
FW de Klerk: the last apartheid president was driven by pragmatism, not idealism
Nov 13, 2021 07:40 am UTC| Insights & Views Politics
Few recent historical figures in South Africa provoke more divergent views than Frederik Willem (FW) de Klerk. He was president of the country from 1989 to 1994. Some will remember him as the last white South African...

Here's how to convince CEOs to support government climate action at the expense of their own profits
Nov 13, 2021 07:38 am UTC| Insights & Views
There is now widespread consensus that limiting the global temperature increase to 1.5℃ requires fundamental changes in sectors like energy, food, transport, construction and finance towards more environmentally friendly...

COP26: here's what it would take to end coal power worldwide
Nov 06, 2021 08:08 am UTC| Insights & Views Nature
More than 40 countries have signed an agreement at COP26, the latest UN climate change summit in Glasgow, to phase out coal in electricity generation. The signatories include some of the worlds biggest coal burners:...

COP26: a letter to a school striker from 'the physicist behind net zero'
Nov 06, 2021 08:05 am UTC| Insights & Views
Dear school striker, Well done on all you are doing you seem to have made more impact on the climate issue in the past couple of years than Ive managed in the previous three decades working away on it, and Ive been...

Why the Taliban must be held accountable for past atrocities
Nov 06, 2021 08:03 am UTC| Insights & Views Law
In August, after Taliban rapidly swept to power in Afghanistan, its fighters executed 13 people from the Hazara minority in Daikundi province, where I was born. Amnesty International has said these extrajudicial killings...

Students are told not to use Wikipedia for research. But it's a trustworthy source
Nov 06, 2021 08:00 am UTC| Insights & Views
At the start of each university year, we ask first-year students a question: how many have been told by their secondary teachers not to use Wikipedia? Without fail, nearly every hand shoots up. Wikipedia offers free and...

Nov 06, 2021 07:59 am UTC| Insights & Views Economy
Heres a story from the Bible. As far as I know, its the first reported instance of the branch of economics known as implementation theory. Its from the First Book of Kings, Chapter 3, starting at Verse 16. Two women...