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Resource Insights: Nuclear war: A forgotten threat to human sustainability
Resource Insights: Nuclear war: A forgotten threat to human sustainability.
The possibility of a new Cold War between Russia and the United States and its NATO allies brings with it the spectre of nuclear war, an all-but-forgotten threat since the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Even as the number of nuclear weapons has declined through mutually agreed reductions from a worldwide total of 68,000 in 1985 to anestimated 16,400 today, the destructive force of such weapons is so great that if the remaining ones were used, they might well spell the end of human civilization as we know it.
One indication of the rising threat is what NATO calls an “unusual” increase in Russian military flights over Europe involving so-called Bear bombers, long-range Russian counterparts to American B-52 bombers. But, of course, U.S. and Russian nuclear forces have been operating all along since the end of the Cold War even as their arsenals were being slashed. The threat of nuclear war was always there even if tensions were falling between Russia and the United States.
With Russian President Vladimir Putin making a premature exit from the G-20 summit as world leaders began to discuss Russian complicity in a rebellion in eastern Ukraine, it seems likely that tensions between Western powers and Russia will escalate from here.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
The Breakdown Of International Cooperation | Zero Hedge
The Breakdown Of International Cooperation | Zero Hedge.
The Breakdown Of International Cooperation
Some of the major problems that humanity faces today transcend borders, and as such international cooperation is of vital importance. But recent events make such cooperation increasingly more challenging.
Without going into the wisdom of the decision, sanctions imposed on Russia over its foreign policy in Ukraine have a wide range of implications that go much beyond the economic sphere. For one, international dialogue is breaking down fast; just this week Russian President Vladimir Putin unceremoniously left the G20 meeting early.
Inevitably, this will have repercussions on major international cooperation initiatives, perhaps irreversibly in some cases. Here are a few notable examples:
Non-Proliferation, Arms Control and Disarmament
It is in no one’s interest that nuclear weapons go rogue. But the fear – or threat – of this happening can still carry some negotiating leverage.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Is Saudi Arabia Waging Economic Warfare?
Is Saudi Arabia Waging Economic Warfare?.
The G20 is a conference of the world’s top 20 economies as measured by Gross Domestic Product. Some observers have slammed it as an unelected and arbitrary body that is doing some of the work the United Nations was intended to do– only in a much less egalitarian way. The official web site notes.
“The G20 membership comprises a mix of the world’s largest advanced and emerging economies, representing about two-thirds of the world’s population, 85 per cent of global gross domestic product and over 75 per cent of global trade.
The members of the G20 are Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Republic of Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the United States and the European Union.”
Saudi Arabia maintained to journalists that Riyadh is not behind the recent fall in gasoline prices. The suspicion has arisen that Riyadh is “flooding the market,” a technique it has used in the past, of pumping a lot of oil even in the face of weakening market demand, thus driving the price down.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
David Cameron warns of looming second global crash | World news | The Guardian
David Cameron warns of looming second global crash | World news | The Guardian.
David Cameron has issued a stark message that “red warning lights are flashing on the dashboard of the global economy” in the same way as when the financial crash brought the world to its knees six years ago.
Writing in the Guardian at the close of the G20 summit in Brisbane, Cameron says there is now “a dangerous backdrop of instability and uncertainty” that presents a real risk to the UK recovery, adding that the eurozone slowdown is already having an impact on British exports and manufacturing.
His warning comes days after the Bank of England governor, Mark Carney, claimed a spectre of stagnation was haunting Europe. The International Monetary Fund managing director, Christine Lagarde, expressed fears in Brisbane that a diet of high debt, low growth and unemployment may yet become “the new normal in Europe”.
Cameron has adopted the more sombre tone in the runup to the chancellor’s autumn statement on 3 December, when the Office of Budget Responsibility will produce new growth forecasts and spell out the impact on public finances.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
State Department Hacked, Shuts Down Worldwide Email System | Zero Hedge
State Department Hacked, Shuts Down Worldwide Email System | Zero Hedge.
As the G-20 meeting comes to a ‘successful’ end with back-patting congratulations having agreed to create $2 trillion more GDP out of thin air (or maybe hookers and blow), it appears that someone – or more than one – among these nations was less than diplomatic towards every nations’ best friend – America. As AP reports, The State Department has taken the unprecedented step of shutting down its entire unclassified email system as technicians repair possible damage from a suspected hacker attack. Earlier attacks have been blamed on Russian or Chinese attackers, although their origin has never been publicly confirmed.
The State Department has taken the unprecedented step of shutting down its entire unclassified email system as technicians repair possible damage from a suspected hacker attack.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Canada’s PM To Putin: “I Guess I’ll Shake Your Hand…” Putin’s Response “It Was Not Positive” | Zero Hedge
Following last week’s (humiliating for the US) APEC meeting in Beijing, in which the BRIC nations clearly distanced themselves from the “developed world” and the topic of the “Russian invasion of Ukraine” was largely missing as it is clearly not in the interest of the Pacific nations to warmonger when the two key nations, Russia and China are obviously not complying with the western media ‘straight to populism‘ narrative, it was time for another major world summit, this time in the quite “western” Brisbane, Australia.
