Ever since the autumn of 2008, when the financial crisis shook the world economy, it has been almost axiomatic that the downturn would have a serious impact on globalisation. Headlines warned that a less-globalised world was around the corner. Now, with the economic data for the past year becoming available, the verdict is nuanced.
The G-8 climate action agenda calling for 80 per cent reduction in emission by 2050 has been rightly criticised as mere hot air. Without any specific short-term targets or a roadmap to get there, lofty declarations like the one made in L
As the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen scheduled in December approaches, the debate over responsibility for the danger we have created is heating up. The industrialised world is urging developing nations such as China and India to accept limits on carbon-dioxide emission as a pre-condition for their own emissions-reduction plan.
Listening to the earth scientists at the Tallberg Forum speaking about the likely calamities caused by global warming, I had the sensation of entering a parallel universe. It is a universe where an adaptive and inventive human race has grown to over six billion people, created bountiful and rich civilisations built on fossil fuels, and has emerged as the most important specie to geologically alter the planet. Man-made greenhouse gas has placed the earth in a slow cooker. In this parallel universe, the phrase
