Globalisation & the Environment
Why is Australia still importing illegally-logged timber?
Tuesday, February 24th, 2009Yesterday’s edition of Melbourne’s The Age newspaper had a worrying article about the influence of extreme pro-free-trade bureaucrats in derailing new laws aimed at restricting illegal timber imports into Australia.
Apparently the federal Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry and Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade have been trying to undermine the Rudd Government’s election promises [...]
Alcoa argues for interests of “future generations” to take precedence over exports
Sunday, November 30th, 2008What is the world coming to? It was reported today that Alan Cransberg, chairman of the Australian arm of the mutlinational aluminium producer Alcoa, said that
“For too long we have been focused on expanding and maximising energy exports, without proper protection for our own future generations.”
What? Read that again - not only is he arguing [...]
Global Trade & Climate Change
Monday, October 27th, 2008GTW has been making the point for a while is that the global trading system (and how it’s run) affects most other things in the world. Climate change is a good example.
There are a large number of ways that the global trading system and climate change interact, but the most obvious is in driving emissions [...]