- Torture scenes: perhaps the first video evidence of violence by Fiji's military and police (WARNING: Very graphic video.)
- The US has quietly and unilaterally reduced its nuclear stockpile by about 500 warheads since 2009.
- Pollution is now a serious constraint on China's growth.
- Climate economist Dieter Helm: '...the Europeans put all this effort into global leadership on carbon emissions, and that has failed. And the Americans arguably have no sensible energy policy at all, and no climate change policy, and have done much better.'
- Hugh White's latest op-ed refers to a speech by DFAT Secretary Peter Varghese which I had missed. Here's the transcript.
- The eurozone crisis is above all about political power. Germany is the biggest player, and further stimulus in the southern periphery would hurt Germany. Hence, no stimulus.
- How much energy does the world need?
...the magnitude of the challenge of providing energy for all is at least as large as the challenge implied by accumulating carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, and perhaps many times larger. Independent of the climate issue, there are good justifications why diversifying the global energy mix beyond fossil fuels makes sense, for security, environmental, health and economic reasons.