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Beware the deadly donkey
falling from the sky
You may choose the way you live, my friend
But not the way you die

A little humour to introduce a serious issue. The deadly donkey is like the Black Swan that has been referenced in much media over the recent months. And the little ditty offers the way to deal with it. Whether the externality is a flood, a heat wave, a crop failure, a drop in financial markets or a heart attack, you can not prepare for it, because it is unexpected. But you can be comfortable in the way you live your life. And that makes all the difference.

An unusual clutch of reports on happiness appeared in July (see them referenced in the Living section of Holonics) and their conclusions all point in a similar direction - your attitude in life is as much a key to happiness as anything else, and, above a minimum level, much more important than wealth. Unfortunately most of us, and certainly at a macro-level nation-states, continue adolescent posturing and comparison and find it difficult to grow up and face the facts of life and nature. We spend more time with our computers outside work hours than we do with our families. As Ricardo Semler questions in his recent book, if we can find time to do emails on a Sunday night, why can't we find time to play football with our children on a Monday evening?

And the signs that we should change are all around us from volatile weather patterns to volatile capital markets. The massive growth in human population, infrastructure and technology over the past 100 years has moved in lock-step with the consumption of fossil fuels. What has not grown is our philosophy of life. We continue to behave as if with impunity, like a know-it-all teenager. The gentle prodding from mother nature is resulting in little real response and certainly no system change. Unfortunately, like the egomaniacal teenager, we leave the problems for others to sort out, little realising that those other are ourselves, and we fob off our responsibilities with a spiel.

Many of us are on holiday now, having flown to some exotic climate, to stay in a hotel and relax. Now is the time to think about a lifestyle change, not how to climb the corporate ladder. Start small and take the guide from our own humility - sell the vulture portfolio and invest in green assets, stop drinking pre-packaged drinks, shop locally, turn-off the lights, walk or cycle. And give people less fortunate than ourselves a bit more, and take a bit less. Otherwise when that heart- attack comes (or some other deadly donkey) options for a real life will not be there.

Geopolitics

While there seemed to be little novelty in the media in July, the signals demanding a change in the system of human management grew, driven by growing signs of over consumption, inequality, climate volatility and corruption.

It is not just a case of the extraordinary rainfall events and extreme weather affecting the UK this summer. Observations of the alarming rise in sea levels and storm surge events far outstrip the projections of the recent IPCC report, whilst we are still haplessly short of data on precisely what is happening to the Gulf Stream. Climate Chaos events create massive damage and have demonstrated the capacity to breach and destroy sewerage and water systems, damage power supplies, roads and telecommunications infrastructure. These events surely demand an urgent and radical re-think on our economic priorities. Massive new investment resources have to be identified and put in place to provide not only the UK but all our other partners in this global economy with the infrastructure we require for a sustainable future.

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation warned in recent reports that the gap between rich and poor in the UK is as wide as it has been for 40 years. The Foundation also found that attitudes to wealth inequality are becoming more resentful. "There is widespread acceptance that some occupations should be paid more than others: but the gap between high and low paid occupations is far greater than people think it should be." People are more likely to think that people at the top of pay scale are paid too much rather than people at the bottom paid too little. These findings are not surprising given the growing awareness of how much more wealthy the rich are and how little they contribute to philanthropy or public well-being. These sentiments, mirrored at the global level, underpin geopolitical tension between rich and poor around the world and provide fuel for belligerence and terrorism.

Global inequality has also been highlighted at the highest level of multilateral organisation by the process of appointment of the head of the IMF. After the recent embarrassment at the World Bank, where the head was forced to resign for corruption and was replaced by another US appointment, despite calls for a reform of the feudal system of appointment. Then Blair was appointed as a peace envoy in the Middle East - after backing the war in Iraq and having lost credibility in the eyes of Arabs. And then in July a European was appointed as the head of the IMF. These international appointments in recent weeks underline a dangerous reality: in spite of all the rhetoric about a world built on sound governance and fairness, imperial attitudes are still very much entrenched. All three appointments suffer from "legitimacy deficit" and raise the barriers to global cooperation. (No wonder the Doha trade talks failed.)

As Chandran Nair, Founder and Chief Executive of The Global Institute For Tomorrow, notes that these appointments "[express] a determined and covert intent to continue to dominate world affairs. [They send] a clear signal that can only create more division and mistrust. [They perpetuate] the view that the old world order finds it impossible to relinquish power and that it has no intention of embracing the lofty principles of good governance and ethical leadership that it enjoys espousing."

This self-serving interpretation of ethics was also evident in the office of the President of the US in July. Bush commuted Lewis Libby's 30-month prison sentence, which had been awarded for obstructing an investigation. Unfortunately, the real wrong-doer, Cheney, is never going to be indicted in the current climate of apathetic ethics in the US.

For a general picture of global governance see the Worldwide Governance Indicators. This project reports aggregate and individual governance indicators for 212 countries and territories over the period 1996–2006, for six dimensions of governance:Voice and Accountability, Political Stability and Absence of Violence, Government Effectiveness, Regulatory Quality, Rule of Law, Control of Corruption.

Unfortunately, we all continue to allow this hypocrisy. Why? Because we're rich and the rich make the rules and we are loathe to face the unknown consequences of sharing our opportunities. Slowly we are building the confidence to do the things that we know to be right, but action must accelerate.

The new administration in France seems to be changing the culture of opportunity and business. Nicolas Sarkozy, the new President, is setting a more American pace and has been dubbed the "hyper-president". Examples of his energetic style include his habit of running (for exercise), ordering a special session of parliament for his deputies in August (mon Dieu!) and may even stretch to liberating the restrictive 35 hour work week as finance minister introduces a "law in favour of work". If changes do in fact take hold over the coming months, the attractiveness of France will grow for working as well as living.

Japan has been on a gentle positive trend for the past couple of years, but political turbulence is now appearing which creates uncertainty. Japan’s governing Liberal Democratic Party suffered defeat in the election for the upper house of Parliament, but Prime Minister Shinzo Abe vowed that he would not step down. The main opposition Democratic Party seized control of the upper house by a landslide, capturing seats not only in cities but also in rural districts that had long been strongholds of the Liberal Democratic Party. Abe is facing a difficult time and will have to be pragmatic in his policies to maintain stability.

Relations between the EU and US with Russia are not improving. Vladimir Putin, as had been expected, effectively tore up a vital treaty designed to end the threat of war in Europe. The Russian president signed a decree suspending Moscow's participation in the Conventional Forces in Europe treaty, which means Russia can mass tanks on Europe's border for the first time in 15 years. Russia also expelled UK diplomats after several Russian diplomats were expelled from the UK. This posturing by all parties is unhelpful, but for those of us who have seen Russia as a risky environment, we should remember that this brinkmanship has been initiated and fuelled by UK, US and European action. Russia is generally simply acting to preserve her sovereignty. A solution is not to be found with hard power. There must be conciliation and respect if resources are to be shared again.

The State of Responsible Competitiveness 2007: Making Sustainability Count in Global Markets is essentially a progress report on countries’ efforts in advancing competitiveness based on responsible business practices. It provides a unique health check on responsible globalisation. The world's most "responsibly competitive" nation is Sweden, according to a new Responsible Competitiveness Index. Developed by the social and ethical research institute AccountAbility, the index ranks nations on such issues as human rights and anti-corruption measures. Countries that behave responsibly are likely to be more competitive in the global economy, since they indicate more sustainable long-term performance, transparency, and accountability, according to the institute. Other nations making the top 10 list of responsible competitiveness: Denmark, Finland, Iceland, the United Kingdom, Norway, New Zealand,Ireland, Australia, and Canada.

Risk and Terror

First, a couple of comments on the First World War offered because, by coincidence I dipped in to Harold Macmillan's Winds of Change while some anniversaries took place. War has never been right. The last known surviving British soldier to have fought in the trenches of World War I revisited the site where he fought 90 years ago. Harry Patch, of Somerset, made the trip to Flanders in Belgium to recall his part in the battle which claimed 250,000 British and 250,000 German lives.The battle has been described as one of the bloodiest and most brutal battles of the Great War. The 109-year-old fought in the Battle of Passchendaele when he was aged 19. "Too many died," said Mr Patch. "War isn't worth one life." He said war was the "calculated and condoned slaughter of human beings".

The first half of July saw media covering the terrorist scares at UK airports and following up with commentary of blame on Islam. Both the hype and the blame are misplaced. The news is important, so that people can understand the risks of living and travelling that have been exacerbated by the Iraq war, condemnation of Islamic countries and belligerence in the Middle East, but scare mongering is not useful, except to raise media circulation. The habit of blaming religion is far worse because it exacerbates the tensions, fails to address the economic and social causes (where solutions lie) and distracts us all from more enlightened living. We are blind sided by ulterior motives of politicians and businesses that use the opportunity to obtain opportunities that serve their exclusive agendas rather than bring people together in peace.

