inction occur with greater frequency, greater rapidity and greater impact than at any other time.
Each day 100 living species become extinct, 1,000 acres of peat bogs are excavated and 150,000 acres of tropical rainforest are destroyed. Each day, 2 million tons of toxic waste is dumped in to our rivers and seas, 22 million tons of oil are extracted and 100 million tons of greenhouse gases are released.…
Added by Michael Grove at 15:26 on February 11, 2011
greater threat to global peace was developing in the Indian sub-continent.
Two week ago, a murderous terrorist attack by Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) militants based in Pakistani-run Kashmir killed 40 Indian troops. The Indians responded by bombing the JeM training camp, risking a clash with the Pakistani air force which was scrambled in response. The strikes are the first launched across the line of control since the 1971 war.
Kashmir has long been a flash point between the two nuclear powers but the bellicose rhetoric attached to the latest stand-off is especially worrying. In India, the BJP government of Narendra Modi has been under pressure from its Hindu nationalist supporters to hit back and, with an election due by May, does not want to appear weak. This is being replicated in Pakistan, which has promised to retaliate “at a time and place of its choosing”. Once such a pledge has been made it would be hard for the relatively new prime minister Imran Khan not to follow it through.
If Pakistan is offering a safe haven to JeM then they should dismantle the camps and ensure this is done in a verifiable way. Equally, however, it is reckless of the BJP to use the prospect of Indian elections to continue actions that can only invite a response from Islamabad.
Western leaders preoccupied with other matters should take some time off to consider the geopolitics of the sub-continent and see if their good offices can reduce tensions and help avert what risks becoming a calamitous conflict.
…
Meretz party that Meir Margalit represented in the Jerusalem City Council.
We learn from her struggles the fundamental truth that democracy and peace are one and the
same policy, that one cannot be sustained without the other, that the continued Israeli
occupation of the territories over which the neighbouring Palestine should be founded is
converting Israel into an apartheid state, and that this process is a grave and sad betrayal of
Jewish values and history.Equally we are reminded as ever that the global system quo is one that regards ALL CRITICISM
as DESTRUCTIVE and that any CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM is therefore INVALID & UNACCEPTABLE.
May her memory be a blessing.
RIP Shulamit Aloni
…
Earth Days to come for our
beautiful Spaceship Earth as it continues to spin and circle in frigid
space with its warm and fragile cargo of animate life."
Epcot's Spaceship Earth
Spaceship Earth is the name given to the 165 ft geodesic sphere that
greets visitors at the entrance of Walt Disney World's Epcot theme
park. Housed within the sphere is a dark ride that serves to explore
the history of communications and promote Epcot's founding
principles, "[A] belief and pride in man's ability to shape a world that
offers hope to people everywhere."
A previous incarnation of the ride, narrated by actor Jeremy Irons and
revised in 2008, was explicit in its message:
Like a grand and miraculous spaceship, our planet has sailed through the universe of time, and for a brief moment, we have been among its many passengers….We now have the ability and the responsibility to build new bridges of acceptance and co-operation between us, to create a better world for ourselves and our children as we continue our amazing journey aboard Spaceship Earth.
…
Added by Michael Grove at 6:37 on September 20, 2016