It was here that the G-7 part of the G-20 nations seized the opportunity to quickly pivot against Moscow and remind Europe that the reason why Europe is in a triple-dip recession (if one removes the GDP “boost” from hookers and blow) is because of Russia’s “take over” of east Ukraine, ignoring the reality that it was the US State Department’s Victoria Nuland that incited the Kiev coup and the west that imposed the “costly” sanctions on Russia which have hurt Germany and Europe just as badly. This was all largely lost on the local, as outside the summit, Ukrainian Australians staged an anti-Putin protest, wearing headbands reading “Putin, Killer”.
It was a full court press from the start: as the NYT reports, “at a speech at a university in Brisbane,Mr. Obama called Russia’s aggression against Ukraine a “threat to the world, as we saw in the appalling shootdown of MH-17, a tragedy that took so many innocent lives, among them your fellow citizens,” a reference to the Australian citizens and residents who were killed when Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 went down in eastern Ukraine.
“As your ally and friend, America shares the grief of these Australian families, and we share the determination of your nation for justice and accountability,” Mr. Obama said.”
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Western leaders confront Putin at G20 with threat of more sanctions | Reuters
Western leaders confront Putin at G20 with threat of more sanctions | Reuters.
(Reuters) – Western leaders warned Vladimir Putin at a G20summit on Saturday that he risked more economic sanctions if he failed to end Russian backing for separatist rebels in Ukraine.
Russia denied any involvement in an escalation of the separatist war in eastern Ukraine, where more than 4,000 people have been killed since April, but faced strong rebukes from leaders including U.S. President Barack Obama and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
“I guess I’ll shake your hand but I have only one thing to say to you: you need to get out of Ukraine,” Harper told Putin at the summit in Brisbane, Australia, according to his spokesman Jason MacDonald.
Putin’s response to the comment was not positive, MacDonald said in an email, without elaborating.
A source in Putin’s delegation told Reuters that the Russian president would leave the summit early, skipping a working breakfast on Sunday, because he needed to return to meetings in Moscow.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
G20: Australian police get set for protests – Features – Al Jazeera English
G20: Australian police get set for protests – Features – Al Jazeera English.
Adelaide, Australia – The eyes of the world will be on Brisbane this weekend as the city hosts the 2014 G20 summit.
Leaders from the world’s richest countries will soon touch down in Australia’s third-largest city to discuss everything from Ebola and Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant to economic recovery.
Inside the G20, Australia has already caused a stir with the country’s fiercely conservative government said to be frustrating attempts to put climate change on the summit’s agenda. For those outside, a different story is unfolding between police and protesters as the city goes into lockdown.
In what is widely seen as a test for the state of Queensland, the professionalism of its police force has been staked on what happens over the next few days on Brisbane’s streets.
While authorities are keen to avoid the kind of violence seen at the 2009 G20 in London, many are hoping that authorities will be able to do so while also respecting the right to protest, despite a range of security measures and expanded police powers.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
BBC News – G20 summit: Russia sanctions ‘undermine trade’ – Putin
BBC News – G20 summit: Russia sanctions ‘undermine trade’ – Putin.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that US and EU sanctions will harm not just Russia but the global economy.
He said the sanctions were a mistake, going against trade accords and only the UN had the right to impose them.
The sanctions were introduced over Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s region of Crimea and its alleged involvement in eastern Ukraine.
Mr Putin was speaking ahead of the G20 summit in Brisbane, Australia, which is to focus mainly on promoting growth.
World leaders including Mr Putin, US President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping are gathering for the two-day meeting.
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said leaders would discuss job creation, identifying tax cheats and strengthening the global economy.
Campaigners also want climate change on the agenda, but Australia has been firm in keeping it off.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Coal versus climate in Australia – Features – Al Jazeera English
Coal versus climate in Australia – Features – Al Jazeera English.
Australia continues to frustrate efforts by fellow G20 members to include climate change on the agenda at the upcoming leaders’ summit in the eastern city of Brisbane this weekend.
As the host nation sets the G20 meeting’s agenda, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott – an avowed sceptic of human-caused climate change – has resisted calls for global warming to be discussed when world leaders gather on November 15 and 16.
Despite a recent official draft summary of proceedings appearing to make token references to climate change, the level of importance afforded to the issue remains unclear. Climate change was on the agenda at the previous eight G20 summits.
Since forming the government in September 2013, Abbott has repealed Australia’s nascent emissions trading scheme and slashed funding to agencies and programmes promoting renewable energy and the environment.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
G20 to follow the long tradition of climate inaction – The Drum (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
Discussing future economic growth and not mentioning climate change is like staging Hamlet and forgetting to mention that his father recently died. Greg Jericho previews the G20.
