FOREST COMMENT

 

 

The keynote explores: The historical continuity of Palestinian communities over more than 3,000 years. Archaeological and genetic evidence linking modern Palestinians to ancient Levantine populations. The shared ancestral heritage of Palestinians and many Israeli Jews. The origins and enduring history of the name “Palestine” from the Bronze Age to today. Palestine’s role as a centre of trade, culture, religion and scholarship throughout antiquity and the medieval world. The impact of the Balfour Declaration and the British Mandate on Palestinian self-determination. Britain’s historic and contemporary responsibilities regarding Palestine. Why recognition of Palestine is only a starting point and must be accompanied by meaningful action.

  'When you look at the raw data, it becomes clear that the models, built on historical assumptions of gradual, linear emissions, are breaking down in real-time. The terrifying reality of tracking methane is that it is notoriously difficult to get an accurate read on exact emission volumes. Atmospheric concentration isn’t simply a measure of what we pump out; it is actively moderated by the availability of the hydroxyl radical sink. Crucially, hydroxyl availability is not an independent variable. This immense, non-linear complexity creates a fog of scientific ambiguity. When the hydroxyl sink gets depleted—a dynamic now likely dominated by the rising incidence and scale of global wildfires consuming the radicals 3 —the methane simply lingers and accumulates. We are watching a terrifying, compounding feedback loop in real-time: the planet burns, the fires exhaust our atmospheric scrubber, and the massive out-gassing from places like the Gulf and decomposing clathrates hits the atmo...

  This is still a crucial question we need to think about.  'My own view sits between the second and third positions. Given what we know about the limited net surplus actually squeezed from agriculture and the scale of human loss, a softer, more balanced socialist strategy looks economically plausible and morally preferable. A reformed NEP with hard investment targets could have delivered comparable industrial capacity by the early 1940s, with fewer long-term distortions and a very different distribution of gains. But plausibility on paper isn’t the same as political feasibility in 1928–32. Information was thin; the leadership’s worldview was siege-minded, which was hardly irrational given the collapse of collective-security efforts after 1933 and, ultimately, the 1941 German invasion; and incentives inside the party-state pushed toward command solutions. From that vantage point, the crash path felt “inevitable,” even if it wasn’t in a strict economic sense. The late-1980s deb...

  Roger Boyd outlines the impact of restrictions on oil supplies. Despite Trumps bravado - the USA is much more vulnerable than Trump says. 'As the last of the pre-war Gulf deliveries have ended, the draw on the US reserves of oil and especially oil products will intensify. At the same time, the US has a relatively fixed oil refining capacity in the short and medium term, so as regions such as Europe and Asia become more and more desperate for oil products they may bid away supply from domestic US consumers. US jet fuel supplies are already near critical levels (with the Us having a limited jet fuel import dependency), diesel stocks fell by 4.5 mb in the most recent week to 103.6 mb, and gasoline stocks fell by 6.1 mb to 222 mb (with a critical level which will drive price escalation seen as 210 mb). The result may be rapidly escalating gasoline, diesel and jet fuel prices, and possible shortages, during the peak US summer domestic travel months; political poison for the US adminis...