Energy, mostly in the form of fossil fuels, drives everything we do. Nearly all aspects of 21st-century life, from commuting to work to waging a war, depending on the consumption of energy, make the latter arguably the most valuable tradable commodity in the human world. Consequently, the more one controls the energy supply, the more…
*This tribune was originally published in French in Le Monde dated 30/3/2022 After unsuccessfully and repeatedly calling on Russian President Putin to end this deadly conflict and respect the United Nations Charter, Antonio Guterres, the Secretary-General of the United Nations (SG), seems to have disappeared from the radar. Heads of State talk to Putin, heads…
By Tapio Kanninen and Georgios Kostakos* After the Russian invasion of Ukraine that started on 24 February 2022, the world was horrified at the prospect of a new major war in Europe. Condemnation for the invasion rightly goes to President Vladimir Putin of Russia. An overblown Western reaction, though, may have dangerous consequences for the…
As the war in Ukraine approaches the one-month mark – (the Russian invasion started on 24 February 2022) – and in view of the escalating destruction and human suffering, plus the potential for a wider confrontation and even nuclear war, the need to put an end to it becomes ever more urgent. This article looks…
A world on edge The world is currently in a state of anxious agitation around an issue we knew we would have to concretely and seriously deal with, sooner or later. We are faced with the colossal problem of human-induced climate change, an end-of-the-world scenario of our own making. Thankfully, many of us have now…
The images of residential blocks hit by Russian missiles or artillery fire in Kiev, Kharkiv and other Ukrainian cities brought back memories of similar scenes from cities in Syria some years ago. Initially, it was news that something like that had happened. Then it became a commonplace, the lines of who did it – the…
This is a brief abstract of an article with the same title authored by Richard Kinley and published in IPPR Progressive Review, Institute of Public Policy Research, 2022 – link to the full article here. The UN Climate Conference held last November in Glasgow, known as COP 26, delivered a useful pact to accelerate action towards…
This is a republished version of the original published article on the Our World Too website, which you can access here When countries capable of absorbing environmental refugees are at or beyond their carrying capacity, every individual on the planet becomes a potential environmental refugee with no place to go (John Cairns Jr.) Natural disasters are…
Europe’s capacity to generate conflict remains remarkably high, as the situation around Ukraine reminds us again these days. Unlike other parts of the world, where low-level conflict remains constant and destructive at a local level but is only registered as “noise” globally, Europe’s conflicts have the potential to escalate to major confrontations that can suck…
In 2020, the American poet Andrew Brown gave a student the following assignment: write a poem from the point of view of a cloud looking down on two warring cities. The student came up with the following poem: “I think I’ll start to rain, Because I don’t think…
