Financial Times (November 19, 2013)
Are Japan and China on a collision course? As the Senkaku dispute festers and both countries move to create National Security Councils, it still remains difficult “to believe that either China or Japan actually wants a war. The bigger risk is that military posturing around the islands will lead to an accidental clash – and that the governments of both nations would then be trapped by their own nationalist rhetoric, making it very hard to climb down.”
Tags: Accidental clash, China, Dispute, Governments, Japan, Military posturing, National Security Council, Nationalist rhetoric, Risk, Senkakus
Washington Post (August 27)
Governments need to rapidly “head off the ample risks of continuing to release huge amounts of greenhouse gases into the air and to set about it with speed and ambition.” A draft report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) concludes “the increasing amount of greenhouse gases that humans have emitted into the atmosphere has almost certainly been the chief driver of the warming of the planet over the past half-century…. The amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, the IPCC notes, has shot up by 40 percent since 1750, with concentrations of the gas now increasing at a faster rate than at any time in the last 22,000 years.”Governments need to rapidly “head off the ample risks of continuing to release huge amounts of greenhouse gases into the air and to set about it with speed and ambition.” A draft report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) concludes “the increasing amount of greenhouse gases that humans have emitted into the atmosphere has almost certainly been the chief driver of the warming of the planet over the past half-century…. The amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, the IPCC notes, has shot up by 40 percent since 1750, with concentrations of the gas now increasing at a faster rate than at any time in the last 22,000 years.”
Tags: Atmosphere, Climate change, CO2, Global warming, Governments, Greenhouse gases, IPCC, Planet
Institutional Investor (August Issue)
“Investors confront the risk of a carbon bubble fueled by stranded oil and gas assets” should major governments decide to impose strict carbon legislation to combat climate change. One recent report asserts that “to limit the rise in global temperatures to 2 degrees Celsius between now and 2050, only 20 percent of the world’s fossil fuel reserves can be extracted and burned.”
Tags: Carbon, Climate change, Extraction, Fossil fuel, Gas, Global temperatures, Governments, Investors, Legislation, Oil, Reserves, Risk
LA Times (August 10)
The “Arab Spring” may not have succeeded in bringing democracy to the Middle East. But it has provided powerful evidence of a different phenomenon: the illusion of U.S. influence over governments we once considered our clients.”
Tags: Arab spring, Clients, Democracy, Governments, Influence, Middle East, U.S.
The Economist (April 20, 2013)
“The threat of a global pandemic is rising again.” In China, the H7N9 avian influenza is troubling and in the Middle East a SARS-like virus has emerged. Compared with a decade ago, the world is more prepared for the “distant but deadly threat” of a pandemic. “But it needs to be better prepared still, because viruses move a lot faster than governments do.”
Tags: Avian influenza, China, Governments, H7N9, Middle East, Pandemic, Preparation, Risk, SARS
Washington Post (May 25)
In London, Paris, Madrid and Athens, governments are moving from fiscal stimulus to spending cuts. But in Washington, “the long-awaited ‘pivot’ to fiscal restraint” remains unseen. Instead, Congress is sneaking new spending into as many places as possible. The Post finds much of this spending wasteful and self-serving.
In London, Paris, Madrid and Athens, governments are moving from fiscal stimulus to spending cuts. But in Washington, “the long-awaited ‘pivot’ to fiscal restraint” remains unseen. Instead, Congress is sneaking new spending into as many places as possible. The Post finds much of this spending wasteful and self-serving.
Tags: Congress, Governments, Stimulus, Washington
