The 'sanitised narrative' of Hiroshima's atomic bombing

The US has always insisted that the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were necessary to end World War Two. But it is a narrative that has little emphasis on the terrible human cost.

I met a remarkable young man in Hiroshima the other day. His name is Jamal Maddox and he is a student at Princeton University in America. Jamal had just toured the peace museum and met with an elderly hibakusha, a survivor of the bombing.

Το χρέος της Ελλάδας μπορεί και πρέπει να μειωθεί εντός ευρώ

Ίσως η μεγαλύτερη ζημιά που προκλήθηκε από την αντιπαράθεση με την Ελλάδα, είναι μια γενική απώλεια της εμπιστοσύνης. Εάν θέλουμε να βάλουμε την Ελλάδα ξανά σε τροχιά ανάκαμψης, οι άνθρωποι, οι επιχειρήσεις και οι επενδυτές, πρέπει να ανακτήσουν την εμπιστοσύνη στη βιωσιμότητα της χώρας. Για να λειτουργήσει αυτό, είναι απαραίτητα μια νόμιμη και ικανή κυβέρνηση καθώς και μια αποτελεσματική διοίκηση και δικαστικό σώμα. Ωστόσο το θέμα της βιωσιμότητας του χρέους είναι ακόμη κεντρικής σημασίας, ακόμη και αν το κόστος εξυπηρέτησης χρέους είναι αμελητέο βραχυπρόθεσμα. Κανένας δεν αμφισβητεί την ανάλυση του ΔΝΤ ότι η βιωσιμότητα του ελληνικού κρατικού χρέους αποτελεί βασική προϋπόθεση για την ανάκαμψη.

Is Natural Gas As Clean As We Think?

This week U.S. President Barack Obama took aim at the American coal industry as part of a comprehensive climate change plan to limit air emissions from what many consider the country's worst polluter.

Under the plan, states will have until 2030 to cut CO2 levels by a third from what they were in 2005. Outside the United States, Europe is using less coal, the Canadian province of Ontario shut down its coal-fired power generation (albeit in favor of more expensive renewables), and the World Bank last week rejected the notion that coal can cure poverty.

5 things needed to turn the SDGs into reality

Now that the sustainable development goals are — in the main — agreed, what needs to happen to turn this global manifesto into a national policy agenda?

Members of development organizations, governments, private sector, civil society and academia work together at the WCMC Scenarios Workshop to outline ideas on future socio-economic drivers of change for food security, environments and livelihoods in Southeast Asia. Photo by: CGIAR / Elisabeth van de Grift / CC BY-NC-SA

The clock to SDG attainment will start ticking Jan. 1, 2016. Here are five things that will be important to ensure the much-debated goals and targets — and the overarching vision of a new future for everyone — actually start to be implemented.

Greece’s Refugee Crisis and Europe’s Failure

As if Greece didn’t have enough on its hands after its European creditors forced it to accept a damaging bailout deal last month, it is also trying to cope with more refugees crossing the Mediterranean to its shores than to any other country in Europe. It is unconscionable for Europe to expect Greece to shoulder this burden, yet that is exactly what is happening.

Refugees at a temporary camp on the Greek island of Lesbos. CreditSergey Ponomarev for The New York Times

More than 107,000 refugees and immigrants have landed in Greece this year, surpassing the 80,000 reaching Italy. More than half are Syrians fleeing the civil war.