Executions in Ethiopia

GOAL today called on the Irish government to use its influence to prevent the execution of 38 opposition leaders and activists in Ethiopia.

The White House reading list

Reading a new apocalyptic book by the former Irish Times neoconservative columnist, Mark Steyn, would be a smart career move for staff at the White House, it appears. President Bush has urged his staff to read Steyn's analysis of the “war on terror”.

Sudan: It's Not Just Darfur

Looming behind the humanitarian catastrophe in Darfur is Sudan's other, older, bigger war – the 1983-2005 north-south conflict that claimed over two million lives and displaced over four million people. The conflict was resolved, on paper at least, by the January 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA); that agreement is now in jeopardy.

Climate change and what we can do

There is constant debate regarding the green environment and calls for climate change, yet for someone who has four young children I am amazed at the lack of response from our own government and the public in general with regard to packaging.

Call for an all-island economy

The circumstances are right for the establishment of an economic strategy which can guarantee prosperity, quality of life and equality of opportunity for all on the island of Ireland, according to SIPTU's National Campaigns' Official, Anne Speed.

Drastic action needed to mitigate effects of climate change

Fossil-fuelled vehicles used for freight, personal travel and commuting are extremely wasteful and are adding carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. Frequent aero-flights on multi-annual holidays and business meetings add further carbon dioxide to our planetary atmosphere. Rail and broadband Internet are far more efficient for business and would conserve both the environment and our archaeological inheritances.

Virtual World War

Perhaps people are taking the rise in popularity of role playing games too seriously. The US Department of Defence is developing a synthetic parallel world, complete with billions of “nodes” to represent the world population, in an attempt to foresee the effects of various events, such as how long a country can go without water or the results of televised propaganda. The concept would be to create “a synthetic mirror of the real world with automated continuous calibration with respect to current real-world information” according to Professor Alok Chaturvedi.

Alder: good survivor

Alder which is one of our most widely distributed native trees flowers before the leaves come out and has attractive reddish catkins and small ‘cones' that contain seeds. Alder will grow on most soils but prefers wet soils. It thrives in damp areas, beside lakes and rivers where its strong fibrous roots protect the river banks thereby reducing erosion. Given a rich damp soil alder will grow rapidly and is a productive timber tree. A unique feature of alder is its root nodes which can fix nitrogen thus enabling it to survive on infertile soils.

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