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Manthorpe on the International Criminal Court: a hobbled creature

The International Criminal Court is a “hobbled creature,” unable to bring to justice perpetrators of crimes against humanity, writes  International Affairs columnist Jonathan Manthorpe’s. It’s under-resourced, shunned by China, Russia, and America, and under attack by critics with much to gain who say it’s a tool of western neo-colonialism, and biased against Africa. An excerpt of Manthorpe’s new column, Tyrants trump under-resourced International Criminal Court: When the International Criminal Court came to life in 2002 it was touted as a place where tyrants and their underlings would be brought to account for genocide and crimes against humanity. But the ICC, based in The Hague,

The back story behind New York’s fracking ban

  Careful, evidence-based journalism underpinned New York’s decision Wednesday to ban fracking in the state. This story by the not-for-profit investigative news room ProPublica provides the back story of the state governor’s announcement. Fracking — the technique of fracturing underground rock by piping in hydraulically pressurized liquid  — has boosted oil and gas extraction around the world. The boom in fracking in the U.S. especially has vastly increased America’s domestic energy supply, and is a factor in the recent plunge in global oil prices. Fracking has also led to conflicts over land use, and is also linked to human health and environmental

On the psychology of materialism, and Christmas

Tim Kasser, an American psychology professor who specializes in materialism and well being, has some thoughts on consumerism, Christmas, and well-being.  On why materialism is sometimes considered a negative, and affects people differently: To be materialistic means to have values that put a relatively high priority on making a lot of money and having many possessions, as well as on image and popularity, which are almost always expressed via money and possessions.  I think materialism is viewed in a negative light because people may have had unpleasant experiences with materialistic people. We know from research that materialism tends to be

Opinion: From Lima, a Munich moment — Chris Wood

By Chris Wood, NATURAL SECURITY opinion columnist    There’s no pleasure in saying, ‘I told you so,” over the Lima climate conference. Unhappily, I did. International delegates meeting in the Peruvian capital reached a beyond-last-minute ‘agreement’ on reducing climate-disruptive greenhouse emissions by, in essence, kicking all the hard goals down the road and leaving the maximum possible room for fudging the numbers later. Class warriors for the North’s wealthy have already dismissed the failure to reach a deal to secure the climate as inconsequential (because, you know, the science isn’t ‘settled’), and blamed it on the poor (and, by implication in

Lima Accord announced on climate

Every country would be required to submit a plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions under the Lima Accord announced Sunday at global climate talks in Peru. The Lima talks aimed to set ground rules for a global climate deal between world leaders meeting late next year in Paris. That deal would kick in after 2020. Negotiators representing 196 counties talked in Lima about adaptation and resilience, boosting a “Green” global fund, and emissions. Their agreement includes a commitment to raising public awareness of climate change in schools and national development plans, among other items. The timing of Sunday’s agreement does not

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