Asia

Scientists Conclude Climate Change Contributed to 1/3 of Pakistan being Under Water; Calls for Debt Relief

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The massive monsoon floods that affected 33 million people in Pakistan, destroyed 1.3 million homes, turned the southern province of Sindh temporarily into a new inland sea nearly 70 miles across, and killed off 80% of the country’s livestock was in part fueled by the human-caused climate emergency. So argues […]

Europe

As Falls Russia, So Falls the World: Exceptionalism Goes Global

John Feffer

( Tomdispatch.com ) – Here’s a nightmare scenario: Unable to recruit enough soldiers from the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin takes North Korean leader Kim Jong-un up on his recent offer to send 100,000 North Koreans to join the Russian president’s ill-fated attempt to seize Ukraine. Kim has also promised to send North Korean workers to […]

infrastructure

After oil: what Malaysia and Iran may look like in a post-Fossil Fuel Future

The Conversation

By Rowena Abdul Razak, London School of Economics and Political Science and Asma Mehan, Texas Tech University | – As the devastation of climate change makes the need to decarbonise clearer by the day, countries face the question of what to do with their old fossil fuel infrastructure. While some environmental activists have taken to […]

Climate Crisis

2022’s supercharged Summer of Climate Extremes from Pakistan to USA: How global warming and La Niña fueled Unprecedented Disasters

The Conversation

By Kevin Trenberth, University of Auckland | – There’s an old joke about the fellow who has his left foot in a bucket of ice water and the right in a bucket of hot water, so that his overall temperature is average. That seemed to apply to the climate during 2022’s northern summer of extremes. […]

Climate Crisis

Working with Local Knowledge only way to save Pakistan from Flood Disasters

The Third Pole

By Daanish Mustafa | – ( The Third Pole) – How would a decolonised water perspective and practice mitigate the effects of the type of floods that Pakistan is witnessing in 2022? If decolonising water is about recentring the multiple layers of meaning and practice that are associated with water at the local and indigenous […]

Climate Crisis

As Climate Emergency unfolds, how can Pakistan combat future Mega-Floods and Droughts?

The Conversation

By Shahid Azam, University of Regina | – Pakistan is suffering from the aftermath of yet another massive flood covering about one-third of its landmass. This time it has affected more than 33 million people in the Indus River valley, with extensive damage to life, property, crops and livestock. The Indus River valley contains a […]

China

New Hawkish UK PM Liz Truss is Spoiling for Confrontations with Russia and China

Jonathan Fenton-Harvey

London (Special to Informed Comment) – The United Kingdom has announced its third Prime Minister since Britain voted to leave the European Union (EU) in 2016. Although former Prime Minister Boris Johnson was the man to guide Brexit, those who assisted in his post-Brexit vision could further Britain’s controversial path. On September 6, Liz Truss […]

censorship

China: New UN Report Urges Accountability for Uyghurs, Alleges Crimes Against Humanity

Human Rights Watch

Human Rights Watch – (Geneva) – A groundbreaking United Nations report published on August 31, 2022, says the Chinese government has committed abuses that may amount to crimes against humanity targeting Uyghurs and other Turkic communities in the Xinjiang region, Human Rights Watch said today. The report by the outgoing UN High Commissioner for Human […]

Afghanistan

That Time Gorbachev Announced Soviet Withdrawal from Afghanistan and US went on Building up Muslim Fundamentalists there Anyway, leading to 9/11

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Mikhail Gorbachev’s passing yesterday at age 91 is a good occasion to review some of the profound mistakes of the Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush presidencies regarding Afghanistan. Reagan-era officials refused to believe that Premier Gorbachev actually intended to pull Soviet troops out of Afghanistan, though Gorbachev came into […]