At the World Economics Forum in Davos last week, no one was denying that we face serious economic, social and environmental crises. When even the Financial Times runs a series of articles on "Capitalism in crisis", it´s obvious that it’s not just the "Occupy WEF" protesters, who I joined in their igloos outside the meeting, that are asking fundamental questions about how we do business.

What Davos failed to do, however, is provide adequate answers. The talk was mainly about symptoms, not the core of the problem. No question, issues such as the size of the Euro firewall or bankers’ bonuses are important. But if we are to deliver an economy that brings prosperity for all - without destroying the planet, we need to achieve a much more fundamental change than putting together few hu... Read more >

If I bump into Professor Klaus Schwab, who started and still runs the World Economic Forum here in Davos, I will challenge him on the purpose of the event. Schwab has described the WEF as “a platform for collaborative thinking and searching for solutions, not for making decisions”.

The Davos meeting may not be a bastion of democratic or transparent democracy and participation, but it is a place where solutions should be discussed and plans made to tackle the cacophony of crises that our planet in faces. But important decisions can also be taken here, decisions by corporations, politicians or CEOs.

The time has come for this gathering of powerful people to address the escalating public frustration over growing inequity both between and within countries. It is time they explained ... Read more >

In the history book of bad ideas, the concept of giving corporations the right to censor the Internet has to rank among the worst ever.

But that's what the impact of two bills recently introduced in the US Congress would be if they, or anything like them, were enacted into law, and it's causing a righteous ruckus among free speech activists around the world.

In solidarity with major sites like Wikipedia, Boing Boing, and Reddit, the Greenpeace International website will be dark for 12 hours on the 18th of January to protest these two bills specifically, and the idea of empowering internet censorship in general.

If you don’t know what SOPA and PIPA are, you should look them up. While touted as  efforts to curtail film and music piracy, they have the potential to allow corporations ... Read more >

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An open letter to the governments of the world meeting in Durban

Dear friends,

Welcome to our city.

We remember a time in Durban – indeed, a period in the history of this nation of South Africa – when we feared that the apartheid states' intransigence would spark a conflict in which much blood would be shed. But even at our lowest ebb, even when the injustice we faced seared through every minute of every day, our people stood firm in the knowledge that justice itself would defeat a system that put different values on different people based on nothing more arbitrary than the colour of their skin.

Now, twenty years after our victory, in the remaining hours of the Durban climate talks, with great urgency we call for a similar breakthrough – one as unexpected, as deserved... Read more >