As the Asia-Europe Summit gets ready to meet in early October, what are the implications of the rising power of Asia for progress on tackling poverty, inequality and climate change?
While it is increasingly clear that climate change is an irreversible processes that will hit people and the environment hard, the defence industry sees new profit opportunities.
Global finance is only one facet of multiple crises facing human civilization - crises over food, water, climate, energy as well as the global economy urgently need to be addressed. So far, neoliberal responses of governments have been to tackle finance alone - by replacing a banker or by pumping money into the system. But it is the system itself - that is in crisis.
In this special edition of Globalizations, François Houtart outlines the interlinked but different elements of the multiple crises we face, and makes radical suggestions for moving beyond the current state of affairs - through addressing all together.
"The banks are ours!" Public money was used to bail out the banks, and now they are lending back to the public at interest, while governments ignore the social and environmental crises that confront society. It is time to demand real solutions that will work not only for the sake of the economy but for the lives and conditions of people on whom it depends.
De eerste uitvoerige toespraak komt van Susan George. Zij is vooral bekend geworden als medeoprichtster van Attac, de beweging voor eerlijker globalisering. Ook is zij fellow van het Amsterdamse Trans National Institute (TNI). Van oorsprong Amerikaanse is ze in Frankrijk al jaren bezig met het formuleren van economische kritiek en alternatieven. In haar Engelstalige toespraak van drie kwartier roert ze een aantal belangrijke thema's aan.
Climate change is a structural problem that came about, largely, through the continued exploitation of fossil fuels as a cheap fuel source since the industrial revolution
