Archive | December, 2019

  • Berlin Bulletin by Victor Grossman

    Big rallies and big differences

    Looking out my window at the wide Karl Marx Allee boulevard below, I have seen many a big May Day parade march by in the old GDR days, and many a passing bicycle race or Marathon. Recently, for the first time, I saw a slow, endless column of green or yellow tractors.

  • A coral reef near the Indonesian island of Bali. SHUTTERSTOCK

    Are numbers of species a true measure of ecosystem health?

    A recent study that found no general decline in the numbers of species in individual ecosystems has sparked controversy. Some scientists see it as evidence of how species adapt, while others see it as a sign that common invasive species, such as rats and mosquitoes, are the real winners.

  • Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg at a campaign event in Rochester, N.H., on Nov. 11, 2019. Photo: Elise Amendola/AP

    Pete Buttigieg says marijuana arrests signify “systemic racism.” His South Bend Police fit the bill

    PETE BUTTIGIEG wasn’t much of a pot smoker in college. But coming home from a party one evening, he bumped into a friend of a friend smoking a joint. Buttigieg later recalled that he acted out of curiosity.

  • World Flag

    An alternative to liberal globalization

    In the Bandung Conference of 1955, the governments and peoples of Asia and Africa expressed their ambitions to reconstruct a global system based on the recognition of the rights of countries that had previously been under the yoke of colonialism. In that period, “the rights to development,” as applied to the frameworks for negotiating multipolarity constituted the basis of globalization. These rights would force the imperial powers to adapt to new realities.

  • Emissions Gap Report 2019

    Emissions Gap Report 2019: Executive Summary

    This is the tenth edition of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Emissions Gap Report. It provides the latest assessment of scientific studies on current and estimated future greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and compares these with the emission levels permissible for the world to progress on a least-cost pathway to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement.