New Internationalist articles from September 2008

New Internationalist archives from September 2008

Plastic.(recycling)(Editorial)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... I don't know about you but I'm both an inveterate label reader and a sceptic--have been for years. Cans, boxes, bottles: you name it, I read it, It's a bit of an in-joke at our family dinner table. There's Dad reading the label on the pickle...

Cloud-cuckoo-land.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
September 1, 2008... The debate on geo-technologies (Special Feature, 'Technofixes: climate solution or corporate scam?', NI 414) was disappointing. Paul said that he didn't want to get into bed with Gingrich but then did so, and Jim refused to answer the...

Crisis of confidence.(Yasuni National Park, Ecuador)
September 1, 2008... Endgame in the Amazon (Viva Yasuni, NI 413)? Not yet, it isn't, and it won't be until either the world no longer needs oil or all of the oil is extracted to the very last drop. The arguments for keeping the Yasuni oil in the ground are valid,...

Remembering Burma.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
September 1, 2008... I have found it so frustrating that all the reporting on Burma deals with the periods from 1983 onwards (Burma: Ripe for change, NI 411). In 1974 U Thant, the Burmese third Secretary General of the UN, died. The military government of that time...

Communist martyrs.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
September 1, 2008... Your magazine should have invited a response from the Communist Party of India (Marxist) to the very serious allegations of one of your feature writers (View from New Delhi, 'The Left's betrayal', Human Rights in a time of terror, NI 408)....

Voice of reason.(Letters)(coal vs. nuclear power)(Letter to the editor)
September 1, 2008... As one who reads the vox pops with morbid fascination I am amazed that we seem to have two main camps in favour of either 'clean' coal power or of nuclear power. These well bankrolled groups are blinded by the perceived financial gains or...

Cartotoonist's response.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
September 1, 2008... Reading the New Internationalist is an experience everyone should have-even when it concentrates on sanitation (We need to think about toiletss, NI414). Reading about the faeces of millions may not be everybody's cup of tea, but you really need...

Topple Mugabe.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
September 1, 2008... Now that Robert Mugabe is in power for another five years it is time that the world community pulled him down from his ivory tower. To do that will take 100 per cent sanctions on all government ministers and their families and by the British...

What love's got to do with it: a long-delayed meeting brings Maria Golia up close to a duel of conflicting loves.(Letter from Cairo)
September 1, 2008... Although we'd never met, I had several old friends in common with Berndt, a Swiss theatre owner, and looked forward finally to seeing him on his second visit to Egypt. I'd been abroad when last he came, and couldn't help wondering if he'd...

This toxic life: our world is awash with petro-chemicals. From plastics to pesticides they are integral to modern life. Wayne Ellwood argues that we are all paying the price for the release of these hazardous substances.(Plastic)(Report)
September 1, 2008... 'Every time I come here my body gets sad and angry at the same time,' says Ron Plain. 'You can't put into words what it means to me.' [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] We've just tumbled out of Ron's jeep near the end of a three-hour tour of...

A history of plastic.(THE POLYMER REVOLUTION)(Chronology)
September 1, 2008... 1862 Parkesine The first plastic-like substance debuted at the international Exhibition in London in 1869 when Alexander Parkes announced his discovery--'Parkesine'--a plastic mass which could be moulded by machine into an infinite variety...

Message in a bottle: it's a fashion statement and an environmental nightmare. Zoe Cormier examines one of the most successful marketing ploys ever--bottled water.(Plastic)
September 1, 2008... It's just so easy. Waiting for the bus to work. Heading to a sunny park in the summer. Getting ready to sit in an airport for three futile hours. It's all too easy to grab a bottle of water--it's cheap, it's cold and clean and it won't rot...

Plastic is forever.(Statistical table)
September 1, 2008... Plastic bags, no thanks! * The world uses an estimated one million plastic bags every minute; 150 bags per year for every person on earth. (1) * The Canadian province of Ontario banned plastic bags from government liquor stores in 2008...

Sea of garbage.(Plastic)
September 1, 2008... Charles Moore and his colleagues at California's Algalita Marine Research Foundation spent a month sailing the Alguita research vessel from Hawaii to Los Angeles, tracking a gargantuan spinning gyre of plastic trash in the middle of the...

Plastic plants: Henry Ford dreamed of making plastic cars out of soy. Now Dow, DuPont and other chemical giants are also dreaming of a 'green' future. But, as Jim Thomas argues, bioplastic is not the eco-solution it's cracked up to be.
September 1, 2008... The future of plastic was always gleaming white. Monsanto's plastic 'house of the future' that once stood at the heart of Disney world's Epcot Center and the futuristic Space Hilton hotel in Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey both...