The G20 this week in Brisbane will discuss a number of topics. But one topic that won’t come up, due to Tony Abbott’s insistence that it not, is climate change.
This is nothing new; in fact, it is just another example of purposeful intransigence from climate change sceptics that has been going on now for over a quarter of a century.
The 25th anniversary of the end of the Berlin Wallhad me searching through my archives of news magazine from 1989. The adverts and articles within the pages of my old Time and Newsweek copies reminded me of how much the world has changed.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Russell Napier Declares November 16, 2014 The Day Money Dies | Zero Hedge
Russell Napier Declares November 16, 2014 The Day Money Dies | Zero Hedge.
It is with regret and sadness we announce the death of money on November 16th 2014 in Brisbane, Australia
‘A mark, a yen, a buck, or a pound
A buck or a pound
A buck or a pound
Is all that makes the world go ’round;
That clinking, clanking sound
Can make the world go ’round.’
“Money” from Cabaret by Kander & Ebb
In the musical Cabaret, Sally Bowles and the Emcee sing about money from the perspective of those witnessing its collapse in value in real terms in the great German hyperinflation of 1923.
Less than a decade later, and a continent away, a young lawyer from Youngstown, Ohio noted on July 25th 1932 how money’s value could also fall in nominal terms:
“A considerable traffic has grown up in Youngstown in purchase and sale at a discount of Pass-Books on the Dollar Bank, City Trust and Home Savings Banks. Prices vary from 60% to 70% cash. All of these banks are now open but are not paying out funds.”
The Great Depression – A Diary: Benjamin Roth (first published 2009)
In Youngstown the bank deposit, an asset previously referred to as “money”, had fallen by up to 40% relative to the value of cash. The G20 announcement in Brisbane on November 16th will formalize a “bail in” for large-scale depositors raising the spectre that their deposits are, as many were in 1932, worth less than banknotes. It will be very clear that the value of bank deposits can fall in nominal terms.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
And Then There’s The Things You Couldn’t Even Make Up – The Automatic Earth
And Then There’s The Things You Couldn’t Even Make Up – The Automatic Earth.
There are things in this world which simply look plain stupid, and then there are those that at closer examination prove to be way beyond stupid. How about this one:
1) G20 taxpayers (you, me) subsidize the fossil fuel industry. That in itself is crazy enough, and it should stop as per last week; industry participants must be able to fend for themselves, or fold. That they don’t, speaks to a very unhealthy level of power in and over our political systems. Subsidizing coal and oil is as insane as bailing out Wall Street banks. It’s money that defies gravity, by flowing from the bottom to the top, from the poor to the rich.
2) Then there’s the huge amount of the subsidies: $88 billion a year. That could solve a lot of misery for a lot of people. It adds up to well over $1 trillion in this century alone. Next time you feel good about prices at the pump, please add that number, it should set you straight.
3) But that’s just the start. Those $88 billion go towards exploration for new oil, gas and coal resources which, according to the UN’s IPCC climate panel, can never even be ‘consumed’lest we go way beyond our – minimum – goals for CO2 concentrations and a global 2ºC warming limit.
4) And it keeps getting better. For who do you think pays for the research conducted for the IPCC reports? That’s right, the same G20 taxpayer. As in: you and me. We pay for both ends of the divine tragedy. We got it al covered. We pay for exploratory drilling in the Arctic, the Gulf of Mexico and all other ever harder to find, riskier and more polluting resources.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Brisbane G20: Man arrested, excluded after argument, struggle with police over photos – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
Brisbane G20: Man arrested, excluded after argument, struggle with police over photos – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation).
Queensland Police have excluded a man from all G20 security areas following an incident outside the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre (BCEC) at South Brisbane last night.
The Queensland Police Service said about 11:35pm (AEST) on Friday a 57-year-old man was observed without accreditation and taking photographs on the steps of the BCEC, which falls within the restricted area.
Police approached the man who refused to provide his details when directed, and was then arrested.
Police will also allege that the man then began to argue and struggle with officers.
The man was charged with disobeying a direction to provide particulars under the G20 (Safety and Security) Act 2013 and obstructing police.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
17 things that are banned in central Brisbane during the G20 Summit – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
For a few days in November next year, it will be illegal for people to carry certain household objects such as eggs and glass jars in central Brisbane or Cairns – unless they have a “lawful excuse”.
This is because Queensland has passed a law setting out dozens of “prohibited items” that no-one will be allowed to carry in “security areas” during the G20 Summit.
In Brisbane, G20’s designated security zone will include an area stretching north-south from Bowen Hills to South Brisbane, and extending west to Lang Park and east to Kangaroo Point.
Here are 17 of the prohibited items. Anyone carrying them could face a fine of up to $5,500.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
