Showing 1 - 10 of 22
Peace on Earth? Democracy everywhere?
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 29/12/2025
» Democracy is in retreat or at least on the defensive almost everywhere, while wars are getting bigger and more frequent. The trend lines are frighteningly bad.
Ardern's exit and the persistence of other politicians
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 25/01/2023
» 'All political lives, unless they are cut off in midstream at a happy juncture, end in failure because that is the nature of politics and of human affairs," wrote British politician Enoch Powell half a century ago -- and then proceeded to demonstrate the truth of this proposition in his own lengthy but undistinguished political career.
Gifted James Lovelock was Darwin's heir
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 02/08/2022
» Jim Lovelock was a late bloomer. His first book, Gaia: a New Look at Life on Earth, was published in 1979 when he was already 60 years old. By the time he died last Thursday, on his 103rd birthday, he had written ten more books on Gaia, the hypothesis that has evolved into the key academic discipline of Earth System Science.
Monkeypox a wake-up call to be prepared
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 27/07/2022
» Monkeypox is very unpleasant and it spreads very fast, but it's not a real killer: 16,000 cases in 75 countries in just a couple of months is impressive, but there have been only five deaths.
Long pandemic is giving way to 'virus fatigue'
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 14/01/2022
» The most dangerous consequence of Covid fatigue, however, is the magical thinking that it induces even in some health professionals. “It’s been so long; surely it will be over soon” is a wish, not a scientific statement.
Early extinction of fossil fuels a risk in itself
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 20/12/2021
» The "new normal", said International Energy Agency spokesperson Heymi Bahar last May, may be a far faster expansion of renewable energy than expected, driven mainly by market forces. So fast, in fact, that it raises a different kind of risk (but he didn't mention that).
Covid: Digital peasants and the ignorant rich
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 04/12/2021
» The new Omicron variant of the Covid-19 virus was discovered last week by scientists in South Africa and Botswana, the only countries in southern Africa that have the skills and resources to detect a new variant.
Why this year's COP26 isn't going to deliver
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 30/10/2021
» 'The world is on a catastrophic pathway to 2.7°C of heating," said UN Secretary General António Guterres. "There is a high risk of failure of COP26." That's the global climate summit that meets every five years (but was postponed last year because of the pandemic) to plot a course away from climate disaster. And it really isn't looking good.
After Merkel, who will fill her 'sensible shoes'?
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 25/09/2021
» Last January Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU) were ahead in the German opinion polls by 15 points. She was stepping down after 16 years as chancellor (prime minister), but she was still by far the most trusted politician in Germany. Indeed, she is universally known as "Mutti" ("Mummy").
Bodies will pile high indeed, Mr Johnson
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 21/07/2021
» 'Let the bodies pile high in their thousands," expostulated Boris Johnson in his private office, but the door was open and a number of witnesses heard him.