Amid audible gasps of relief, on December 15 the US delegation to the United Nations climate change conference in Bali signalled that Washington would be part of the 聯Bali Roadmap聰 for combatting global warming. With the US on board, a two-year process of discussion would begin 聴 hopefully to culminate in the adoption of a new pact to replace the Kyoto Protocol, due to expire in 2012.
Renfrey Clarke
Delegates from more than 180 countries began meeting on the Indonesian island of Bali on December 3 at the United Nations Climate Change Conference. The gathering is meant to begin the process of negotiating an agreement on climate change for the period after 2012, when the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol expires.
The scientists are horrified. But not being media-savvy publicists, they generally leave their shocking findings in scientific journals. The politicians quote cautious statements issued by scientific committees early in the decade, and worry about scaring off corporate funding. The business executives look for the chance of new profits, and hire public relations experts to advise them on cultivating a green image.
If you鈥檝e sat in front a TV in the past few weeks, you鈥檒l have seen the message: Australians need to get 鈥渃limate clever鈥 just like the Howard government, which, we鈥檙e told, is encouraging and funding new, environmentally friendly technologies such as 鈥渃lean coal鈥. In fact, we鈥檙e led to believe, the government has put some $3.5 billion in recent years into new methods for combatting climate change.
With support from the South Australian Labor government and the federal ALP, pilot work is starting on the desalination plant that is to supply fresh water for BHP Billiton聮s planned expansion of its copper-gold-uranium mine at Olympic Dam.
Late February three wealthy business leaders with close Liberal Party connections 聴 Robert de Crespigny, Ron Walker and Hugh Morgan 聴 announced the formation of Australian Nuclear Energy to develop nuclear power generation. Prime Minister John Howard praised the initiative as 聯a great idea聰.
The federal government聮s Uranium Mining, Processing and Nuclear Energy Review, released on November 21, had only one real purpose 聴 to provide John Howard with 聯evidence聰 for championing the nuclear power cycle.
What other conclusion can we come to, when the review made its assessments while ignoring Australia聮s most spectacular renewable energy resource 聴 the 聯hot dry rock聰 geothermal energy of the Cooper Basin and other regions.
Since supporters of President Boris Yeltsin were routed in parliamentary elections in December, Russians have been faced with the prospect that their next president may be Gennady Zyuganov, leader of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (KPRF).
In the final years of perestroika, when there was little in Soviet shops except bare shelves and bored salespeople, Russians could still comfort themselves: at least you could always get bread. In four or five varieties, at prices so low they are almost painful to remember: about 25 kopecks (at the time, a few US cents) for a half-kilo loaf.
If a presidential election were held in Russia in the near future, the winner would very likely be a populist candidate pledging strong action against corruption and crime; opposing privatisation and promising a
Roy Medvedev was the leading dissident Soviet historian during the Brezhnev years. He was expelled from the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1969. In 1971, following the publication in the West of his monumental study on Stalin, Left History Judge,
Russian President Boris Yeltsin appears to have blocked local authority elections called by the Russian parliament for December 8.
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