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Tuesday, May 19, 2026
News and Views from the Global South
ECONOMY: Neoliberalism Ailing but Alive
The global financial crisis led many European economists and civil society activists to believe that the neo-liberal paradigm in social and economic policies across the industrialised world and many developing countries had passed away, victim of its own flaws.BIODIVERSITY: ‘Pious Words Won’t Save Endangered Species’
Less than a month after the world's heads of governments failed to sign an international treaty to address climate change at Copenhagen, they are back at making pious speeches, this time in favour of protecting biodiversity, endangered by global warming and other causes.
Wanted: Methane-Free Livestock
Studies of cattle metabolism and diet seek to reduce gas emissions from the meat industry, another villain in the climate change drama.
CLIMATE CHANGE: Doors Opening for Carbon Tax
With the chance for a global climate change treaty on hold, a tax on greenhouse gases could be an effective alternative for discouraging the activities that create emissions, say economists and environmentalists.
Doors Opening for Carbon Tax
The disappointing results of the Copenhagen climate summit could give a push to taxes on emissions of carbon dioxide, something many economists have been calling for and some governments have already adopted.
CLIMATE CHANGE: The Many Lives of the Tobin Tax
In the decades since 1972, when Nobel laureate economist James Tobin (1918-2002) first proposed it, the idea of a tax on currency speculation has resurfaced and disappeared many times, according to the economic tides.
The Many Lives of the Tobin Tax
The urgent need to confront climate change in a context of global financial crisis has given new life to the "Tobin tax", an initiative for fiscal action on speculative transactions.CLIMATE CHANGE: Negawatts and Smart Grids
Electricity is indispensable to modern life, but its generation is responsible for 40 percent of the carbon dioxide emissions that cause global warming and climate change.ECONOMY: Government Failures Feeding Next Financial Bubble
Numerous failures by industrialised countries’ governments and central banks in managing the financial crisis are feeding the next bubble, which most likely will again provoke economic woes such as recession, unemployment, and poverty, according to economists and analysts.CLIMATE CHANGE: The Danish Example
Whether a new internationally binding treaty to reduce greenhouse gases and forestall climate change will be signed next month remains to be seen. What is clear though, is that if there is a place in the world that deserves to be the stage where this treaty ought to be signed, it is the Danish capital of Copenhagen.DEVELOPMENT: Climate Change Likely to Increase African Hunger Woes
Africa, the continent already most affected by hunger and food scarcity, is likely to see its woes increased due to climate change and the changing rain patterns it provokes, experts and scientists say.ENERGY-DENMARK: Samso Island, Beyond Fantasy
On the Danish island of Samsø, a model of energy self-sufficiency, even cow's milk helps reduce emissions of climate changing gases.
Samsø Island, Beyond Fantasy
A small Danish island in the North Sea is experimenting with a model of energy production and consumption that could provide some answers in the fight against climate change.CLIMATE CHANGE: Set That 110 Limit
Every single person should set a cap of a total of 110 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions over the next four decades to avoid irreversible and uncontrollable consequences of climate change, under a new proposal.GERMANY: New Govt May Neglect Development Aid
Concerns have risen with the inauguration of the new government that Germany will cut back on its commitments on international development.CLIMATE CHANGE: 350 PPM Too Ambitious, Say Lawmakers
A future global climate change treaty must limit the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to 350 parts per million (ppm), and not 450 ppm, the currently proposed level, Samuel Fankhauser told a meeting of pro-environment legislators from the eight most industrialised countries and emerging economies here. But they felt the goal was not feasible.CLIMATE CHANGE: Budgeting Environmental Justice
There is a consensus that industrialised nations are mainly responsible for the greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming. It should be equally clear that such responsibility should have political consequences. But it isn't.
CLIMATE CHANGE: Carbon Capture Effort Collects Critics
The capture and underground storage of greenhouse gases, especially carbon dioxide, is a dubious method of effectively reducing the pollution that causes global warming, experts warn.
Carbon Capture Effort Collects Critics
Although there is global consensus on the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, most of the methods to capture emissions remain controversial.LABOUR-EUROPE: This Job Is Killing Me
A spate of suicides in France is raising new questions about precarious working conditions imposed by authoritarian management models.GERMANY: Rebuilding Controversially Over a Disputed Past
Reconstruction of some of Berlin's historic buildings that were damaged during World War II or by the Communist regime that earlier ruled East Germany, is raising troubling questions about Germany's past, and its future.« Previous Page — Next Page »
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