CounterCurrents: Turkey Shells ISIS And Kurdish Forces In Syria, IPCC Special Report To Scrutinise ‘Feasibility’ Of 1.5C Climate Goal

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The Syrian imbroglio is getting murkier and murkier. Turkey has started shelling Kurdish and ISIS forces in the Syrian border town of Jarablus. Having lost control of ISIS,  western forces are now supporting Kurdish militia. But Turkey has its own strategic interests against the Kurds gaining ground in Syria. Russia, China and Iran are all warming up to Turkey. Who pays the price? Alylan Kurdis and Omran Daqneeshs! Syria has become a chess board for great powers and the syrian people are the pawns easily sacrificed in the game. 

A ray of hope has dawned on the global warming front. When we were all resigned to 2 Degree Celsius temperature rise, IPCC has called for a thorough assessment study to limit temperature rise to 1.5 C. The report will be submitted in September 2018. 

The banks, credit card companies and big businesses have declared a war on Cash. Sweden is going to go cashless. Death of Cash means the rise of something else, which may be detrimental to the weaker sections of the society. 

Water as a Commons is facing grave threat. Some facts: Every day, 2 million tons of sewage and industrial and agricultural waste are discharged into the world’s water, the equivalent of the weight of the entire human population of more than 7 billion people. The amount of wastewater produced annually is about six times more water than exists in all the rivers of the world. 

Meet Giang, a Vietnamese American who migrated to USA during the war on Vitenam, in Linh Dinh's "Post Card from The End of America".  

On 47th day of curfew in Kashmir Srinagar residents face acute shortage of essential commodities. Four injured    in a police  firing in Pulwama. 

And many more stories from around the world. 

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Turkey Shells ISIS And Kurdish Forces In Syria
by Barry Grey 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/08/24/turkey-shells-isis-and-kurdish-forces-in-syria/

Following last week’s threats by Washington to attack Syrian government war planes bombing US-backed Kurdish forces in the northern Syrian town of Hasakeh, Turkey has launched artillery barrages against both ISIS fighters and Kurdish militia in and near the Syrian border town of Jarablus.




Water As A Commons: Only Fundamental Change Can Save Us
by Maude Barlow 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/08/24/water-as-a-commons-only-fundamental-change-can-save-us/

We are polluting our lakes, rivers and streams to death. Every day, 2 million tons of sewage and industrial and agricultural waste are discharged into the world’s water, the equivalent of the weight of the entire human population of more than 7 billion people. The amount of wastewater produced annually is about six times more water than exists in all the rivers of the world. 





The War On Cash
by Brett Scott 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/08/24/the-war-on-cash/

Banks, governments, credit card companies and fintech evangelists all want us to believe a cashless future is inevitable and good. But this isn’t a frictionless utopia says Brett Scott, and it’s time to fight back





IPCC Special Report To Scrutinise ‘Feasibility’ Of 1.5C Climate Goal
by Roz Pidcock 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/08/24/ipcc-special-report-to-scrutinise-feasibility-of-1-5c-climate-goal/

The head of the United Nation’s climate body has called for a thorough assessment of the feasibility of the international goal to limit warming to 1.5C. Dr Hoesung Lee, chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), told delegates at a meeting in Geneva, which is designed to flesh out the contents of a special report on 1.5C, that they bore a “great responsibility” in making sure it meets the expectations of the international climate community. To be policy-relevant, the report will need to spell out what’s to be gained by limiting warming to 1.5C, as well as the practical steps needed to get there within sustainability and poverty eradication goals.





Postcard From The End Of America: Fort Indiantown Gap, PA
by Linh Dinh 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/08/24/postcard-from-the-end-of-america-fort-indiantown-gap-pa/

It’s remarkable that I’ve been friends with Giang for nearly four decades. We’ve spent but a year in the same state and, frankly, have little in common. Giang studied computer science, business administration and engineering technology. He makes more in a year than I do in ten. He drinks Bud Lite and recycles corny metaphors and analogies. A director of marketing, Giang actually told me, “I can sell a freezer to an Eskimo.”





Nonviolent Revolt In The Twenty-First Century
by Robert J Burrowes 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/08/24/nonviolent-revolt-in-the-twenty-first-century/

I sometimes wonder whether one of the ways in which ‘Amercian exceptionalism’ manifests is that many US scholars and others are unable to consider the contributions of those who are not from the USA. For example, I routinely read about studies of Martin Luther King Jr. and his associates (such as strategist James Lawson) in relation to nonviolence while the much more insightful and vastly greater contributions of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi on the same subject are largely ignored by US scholars (although not, for example, by Professor Mary E. King, one of the best in the field).





Rising Divorces In India
by Vasudha Rao 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/08/24/rising-divorces-in-india/

When a    marriage is no longer sacrosanct, can assisting   in getting a divorce be called profane?






Tributes To B.P Mandal: The Crusader Of OBCs On His 98th Birth Anniversary
by Tata Sivaih 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/08/24/tributes-to-b-p-mandal-the-crusader-of-obcs-on-his-98th-birth-anniversary/

B.P. Mandal is a most neglected crusader of Indian Politics. Each and every individual who is committed to the cause of social justice should cherish the contributions made by  B.P. Mandal forever