Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., whose activism we honor today, took stands far beyond Selma and Montgomery, and called on other capitals than Washington, D.C., to ensure a dignified life for human beings. Dr. King was an early and vigorous opponent of the white South African Apartheid (segregationist) government. […]
Archives for January 2020
Some Technology is Too Dangerous: Iran’s Accidental Ballistic Launch and Australia’s Climate Inferno are Trying to Tell us Something
Southwest Harbor, Maine (Special to Informed Comment) – The first month of 2020 has been full of lessons—if we are willing to listen. With over 200 brush fires burning in Australia and an area as big as West Virginia already scorched, Australia’s problems are hardly confined to the subcontinent. In a telling irony the plumes […]
Climate Catastrophe: With a Billion Animals Dead and the Koala in Danger, Will Australia’s Ecology Ever be the Same?
By Darren Evans | – The sheer scale and intensity of the Australian bushfire crisis have led to apocalyptic scenes making the front pages of newspapers the world over. An estimated 10 million hectares (100,000 sq km) of land have burned since 1 July 2019. At least 28 people have died. And over a billion […]
Indelible Legacy: Or How This Became a Gitmo World
Karen J. Greenberg and Joshua Dratel | – ( Tomdispatch.com ) – In January 2002, the Guantánamo Bay Detention Facility in Cuba opened its gates for the first 20 detainees of the war on terror. Within 100 days, 300 of them would arrive, often hooded and in those infamous orange jumpsuits, and that would just […]
Wind Power Surging Globally and In U.S. despite Trump’s Opposition, Replacing Coal
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Coal is the dirtiest fossil fuel, and humanity needs to ban it yesterday if we are to keep the earth from becoming a hellhole. Among all the horrible things Trump has done, trying to stand in the way of a rapid transition to green energy is probably the most consequential […]
The U.S. and Iran are Having a Huge Food Fight in Iraq after Trump assassinated Soleimani
By Bamo Nouri | – When thousands of anti-government protesters returned to Iraq’s streets on January 10, they were expressing anger at the explosion of foreign interference in their country’s affairs in early 2020. “Keep your war away,” one banner read, referring to the escalation of US-Iranian tensions in early January following the US assassination […]
Israel: Free Palestinian rights Activist Jonathan Pollak
( Middle East Monitor) – Back in my mid-twenties, I went off to Palestine to become a solidarity activist. I volunteered with the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) – a group which used to take part in non-violent Palestinian protests in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. All told, I spent the best part of […]
We have a Decade to Slash Carbon Emissions: After That it Gets Harder and much Hotter
By Kelsey Hawkins-Johnson | – (Foreign Policy in Focus) – In the climate talks to come, we need more youth, indigenous, and civil society groups — and fewer oil companies. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned in October 2018 that we have 12 years to keep global temperatures increases at 1.5 degrees Celsius or […]
Chris Hedges: From Jerusalem to Gaza and Iraq, the Sacred Bonds of Kindness that Make us Human (Video)
Emir-Stein Center | Chris Hedges | – “Evil, even in the darkest moments, is impotent before the miracle of human kindness. This miracle defies prejudices and hatreds. It crosses cultures and religions. It lies at the core of faith. Take a brief journey through the eyes of American, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Chris Hedges to Jerusalem, […]