January 2007
Issue No. 397
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Planet Ocean
David Ransom discovers there’s just one Ocean, and it’s not looking good. PLUS: An illustrated guide to The Deep Ocean.
The rise of slime
Red tides, jelly-fish plagues, explosions of primitive organisms. Kenneth R Weiss reports on evolution in reverse. PLUS: An illustrated guide to Ocean Currents.
Lost at sea
Life on board for seafarers sometimes resembles slavery. Martin Whitfield tells their stories. PLUS: An illustrated guide to Ocean Life.
Death and the whale
Greenpeace Ocean Defenders blog direct from the brutal kill in the Southern Ocean. PLUS: Sea quotes and an illustrated guide to Ocean Resources.
Conakry
In pictures: women and a fishing community in Guinea, West Africa.
Climate control
The Ocean is like a giant thermostat and sponge. Dorrick Stow explains.
The tempest
Mahfuz Sadique reports from the Bay of Bengal, where the land is sinking, the sea is rising and storms terrorize coastal communities. PLUS: An illustrated guide to Plate Tectonics.
Waterworld
If National Parks are commonplace on land, argues Sara Holden, why not marine reserves at sea? PLUS: An illustrated guide to Marine Reserves.
Action
A very brief briefing.
Web Special - Oceans
A web-only special story from David Ransom with accompanying videos from Greenpeace.
News, views, and & voices
Currents
Beware Bolkestein reborn
The EU Council of Ministers together with the European Commission have been pushing ahead with their attempt to impose a 'Directive on Services' that could undermine social and environmental regulation in Member States.
Don't buy it
Much fun and awareness-raising was had on international ‘Buy Nothing Day’ this year.
Friend or foe?
Disagreement over energy-hungry China's overtures to Africa.
Mine games
Peruvian villagers step up protests against Western mining companies.
The rock star triumphs
Chávez is re-elected and sets sights on becoming 'President-for-life'.
Seriously
I’m an endangered species, get me out of here!
True tales of a mixed-up world
Mixed Media
FILM: Apocalypto by *Mel Gibson*
MUSIC: Burlesque by *Bellowhead*
FILM: Ghosts by *Nick Broomfield*
BOOKS: Rabble-Rouser for Peace / What Happens After Mugabe / The Book of Not
Letter from...
To a place of healing
Lindsey Collen looks at how women in Mauritius transformed the way rape was perceived in the space of a single generation.
Worldbeaters
Warren Buffet
US billionaire Warren Buffet may be the first person to feature in this slot who may actually give 'worldbeating' a good name. He seems to be without 'vices, Napoleanic delusions, diabolic inclinations, secrets or enemies'.
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from
THIS MONTH'S EDITOR
Timeless. That’s the kind of topic you want if you’re an editor here. Something that stays put, like still life. You see, we plan well ahead. We are semi-detached from news values. We have long ‘lead-in’ times. ‘Imagine how your story will read in six months,’ I tell bemused contributors. No better topic, then, than the timeless Ocean. Or so I thought. And of course I was wrong. Why, even as I write, my attention is drawn to a newspaper headline: ‘Climate Change is Killing the Ocean’s Lungs!’ Something deeply disturbing really is brewing down there in the deep, out there over the horizon. Until quite recently, people like me were ignorant of this. Ignorance breeds panic – two sides of the same pretty worthless coin. So the most valuable discovery for me was of my own ignorance, and the wonders I had been ignoring. I owe a deeper debt of gratitude than usual to two people for making this discovery worthwhile: Professor Dorrik Stow at the Southampton Oceanography Institute, and Sara Holden at Greenpeace International. The NI usually takes care not to identify with any other organization. But on this occasion I felt – well blow that! Scruples be damned! If this magazine encourages you to join Greenpeace’s Ocean Defenders campaign, then it will have had some effect. Action is what’s needed most – and fast.
Voices from the margins:
Multimedia: video, podcasts, and more.
- Poetry Slam in Zimbabwe
- The House of Hunger poetry slam held in Zimbabwe in 2006, and organised by the Pamberi Trust, showcased young artists performing inspirational work on issues from corporate power to child soldiers. The video features four of the poets.
Published by Pambazuka News.
- Iranian women speak out
- 3 March 2007, London. Women's rights activists marched through the English capital last week to celebrate International Women's Day with a protest against the misogyny of the Islamic regime in Iran and the threat of invasion by the US. Hear the voices of Iranian feminists Azar and Leila Parnian and the sounds of the demonstration as it passed through the heart of the city. Click here to learn more about the campaign.
Produced by Heidi Bachram.
- Raised Voices audio:
- Benny from West Papua on Corporate Power
- Vinayan from India on agriculture
New Internationalist (NI) workers' co-operative exists to report on issues of world poverty and inequality; to focus attention on the unjust relationship between the powerful and the powerless worldwide; to debate and campaign for the radical changes necessary to meet the basic needs of all; and to bring to life the people, the ideas and the action in the fight for global justice.
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