Rupert's Read

What a stunning year 2011 has been. Full of hope – and horror. 2012 will see the continuation of the year of revolutions in the Arab world, including probably the fall (most probably, I would guess, the death) of Assad – and I hope that real change will come to our continent, too. For, while we complacently think that we at least live in democracies, the truth is otherwise.   With the intensification of the financial crisis in Europe, which will I believe probably get much worse in the coming year, and with the coming to power of some 'technocratic' (read NOT democratic, tacitly very right-wing, pro-finance) governments, we cannot avoid now facing a defining question: _Are_ the nations of Europe really serious about becoming _democracies_ at all? I say 'becoming', because 'Democracy' , etymologically, involves the people governing: Does anyone seriously believe that the people (rather than 'the markets') govern, today, in countries...

The liberated regimes in Tunisia and Libya have closed Syria's embassy there. It is time for Britain to follow suit...:   SIGN (as I have), and then spread the word! http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/25418 ...To boot the war-criminal Syrian regime's embassy out of Britain.   These Downing Street petitions can make a real impact - if they get thousands of signatories. Help make sure that this one does!   The Syrian army is killing its own people with impunity right now, in Homs: https://twitter.com/#!/search/%23homs  . This is the least that we can do, to try to make sure that, before too long, the killers can ge stopped.

Reality bites...

My Christmas 'Love-Gas', has just gone live over at the GreenHousethinktank site: http://www.greenhousethinktank.org/page.php?pageid=gases Have a read; and greetings of the season!

Me protesting outside City Hall on the National Day of Strike Action against the cuts on Wednesday 30th November 2011.

The beginning of the end for the Kyoto 'Annex 1' vs 'non_Annex 1' distinction is crucial. This opens the way for the starting-in-2020 climate agreement (or maybe 2017?) promised in Durban to be something modelled on Contraction and Convergence (or on GDRs, etc). This gives a crucial opening to achieve for the first time an agreement which encompasses everyone, is just, and is effective. So, although the long delay may well prove fatal, especially to AOSIS countries and LDC countries, we do now at least have a _chance_, for the first time, of achieving what we as a species need through the COP process. So: one cheer for Durban. ----------------------------------------    For all things Rupert, goto www.rupertread.net

The dodgy deal at #Durban (essentially, nothing except promissory notes til 2020 - by which time it will be too late) sheds new light on the direness of the need for new political institutions that will robustly think and act long-term-ist. Check out my piece at http://www.greenworld.org.uk/page305/page305.html   , for a concrete suggestion for what such institutions would/should/could look like... Would guardians for future generations allow the present moment to slip by without starting to act to stop deadly climate change? I think not...