This leads us to question the use of force in negotiating objectives, whether they be change of regime in Iraq, peace in the Middle East, halting genocide in Sudan, or dealing with terrorism. It ought to be that good people (Christians in particular given the professed tenets of that religion) would advocate alternatives, even to the extent of giving up their own wealth, to find peace. The reality of today's world is that it is unlikely that leaders would seek and advocate alternatives, let alone implement them. But it is true that enabling opportunities through education, infrastructure and jobs is more successful at creating peace and happiness, and reducing opportunities for violence, by removing weapons, corruption and feudal systems work and then continue to be self sustaining.

Having said that, and returning to the practicalities of humanity today, there are situations where immediate intervention (preferably in a benign way), perhaps on a massive scale, will break a cycle of violence that has become habitual. But violence at state level, like that at family level, begets more violence and encourages delinquency by legitimising that behaviour.

Iraq was not a threat to the USA, and arguably nor was Afghanistan. And, on a broader basis nor were most terrorist groups. The USA's actions have polarised the world, bringing a cohesion amongst the groups that were previously in the loosest form of association. We have created a situation in which a cornered animal has no response other than to fight.

With the buildup of US troops in Iraq peaking in June, polls and data in July are not demonstrating the desired results yet. (Monitoring the surge.) And there is evidence that it might be an expensive mistake: a poll this spring of Iraqis shows that only 21% think that the U.S. troop presence improves security in Iraq, while 69% think it is making security worse; and the average cost of posting a single U.S. soldier in Iraq has risen to $390,000 per year, according to the Congressional Research Service, and this fiscal year Iraq will cost $ 135 billion (a similar amount to the value at risk in the subprime meltdown).

Iraqi police say that the number of unidentified bodies found in Baghdad has increased again despite the launch of a security drive in the capital in February where nearly 30,000 extra US troops were deployed to curb sectarian violence between Shias and Sunnis. After a lull between February and April, 540 corpses, many tortured or mutilated, were discovered in the city in June. Though the number is still lower than in 2006, when the monthly total of bodies found at times exceeded 1,000. However, the death toll remains shocking - 1,241 civilians were killed in June and 1,951 violent deaths in May.

And according to a new report from Oxfam and a coalition of Iraqi NGOs, nearly a third of the population of Iraq is in need of immediate emergency aid. The report said the government was failing to provide basics such as food and shelter for eight million people and warned that the humanitarian crisis had escalated since the 2003 invasion. The survey recognises that armed conflict is the greatest problem facing Iraqis, but finds a population "increasingly threatened by disease and malnutrition". It found that more than two million people have been displaced inside the country, many living in dire poverty, in addition to the two million that have fled to neighbouring countries. It suggests that 70% of Iraq's 26.5 million population are without adequate water supplies, compared to 50% prior to the invasion. Only 20% have access to effective sanitation. Nearly 30% of children are malnourished, a sharp increase on the situation four years ago. Some 15% of Iraqis regularly cannot afford to eat. The report also said 92% of Iraq's children suffered from learning problems. Even the US agency overseeing reconstruction in Iraq said economic mismanagement and corruption are equivalent to "a second insurgency".

American's are getting the message that the government can spend $ 10 billion a month for Americans and other civilians to be maimed in a foreign country where they are not welcome, but will not provide decent health care for Americans in America. Or if not at home, that money could reduce poverty and disease in Africa. But the most appropriate use would be to build infrastructure and provide jobs and education in Iraq. While withdrawal may not be easy, it is certain that the resources could be applied more beneficially than they are now.

A piece of good news for Iraq was their victory in the Asian Cup, where in the 71st minute of a soccer tournament 5,000 miles from Iraq, a Kurd from Mosul kicked a ball onto the head of a Sunni from Kirkuk, who ricocheted it into the goal to secure a 1-0 victory for Iraq over Saudi Arabia.

Relevant to tension in the Middle East and nuclear risk is Iran's behaviour. In mid-July The Economist published a special report on Iran which offers an overview and some insight into the challenge of including Iran in global affairs.

North Korea shut down all five nuclear facilities at its main Yongbyon complex confirmed the International Atomic Energy Agency. After a day of international talks in Beijing, a South Korean official said Pyongyang had agreed to disable all its nuclear facilities by the year's end and to declare all aspects of its nuclear programme.The Yongbyon closures are the first step in a deal agreed in February 2007, under which North Korea is to receive a total of one million tons of energy aid if it ends its nuclear programme. It essentially reinstates a freeze that was in place from 1994 until 2002. Analysts say that while the Yongbyon closures are an important step, persuading North Korea to fully disclose all of its nuclear facilities and agree to their being disabled is likely to be a long and difficult process. One hurdle is the US allegation that North Korea (which carried out its first nuclear test in October 2006) has a secret uranium enrichment programme, which North Korea denies. See a timeline of this nuclear crisis here.

Charles Pritchard, who helped shape North Korea policy during the Clinton administration and the first two years of Bush's presidency, said the reactor shutdown this month is a "good step", but it's "just a small step that reverses only a small part of what's occurred over the last five years," when Pyongyang expanded from one or two to perhaps as many as 10 nuclear weapons. Pritchard notes two major errors in the approach to North Korea. First, there has been a two-track policy whereby administration hardliners who wanted regime change in Pyongyang actively worked to sabotage efforts to engage North Korea and negotiate a diplomatic resolution to the nuclear dispute. Secondly, the US and allies did not sufficiently bridge differences with South Korea, a key U.S. ally who was more amenable to engagement with Pyongyang.

Palestinian civil servants have finally begun receiving their first full salaries in 16 months, after Israel released withheld tax receipts.The wages were paid three days after Israel transferred $117 million to the new emergency government. An estimated 170,000 employees on the Palestinian Authority books have received only partial pay packets since March 2006. However, the Western-backed Palestinian government, based in the West Bank, refused to pay some 23,000 who are said to have affiliations with Hamas, which now runs the Gaza Strip. Israel and Western countries imposed illegal economic boycotts after Hamas came to power following elections in January 2006. This policy of ostracising an elected government has resulted in much unhappiness, death and no improvement in the situation in the Middle East. It has fuelled the resentment and polarisation of society while destroying economic systems which can provide jobs to keep people off the streets. Unwinding the policy of exclusion is the right thing to do, so this payment of withheld salaries and other moves, like taking 180 members of the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades conditionally off Israels' most wanted list, are steps in the right direction.

The United Nations Security Council finally, after months of wrangling, voted to send peacekeepers to the war-ravaged Darfur region of Sudan. Up to 26,000 troops and police will make up the world's largest peacekeeping force, under a joint UN and African Union mandate, expected to arrive by year end.The resolution will allow peacekeepers to use force to defend civilians and aid workers in Darfur from attack. At least 200,000 people are thought to have died in the region since 2003. More than two million have fled their homes over the same period, since rebel groups rose up against the Khartoum government's rule. The peacekeeping mission, to be known as Unamid - the United Nations African Union Mission in Darfur - is expected to cost up to $ 2 billion a year, or 1/5 of what is spent by the US in Iraq each month.

Also in Sudan, scientists say a huge underground lake has been found in the Darfur region. Some 1,000 wells will be drilled in the region, with the agreement of Sudan's government, the Boston University researchers say. Some analysts believe that this could help end the conflict in the arid region by reducing competition for resources between Darfur's Arab nomads and black African farmers which is behind the conflict. The UN Environmental Programme has said there is little prospect of peace in Darfur unless the issues of environmental destruction were addressed - deserts have increased by an average of 100 km in the last 40 years, while almost 12% of forest cover had been lost in 15 years. Of course this is not the only kind of resource infrastructure that could be provided. Building of infrastructure and provision of jobs and education is required to lift people out of poverty and give them something to live for. It is also certain that rapid draining of this underground lake will have unhappy ecological consequences before long.

The fight for Islamabad's Red Mosque and its affiliated religious school for women seemed to have been won at a cost of at least 102 people killed in a week-long siege, included 11 soldiers and an as yet unknown number of extremists and their hostages. The battle for the radical institution in the heart of the Pakistani capital may have pushed the country's military leader President Pervez Musharraf into a war that he had been working hard to avoid since 11 September 2001; he certainly waited a long time before using force - the standoff started in January. It was the fiercest battle fought by security forces in mainland Pakistan since General Musharraf vowed to dismantle the militant jihadi network in the country in the aftermath of the attacks on the US. Unfortunately it is not clear that the uprising was handled well nor that it has popular support - the harshest charge being that "Muslims should not kill Muslims". There is now concern that other extremists may take up arms. This is another sign of rising tension among Muslims and between the West and Muslims, which has been exacerbated by the antagonistic language and selfish actions of Western nations in the Middle East.

