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Car, life and fire insurance are normal. Now let’s cover the planet

In much of the world environmental regulations are lax, and any changes controversial. F&O Natural Security columnist Chris Wood suggests a simple fix, one already embraced by business and civil society alike. An excerpt of his new column: Acidifying oceans. Desertifying fields. Liquifying glaciers and icecaps. Toxifying lakes and rivers. Our species has a nature problem. Or to put it another way: nature has a human economy problem. Before this century is over — more likely before it’s half over — that problem will be resolved, one way or another. Either we’ll be bright and change the way our economy

Who will succeed Robert Mugabe?

Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe is 90. He has never named a successor and there are indications he enjoys the confusion he spreads by seeming to favour one candidate and then another, writes International Affairs analyst Jonathan Manthorpe. It is a measure of his ability to confuse that there is much chatter in Zimbabwe that he may resign at the December meeting, but there is an equally strong contingent that says Mugabe intends to die in office. An excerpt of Manthorpe’s new column: It offers a glimpse into the dark recesses of Robert Mugabe’s soul that he has remained in power

Canada’s National Film Board at 75

The storied National Film Board of Canada celebrates its 75th anniversary this month. Starting today, May 2, it will offer a celebratory selection of its work in the NFB free online “viewing room.”  The NFB describes itself this way: Canada’s public film producer and distributor creates social-issue documentaries, auteur animation, alternative drama and digital content that provide the world with a unique Canadian perspective, in both official languages of French and English. It works in collaboration with creative filmmakers, digital media creators and co-producers in every region of Canada, with Aboriginal and culturally diverse communities, as well as partners around

The BRICS hit a wall: Manthorpe

Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa have not lived up to the grandiose hopes expressed for them 13 years ago, when it was predicted the developing countries would soon overtake the world’s top economies, writes International Affairs columnist Jonathan Manthorpe. An excerpt of today’s column: There is probably little hope that when Terence James “Jim” O’Neill heard the news on Tuesday he buried his head under a pillow and groaned with embarrassment. But perhaps he should have done. It was O’Neill, who as head of Goldman Sachs’ global economics research in 2001, coined the term BRICs, by which he

Moldova Teeters on Edge of Ukraine Turmoil

The global focus on Ukraine should expand to include Moldova, warns International Affairs analyst Jonathan Manthorpe Polls suggest that only 44 per cent of Moldovans favour EU membership, while support for a customs union with Russia has grown from 30 per cent a few months ago to 40 per cent now. Moscow’s opaque intentions are adding to anxiety in Moldovia that if civil war breaks out in eastern Ukraine, it will spill over, he writes. An excerpt of today’s column: As the West fixates on what Vladimir Putin is doing in eastern Ukraine, perhaps not enough attention is being paid to

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