How will terrorism be defeated?

Terrorism has once again cast its evil shadow over the world. For anyone educated in a liberal democracy it is hard to comprehend the mentality of an individual intentionally seeking out innocents to murder. Or indeed of those who encourage others to do so.  It is a sad reality and a challenge to our orderly world. As we saw in London, it does not take large numbers to sow chaos. So even if the number of Islamists is small, they can, and have created disproportionate impact on our lives.

While I believe that through enlightenment and technology all the people of our small planet can achieve unprecedented standards of liberty and prosperity, it is not straight road.  Islamic terrorism threatens not only the lives of those in its direct path but it sows seeds of discontent throughout our societies.

Will society react? Of course it will! A liberal democracy is a strange organism, but an organism it is. Like our own immune system ,when faced with attack our society generates a multitude of ideas and opinions. These work to coordinate reactions by its 'cells' to attack intruders and eliminate or integrate them. It takes time and there is some damage to the organism, but it survives stronger than before.

So it is no surprise that we have a wide range of reactions to these terror attacks. In their own way each will be tried and in the end those that work will be adopted. It is hard to predict what will work, but I dare suggest that historians will attribute the solution to terrorism to have been ; -

• increasing education and living standards particularly in the middle east
• the free flow of information made possible by technology
• the widespread surveillance of citizens.

I guess time will tell.

In the meantime, to all the victims and families of these evil individuals, my heartfelt condolences.

Was US treated fairly in Paris CC agreement?

Focusing narrowly on the Paris Climate Change (COP21) commitments of the US, China and India, Donald Trumps' claim that the US was disadvantaged has some merit. Neither India nor China have agreed to make any cuts in their emissions to 2030, they have committed only to change the mix of their emissions by changing their emissions intensity. This does  translate into an economic incentive to China and India over the US. And given China is already the world's largest GHG emitter it is time for China to make a commitment to stop growing its emissions!

Nevertheless that does not tell the whole story. The COP21 global agreement was intended to set targets whereby each country would be contributing "fairly'' to limiting global warming to <2 degrees C by 2100.

I have argued in my series of articles "Seeking a fair GHG reduction target" ( 1,2,3,4,5, 6) that an equitable contribution by all countries requires 4 principles to be followed; -

1. Each country has to mitigate their own contribution to CC.
2. If global emissions are projected to produce global warming beyond the 2C degree target, then all countries have to reduce their emissions in the same proportion that they contributed to CC.
3. Developing countries are allowed a proportionate quota of 'free emissions'.
4. Countries which face the burden of climate change have to be compensated by those who caused it.

If you compare the COP21 commitments to that required by applying these principles you find that the countries with the greatest contributors to global warming, USA, China, Europe, and to a lesser extent India, have made inadequate commitments. 

Consequently the countries with smaller contribution to the global warming problem are wearing a disproportionate burden on their economies. In short Trump is right and wrong!

De-fusing the North Korean crisis

North Korean uncontrolled belligerence has the potential for global catastrophe. It present one of the major challenges not only for the US but equally for China South Korea and Japan. Any miscalculation could lead to carnage across the very much militarized DMZ.

In his recent article "Reunification Only Way to Defuse Korea Crisis", John Bolton posits a plausible albeit perhaps overdue solution that could be acceptable to both the US and China. Of course the current regime would resist especially now that is within a hair-breath of nuclear armed ICBM capability.
Yet it is an sensible suggestion for a very difficult world problem.

Alas, what are the alternatives?

Mix seawater with freshwater to generate clean energy

In the realm of what-will-they-think-of-next here is another clean energy technology that seems to have passed below the media radar. You can generate electric power from simply mixing salt water and clean water. It uses ion trasnport similar to btteries, but I won't get into the technical details. For those interested read the Science Daily article "Where rivers meet the sea: Harnessing energy generated when freshwater meets saltwater".

Remarkably it has "the potential to generate enough energy to meet up to 40 percent of global electricity demands "!

Of course there are many problems to solve but watch this space.

 

Sharia down under

In her article, "Sharia Down Under", Judith Bergman exposes the values of Australia's Muslim representatives and creeping sharia.

She shows that the current and past 'voices' for Islam in Australia have values totally out of kilter with Australian social norms. Rather than building trust they sow division and thereby contribute to the growing anti-Muslim sentiment. Peace loving Australian Muslims need to do get rid of this mob and select better representatives if they are to be accepted by Australian society.