Asia South and East

-Obama and Hu aim to agree greenhouse gas targets
-China's empty city
-China's Blunt Talk for Obama
-Market cornered for rare minerals
-Chinese credit card debt mounts

-Conservationists rip water policy, quit state panel
-Finding Water from Outer Space
-Melting Himalayan ice prompts conflict fear

-Communist China celebrates 60th anniversary with instruments of war and words of peace
-China vows to crack down on industrial overcapacity
-China, U.S. risk rifts in Middle East: former Chinese envoy
-Nigeria and China’s oil deal still a secret
-Parades and protests mark China's National Day

Through September 2009, the government of India has issued a variety of statements designed to quell India's long-lived China bogey. It has done so to contain what it calls panic and scare-mongering about alleged incursions over the India-China border by units of the People's Liberation Army. The 'incidents' (as the Indian media like to call the events) have all occurred over India's north-western border with China, in the mountainous Jammu and Kashmir state.

While walking the boardwalk at Pattaya, that weekend, I noticed a sign posted in a police sentry box, urging people not to throw garbage or cigarette butts on the beach. The sign was in Thai and English and the words "Keep it clean for the King," caught my eye. Underneath in smaller type was added "and safe for children and wildlife". Suddenly it came to me. The King was not coming to the beach anytime soon. He was a symbol representing the commons. He supported the interests of the people so the people returned the favor and called themselves supporters of the King because he supported them. Didn't anybody get it? Did the West even have a symbol of the commons?

-Climate Change, Drought and India's Looming Food and Water Crisis
-Half India’s land degraded: agro-chemicals partly to blame
-Delhi trade talks face familiar foe as India’s farmers prepare to protest

India's Ministry of Environment and Forests has released a quick set of five studies to support the Indian government's claim that it can quickly grow its economy without destabilising emissions negotiations. The intention is clearly to take a 'scientific' stand at the Copenhagen meeting in December to project the central government objective of steady GDP growth. Although India's climate arguments versus the west are allied with China's, the People's Republic has publicly been more diplomatic.

-The Gloom in China's Glowing Economic Stats
-Walker's World: The China bubble
-China’s wild west
-China pushing yuan as global currency

The first reports of drought-related suicides have begun filtering in from the district press. Farmers in the eastern coastal state of Andhra Pradesh are taking their own lives - the toll is said to be 20 farmers over the last 40 days. The state is one amongst many which has so far been forsaken by the South-West monsoon in 2009...An official with the state agriculture department has called the conditions the worst in 50 years. But the state government has still not declared Andhra Pradesh as hit by drought. Such declarations have in India become politically charged positions that the state ruling is forced to take, instead of being policy conclusions that can quickly bring relief and rehabilitation.

- China energy efficiency 'improves in first half'
- Global poll finds 73% want higher priority for climate change
- Saving Fish is Possible, Unless They’re Past the Tipping Point

-China's debt paints ugly picture
-Manipulated Government GDP Statistics Report is Just Plain Wrong
-Q&A: 'Time to De-Grow'

China’s Wide Reach in Africa
The new scramble for Africa
Congo-Kinshasa: Firms Fuelling 'Conflict Minerals' Violence, Report Says

Montgomery Panel Passes Redevelopment Plan
A New Enforcer in Buildings, the Energy Inspector
Questioning the direction of transportation policy

The world’s hopes for economic growth now revolve around a resurgence in China. Everybody, including those predicting our imminent demise from an inadequate oil supply, is gung-ho on China. I have my doubts about these stories.

Pipeline politics
A Mideast Pipe Dream
Media ponder 'energy chess game'