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Iceland, fight this injustice | Eva Joly | Comment is free | The Guardian
On Saturday the Icelandic people vote in a referendum on whether the Icelandic state and thus the citizens should guarantee the so-called Icesave claim . Icesave was a bank deposit account that promised market-leading interest rates. When the bank failed, the question arose if the Icelandic depositors' guarantee fund – a private institution financed by the banks – should have taxpayer backing. Instead of letting depositors lose their money or even wait for compensation from the bankruptcy estate, the governments of the UK and Netherlands (where the Icesave products where marketed) decided to reimburse depositors from their own countries. The reimbursement included the full principal, while the recklessly high-interest profits of the risk-seeking depositors were thrown in as a bonus.
China plots course for green growth amid a boom built on dirty industry | Environment | The Guardian
Whisper it, but could China be about to turn an environmental corner after more than three decades of filthy economic growth? Hopes for a cleaner future are rising ahead of a national blueprint to tackle pollution , waste and champion renewable technology. The five-year plan, due in March, is being hailed as the greenest strategy document in the country's history. Sceptics warn that one environmental threat – industrial pollution – may be replaced by another – excess consumption.
Illegal timber sold by British businesses putting world's forests at risk | Environment | guardian.co.uk
British firms are still selling wood products that come from questionable sources in parts of the world where illegal logging is having a devastating effect, a new study has revealed. The report found that wood used in kitchen worktops, doors and decking, on sale in the UK, comes from parts of Indonesia, Malaysia and the Congo Basin where illegal felling is putting animals, plants and people under threat. Numerous species, including the orangutan, are under direct threat of extinction because of the black market trade in timber. The "What Wood You Choose?" study suggested British businesses aren't checking their sources and in some cases are even misleading the public that the wood they are selling has ethical credentials where none exist.Green MEP Eva Joly, who is said to be considering a bid for the French presidency. Photograph: Gerard Julien/AFP Eva Joly does not look like Europe 's most successful fraud prosecutor, the scourge of French boardrooms for decades. She is more than half an hour late as she sweeps into a cafe in Montparnasse from a cold, wet, grey Paris morning. Her eyes smile over natty, red-rimmed spectacles as she introduces herself in quiet tones, holding on to a handshake throughout, and apologises for her delayed arrival. Her French accent shows no trace of her Norwegian roots.
French legal firebrand Eva Joly turns her attention to corridors of power | Business | The Guardian
Andy Wimbush - Four degrees and beyond: climate change and irrational minds | the new economics foundation
Experts are waking up to the fact that climate change is as much a psychological challenge as it is a political one. In case you haven’t noticed, human beings aren’t entirely rational creatures . For example, we sometimes worry about the wrong things. We’re scared of sharks, but not pigs, even though it’s the latter that kill more people every year . And we’re not always particularly smart about choosing the best outcomes for ourselves.
Rani Begum is one of the beneficiaries of the change in the social structure. She lives alone, and she is young and healthy enough to work. She doesn't own any land, has no family members capable of working and has no regular income. She says that sometimes she cuts the reeds that grow along the edge of the sandbar and sells them on the riverbank as building material. She lives in a hut made of branches, with a leaky grass roof. There is a bed made of rough, thin slats, a board for her cooking utensils, and a hole in the ground outside the hut -- her oven.