The United Nations reports that we have 15 years to avert a full-blown water crisis and that, by 2030, demand for water will outstrip supply by 40 percent. Five hundred renowned scientists brought together by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said that our collective abuse of water has caused the earth to enter a “new geologic age,” a “planetary transformation” akin …
Pact with devil? California farmers use oil firms’ water By Veronique DUPONT
An efficient solution to a historic drought, or an environmentally risky pact with the devil? That’s the question raised by California farmers who are irrigating their crops with waste water supplied by oil companies, in an arrangement slammed as dangerous by environmental campaigners. Driving into the parched region around Bakersfield, in the western US state’s fertile Central Valley, it is …
Mapping the Genome and Modern Genetics: Eugenics Repackaged for Modern Times by John P. Thomas
This is part II of a series on the relationship between the eugenics movement and modern genetics. It examines whether true health and true happiness lie in the human genome. Are we really bound to the set of genes that we received from our parents? Or can we overcome what we were given? What are the factors that activate or …
Fascism in Fancy Dress for the 21st Century by ROYA ARAB
Friends, who happen to be respected left-field musicians, were invited to Austria to perform a couple of gigs and film some music videos paid for by an Austrian arts grant. The lovely hosts were welcoming as was the creative coterie circling them in Vienna – the city of perfect public facades veiling the multifaceted private lives within (I don’t use this phrase lightly having encountered Austrian ways …
Hearts of Darkness: The Vileness of the Clintons by JOSEPH GROSSO
‘Shall we only threaten and be angry for an hour? When the storm is ended shall we find How softly but swiftly they have sidled back to power By the favor and contrivance of their kind?’ – Rudyard Kipling, Mesopotamia What could possibly explain the staying power of the Clintons? After all it’s been over two decades and numerous scandals since …
UN report details Israeli war crimes in Gaza By Jean Shaoul
The report into Israel’s war on Gaza last summer by the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) found that both Israel and Hamas committed war crimes during Israel’s war on Gaza last summer. But while some newspaper headlines may give the impression of equal blame, the UNHRC’s commission of inquiry nevertheless highlighted the disproportionate nature of the killings—2,251 Palestinians of …
Warning over poor cooking skills among teenagers
Young people lack confidence and skills in the kitchen, with many considering microwaving a pizza to be cooking according to a study. They are also not worried about their health, believing that exercising will compensate for a poor diet and smoking. One female first year sports student said she was “just not bothering” about what she ate as she was …
Washington needs to tell the truth about police violence By DeRay McKesson
There have only been 9 days this year when the police have not killed somebody. Some news outlets put the number as high as 500 dead in the past six months, according to both The Guardian and Killed by the Police.Net. The Washington Post’s own investigation showed nearly 400 dead as of the end of May. We know these numbers because activists have searched …
IEA warns of 4.3C temperature jump from climate change
The International Energy Agency on Monday warned temperatures could jump by as much as 4.3 degrees Celsius by the end of the century and urged countries to improve their pledges on reducing emissions. In a report ahead of a climate change conference in Paris this year, the IEA said more should be done to reach the goal of keeping the …
In Fight Against Global Warming, the World is Way Off Target – Deirdre Fulton
In what is being called the most definitive assessment yet of national emissions pledges aimed at meeting global climate goals, the International Energy Agency on Monday released a major report showing that without “learning to live within its means,” the world is set to miss a critical target. In its World Energy Outlook Special Report 2015: Energy and Climate Change (pdf), the Paris-based agency states that …