On a more positive note, Pakistan's top court has reinstated the country's chief justice, Iftikhar Chaudhry, who was suspended by the president four months ago amid claims of corruption. Officials alleged that several people had complained to the president that Mr Chaudhry had misused his office and received favours. In particular, he is alleged to have procured a top police job for his son. But critics say the government has not shown similar zeal in pursuing more serious charges, such as financial embezzlement and property fraud, against other top judges. They accuse the president of plotting to remove an independent-minded judge to forestall legal challenges to his plan to ask parliament for another five-year term in office. The Supreme Court judges ruled by 10 votes to 3 to quash all charges against Mr Chaudhry, calling his suspension "illegal". His reinstatement was accepted by Musharraf, although Chaudhry has become a focus of opposition. Perhaps Musharraf's acquiesence is a sign that he plans to step back from politics, though the consequences for him and Pakistan are not clear. Pakistan remains a hot-spot in a critical region close to Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq.

There was some media attention given to the call by victims of chemical warfare, which continues to have consequences 35 years after it was used, for reparation. It is educational to see the consequences of these chemicals in light of the knowledge that the people who made them and ordered their use are still in power and determining what food is produced and chemicals used in manufacture of consumer products. Between 1961 and 1971, American forces sprayed some 80 million litres of defoliants and other poisons onto the forests and villages of Vietnam. The damage which the key constituent, Agent Orange, did to children in the country is still being felt today. Babies born two generations after the war are subject to hideous deformities. Neither the US government nor the manufacturers, Dow Chemicals and Monsanto, have ever been brought to account for these crimes. Watch Friction TV's new video to find out what has been done in your name.

Energy

In the US, another example of playing to vested interests was a one-sentence provision buried in the Senate’s recently passed energy bill. Inserted without debate at the urging of the nuclear power industry, the provision could make builders of new nuclear plants eligible for tens of billions of dollars in government loan guarantees. The provision could go much further than many lawmakers had in mind by giving the Department of Energy the power to approve an unlimited amount of loan guarantees for “clean” power generation. Under legislation enacted in 2005, nuclear power qualifies as a clean technology because it does not emit carbon gases that contribute to global warming. Power companies have tentative plans to put the 28 new reactors at 19 sites around the country. Industry executives insist that banks and Wall Street will not provide the money needed to build new reactors unless the loans are guaranteed in their entirety by the federal government, putting in to question their viability. While the nuclear industry says it will need $25 billion in loan guarantees in 2008 and $50 billion over the next two years, Bush had proposed only $4 billion in new loan guarantees next year for “clean” electric power technologies, which include plants that run on so-called clean coal technologies and renewable fuels.

This news of subversively obtaining subsidy for nuclear power in the US, coincided with news of damage at a nuclear plant in Japan. Tokyo Electric Power, operator of the nuclear power plant, apologised for delays and errors in announcing the extent of the damage at a plant in Kashiwazaki after the city was struck by a magnitude 6.8 earthquake, which killed 10 people, flattened hundreds of homes and forced 9,000 into shelters. The tremors tipped over 'several hundred' barrels of radioactive waste and lids opened on a 'few dozen' of those barrels. TEP also claims the water's level of radioactivity is still far too low to harm the environment. Although four of the seven reactors at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant that were operating when the quake hit were shut down automatically, it is now emerging that there were a series of malfunctions. 1,200 litres of water containing small amounts of radioactive material leaked and were diverted into the sea. Small amounts of gas containing radioactive cobalt-60 and chromium-51 were emitted into the atmosphere.

A tiny generator created by scientists at the University of Southampton, UK, is powered by natural vibrations and could soon be helping keep heart pacemakers working. It was developed to power devices where replacing batteries is very difficult. The device is expected initially to be used to power wireless sensors on equipment in manufacturing plants. The generator's creators say their technology is up to 10 times more efficient than similar devices. The tiny device, which is less than one cubic centimetre in size, uses vibrations in the world around it to make magnets on a cantilever at the heart of the device wobble to generate power. Although the generator produces only microwatts this was more than enough to power sensors attached to machines in manufacturing plants.

In the UK, by converting the cooking oil from its 1,200 restaurants into biodiesel, McDonald's said it could save 1.5 million gallons of gasoline used by its delivery fleet. The company launched the new fuelling program with just over 20 vehicles of its fleet in southern England, and said that over the next year it would convert all 155 of its delivery vehicles to biodiesel. The fuel in use now is 85% recycled cooking oil, which McDonald's has collected from about 900 restaurants in the area, and combined with 15 percent rapeseed (canola) oil. McDonald's estimates that by switching their fleets to biodiesel, it will prevent the emission of 1,675 tons of carbon per year.

The UK government has set up a website designed to lure consumers towards buying the greenest cars available as the EU prepares to set binding caps on the amount of CO2 that new vehicles can emit. Raising consumers' awareness about the impact their choice of car can have on the environment and on their fuel consumption is seen as a necessity if the EU is to go ahead with plans to reduce average fleet emissions to under 120 grams per kilometre by 2012. The ''Best on CO2'' website, launched by the UK's Department for Transport, aims to direct consumers to the cleanest car model within the vehicle category that they prefer, ranging from the ''super-mini'' and family car categories to executive, 4x4, luxury and performance cars. The EU still needs to decide how it will enforce its 120g/km target for cars sold in Europe, with some members of Parliament calling on an outright ban on cars continuing to emit more than 240g/km by 2015. MEPs and member states will examine the issue later this year and the Commission is expected to come up with detailed legislation at the beginning of next year.

The International Economic Platform for Renewable Energies (IWR) in Münster, Germany, has introduced the first world map of the renewable energy industry featuring company sites in various countries. The world map’s range of features will be expanded gradually. For example, in future the map will also enable investors to retrieve community industrial areas and let users search for university sites that offer education and research in the field of renewable energy.

Climate Change and Environment

A new study, published in Nature, indicates that human-induced climate change has affected global rainfall patterns over the 20th Century. Researchers said

changes to the climate had led to an increase in annual average rainfall in the mid-latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere. While Canada, Russia and northern Europe had become wetter, India and parts of Africa had become drier. Climate models have, for a number of years, suggested that human activity has led to changes in the distribution of rain and snow across the globe. However, the computer models have been unable to pinpoint the extent of our influence, partly because drying in some regions has cancelled out moistening in others. The team estimated that human activity, such as burning fossil fuels, was likely to have led to a 62mm increase in the annual precipitation trend over the past century over land areas located 40-70 degrees North, which includes Canada, northern Europe and Russia. They also suggested the increase of greenhouse gases and sulphate aerosols in the atmosphere had contributed a 82mm increase in the southern tropics and subtropics, and a 98mm decrease in precipitation in the northern tropics.

There seemed to be an unusual number of unusual weather patterns. Here are the reports of extreme weather in July that we saw during July. While they are not conclusive, they certainly illustrate unusually volatile weather patterns globally:

In China, more than 200 million people have been affected by the worst flooding for a decade. More than 650 people have been killed, and nearly five million people driven from their homes. The Red Cross even launched an appeal for international aid for the poor. Devastating rains accompanying a heatwave have led to flooding in 24 of the country's 31 provinces. For a month, news images have been dominated by scenes of waterlogged streets and flooded plains, from Chongqing in the country's west to the Huai River, the country's third largest, in the east. 266mm of rain fell in less than 24 hours in Chongqing in one event said to be the largest density of rainfall since records began in 1892. China suffers flooding annually in the monsoon season, and the number of deaths is smaller this year than for the same period in previous summers. Deadly flooding is an annual problem in China, with millions of people in central and southern parts of the country living on reclaimed farmland in the flood plains of rivers. Last year, floods and typhoons killed a total of 2,704 people. But the extremes of the heat and the weather make this year unusual. Shanghai is set for its hottest summer on record, after reaching its second-highest ever temperature of 39.4 C. China's flooding in pictures.

Sulawesi, Indonesia suffered severe flooding and landslides. At least 7 people died, but about 50 more are missing and feared dead. Hundreds of houses were flattened and thousands of people have been forced to leave their homes. Heavy rains regularly cause flash floods and landslides in Indonesia. Many experts say the problems have been exacerbated by deforestation, which makes it easier for rain to penetrate the soil and dislodge it.

The UK suffered the worst floods in 60 years. Days of rain turned swathes of central and western England into lakes. Over 150,000 homes were affected, either by evacuation of a failure of utilities - power, water and transport. 350,000 homes have lost, or are at risk of losing, water supplies in Gloucester, Tewkesbury and Cheltenham as a result of flooding of the Mythe treatment plant, which remains out of action.

In South Africa flooding displaced some 38,000 people, mostly from squatter camps around Cape Town. On the other side of the country, in KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga, bushfires have killed at least 19 people and destroyed over 30,000 acres of land. Fires have also killed two people in neighbouring Swaziland.

