War With Iran

I was just re-reading Seymour Hersh’s article from last April, on US planning for starting a war with Iran. It’s very interesting, even though events haven’t quite developed as per the plans he described (e.g. last year’s Israeli attempt to ‘take out’ Hezbollah prior to starting a war with Iran, to remove them as a [...]

Bush’s troop surge

How many more people must die for this weak man’s vanity?

Corporations to control Iraq’s Oil: so how is this meant to work exactly?

As you’ve probably heard by now, control of Iraq’s oil is to be handed over to certain corporations, under what are known as Production-Sharing Agreements (PSAs). These agreements are long term (decades long) deals which give the oil corporations the lion’s share of the profits, and which bind the Iraqis to terms agreed by their [...]

Blair on Saddam’s execution

So Blair has finally made a statement, through his spokesweasels.
“He supports the inquiry by the Iraqi authorities. He does believe that the manner of execution was completely wrong, but this shouldn’t lead us to forget the crimes that Saddam committed, including the death of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis.”
“As Tony sees it though, if you [...]

Further thoughts on Bush’s proposed troop surge

Have you seen this jolly little bit of news in this morning’s Sunday Times?
“Israel plans to nuke Iran”
In the light of this, I see another possible explanation or two for the apparent confusion over the military objectives behind the planned ‘troop surge.’
Even if, as seems likely the ‘Israel to nuke Iran’ story is a [...]

Bush plans (another) fucking enormous bloodbath in Iraq

So, we’ve all been hearing about the impending ’surge’
WASHINGTON, Jan. 6 — President Bush’s new Iraq strategy calls for a rapid influx of forces that could add as many as 20,000 American combat troops to Baghdad, supplemented with a jobs program costing as much as $1 billion intended to employ Iraqis in projects including [...]

Stern Review (Continued): adaptation measures for the UK

What is any likely future UK government going to try to do?
One thing you could say for Stern is that his target of 550ppm CO2 equivalent is better than nothing at all and his approach has more chance of working, because it doesn’t conflict with capitalism, than any approach that could stabilise at 450ppm, which [...]

Is the UK debate about energy being framed by nuclear industry PR to exclude sustainablity?

For the last couple of years we’ve been hearing stories about the long-rumoured plans to build a number of new nuclear power stations in the UK.
One thing I don’t see any discussion of is reducing UK demand for grid power by improving our energy-efficiency and by integrated local energy schemes. I think it’s [...]

Where is the uncertainty in climate change?

It occurs to me that it might be useful to summarise just where, to the best of my knowledge at least, the scientific uncertainty is, given that PR organisations being paid to misinform the public by large corporations and loony right-wing millionaires, often like to exploit it.
First thing to say is that some things are [...]

The Heidelberg Appeal – A case study in climate change disinformation

The Heidelberg Appeal was the brainchild of PR wizard Michel Salomon and was associated with his PR front-group the International Centre for Scientific Ecology An organisation which had the grand-daddy of all professional science deniers, Dr Fred Singer on its board. Salomon is now associated with SEPP, one of Singer’s other front groups (there is [...]