Abandon the toxic treadmill! We need tough laws to punish polluters, regulate the chemical industry and force companies to take responsibility for the products they produce. But here are some things you can do as an individual.(Plastic ACTION)(List)
September 1, 2008... Campaign/Action/Information Aamjiwnaang First Nation Chippewas of Sarnia www.aamjiwnaang.ca Occupational Health and Safety Clinic for Ontario www.ohcow.on.ca [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Endocrine disruptors and toxics...

Cambodia: Year Zero on trial: the trial of a few surviving leaders of the notorious Khmer Rouge regime, which ruled Cambodia in the 1970s, is finally underway. But the court is a strange one, the outcome pre-determined. Lawyer Brooks Duncan dares to raise some of the questions the court will try to ignore.
September 1, 2008... The 'second edition' of An Introduction to the Khmer Rouge Trials, a pamphlet in both English and Khmer, recently landed on my desk in Cambodia. (1) The foreign-financed booklet, promoted by the Cambodian Government and described as...

'Clean coal' con: desperate industry's ludicrous claims exposed.(GREENWASH)
September 1, 2008... In coal towns and boardrooms around the world, the promise of 'clean coal' is suddenly being touted as our best hope for energy security. But there's a catch: coal remains the dirtiest source of energy on earth. As Jeff Goodell, author of Big...

'Territory, autonomy, dignity ... and no coal'.(INDIGENOUS RIGHTS)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... 'We are at the vanguard of the resistance,' proclaims Jorge Montiel. He belongs to an indigenous organization called Maikivalasalii, meaning 'Not for Sale', reports IPS. At stake is his homeland, threatened by state and foreign-run coal mining...

Breaking China's coal addition: renewables revolution is there for the taking.(CHINA)
September 1, 2008... The southern Chinese province of Guangdong manufactures products for the whole world--from toothbrushes to DVD players, from shoes to cars. It is among the richest regions of China, yet lack of power generation has been a huge barrier to its...

Black holes and demonstrations.(BANGLADESH)(coal mining)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... Two years ago, seven campaigners were killed by police during a demonstration against a planned open-pit coalmine in Phulbari, Bangladesh. Their struggle was taken up by thousands of locals, who took to the streets the following day vowing to...

Power surge: activists scrub the grubby face of globalization clean.(RESISTANCE)
September 1, 2008... For many, coal represents the new, grubby face of globalization. From Bristol to Bangladesh, the extraction and burning of coal is increasing faster than you can say 'carbon-capture technology'. But thankfully, so is the resistance, as the...

The language of prejudice ...(Word power)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... ageism n. (Minority World) not employing an old person; (Majority World) employing a child different adj. normal ignoRANT n. diatribe against someone you've never met judgMENTAL n. fear of mental illness snobbery n. bush with...

Life on Mars: true tales of a mixed-up world.(Seriously ... [TM])
September 1, 2008... The web is abuzz with speculation about an as yet undisclosed 'discovery' made by NASA's Phoenix Lander which is currently exploring the arctic region of the planet Mars. Scientists behind the mission are reported to have personally briefed US...

Big bad world.(Cartoon)
September 1, 2008... YEEEEE HAAAAAUGH! polyp.org.Uk 15 NOW LIVE [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Interview with Youssou N'Dour.(Making Waves)(Interview)
September 1, 2008... In an age when the mass media prefer to focus on Africa's wars and famines, Senegalese musician Youssou N'Dour is a beacon of positive energy. No African artist has done as much to raise awareness of the continent's problems and bring about...

Mixed media.(sound recording, book, and movie reviews)(Movie review)(Sound recording review)(Book review)
September 1, 2008... Alive by Sa Dingding (Wrasse Records 213 CD) Alive, the first album made by the Chinese Mongolian singer Sa Dingding to be aimed at markets outside her native land, is undeniably a work of prodigious talent. Sa Dingding sings in...

Earthworks 2008 cartoon competition: highlighting the work of artists and photographers from the majority world.(Southern Exposure)
September 1, 2008... IF YOU THINK THE THREAT of global warming should be taken seriously, then you will probably view a cartoon competition on the subject as in poor taste--a bit like making jokes about concentration camps. You would be rapidly disabused of that...

Things to do before I retire: ... from the diary of US President George W Bush, as told to Stefan Simanowitz.(Essay)
September 1, 2008... 'You know what you should do, Dubya,' Laura joked at the ranch last week, 'you should make a list of things to do before you retire.' We laughed at the time but then I gotta thinking, with only a few months left as President and a whole...

Botswana.(Country overview)
September 1, 2008... A fence seals off Orapa town in the remote interior of Botswana from its desert surroundings. Off-limits to outsiders, the town was planned for the employees of the diamond company De Beers. It was here that, just a year after independence,...