At the start of the UN's long-awaited Copenhagen climate summit, officials are pulling out all the stops to spin the conference as a success, no matter what actually happens. Barack Obama's announcement that he will briefly pass through Copenhagen was a headline story, as was China's commitment to reduce their economy's "carbon intensity," merely lowering their rate of increase in greenhouse gas emissions.
Toward Freedom
Repackaging Copenhagen: Will There Be a Global Climate Agreement?
At the start of the UN's long-awaited Copenhagen climate summit, officials are pulling out all the stops to spin the conference as a success, no matter what actually happens. Barack Obama's announcement that he will briefly pass through Copenhagen was a headline story, as was China's commitment to reduce their economy's "carbon intensity," merely lowering their rate of increase in greenhouse gas emissions. |
||
|
||
|
|
||
| Page 38 of 197 |
A year into his presidency, Barack Obama is essentially following the same course of militarised action in Africa pursued by his predecessors over the past decade. A consequence of the US president's faith in the necessity of the global war on terror and pragmatic political concerns around retaining oil supplies, Obama's approach to Africa has been entirely rooted in asserting his country's military might.
Near Reedley, on the east side of the San Joaquin Valley, three men live in a camp they've built under the trees of an abandoned orchard. A blue tarp and the cardboard from an unfolded carton make up the roof. The mattresses for their beds sit on shipping pallets, or nearby under a bush. One of the men made a doll of straw, which sits in the branch of a dead tree overlooking the camp.
When officials in Marin County, California announced they would form their own public power agency in order to offer residents a cleaner energy mix than the state's mega-utility, Pacific Gas & Electric Corporation (PG&E), local community activists were glad.
Presidential elections have been media spectacles for almost 50 years, roughly since television became the national drug. One landmark 1960 production, arguably the first televised "presidential death match," pitted Jack Kennedy, an Arthurian figure to be sure, against Dick Nixon, doing a creepy Richard III imitation. Their TV debate is said to have turned the tide, but the election itself was questionable, and high Camelot hopes were cut short by assassination and war. Subscribe To Our Weekly Email Newsletter
