Showing 1 - 10 of 35
Fanatics, an obsessive, and a belligerent fool
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 07/04/2026
» We don't have to look very far to find a useful historical analogy for the current crisis in the Middle East. In 1967, Egypt closed the Strait of Tiran to Israeli ships, and Israel replied with a surprise air attack that destroyed almost the entire Egyptian air force on the ground.
Kingdom of Denmark vs the Shadow Fleet
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 25/10/2025
» Back in the 16th and 17th centuries, two-thirds of the Danish kingdom's income came from taxes paid by every ship passing through the Øresund ('The Sound') Strait, the only exit from the Baltic Sea. Each ship had to declare its cargo -- and if the Danes thought they were undervaluing it, Denmark had the right to buy it at the declared price.
'Flooding the zone' will likely backfire
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 22/02/2025
» The planning for a hard-right takeover of the United States federal government was detailed and meticulous, and its execution by Elon Musk and his young Silicon Valley stormtroopers was ruthless and mostly successful. They did indeed "move fast and break things", notably in gaining illegal access to the Department of Treasury payments system by sheer intimidation.
Trump can't do that much climate damage
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 23/01/2025
» 'Drill, baby, drill", exulted the new President of the World (American branch), but he will find that the oil and gas industry isn't listening. As Darren Woods, CEO of ExxonMobil, tactfully put it in November: "I'm not sure how 'drill, baby, drill' translates into policy."
Has Iran finally reached the end of the line?
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 02/01/2025
» Six months ago, at the end of Iran's presidential election, I finished an article by speculating that the long-lived theocratic dictatorship in Iran may be a lot closer to its end than its beginning: "If you can plausibly say "This cannot go on forever", you are also saying "Some day this will come to an end'."
Technology gives a little hope for climate: Part 2
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 05/06/2024
» It was technology that got us into this climate crisis, and it will be technology that gets us out of it. Specifically, technology that lets us go on living in a high-energy civilisation without burning fossil fuels, and technology that keeps the heat from overwhelming us while we work towards that goal.
Mining on the Moon a boon of prestige rivalry
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 10/01/2024
» What could be so rare and valuable that it would be worth going all the way to the Moon to get some?
Time isn't on Guyana's side for oil income
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 21/09/2023
» Guyana is not a "hellhole country" of the sort Donald Trump complained about when he said he wanted immigrants to come to the US from white places like Norway instead, but it did used to be poor, tropical and largely populated by people of colour.
What the Global South thinks of the Ukraine war
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 28/04/2023
» There is a deep and growing rift between "the West" and "the Rest" about the need to resist and defeat the Russian invasion of Ukraine. This is because it is really a war in defence of sovereignty, which ought to be something every sovereign country can buy into -- but Western governments publicly insist that it is a war in defence of democracy.
Will we soon have unlimited clean energy?
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 17/12/2022
» Nuclear fusion, the "holy grail" that would finally end all the world's energy problems, has been receding into the future at the rate of about one year per year all my adult life -- it was always "about 30 years away" -- but suddenly we're catching up. Unfortunately, the change of pace comes too late to save us from an acute global climate emergency.