Global warming: nothing to do with human action, an illusion, a minor irritant, a technical problem that can be managed by normal development, or the most serious threat to the world after nuclear war?

No control panel

Jim Gabour 26 May 2013

Struck by malevolent storms our Sunday Comics columnist finds the ardour and expense of repairs compounded by the coordinated revolt of machines

The great tide of 31 January 1953

Ken Worpole 25 January 2013

An enormous surge of water over the coastal lands of south-east England sixty years ago took hundreds of lives and marked survivors for a lifetime. A meticulous account of the tragedy written a few years later is still the best source to understand what happened, says Ken Worpole, a native of one of the places most affected, Canvey Island.

India Burning

Amritpan Kaur 27 November 2012

When the rice harvest season finishes in a few weeks, fields in India will turn black as farmers burn thousands of acres. This practice shows one of the failures of the Green Revolution, with devastating regional and global consequences. A food-security-obsessed India cannot ignore these issues for much longer.

The politics of myth making: 'Beasts of the Southern Wild'

Agnes Woolley 29 October 2012

Myths of human survival that evade questions of gender, race and social relations, won’t help us adapt in a world already being radically reshaped by environmental disasters and slow burning climate change, argues Agnes Woolley

Latest climate signs should jolt leaders into global action

Simon Maxwell and Sam Bickersteth 11 October 2012

Although climate change has seemingly disappeared from the global political agenda, recent signs show we're not that far away from disaster. What will it take for our leaders to finally act?

Making sense of the riots in Assam, India

Ibu Sanjeeb Garg 30 August 2012

The recent riots in the northeastern state of Assam between Bodo tribespeople and ethnic Bengali Muslims are creating a dangerous situation for the central government of India. There might be various solutions to this recurring conflict in Assam, but we must understand that at heart this is not a Hindu-Muslim conflict.

Isaac: the intemperate bastard

Jim Gabour 29 August 2012

The latest messages from our columnist and friend in New Orleans

The death of a controversy?

Magnus Nome 1 August 2012

Non-news about a "controversy" on life support, an inconsequential U-turn and the unfortunate fact that schadenfreude won't save the climate.

China’s big bet on green industry – and how it might green the world

John Mathews 3 February 2012
After the failure of Durban, a promising plan B to reducing carbon emissions rests upon green development industrial strategies being pursued by individual countries. And here China is in the vanguard.

Water in the Arab Spring

Andrew Wigley 20 December 2011
Water scarcity in the Middle East & North Africa is at the root of the region’s uprisings. In the coming years, it will also be the source of further social unrest across the region.

Threat to opportunity: the new logic of climate policy

Andrew Bowman 14 December 2011
In the clutches of recession, the Ryanair chief executive may now breathe a sigh of relief as binding emission reductions seem further off than ever before. Now, the only thinkable solutions to climate change are those which also provide an immediate, tangible boost to economic growth. But can market logic provide the solution to this ever-escalating crisis?

Giant strides or fairy footsteps

Simon Maxwell 18 November 2011
How much progress can be made in tackling climate change without a global deal?

A low carbon future needs an industrial policy

David Nash 31 March 2011
The UK Chancellor (Finance Minister), George Osborne, presented plans for taxation and spending that pay homage to environmental concerns. But his measures rely on the mistaken belief that market mechanisms and other interventions are substitutes, not complements. (This article is part of an IPPR series more of which can be read here)

After Cancún: shifting climate gears

Andrew Pendleton 6 December 2010
The loss of momentum in climate diplomacy reflects deep flaws in the way campaigners understand and frame climate change in relation to people’s lives and interests. There is both challenge and opportunity here, says Andrew Pendleton.

Laid low by the heat

Elena Strelnikova 20 August 2010
The Russian heat wave has been going on for weeks. From her dacha Elena Strelnikova gives a wry account of officials on freebies, water shortages and the catastrophic effects of the lasting heat on fruit, crops, milk yields and life in the Orenburg Region in general.

The felling of bungalows, the building of Dhaka

Delwar Hussain

House 17A on Road 6 in the Banani district of Bangladesh's capital, Dhaka, is easy to locate. Though the nameplate on the wall is concealed behind the protective tendrils of a bright fuchsia-coloured bougainvillea plant, even the most uncertain postal worker will be able to find the address.

Trust the people on climate change

Stephen Plowden 1 March 2010
While inconsistency with respect to climate change runs so deep in government policy, how can we expect people to behave differently?

Copenhagen: a successful failure

Joe Smith 12 January 2010
The Copenhagen climate-change summit has been widely portrayed as a failure. But in a deeper and longer perspective COP15 is an important milestone, says Joe Smith.

Does environmentalism destroy the world?

Tony Curzon Price 7 January 2010
openDemocracy and Resurgence launch the Dictionary of Ethical Politics to explore how our political concepts can cope with the end of the limitless

Can consumers save our climate?

John Elkington 5 January 2010
After Copenhagen, can market forces – and consumers in particular – help address global warming? In an article originally published on chinadialogue.net, John Elkington looks at the promises and pitfalls of “green” consumption

This week's guest editors

openGlobalRights editors

Our guest editors James Ron, Leslie Vinjamuri, Sophie Arie and Archana Pandya introduce this week's theme of:

Emerging powers and human rights.

A Turkish Spring?

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Woolwich - terror or conflict?

Secret Courts: 8 nightmare scenarios now possible in Britain
Jo Shaw

Iran myths

Iranian presidential candidate and chief nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalill

Myths, falsehoods and misrepresentations about Iran
Peter Oborne and David Morrison

Palestinian borders

Palestine, peoples and borders in the new Middle East map
Ahmad Samih Khalidi

Nobel Women's Initiative

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Europe from the bottom up

European Union stars in Paris. Flickr/notarim. Some rights reserved.

A new Europe can only come from the bottom up
Etienne Balibar

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The media in Europe

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Mali: the plot thickens

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Remote control war

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oDRussia at journalismfestival .com

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