George Monbiot Hates Trees Shock

Went last night to hear George Monbiot and speakers from Oxfam and World Development Movement talk about climate change. Packed audience, George his usual brilliant self; message being that its the same the whole world over, its the poor what gets the blame, its the rich what gets the pleasure, ain't it all a bleeding shame.

Glacier melts in India are causing floods. When glaciers gone, they get droughts. Poor countries suffer for our CO2 emissions.

Yes. Action needed. Government is sucking its thumb while blowing its own trumpet, not making a good job of either. They need to take up Contraction and Convergence.

Where I dsagree with George is his opposition against planting trees. He does the tired old either cut down CO2 or plant trees argument (I have been doing both, it is possible to do both you know, bit like walking along and holding a conversation), and the "bad monoculture of eucalyptus displacing communities" (well, help communities to plant useful native trees that they want), and the Indulgences argument (buy your way out of guilt) which really gets up my nose. Paying money to priests so you can sin is one thing, planting trees to mop up our emissions is quite another.

Here's a nice link about trees.

openDemocracy summary Israel/Palestine

The essence of the matter is that the IsraelPalestine could act as a trigger for a war, and that war could go nuclear. Eric often mentions a "nuclear event", which he believes might motivate people towards peace; equally, however it might escalate to a global nuclear war, which does not bear thinking about.
Given these possibilities, we must find a way to peace in IsraelPalestine.
This is where it gets tricky. Israel will not talk peace while the Palestinian fighters are kicking weakly at its shins. The Palestinian militias will not talk peace while Israel is pounding it to death with its enormous club. This is the immovable object and the irresistible force problem, which is logically insoluble, but soluble with the illogical acts of trust documented in the Fabian "How Peace is Possible" thread here, which talks of a series of trust-building moves.
So peace is possible, even when it seems impossible. I have heard the impossibility argument over and again, in relation to the Troubles in Northern Ireland, but now we do have peace there, just about.
For the Palestinians to stop kicking, Europe has to bring big pressure on the Israeli regime to make them talk. And we have to have realistic , politically achievable aims on the negotiating table, which, like it or not, means the two-state solution.