Weekly Links - 30/12/2007

First, let me wish a very happy New Year to all of my readers in this, the last weekly links blog of 2007. Hopefully, tomorrow, I will have a go at the Greenman's Political Awards 2007!

This week the big story has been the assassination of Benazir Bhutto in Pakistan and the shock waves that this event has caused. I am saved putting up too many links on this by the very hard work of Jim over at Daily (Maybe) who blogged on the subject with a comprehensive range of links on Thursday. Jim is ending the year on a bit of a roll, with a set of blogging resolutions and a review of the year.

Back on the Pakistan situation, Derek Wall yesterday posted an account of events there from the left wing Labour Party Pakistan, part of the All Parties Democratic Movement that is supporting a General Strike against the dictatorship.

An interesting article from the Guardian this week, noting something that I and other Green activists have been aware of as an increasingly common response (in England at least) when out campaigning and leafletting throughout this year - an anti-green backlash. There has of course always been opposition to and questioning (a certain level of questioning is always good) of environmental campaigns, not to mention ridicule and "I'm all right jack" stances. But recently this seems to be acquiring an aggressive and emotional element that was previously rare. A pop cultural manifestation of this is the mass popularity and soaring book sales of all things Top Gear and Clarksonish, and the tendency to still take the self-publicising contrarian Bjorn Lomborg seriously, as noted by Derek this week. Part of this is of course linked to quite rational suspicion of government and greenwash being used to cover shifting burdens onto poorer and middle-income sections of society. Therefore a left and social justice based response to climate change and the environmental crisis remains a high priority.

Many homes round here are still festooned with tacky or "ironic" festive light displays. (Yes, that inflatable Homer Simpson was mildly amusing the first time he appeared) Has anyone noticed how the advent of less energy intensive lights seems to have been taken as an incentive to light up even more by some? World By Storm over at Cedar Lounge Revolution blogged on Light Pollution this week - something I have felt very strongly about for a long time. Not being able to see the stars properly is yet another of those small annoying obstacles limiting our connection to our environment and the wider reality. To me it often seems that the more we are limited down to a synthetic and humanised environment the easier it becomes to ignore the effects that our actions and lifestyles have on other human beings and the natural environment.