Representatives of Irish environmental NGOs are in Johannesburg countering the government glossover of the serious social and environmental costs of the Celtic Tiger. Under the banner of Earth Summit Ireland groups ranging from An Taisce and Coastwatch to Friends of the Irish Environment and the Irish Peatland Conservation Council have produced a comprehensive report highlighting a wide range of deeply unsustainable practices occuring in Ireland.

'Telling it like it is - 10 years of unsustainable development in Ireland', uses 34 stories of unsustainable practices in Ireland as examples of how the government has paid only lip service to the main international environmental treaties that it has signed. Since Ireland is held up internationally as a model of development through the pursuit of globalisation and neo-liberal policies, this report is globally important to show the international community that the Celtic Tiger has not been cost-free.

The report describes how Ireland is burning its last remaining boglands at a rate of 1,500 ha per year to put even more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Another story highlights the mercuric soap factory that was expelled from Britain for poisoning its workers, which sells a toxic and illegal product to Africa - and that got £750,000 from the IDA. There's an overview of how local authorities in Galway ignored over half of the 3,266 submissions received about a controversial road project because they were deemed to be 'in the wrong envelopes' and of the Aghafad 'pig production unit' in which 100,000 pigs are crammed onto a 40 acre site in a factory 'farm' of horrific suffering and vast pollution? Other stories contrast the obsession with road building with the decay of public transportation, the continued favouring of landfill over recycling, and how Ireland is ignoring its obligations under the Kyoto Protocol on climate change.

The World Summit on Sustainable Development is taking place in Johannesburg from August 26 to September 4. It is a follow-up to the Rio Earth Summit held 10 years ago which produced many aspirational statements but little real action. It is becoming clearer to NGOs, activists and those concerned with global environmental destruction and social inequality that the problem lies in the almost complete absence of political will. This lack of will to introduce change in the direction of sustainability is particularly probounced in Ireland where companies, local authorities and successive governments seem content to pass on the huge costs of overconsumption to future generations.

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Download the Earth Summit Ireland report

The situation in Palestine has become more and more extreme in the last couple of weeks. Reports are emerging regularly which detail the use of mass internment against Palestinian civilians living in refugee camps. Many Israelis and foreign observers have been taken aback at the dark symbolism of reports of internees having numbers printed on their skin.

Meanwhile the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and the targeting of Palestinian militants for extra-judicial executions continues despite the arrival of an American peace envoy. A series of shocking photographs of such a killing have been relesed in the last few days. It is all depressingly reminiscent of events in Northern Ireland during the early days of the 'troubles'.

IMC Israel is an excellent source of detailed on-the-ground reports of events as they unfold and shows that the Israeli support for the murderous military campaign against the Intifada is anything but monolithic. Up to 250 Israeli Army Reservists have refused to serve beyond the 1967 borders. Objectors are ending up in Israeli prisons as a result of their protests. Another 2,795 Israeli civilians have declared their support for the Reservists on a second strongly worded document that said: "Since we understand that the missions of occupation and oppression do not serve Israel's defense, we express our solidarity with all those who refuse to engage in them."

Perhaps the most disturbing reports are those which indicate that a large proportion of Israels Jewish citizens are in favour of some kind of ethnic cleansing of the occupied territories.

Reports from IMC Palestine are also regularly posted on the site.

Background information and ongoing analysis of the situation can be found in the Middle East Watch section of Znet

The Students Union of the National College of Art and Design presents a series of five free public talks and screenings focusing on various aspects of Art, New Technology, Politics and Activism.

All talks/screenings are free and open to members of the public.

The talks and screenings will take place on Thursday evenings beginning at 6.30pm in the main Lecture Theatre in NCAD, Thomas Street, Dublin.

The line-up is as follows:

Thursday Feb 21st
Conor McGarrigle on Net Art, Surveillance and his 'Spook' Project.

Thursday Feb 28th
Ken Fero presents a rare irish screening of Injustice, a controversial documentary on deaths in Police custody in the UK.

Thursday Mar 7th
Greg Palast on GW Bush, Enron, Argentina and his new book - The Best Democracy Money can Buy.

Thursday Mar 14th
Fiona Raby on the fusion of information space and urban territory.

Thursday Mar 21st
Reclaim the Streets (London) on changing the world with cunning direct action, crowd empowerment, fun, humour and raving.

For further information or to arrange Interviews in advance with any of the Speakers contact Annette at the NCAD Students Union at 01-6711553. Email: [email protected] or [email protected]

Eleven people were arrested during a blockade of Sellafield nuclear reprocessing plant on February 14. Over 150 Irish demonstrators blockaded the roads to the plant for nearly five hours.

The group included people who had spent the previous three days blockading Trident nuclear submarine base in Faslane, Scotland. (report from day 2; day 3)

The protest began at 6am, it was split in two as Sellafield has two main access roads and a blockade began in each of these areas. At the first access point six demonstrators chained themselves across the road in a snake formation. When the police arrived they were largely outnumbered and the specially trained protest unit "SGI" was not available. They pushed peaceful protesters with excessive force and kicked and threatened people in the lock-on. By 7.30am the blockade had created tailbacks of six or seven miles. The protest lasted until noon. Those arrested were released by 6pm under caution - none were charged.

Sellafield Blockade: why it happened.

Audio Interviews with Sellafield protestors.

Over 100 peaceful protestors, including Irish Green MEP Patricia McKenna, have been arrested at the Trident Nuclear Submarine base in Faslane, Scotland. The protest was organised by Trident Ploughshares and Scottish CND and involved an estimated 2,000 people.

Today's action follows several previous protests at the Faslane base. Activists say that the base is illegal. There is also concern that nuclear submarines from Faslane may be used in the ongoing American and British attacks on Afghanistan.

However police were far quicker to act against the protestors in today's action than in previous actions. Over 100 people chained themselves to 3 seperate gates of the base at 7am to prevent morning shift workers from entering. Protestors were chained together with the chains encased in metal pipes, making them more difficult to cut. However police moved in shortly afterwards and began cutting them away, injuring several protestors in the process. In previous protests police have waited several hors before acting.

Today's rapid repression of the protest by police follows a recent pattern in Ireland where over 20 peaceful demonstrators have been arrested at three seperate protests during the past month. Today's Faslane protest included over a hundred Irish people of whom at least 13 have been arrested, including Green MEP Patricia McKenna. New regulations introduced by Scottish police mean that those without UK residence will be detained longer than UK residents.