An outbreak of chikungunya in Italy has been blamed on global warming but this cold-weather mosquito is actually carried by the trade in used tyres. As world leaders discuss far-reaching climate policies, it is time to stick to the science and nothing but the science.
Doha was not defeated by intransigent trade negotiators. Rather, the culprits were self-seeking domestic interest groups on all sides, which hinder national governments from making further trade 'concessions'. These producer lobbies exert growing control over sovereign governments, with the consequence that they prevent other, less well-organised, groups of fellow citizens from reaping the considerable benefits of freer international trade and investment.
The sweeping victory of Evo Morales in Bolivia's recent presidential election marks another step back in Latin America from slow liberalization and free trade toward socialism and anti-Americanism: a few U.S. corporations may suffer a little but the real victims, as ever, will be the poor.
Franklin Cudjoe tells the Ghanaian minister of health how high tariffs and taxes on imported medicines in Ghana are driving people to traditional quack cures or to cheap counterfeit medicines.
Science requires measurement. But not all measurement is scientific. The newest example is the Environmental Performance Index (EPI), released at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland -- a compilation of data on the alleged state of the environment in 133 countries.
Scaremongers and anti-trade activists have been conjuring up apocalyptic scenarios if Malaysia and the United States agree on a Free Trade Agreement (FTA). But an FTA with the US would improve Malaysian growth and all the other good things associated with prosperity: better medicines, higher investment and more jobs.