South eastern Europe baked in major heat waves. In Romania there were at least 30 heat-related deaths, hundreds of others, mostly elderly, had collapsed in the streets and 19,000 people were admitted to hospital, mostly with respiratory problems. In Serbia, volunteers joined firefighters and the army to help extinguish an estimated 50 blazes. In Macedonia, one person died and 20 were evacuated from burning houses near Bitola, the country's second-largest city, as temperatures reached 42C and a national emergency was declared. Dozens of houses were destroyed by forest fires in Macedonia. Albania had a national power shortage as a result of the heat. Up to 500 people have died in Hungary because of the heatwave with deaths attributed to heatstroke, cardiovascular problems and other illnesses aggravated by high temperatures which reached a record high of 41.9C in the southern city of Kiskunhalas. Countries across the Balkan peninsula also laboured under temperatures that hit a historic 43C in Belgrade and 44C in Bulgaria. In an urgent announcement, Greece's weather service predicted temperatures of 45C and the government urged people to restrict their movements and stay indoors, with blazes raging across much of the country. These temperatures are the hottest recorded for over 100 years.

Also in the Canary Islands, forest fires have forced the evacuation of more than 11,000 people.The fires have burnt at least 24,000 hectares of land on the islands of Gran Canaria and Tenerife, including damaging 65% of the Palmitos bird sanctuary park.

In the US, wildfires in South Dakota's Black Hills has burned some 28 sq km and killed one person trying to retrieve possessions from a home. Wildfires have also damaged California, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Washington, New Mexico, Oregon, Idaho and Montana. Many of the blazes have been fuelled by high winds and hot, dry conditions. Temperatures as high as 38C have followed a drier-than-normal winter, creating what many firefighters described as the "perfect wildfire season". In Utah, the largest wildfire in state history has destroyed almost 120,000 hectares. More than 13,800 hectares have been scorched in California's Inyo National Forest and campgrounds had to be evacuated and in the Los Padres National Forest in southern California 11 firefighters were injured as they battled to save 22 homes. Residents were evacuated from nearly 300 properties near Wenatchee, Washington. In Nevada, some 1,500 evacuees were allowed home after a fire at an electrical substation shut down the inter-state highway and caused major disruptions to train services.

Though climate change is being felt around the world, usually with uncomfortable effect, here's an amusing clip to put a lighter tone on climate change. Comic actor Will Ferrell poses as George Bush making a special address to the nation on the 'global warmings'. It's funny, but it's frighteningly close to the truth....

ICT

Second Life by now a 7 million virtual reality community, with virtual businesses, but underpinned with real money!, has become the test bed for the first copyright infringement lawsuit filed in the real world for an infringement that occurred in a virtual world. The lawsuit seeks to force Linden Lab to disclose the real-world identity of the virtual infringer, as well as asking for damages. Second Life entrepreneur Kevin Alderman filed a copyright infringement lawsuit on Tuesday against Second Life resident Volkov Catteneo, and Alderman's lawyer said he plans to subpoena Linden Lab to force it to disclose Catteneo's real-world identity. Alderman (Second Life name: Stroker Serpentine) runs the adult-content company Eros LLC. One of the company's most popular products is the SexGen bed, virtual furniture that retails for L$12,000 (US$45.11). In "Eros LLC vs John Doe," filed in the U.S. District Court in Tampa, Alderman accuses Catteneo of illicitly copying and selling the SexGen bed for as little as L$4,000, sharply cutting into Eros' sales. The fact that the case involves a "virtual" product raises interesting legal and social questions. Perhaps they need a virtual court to settle the matter in Second Life space.

Innovations is search engines are beginning to create respectable alternatives to Yahoo and Google. An emerging category of vertical search engines are sites designed to cater to a particular industry. This is particularly relevant if you are doing industry specific research. Also Ask.com has added additional search algorithms to its basic search, which while not always relevant, do expand your results and might source what you're looking for with greater ease than normal.

According to an OECD report, broadband users in 30 of the world's most developed countries are getting greatly differing speeds and prices. The OECD Communications Outlook 2007 notes that 60% of its member countries' net users are on broadband and countries that had switched to fibre networks had the best speeds at the lowest prices. Some price points of the cheapest entry level broadband per month are: Sweden $10.79, Denmark $11.11, Switzerland $12.53, US $15.93, France $16.36, Netherlands $16.85, New Zealand $16.86, Italy $17.63, Ireland $18.18, Finland $19.49.

A study by the UK's Energy Saving Trust, The Ampere Strikes Back, found that the growing popularity of hi-tech devices, such as flat-screen TVs and digital radios, threatens to undermine efforts to save energy. UK consumers spend £12 billion (€ 18 billion) a year on electronics, much of which is less efficient than older technology, flat-screen TVs and digital radios being among the worst offenders. EST said household appliances currently consumed about a third of an average home's electricity and projects that by 2020, the gadgets will account for about 45% of electricity used in UK households.

Research by the British Library suggests Europe loses € 3 billion each year in business value because of issues around digital preservation, and the chief executive of the UK National Archives has warned that the growing problem of accessing old digital file formats is a "ticking time bomb". The National Archives, which holds 900 years of written material, has more than 580 terabytes of data - the equivalent of 580,000 encyclopaedias - in older file formats that are no longer commercially available. The root cause of the problem is the range of proprietorial file formats that proliferated during the early digital revolution. Technology companies, such as Microsoft, used file formats which were not only incompatible with pieces of software from rival firms, but also between different iterations of the same program. While we have preserved data by preserving a PC and original software so that we can transfer legacy documents into new formats, this is not appropriate for most of us, and still suffers from the deterioration of media. However, this fact of deterioration of media is not so different from historical social millieaux in which little was written down and information passed ephemerally by word of mouth. Perhaps we will become less possessive of "stuff" as we are forced to let go of e-archived records.

After two years of procrastination and delays the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment directive finally comes into full effect this weekend, bringing with it a raft of new legal requirements for IT producers and, to a lesser extent, their business customers. The majority of the new legislation adheres to the polluter pays principle and focuses upon IT manufacturers, importers and resellers. As such they will be obliged to sign up with government-approved waste handling firms that can dispose of or recycle electrical equipment in an environmentally responsible fashion, provide some form of free take back for both business and domestic customers so that they can easily return their equipment at end of life, and pick up the bill for these new services. The IT Chief's Guide to WEEE will help companies comply with the new law.

Holonics and LOHAS

Holonics

Love vs hate - humanity's way of thinking today, is evolving to a spectrum of emotions that is the rainbow of life. Its easier to make black and white choices, especially if that is the culture of the world you live in. But it can't last. That way of thinking is primitive and soon becomes uncomfortable when you run up against inconsistencies. Whether it be love, work, family, business, religion, sport, geopolitics, there comes a time when you find that you can't reconcile values with reality and that is when one moves on. It always takes a while, sometimes years. It helps if one is passing through a physical or mental expansion, like growing up, or a heart attack. The challenge is to keep that energy for life as you get older, and can fall prey to the illusion of knowing it all.

In July, I was interested to notice a number of references by mainstream media to the emerging importance of the noosphere in managing our world. While the language is colloquial, the awareness that our thoughts make the world is growing. Some couch the transformation in terms of physical infrastructure, like internet and TV, others in terms of spiritual confidence. Following are two quotes that illustrate the emerging dominant dynamic.

Philip Stephens, Governor of the Ditchley Foundation and Associate Editor of the Financial Times, notes the need for new geopolitical systems underpinned by the growth of information flows to all people and :

"In his latest book, Second Chance, [Zbigniew] Brzezinski writes of the challenge to the existing global balance from the effective, if not the literal, enfranchisement of billions of people once locked out of any political process. This technology-driven awakening - most visible in the Middle East and Asia - is driving a global redistribution of power. In Brzezinski's words: "The resentment, emotions and quest for status of billions are a qualitatively new factor of power." Add migration, porous borders and unconventional weapons to the mix and you describe the new collective vulnerability of the west.

To describe this great upheaval, of course, is not to answer the question as to how the west should respond. Those mentioned above have their own suggestions. If there is one that stands out for me it is that we need to understand that ideas and values are now as important a tool as economic, or indeed military, might, in the effort to guarantee our security."

And then Aurora Carlson, the founder of the Open One Center in Sweden, writing on what to do about climate change ...

"Taking responsibility means taking back our true share of power. If the weather conditions and the level of consciousness of human beings are aspects of the same interrelated whole, then it is reasonable to conclude that just as the weather influences human beings, even the reverse is true -- human beings influence the weather.

Such a conclusion may have sounded absurd before, but not anymore. Most of us have now reached a level of consciousness where we can clearly see the way our actions influence the climate. But we are still only in the beginning of our awakening, we are still observing only the most gross level of existence -- so and so much carbon dioxide emission means so and so many degrees of temperature rise etc. But staying on the surface is not enough.

