Articles by Grist staff

Is This What Rumsfeld Meant by “Messy”?

Air pollution poses yet another crisis for Iraq As if Iraq didn’t have enough troubles, air pollution has hit alarming levels in the nation, exacerbating respiratory ailments among its citizens. War damage to the power grid has made state-produced electricity unpredictable, and reconstruction promises by the occu- uh, liberating forces have not panned out. Still, […]

G8 Expectations

Bush gets the watered-down G8 climate statement he wanted President Bush got exactly what he wanted on climate change during last week’s G8 meeting of industrialized nations: The appearance of compromise without any shift in his administration’s position. Just when it seemed that U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair — buoyed by London’s winning bid to […]

Explosions in London linked to G8

A series of explosions during rush hour this morning in Central London at underground tube stations and on double-decker buses has claimed the lives of several commuters and injured more than 100. The city's transport system is now completely shut down as rescue teams and investigators clear the scene.

Although it's not yet known who is responsible for the explosions, British Prime Minister Tony Blair has called the incident a terrorist attack and suggested it was aimed at disrupting the G8 Summit in Gleneagles, Scotland, this week.

"It is particularly barbaric that this has happened on a day when people are meeting to try to help the problems of poverty in Africa, and the long term problems of climate change and the environment," Blair said. "Just as it is reasonably clear that this is a terrorist attack, or a series of terrorist attacks, it is also reasonably clear that it is designed and aimed to coincide with the opening of the G8."

Blair has returned to London to deal with the incident, but said in a statement from Gleneagles at 1 p.m. BST: "We will not allow violence to change our societies or our values nor will we allow it to stop the work of this summit. We will continue our deliberations in the interest of a better world."

Interestingly, oil prices -- which reached $62 per barrel yesterday for the first time -- have plunged following news of the explosions.

Global concerts to focus on G8, but not climate change

With the G8 Summit just days away, pop stars the world over are preparing for marathon concerts tomorrow in each of the eight wealthiest nations in the world. Modeled after the Live Aid concerts 20 years ago (when the likes of U2, David Bowie, and Mick Jagger performed for some 1.5 billion people and helped raise money for Ethiopia's famine), the Live 8 concerts aim to draw attention to and demand action from the leaders gathering at the summit.

Unfortunately, however, Live 8 is focused on only one of summit leader Tony Blair's two main goals for the meeting -- and it's not climate change. Don't get me wrong; I'm definitely anti-poverty-in-Africa. I just wish some of the media attention this Live 8 concert will get on outlets like MTV and VH1 -- where younger, impressionable viewers will be watching -- could be focused on that other major issue.