World leaders say climate change is one of the most serious threats facing humanity. Are they right? If they are, who is going to do what about it? Who will benefit and who will pay? openDemocracy invites you to take part in one of the hottest debates of our times.

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.

Democracy and sustainability: a joint cause

Halina Ward and Clare Shine 3 September 2012

A new manifesto argues that the advance of democracy and of sustainable development is at heart a shared endeavour. Halina Ward & Clare Shine explain the initiative’s purpose and invite support.

Climate change: time to transform

Paul Rogers 17 August 2012

The understanding of global climate change has deepened since the 1970s, in parallel with voluminous research into and clear scientific evidence of its reality. The obstacles to recognition remain powerful. But this, the 2010s, really is the crucial decade.

Climate politics: hockey-stick to hamster-wheel

Øyvind Paasche 24 May 2012

The containment of greenhouse-gas emissions requires political will. But to get to that point the debate about global warming needs to escape from two key diversions, says Øyvind Paasche. 

What is energy for?

Rebecca Willis 7 February 2012
So familiar has the social economy of energy become in modern societies, so routine its extraordinardinary wastefulness, so toxic its effects, that the capacity for a better way can be missed. By questioning the how, why and what of energy use, says Rebecca Willis, new possibilities - of living, travelling, eating, working and buying - can open

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.

A world in crisis: echo, need, hope

Paul Rogers 8 December 2011

A fresh awareness of system-failure and resource-constraint draws on the experience and ideas of the 1970s. But this time the vision of radical change is real possibility as well as urgent necessity.

(This article was first published on 1 December 2011)

Giant strides or fairy footsteps

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

The world’s food crisis: time to move

Simon Maxwell 8 September 2011
The international response to the food crisis of 2011 is less energetic and coherent than during the last emergency, in 2008. Both economic understanding and political impetus need to be improved, says Simon Maxwell.

An extreme climate: dangers and needs

Paul Rogers 4 August 2011
Both regional weather disasters and global climate trends present compelling arguments for political and economic action on a systemic scale. But the obstacles to this remain formidable.

The new Arctic: trade, science, politics

Øyvind Paasche 7 April 2011
The opening of the Arctic to ship-passage will transform the region’s political as well as environmental landscape, says Øyvind Paasche.

Japan: from tsunami to change

David Hayes 14 March 2011
The effects of the catastrophic earthquake in Japan’s northeast will be felt for years to come. How Japan responds will help to define its capacity to meet other 21st-century tests, says David Hayes.

The politics of climate finance

Simon Maxwell 26 November 2010
A high-level international report on how financial resources can be raised to help developing countries address climate change is a disappointing and politics-free compromise. Simon Maxwell proposes a way beyond it.

Ed Miliband’s global moment

Paul Rogers 1 October 2010
The election of a new leader of Britain’s opposition Labour Party is a rare opportunity to put fresh thinking on global security at the heart of the political agenda.

Disarmed

Jim Gabour, Jim Gabour, and Jim Gabour

In a return to the putrid nightmare of post-Katrina New Orleans, Jim Gabour learns the hard way about what is needed to keep on the right side of life. First published September 5th 2005. Updated August 24th 2010.

This week's editor

Heather McRobie


Heather McRobie is a regular contributor to 50.50

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

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