss of habitat and, increasingly, the near ubiquitous use of neonicotinoid pesticides. The prospect of a ban has prompted a fierce behind-the-scenes campaign. In a letter released to the Observer under freedom of information rules, the environment secretary, Owen Paterson, told the chemicals company Syngenta last week that he was "extremely ...

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