Even deeper than the level of action is the level of intent, thought and emotion. If we want to find a true solution, we need to go deeper than the level of actions and explore this interconnection between our intentions, thoughts and emotions and the chaotic climate situation. Such a link might still seem unlikely to some of us, but we need only remember that our actions (which are influencing the weather, as most of us now agree) are expressions of our thoughts and feelings."

The Tour de France seems to be self-managing its drug problem more effectively than regulation used to. Regulation was needed, but seemed to be ineffective. Recent screening and testing has winnowed the habit of doping, except among a few, but now it seems that keeping an eye on one another is working to remove that last vestige of cheating. Cyclists watching each other and condemning each other might change the culture to a higher level of sportsmanship. It would be helpful to have that culture among world leaders of all types - political, business, scientific.

In a hopeful story of biomimicry, the remarkable adhesive abilities of geckos and mussels have been combined to create a super-sticky material. The team that developed the material says that unlike other adhesives inspired by the nimble reptiles, "geckel" can attach to both wet and dry surfaces. Its staying power comes from coating fibrous silicone, similar in structure to a gecko's foot, with a polymer that mimics the "glue" used by mussels. Professor Phillip Messersmith from Northwestern University in Chicago, US envisions that " adhesive tapes made out of geckel could be used to replace sutures for wound closure, and may also be useful as a water-resistant adhesive for bandages and drug-delivery patches. Such a bandage would remain firmly attached to the skin during bathing but would permit easy removal upon healing."

Health

A study in The Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry found that organic tomatoes are twice as high in flavanoids as conventional tomatoes. Flavanoids protect against heart disease and other chronic ailments. Researchers analysed and compared organic to conventional tomatoes over a ten year period. The organic tomatoes not only scored better, but their flavanoid levels actually increased over time. Prior similar studies have found organic foods to have higher levels of a variety of vitamins and minerals. Scientists attribute the higher quality of organic foods to the healthier soil on organic farms.

Another related study, published in the British Journal of Nutrition, showed that organic dairy and meat products in a mother's diet positively affect the nutritional quality of her breast milk by increasing beneficial fatty acids. "These findings provide scientific support for common sense, by showing that organic foods are healthier," says Dr. Lukas Rist, who is the lead author of the study and the head of research at the Paracelsus Hospital in Switzerland. The study involved 312 breastfeeding women with 1-month old infants from the Netherlands.

Researchers reported in July that obesity can spread from person to person, much like a virus - when one person gains weight, close friends tend to gain weight, too.

The study, published in The New England Journal of Medicine, involved a detailed analysis of a large social network of 12,067 people who had been closely followed for 32 years, from 1971 to 2003. The investigators knew who was friends with whom as well as who was a spouse or sibling or neighbour, and they knew how much each person weighed at various times over three decades. That let them reconstruct what happened over the years as individuals became obese. Did their friends also become obese? Did family members? Or neighbours? The answer, the researchers report, was that people were most likely to become obese when a friend became obese. That increased a person’s chances of becoming obese by 57%. There was no effect when a neighbour gained or lost weight, however, and family members had less influence than friends. It did not even matter if the friend was hundreds of miles away, the influence remained. And the greatest influence of all was between close mutual friends. There, if one became obese, the other had a 171% increased chance of becoming obese, too. The same effect seemed to occur for weight loss, the investigators say. But since most people were gaining, not losing, over the 32 years, the result was, on average, that people grew fatter.

Dr. Nicholas A. Christakis, a physician and professor of medical sociology at Harvard Medical School and a principal investigator in the new study, said one explanation was that friends affected each others’ perception of fatness. When a close friend becomes obese, obesity may not look so bad. Of course social networks are not the only factors that affect body weight. There is a strong genetic component at work, too. Science has shown that individuals have genetically determined ranges of weights, spanning perhaps 15 or so kilogrammes for each person. But that leaves a large role for the environment in determining whether a person’s weight is near the top of his or her range or near the bottom. As people have become fatter, it appears that many are edging toward the top of their ranges.What usually happened was that peoples’ weights got high enough to push them over the boundary, a body mass index of 30, that divides overweight and obese. (For example, a 6-foot-tall man who went from 220 pounds to 225 would go from being overweight to obese.) See a New York Times video of the data here.

In the US, in fear of regulation of the food industry, 11 big food

companies, including McDonald’s, Campbell Soup and PepsiCo, are trying to demonstrate effective self regulation. They have agreed to stop advertising to children under 12 products that do not meet certain nutritional standards. Some of the companies, like Coca-Cola, have already withdrawn all such commercials or are in the process of doing so. Others, like General Mills, said they would withdraw them over the next year or so, while a handful agreed to expand their self-imposed bans to radio, print and Internet advertising.

Unfortunately the reality is that little is likely to change in terms of what foods children see pitched on their favourite television shows and Web sites and the general media message will still be to consume fat and sugar. For example, while General Mills will no longer be advertising Trix to the 12-and-under crowd, it will continue to peddle Cocoa Puffs, which have one less gram of sugar per serving. And it will be able to continue advertising Trix on television shows and other media that are considered to cater to “families” rather than just children. For instance, an episode of Nickelodon’s “SpongeBob SquarePants” is viewed by an average audience of 876,000 children age 6 to 11, according to Nielsen Media Research, and falls in the category of shows that are off-limits to ads for junk food. But “American Idol” from Fox, which qualifies as a family show, attracts 2.1 million children in the age group. The companies have also agreed for the first time to open their marketing plans to the Council of Better Business Bureaus and its Children’s Advertising Review Unit, which will review them and report publicly on the findings. This scrutiny and the pledges to self-regulate, which were announced at a Federal Trade Commission event, are an attempt to show corporate responsiveness to growing concerns about childhood obesity. But if we want health in ourselves and our children, we'll have to change our diet and demand that food companies produce healthier food. And while it may be difficult to change, once you're on a better diet, eating unhealthy food becomes unappetising.

Meanwhile in the UK a Soil Association report claims that hospitals and sports centres often offer “shockingly bad food” to their patients and customers despite supposedly being beacons of health. ‘Not What the Doctor Ordered’ found that vending machines in a sample of sports centres and hospitals across England and Wales were “failing dismally” to provide healthy options, despite the Government’s health policy identifying diet and nutrition as one of six key priority areas for improving public health. It is a sobering snapshot of the unhealthy food that is the norm in many healthcare and leisure facilities. Their food is high in sugar, fat and salt and seriously out of step with the kind of healthier choices encouraged by the Department of Health. Most of the food on sale is of poor nutritional quality, dominated by the fatty snacks, fizzy drinks and confectionery that have been banned from schools to protect children’s health. The report points out that the junk food routinely on sale in hospitals and sports centres is now banned in schools to protect children's health. Now the Government needs to step in to ensure that the very same products are not being sold to an identical target audience (it's no accident that sweet and drink machines are often situated close to children's play areas) by publicly funded institutions that should know better.

New figures released by the UK's Department for Children, Schools and Families paint a depressing picture of a growing clinical drugs dependency among the under-16s. It's not street drugs that are the problem it's the record number of children being prescribed anti-depressants and other behaviour-altering drugs. Particularly striking is the huge rise in the number of children being prescribed drugs to treat mental health problems - prescriptions have quadrupled in 10 years. Drugs are also being much more freely prescribed for tiredness in exam-pressured teenagers, or simply to compensate for unhealthy lifestyles. And prescriptions for behaviour-altering drugs such as Ritalin have soared in the past decade. There are of course be serious cases where drug treatment is needed. But it's also clear that drugs are being used far too often as a 'quick fix' where counseling, nutritional advice and lifestyle change would be far more appropriate. The charge is that drugs companies are putting intense pressure on medical specialists to expand the 'diagnostic territory' treatable by their drugs. In short, they want more people diagnosed with specific medical conditions. As Natural Products editor Jim Manson points out, this allegation is far from new and these latest official figures suggest that it's time that it was taken seriously and properly investigated.

Similarly, a UK study in the British Medical Journal made a series of significant discoveries. Current estimates of the number at risk of cardiovascular diseases are 1.5 million too high, suggesting the anti-cholesterol drugs statins are massively and needlessly over-prescribed, inflating the £ 2 billion annual bill to the NHS. It found that white middle-aged men have a lower risk of heart disease than previously thought and women from poorer backgrounds have a significantly higher risk. It also found one in three women in their 60s are at risk of heart disease, a figure previously thought to be one in four. The researchers tracked 1.28 million healthy men and women aged between 35 and 74 over a period of 12 years to April 2007 and used GP records from 318 general practices.

