CounterCurrents: 4 Reasons The Paris Agreement Won’t Solve Climate Change, IMF Warns Of Record High Global Debt

Dear Friend,

Today is the 15th anniversary of Afghanistan invasion. Kansas artist Priti Gulati Cox shares with us an ongoing art project on the invasion, deaths and destruction in its aftermath. 

Franklin Lamb who is a Faculty of Law, at Aleppo University  and a witness of the horrific siege of Aleppo writes about the violation of international laws by both parties of war. He puts the onus on each one of us to take action to alleviate the suffering of the besieged population of Aleppo who suffer from hunger, water and fuel shortage, deaths and destruction from continuous bombardment from both parties of the conflict. 

James Hansen a pioneering climate scientist and a whistle blower says that the Paris Cliamte agreement won't solve anything. He writes "Global temperatures are already at the level of the Eemian period (130,000 to 115,000 years ago), when sea level was 6-9 meters higher than today. Considering the additional warming “in the pipeline,” due to delayed response of the climate system and the impossibility of instant replacement of fossil fuels, additional temperature rise is inevitable."

IMF warns that eight years after the eruption of the global financial crisis, the conditions are being created for another meltdown of even bigger proportions. Some may ask, what's the big deal? Debt is the lifeline of capitalism, isn't it? The problem is that the system is so rotten that only so much debt can be absorbed by the system, beyond which the whole edifice will collapse. Current debt levels are 225 percent of global GDP! How long will this cassino run? Will it come down like a house of cards?

And also more stories from around the world. 

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In Solidarity

Binu Mathew
Editor
www.countercurrents.org





The Day After the Fall Of Aleppo Will International Humanitarian Law Still Be Relevant?
by Franklin Lamb

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/10/07/the-day-after-the-fall-of-aleppo-will-international-humanitarian-law-still-be-relevant/

The few eye-witnessed cases of battlefield restraint pale when compared to the heavy and seemingly indiscriminate bombardment of civilian areas during which neither side appears hesitant when it comes to mass homicide.





15 Years Of War On Terror: US Follies And Sufferings
by Dr Vivek Kumar Srivastava 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/10/07/15-years-of-war-on-terror-us-follies-and-sufferings/

Today completes the fifteen years of US entry in Afghanistan. It was on 7th October 2001 when US had entered the Afghanistan





Unfinished Portrait
by Priti Gulati Cox 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/10/07/unfinished-portrait/

Now, thanks to dedicated people documenting more names, faces, and other details of Pakistani, Afghan and other non-U.S. citizen victims, I am able to include at least some of them in the work. So I hope that by October 7, 2017, the 16th anniversary of the war in Afghanistan, I will have an updated version of Unfinished Portrait in which people will be able to read the names and look into the faces of Afghans, Iraqis, Pakistanis, Syrians and others. How people will react to this new work? We will have to wait and see.






IMF Warns Of Record High Global Debt
by Nick Beams

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/10/07/imf-warns-of-record-high-global-debt/

Eight years after the eruption of the global financial crisis, the conditions are being created for another meltdown of even bigger proportions, amid rising geo-political and economic tensions between the major capitalist powers.





4 Reasons The Paris Agreement Won’t Solve Climate Change
by James Hansen  

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/10/07/4-reasons-the-paris-agreement-wont-solve-climate-change/

Global temperatures are already at the level of the Eemian period (130,000 to 115,000 years ago), when sea level was 6-9 meters higher than today. Considering the additional warming “in the pipeline,” due to delayed response of the climate system and the impossibility of instant replacement of fossil fuels, additional temperature rise is inevitable.





The Role Of Memory And Identity In The Obştea Forest Commons Of Romania
by Monica Vasile 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/10/07/the-role-of-memory-and-identity-in-the-obstea-forest-commons-of-romania/

In the Vrancea Mountains of Romania, the Eastern Carpathians, people in dozens of villages have used community-based institutions known as obştea to manage forest commons since the sixteenth century. The original sense of the word, coming from Slavonic, is “togetherness,” and it underlines the participatory essence of the institution. The traditions of obştea are so deeply rooted among Vrâncean villagers that the forest is not regarded simply as a resource; it is a powerful source of collective identity, social practice and pride that has near-mythological resonances. 






Toxic Allegiances And Corporate Power: Open Letter To The Oxford Martin Commission
by Colin Todhunter 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/10/07/toxic-allegiances-and-corporate-power-open-letter-to-the-oxford-martin-commission/

The Oxford Martin School is based at Oxford University in the UK. In what seems to be a laudable aim, the school has set up the ‘Oxford Martin Commission for Future Generations’ (OMC), which has brought together 19 international leaders from government, business and civil society to address the growing short-term preoccupations of modern politics and business and identify ways of overcoming today’s gridlock in key international negotiations. But if falls short of expectations




Obscured American: Amanda Zinoman The Film Editor
by Linh Dinh 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/10/07/obscured-american-amanda-zinoman-the-film-editor/

Yes, it is a bit odd to include Amanda in my series of obscured Americans. She is a very successful editor of films that have appeared on television and in theaters.