United Nations

 George W. Bush discusses his boisterous days at Yale—and a memorable showdown with his father

It could save the rainforests of Borneo, slow climate change and the international community backs it. But a plan to pay tropical countries not to chop down trees risks being discredited by opportunists even before it starts.

A forest carbon market is emerging in anticipation of a UN climate deal in December in Copenhagen, expected to allow rich countries to pay to protect rainforests as a cheap alternative to cutting their own greenhouse gases.

June 2 (Bloomberg) -- Wood is becoming a hot commodity in a new low-carbon world.

Power companies are burning more trees because the renewable fuel can be cheaper than coal and ignited without needing permits to release carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas blamed for global warming.

Rarely has the old saying that our enemy's enemies are our friends been more apt. In the past three years, since the attacks on New York and the declaration of the war on terrorism, the so-called civilised world has reached new heights of duplicity in its approach to human rights. It has shed consistency in favour of exigency. Ultimately, we shall all pay the price.

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Clare Short has brought a whole new meaning to the word "agonising".

First, the notoriously volcanic minister agonised over her position on the war.

She decided she was against it without a second UN resolution.

Then she agonised over whether she should declare her intention of resigning if the prime minister went to war without that resolution.

She decided she should, and went on to do so unequivocally and very publicly.