We Have Spent The Best Part Of

There Is Very Good Evidence Indeed That One Of The Major Reasons For This Horror In Syria Was A Drought That Lasted For About Five Or Six Years, Which Meant That Huge Numbers Of People In The End Had To Leave The Land.

Fast Food May Appear To Be Cheap Food And, In The Literal Sense It Often Is, But That Is Because Huge Social And Environmental Costs Are Being Excluded From The Calculations. Any Analysis Of The Real Cost Would Have To Look At Such Things As The Rise In Food-borne Illnesses, The Advent Of New Pathogens, Antibiotic Resistance From The Overuse Of Drugs In Animal Feed, Extensive Water Pollution From Intensive Agricultural Systems And Many Other Factors. These Costs Are Not Reflected In The Price Of Fast Food.

Scientists Themselves Readily Admit That They Do Not Fully Understand The Consequences Of Our Many-faceted Assault Upon The Interwoven Fabric Of Atmosphere, Water, Land And Life In All Its Biological Diversity. But Things Could Also Turn Out To Be Worse Than The Current Scientific Best Guess. In Military Affairs, Policy Has Long Been Based On The Dictum That We Should Be Prepared For The Worst Case. Why Should It Be So Different When The Security Is That Of The Planet And Our Long-term Future?

The Simple Fact Is That The World Is Not Paying For The Services The Forests Provide. At The Moment, They Are Worth More Dead Than Alive-for Soya, For Beef, For Palm Oil And For Logging, Feeding The Demand From Other Countries. ... I Think We Need To Be Clear That The Drivers Of Rainforest Destruction Do Not Originate In The Rainforest Nations, But In The More Developed Countries Which, Unwittingly Or Not, Have Caused Climate Change.

I Sometimes Wonder If Two Thirds Of The Globe Is Covered In Red Carpet.