KEVIN ANDERSON – While the science and math around 2°C provides an unequivocal basis for radical reductions in emissions from wealthier nations, the politics continues to deliver grand but ultimately ineffectual gestures. Politically Obama’s proposal is certainly courageous and one for which he deserves credit. But scientifically, the 30% target and the collective acquiescence it has triggered, is a death sentence for many of tomorrow’s more vulnerable communities.
An Assault in Obama’s Escalating War on Journalism
NORMAN SOLOMON – The Freedom of the Press Foundation calls the government’s effort to force Risen to reveal a source “one of the most significant press freedom cases in decades.â€
GMO Ban Passes in Jackson & Josephine Counties
NORTHWEST CENTER FOR ALTERNATIVES TO PESTICIDES – Voters in Jackson and Josephine Counties of Oregon took a huge step three weeks ago when they voted to ban cultivation of genetically modified crops in their counties. They overcame out-of-state spending led by Monsanto and Syngenta that amounted to about $1 million (or almost $10 for every registered voter).
Global Climate Change and Nuclear Abolition: One Urgent Issue
WINSLOW MYERS – The two-in-one of climate change and nuclear abolition is not something to be addressed after supposedly more immediate brush-fires are extinguished; by viewing it instead as a single challenge, an opportunity for cooperative prevention based in planetary self-interest, success will become a model for resolving more local conflicts without violence.
President of Prestigious Colleges Explains Why Divestment Makes Urgent Sense
JAMES LAWRENCE POWELL – Humans have already emitted enough CO2 to ensure that global warming will not end in the lifetime of any person reading this essay. As the years and decades go by and its effects become ever more dire, global warming will grow into a perennial campus issue. It is not going away. Some colleges will take the lead and divest now; others will follow eventually. The question for each college is whether, on the most important issue of this century, it will be a leader or a follower.
Nonviolent Resistance Continues on Jeju, the Peace Island in Korea
KATHY KELLY – Jeju Island, South Korea – For the past two weeks [the latter part of May], I’ve been in the Republic of Korea (ROK), as a guest of peace activists living in Gangjeong Village on ROK’s Jeju Island. Gangjeong is one of the ROK’s smallest villages, yet activists here, in their struggle against the construction of a massive naval base, have inspired people around the world.