A Europe-wide study has found that drinking alcohol, even in moderation, such as a large glass of wine or a pint of beer a day, can increase the risk of bowel cancer by 10% and drinking up to two pints a day or about two large glasses of wine can increase the risk by up to a 25%. Nevertheless, family history remains a much more significant factor. The study questioned almost 480,000 people across 10 European countries about their drinking habits as part of the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition, funded by Cancer Research UK, the Medical Research Council and other European agencies, and published online by the International Journal of Cancer. All the participants in the study were followed up for six years. During that period, 1,833 people developed bowel cancer.

Over 5,000 Latin American banana plantation workers are suing U.S. companies for poisoning them with pesticides that caused them to go sterile. The complainants, all of whom worked on banana farms, accuse Dole, Dow and Amvac of negligence and fraudulent concealment while forcing workers to use the pesticide DBCP. According to the lawsuit, the transnational companies "actively suppressed information about DBCP's reproductive toxicity." This is the first time any case for a banana worker has come before a U.S. court. It is ironic to read this in the same month that we hear of ongoing birth defects caused by chemicals from Monsanto and Dow Chemical sprayed over 30 years ago.

Environment

A Japanese study has quantified the cost of a high meat diet to climate change - 1 kilogram of beef causes more greenhouse-gas and other pollution than driving for 3 hours while leaving all the lights on back home. The Animal Science Journal and New Scientist reported on a team led by Akifumi Ogino of the National Institute of Livestock and Grassland Science in Tsukuba, Japan which calculated the environmental cost of raising cattle through conventional farming, slaughtering the animal and distributing the meat. Producing one kilo of conventionally farmed beef causes the equivalent of 36.4 kilos in carbon dioxide, the principal greenhouse gas. Most of these greenhouse-gas emissions take the form of methane, released from the cow's digestive system.That one kilo of beef also requires energy equivalent to lighting a 100-watt bulb for nearly 20 days - the energy is needed to produce and transport the animals' feed. A Swedish study in 2003 calculated that organic beef emits 40% less greenhouse gases and consumes 85% less energy because the animal is raised on grass rather than concentrated feed.

Meanwhile, a new study by scientists at the University of Michigan in the US suggests that on farms in industrialised countries, organic farming can produce comparable yields to those achieved by conventional farming. In the less-industrialised world, the study showed that up to 3 times greater yields can be obtained by farming organically. These results were achieved using existing quantities of organic fertilisers, such as manure or compost, and without turning more land over to food production.

And in related news, the National Academy of Sciences dropped a bombshell on the agri-toxics lobby in June when it published a study indicating that pesticides are actually decreasing crop yields by 30%. Specifically, pesticides are killing important bacteria in the soil that naturally produce a useable form of nitrogen for plants, a necessary fertilizer. As the use of chemical pesticides has increased in the U.S., soil bacteria have been dramatically reduced, thereby creating an insatiable demand for petroleum-based fertilizers. In contrast, organic farming promotes a healthy living soil with increased crop yields. Over the last forty years nitrogen fertilizer use has increased 7x and nearly every acre of intensively farmed, conventional cropland is treated with pesticides. A team of scientists explored the impact of pesticides and other environmental toxicants on symbiotic nitrogen fixation (SNF) brought about by Rhizobium bacteria, and published findings in the prestigious Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

A study in India, published in the Agronomy Journal, shows that by increasing the price of water used for irrigation, farmers will use water more efficiently and plant crops that are more water-efficient. The research, by scientists from India's Punjab Agriculture University, and the United States-based Oklahoma State University and Texas A&M University, used a computer simulation to investigate the impact of using alternative crops on the amount of water farmers use. Farmers in the Indian state of Punjab, traditionally wheat and rice growers, have long relied on groundwater to irrigate their crops. But evidence suggests that farmers overuse water because it is cheap. There is also evidence that the water table is declining, forcing farmers to use poorer quality water containing high levels of arsenic. The scientists entered data known farming conditions in the Punjab region into the simulation model on, and modeled how different crops — maize, cotton, sorghum, soybeans and mustard — would respond to certain types of irrigation strategies. The model also assessed whether a higher water price would induce farmers to plant more water-efficient crops. The computer simulation showed that if the state raised water prices to about 25% of the price charged in large cities such as New Delhi, farmers would use less water, and use it more efficiently. Irrigation for a typical rice field could decrease by nearly 66%.

The City of New York has launched a truly enlightened project - it is trying to persuade people to give up bottled drinks and consume tap water instead to help protect the environment. Doing so will save people money, and reduce waste. It has launched an advertising campaign to promote the cause, with local restaurants encouraged to join in. According to environmental groups, four out of five plastic water bottles end up on landfill sites and the production process contributes to global warming. The distribution process sometimes involves shipping water halfway around the world. Already restaurants in California have begun to serve only tap water and some in New York are looking to follow suit. Why bottled water is bad for the environment

A study, reported in the Journal of Applied Ecology, could aid bumblebee conservation work by showing that gardens are key habitats for the nesting bumblebees. Scientists have found that the bees' nests are more likely to be located in gardens than in habitats such as woodlands or grasslands. The brightly coloured insects have suffered a dramatic drop in numbers and in recent years, three species have become extinct in the UK. And for at least five of the UK's 25 species, special measures are being taken to stop their numbers falling further.

Mexico has urged the US to alter its plans for expanded fences along their shared border, because they will damage the environment and harm wildlife, threaten ing unique ecosystems. The barriers could isolate border animals, including jaguars, Mexican black bears and the endangered antelope-like Sonora Pronghorn, into smaller groups, affecting their genetic diversity. The use of intense lights and radar could also affect nocturnal species. Mexico is ready to file a complaint with the International Court of Justice over the matter if the US does not respond. As has been discussed previously in this review, the planned barriers aim to curb illegal immigration, a highly divisive and controversial issue in the US. An estimated 12 million illegal immigrants are in the US, where attempts at a comprehensive overhaul of immigration law have repeatedly stalled in Congress. The fences, planned along 1,125 kilometers of the border, are to be equipped with hi-tech surveillance equipment, including sensors and strong lights. Mexico has suggested ways of minimising environmental damage, including "green corridors" of wilderness without roads, which would allow wildlife to remain connected but not provide an easy route for people trying to cross.

If you, like us, are keen cyclists you'll probably be aware of the eco-dilemma faced by two-wheelers when it comes to oiling your bike. Traditional oils are polluting and frequently refined from crude oil. Spray-on 'Chain-lube' or its variants almost inevitably contain PTFE, or teflon, which is now so ubiquitous in our environment that it can be found in the blood of polar bears. Its health risks to all organisms have been demonstrated (in fact PTFE only got approval because of lobbying and collusion). Now a company based in Kent has come up with Green Oil, which is based on a blend of natural oils, supplied in a refillable bottle, and even has a label printed on recycled paper! Check out the website...

Education

UN trade and development agency, UNCTAD, used its annual report on Least Developed Countries to look at the role of science, technology and innovation and report that poor nations are being sapped of the technology they need to break the poverty trap and catch up with the rest of the world. (This is not surprising news given the recent history of US biotech companies attempting to patent the DNA of indigenous crops and then charge countries for having them!) UNCTAD notes that rather than being luxuries, they are necessities to help economies that are underdeveloped to grow - technology could spur poor nations "to break loose from their poverty trap".

In a recent experiment, psychologists at Yale altered people’s judgments of a stranger by handing them a cup of coffee. The study participants, college students, had no idea that their social instincts were being deliberately manipulated. On the way to the laboratory, they had bumped into a laboratory assistant, who was holding textbooks, a clipboard, papers and a cup of hot or iced coffee, they were asked to help by holding the cup for a moment. That was all it took: the students who held a cup of iced coffee rated a hypothetical person they later read about as being much colder, less social and more selfish than did their fellow students, who had momentarily held a cup of hot coffee. It adds to similar findings in other recent studies. People tidy up more thoroughly when there’s a faint tang of cleaning liquid in the air; they become more competitive if there’s a briefcase in sight, or more cooperative if they glimpse words like “dependable” and “support” - all without being aware of the change, or what prompted it. Psychologists say that “priming” people in this way is not some form of hypnotism, or even subliminal seduction, rather, it’s a demonstration of how everyday sights, smells and sounds can selectively activate goals or motives that people already have. More fundamentally, the studies reveal a subconscious brain that is far more active, purposeful and independent than previously thought. Goals, whether to eat, mate or devour an iced latte, are like neural software programs that can only be run one at a time, and the unconscious is perfectly capable of running the program it chooses. The give and take between these unconscious choices and our rational, conscious aims can help explain some of the more mystifying realities of behaviour, like how we can be generous one moment and petty the next, or act rudely at a dinner party when convinced we are emanating charm. Once aware of this you might consider your susceptibility to advertising, media, office culture and social milieu and whether your behaviour is from within, or motivated by your environment.

