January 23, 2007
The worm has turned
Image source: seppo.net
Long viewed as the dirtiest and dastardliest corporation on earth by the environmental movement, Exxon is a company that has made a virtue out of not caring a damn about its social and environmental responsibility. Its stance, in simple terms, has always been if we are making mega-profits and and we have high returns for our shareholders, why change a 'winning formula'? Then the most stunning thing happened a week or so ago. Exxon, it seems, is starting to get twitchy about climate change. When President Oil himself is turning green and talking about growing corn for ethanol and reducing oil consumption, maybe it's time to admit that global warming does exist and that your company is going to do something about it (...well, at least stop funding the front organisations that put out disinformation on global warmng!) An article published in the Wall Street Journal recently reveals the gory details (thanks to Susisusonne for this lead)
January 16, 2007
They have no cars, no factories and no aeroplanes
Image source: GoogleEarth and Stefan Geens
The Carteret Islands are soon to be evacuated as a result of rising sea levels. The 2600 people that live on these islands (belonging to Papua New Guinea) are among the first who will have to relocate because of climate change when they themselves have contributed virtually nothing to greenhouse gas emissions. This short video clip (see below courtesy of undergrowth.org) tells the sad story.
January 04, 2007
Goodbye to the neo-cons
Image source: www.bluestarfolly.com
If one good thing came out of 2006 it was the demise of the neo-cons. Cracks started to show at the beginning of the year when Francis Fukuyama – one of the main architects of the neo-con doctrine – was publically distancing himself from his neo-con buddies as events in Iraq appeared to suggest that the The Project for the New American Century (PNAC) was not exactly going to according to plan! First, there was the demise of the utterly objectionable Donald Rumsfeld, followed shortly thereafter by the equally obnoxious John Bolton who resigned as US Ambassador to the UN. Meanwhile, Paul Wolfowitz may be on borrowed time as President of the World Bank. As for PNAC, according to a recent BBC News report, all that's left now is an answering machine and a lame web site.