A report carried out on behalf of the Higher Education Authority in Ireland shows that people from poorer backgrounds are being locked out of the professions. These students cannot compete with children from middle class and wealthy families at school. The new report confirms the great class divide both in the education system and in professions, including law, medicine, architecture, dentistry and pharmacy. Only 15.2% of students from skilled and unskilled manual working families got five honours or more in the Leaving Certificate, compared with 41.7% of students with parents with professional backgrounds. Females are also outshining males in terms of high points - approximately 60% of students who entered honours degree courses last year were female.

A survey commissioned by the Department for Children Schools and Families found that UK students want their schools to use renewable energy sources and rainwater resources. The poll of 850 13 to 15-year-olds in England found 81% backed the use of these forms of energy in schools. Of those surveyed, 70% wanted to know where the ingredients in their school dinners had come from.

It is sad to report that a survey from adult learning agency Learndirect shoes that bedtime stories are proving a struggle for many parents who are not confident readers. Bedtime stories are increasingly a critical part of establishing good reading-habits, not to mention relationships with your children in this age of screen-based leisure.More than 10% of the 1,000 parents asked had struggled to understand some words in the stories they had read to their five to 10-year-old children. Parents said that they made up words they could not read or missed out difficult passages. 30% of parents struggled with their children's maths homework. Learndirect, which aims to improve the skills of adults, is producing a children's book, which it hopes will help both parents and children.

Generally, the problem of adults without basic literacy skills has been highlighted - with employers warning of the damage to economic competitiveness. A government-commissioned report into skills, published by Lord Leitch, called for a radical overhaul in adult training and warned that the UK's skill base was lower than many international competitors. The report said that five million adults lacked functional literacy and more than 17 million had difficulties with numbers. Embarrassingly, more than one in six youngsters left school unable to read, write or add up properly.

The Israeli government has made an enlightened step forward in approving a school textbook that for the first time presents the Palestinian denunciation of the creation of Israel in 1948. "Both the Israeli and Palestinian versions have to be presented," education minister Yuli Tamir said. The book, to be used only in Israeli Arab schools, notes that Palestinians describe the event as a "catastrophe" and notes that "some of the Palestinians were expelled following the War of Independence and that many Arab-owned lands were confiscated". The new textbook also says Arab leaders rejected a UN partition plan for Palestine to be split into Israeli and Palestinian states, and that Jewish leaders accepted it. We can only hope that Israeli children will also get exposure to this version, as well as their own, so that while the effect will not be immediate, as a younger generation grows up it will be sensitive to the dual history and perceptions of the Middle East.

In the UK, the new government sees to be talking a lot of sense about education. Schools Secretary Ed Balls said that children should be allowed to throw snowballs and play outdoors and should not be "wrapped in cotton wool". Balls, launching a consultation on child safety, said parents needed to identify real dangers without preventing children from "exploring". Balls says he wants a "common-sense" debate about how to improve the safety of children - "children can learn from risk and parents must find a balance". "We want children to be protected from any sort of harm and abuse - but this does not mean that we should wrap our children in cotton wool," he said. Learning outside the classroom manifesto

Also, in a forthcoming revision of the secondary school curriculum in England, teenagers are to be taught about how to look after their finances (at last!). The money tips will come in a subject to be called "economic well-being and financial capability". New Schools Secretary Ed Balls wants young people to be equipped with an understanding of finance topics such as debt, tax and pensions. Balls, secretary of state for Children, Schools and Families, is to begin identifying priorities for the newly-created department. The plans for teaching economic well-being and financial capability are expected to be announced by the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority as part of a curriculum shake-up. This will also include lessons about life at work - such as teaching about careers, economics and enterprise. While it is not the first time that there have been plans to teach the young about how to handle money (almost five years ago, a project was unveiled as putting personal finance into the curriculum, and it has been taught in some schools since 2000) this looks like it will establish a much wider, comprehensive and practical approach. Apart from teaching pupils about the dangers of the growing "debt culture" - it will also address the problem of "financial exclusion". There are about two million adults who do not have any access to a bank account.

New curriculum revisions will also affect the geography curriculum which will receive a greener interpretation, with an additional focus on climate change and recycling.

And last but equally important for an enlightened society, the new Brown administration has allocated £13.7 million more to teach pupils manners, respect and good behaviour on top of the £ 7 million already committed to fund the Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning programme. New Children's Secretary Ed Balls wants pupils in all primary and secondary schools to have lessons in social and emotional skills by 2011. This is especially welcome because children are not getting this kind of role modeling from their parents (who often don't have the time because of jobs or inclination because it is inconvenient) and their other role model, TV, pays scant attention to this. A programme already running in 60% of primary schools, which helps children deal with anger, anxiety and conflicts, is being rolled out across the UK and so far has had a major impact on behaviour and attainment. The programme focuses on encouraging pupils to understand themselves, manage their feelings and promotes social skills and the understanding of others. These skills of emotional intelligence aid employability and social mobility by ensuring all children, regardless of background, have confidence in their abilities and understood how to interact with others in a positive way. The programme is also aimed at promoting positive behaviour and regular school attendance which will have an impact on learning and emotional health.

Living

Public opinion in most poor countries and Central Europe is generally significantly more optimistic about future living conditions for their children than in wealthy, developed nations, according to newly released findings of the latest Pew Global Attitudes Project (GAP) survey (browsing the link is recommended), which was based on more than 45,000 interviews conducted during April and early May. The sub-title of their report is one of the most optimistic forecasts that you will see in today's media: Sharp Decline in Support for Suicide Bombing in Muslim Countries. Overall the findings underpin the rationale for employing soft-power to bring about change in the world. Improvements in infrastructure, education and job opportunities are self-sustaining lifestyle improvements.

Pluralities or majorities in North America, Western Europe and Japan believe that the next generation in their countries will be worse off than the current one, according to the in-depth poll of 47 nations worldwide. 4 out of 5 French respondents, nearly 3 out of 4 Germans, and 7 out of 10 Japanese say they expect the next generation to be worse off. By contrast, pluralities or majorities ranging up to 86% in 21 out of 30 developing nations surveyed believe their children will have a better life than their parents' generation. Led by China, where 86% of respondents said life should be better for their children, public opinion among developing countries in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa is particularly optimistic, according to the survey. The only countries among the 15 Asian and African countries surveyed where pluralities said the next generation will be worse off are Uganda and Tanzania. Opinions in Latin America and the Arab world, on the other hand, are much more divided. Among Latins, Chileans were the most optimistic, with 62% of respondents saying life would be better for their children, and 25% saying it would be worse. The numbers were virtually reversed for Brazil, with only 28% predicting better and 64% worse. Among Arabs, Moroccans were by far the most optimistic, with 67% predicting better and only 13 percent worse, while, at the other end of the scale, a mere 18% of Palestinians in the occupied territories predicting their children's lives would be better and 44% worse.

The survey also shows a distinct divide in public opinion between regions which have experienced strong economic growth over the past five years, when GAP conducted a similar interview, and those where growth has been slower or flat. Where growth has been strong, particularly in most of Latin America, Central and Eastern Europe, and, to a somewhat lesser extent, Asia, respondents expressed significantly greater satisfaction with their personal lives, family incomes, and national conditions than they did five years ago. In those countries where the economy has performed less well, particularly in the U.S. and Western Europe, contentment levels on all three factors were either the same as or reduced compared to five years ago.

Meanwhile the New Economics Foundation reports that Europe's carbon emissions have risen markedly over the last 40 years, but the extra fuel use has brought little increase in happiness. NEF in its The European Happy Planet Index: An index of carbon efficiency and well-being in the EU, says that instead reducing social inequality (as supported by the PEW research above) and reducing energy consumption are key drivers of improved wellbeing. Iceland has the highest ratio of wellbeing to emissions, with the UK 21st out of 30 countries assessed. The ratings are based on its Happy Planet Index (referenced last month). Countries score points for how happy citizens rate themselves to be and how long they live, and lose points for their per-capita carbon output. The European countries with the lowest per-capita carbon footprint are either those which generate substantial amounts of energy from renewables, such as Iceland and Sweden, or former members of the Soviet bloc whose economies are still rebuilding, such as Latvia and Romania. Across the continent, our per-capita carbon footprint has risen by 70% since 1961, while life expectancy has increased by about 8% and self-reported happiness hardly at all. Based on its analysis, Nef's prescription for happy European countries with low per-capita carbon footprints includes measures such as

Also relevant is new research on why we make choices. The world currently runs on money and this has proved to be an effective way of demonstrating attractive traits in our social structure. But if money does not deliver the biological objective of desirable reproductive opportunities, it looses its pulling power. Terence Burnham investigated decision making in a money game which revealed that people really want relative rather than absolute prosperity (reported in the Proceedings of the Royal Society). Particularly, individuals with higher testosterone (males!) would rather accept less themselves than see a rival get ahead. This suggests two objectives to help enlighten humanity: raise emotional intelligence so that intellect overrides testosterone, and change the value of asset wealth in society to depreciate it to spiritual wealth. Both are distant targets, but already are becoming more relevant in education and society.

Even in little ol' Ireland the widening gap between the country's rich and poor is being laid bare. Two new reports revealed a stark contrast in lifestyles. A new report from the Bank of Ireland outlined how we now boast the second highest rate of millionaires in the world - around 33,000 people are worth more than €1m, even when the value of their home is excluded. That is a jump of 10% in the space of just one year. Called the 'Wealth of the Nation', it revealed that Irish household wealth has rocketed by 20% in the space of just one year, though just 1% of the population controls one-fifth of the country's wealth. Ireland is looking more like little America. Another report, from the Irish Society for the Protection of Cruelty to Children, shows there has been the first increase in 10 years in the number of children begging.
And official figures show 285,000 people are now surviving on less than €190 a week - this may seem like a lot but in comparison to lifestyle expectations generated by the Celtic Tiger culture, it is modest, and as the PEW report referenced above indicates, relative wealth is critical to happiness. Around 815,000, almost a quarter of the population, are considered 'at risk' of poverty and live on low incomes. The Central Statistics Office also revealed that the gap between rich and poor is widening.

In the UK in another welcome innovation, the new administration plans to give local residents power to decide how ten of millions of pounds should be spent in their neighbourhood.In a potentially dramatic extension of direct democracy, councils will have to hold ballots before deciding where money should be targeted. It would mean that, for the first time, people could direct cash to areas that concern them most, such as parks, curbing antisocial behaviour, targeting drug trouble spots or cleaning up litter. This idea is already being adopted in Latin America, where it began in 1989 in the southern Brazilian city of Porto Alegre, but has swept through the region and some of the more radically led cities. Thanks in part to the success of the scheme, the UN has nominated Porto Alegre as the Brazilian city with the "best quality of life". Hazel Blears, the new communities secretary, wants every neighbourhood to have control of some of the council's cash within 5 years. Communities will be asked to take control of council budgets through local debates, neighbourhood votes and public town meetings. At first this policy will be run in 10 national pilot projects, to include Birmingham, Merseyside, Lewisham, Bradford, Salford, Sunderland, Newcastle and Southampton. For example, in the case of Sunderland the council will set aside £ 23 million of its budget over the next two years for local residents to decide how the money is spent. Local residents will be able to decide whether their priority is play areas, youth facilities, traffic calming or more community wardens. Blears notes "voting every four years and basically handing over responsibility and power to other people and then doing nothing again for four years [is not democracy]."

A study funded by the United Nations' UNIFEM found that the number of young Hindu widows seeking refuge in India's holy city of Vrindavan - nicknamed "the city of widows" - is rising because of poverty, not spirituality, that is driving women there. The report said that poor and helpless women went to the northern city to escape "humiliation and dependence". Nearly 15,000 widows are believed to be living on the streets of Vrindavan. Widows are traditionally ostracised in India and the new study shows their plight remains pretty much unchanged. It says that almost 80% of the widows who come to Vrindavan - in the state of Uttar Pradesh - are from West Bengal, and a large number of them are very young. All this is despite the fact that West Bengal has one of the highest pension schemes offered by the government for widows, almost € 15 a month. A well-known journalist, Usha Rai, who carried out the research recommended "rehabilitation and skilled training" for widows so that they are not dependant on charity alone because these women are often driven away because their families see them as a drain on their finances.

The gap between the diets of people on low incomes and those of the rest of the population is not as wide as some feared, according to research just published by the UK Food Standards Agency. In fact, the dietary pattern of people on low incomes is shown to be broadly the same as that of the general population. The bad news is that there are serious deficiencies in important areas across all socioeconomic groups. The FSA conducted the survey to assess concerns that the diet of low-income groups was far poorer than other social groups due to restricted access to choice and a lack of confidence in cooking skills. However, the Agency’s study did not identify any direct link between dietary patterns and income, food access or cooking skills. It reports that diet-related problems found to affect people on low incomes are in general much the same as those facing the population as a whole, including not eating enough fruit and vegetables, not eating enough oily fish and consumption of too much saturated fat and sugar. Key findings included:

The ban on smoking in public places came into effect in England at the beginning of July - an end to drinkers having a cigarette with their pint in pubs, bars and clubs. England follows Wales and Northern Ireland, which introduced bans in April, and Scotland, which brought in a ban last March.

The seventh and final installment of the Harry Potter book series was released, and Wal-Mart stands to sell millions of copies. But in order to drive customers into their stores, Wal-Mart is selling the books dirt cheap - 50% below the suggested retail price. This typical Wal-Mart move to destroy its competition will likely have a devastating effect on already struggling independent book stores across the country. Watch this humorous web video and don't forget to boycott Wal-Mart and other chains. As Professor Dumbledore said in Harry Potter & the Chamber of Secrets, "it is our choices... that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities."

Activities and Media

While the weather has been boringly grey and wet, there was some sporting relief through Wimbledon (it was nice to see gentleman Federer win in front of Borg) and the Tour de France (or chaotic drug soap opera - though refreshing to see self-policing and Rabobank firing the team leader for lying) which provides some motivation for getting on my own bike.

We were also afforded some welcome diversion by visitors from around the world - Hong Kong, London/Brussels, and Stockholm/Montreal - who brought us stories of what's really happening beyond the farm gate.

Although the weather has been a nuisance in the garden, we have started harvesting which means some of the best food on the table we get all year. I had to harvest potatoes early, because the humid weather encourages blight, but the fruit harvest has been fantastic. And Pam's gooseberry jam is delicious, even when I turn it in to homemade gooseberry ice cream ... mmmmm!

And we did get a few days of dry weather so I was able to finish our roof extension, including 2 hand-made skylights - amazingly it doesn't leak!

Having school holidays also means a bit more time entertaining the children, which I love to do even if it means compromising on some of the things I "should" be doing. One of which was making sure clients' equity portfolios didn't get wiped out (readers of the Investment section will be familiar with my caution). Fortunately timing was opportune and gains were preserved ... phew!

By strange coincidence in July I happened to notice two important legal milestones in the area of education which were engineered by (unrelated?) Butlers. The first rather shameful, the second positive. (I mention these simply as a kind of humorous pedigree.) July saw the anniversary of the decision of the Scopes Trial which upheld the so-called Butler Act (1925) in the US. John Washington Butler, a farmer, wrote a 2 page anti-evolution law which came to prohibit the teaching of evolution and require the teaching of creationism which stayed on the books till 1967! (Not quite as bad as Pierce Butler's role in creation of the Electoral College system, infamous for its role in the 2004 US election). More positively, RA Butler underwrote the UK's Education Act of 1944 which revolutionised education in the UK providing better access and raising its profile.

A couple of the websites that I came across during research and browsing that you might enjoy include the following.

Live Science, a fun place to explore science fact and fiction with easy reading and good pictures. Worth a browse for all age groups.

A new interactive map allows users to find green businesses and activists around the globe, or find regions that have received or desperately need some "green action."

The World Future Society had their annual meeting at the end of July: Fostering Hope and Vision for the 21st Century. You can find papers from it here. As always there are provocative and interesting perspectives to stimulate strategy, like The Death of Evolution: Long Live Creation.

I'm dipping into Winds of Change by Harold Macmillan. Its the first part of his autobiography and not my usual reading preference. But it offers some interesting reference points. It starts before World War One when horse transport dominated and moves through to World War Two when automotive vehicles had taken over. It describes his brief experience of war and fighting in the trenches in a personal manner that helps one realise how naive belligerence is. It is worth a browse if you have access to a copy.

A new book The World Without Us by Alan Weisman takes the reader on an interesting journey to consider how nature would recover if suddenly humanity was wiped out. While a morbid scenario, the good thing is that his conjecture is that nature would soon enough erode the edifice of humanity and return nature to its natural balance. Unfortunately, there is one bleak spot - climate change. He posits that it would take 100,000 years to return to pre-human levels of CO2. This long lasting legacy would therefore continue to fuel climate change and that in itself has the potential to destroy nature's balance and with it, nature.

Hazel Henderson's new book Ethical Markets: Growing the Green Economy is receiving good reviews. It is an exhaustive survey of the sustainable business landscape, serves as a perfect primer on green economics and tracks lesser-known trends and developments.

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holonics
The Big Picture

body

mind

spirit

About
Astraea

Astraea News and Views
July 2007

Perspective

Geopolitics

Risk and Terror

Energy

Climate Change and Environment

ICT

Holonics and LOHAS

Holonics

Health

Environment

Education

Living

Activities and Media

holonics The Big Picture

body

mind

spirit

About Astraea

Astraea News and Views July 2007

Perspective

Geopolitics

Risk and Terror

Energy

Climate Change and Environment

ICT

Holonics and LOHAS

Holonics

Health

Environment

Education

Living

Activities and Media

holonics
The Big Picture

About
Astraea

Astraea News and Views
July 2007