Obama’s Nuclear Summit

In Newsweek Daniel Stone considers what success will look like after the summit is over. More coverage of the Nuclear summit also in The Moscow Times, BBC and Spiegel.

US-Russia agree new START Treaty

The Times – reports on the US-Russia nuclear pact forged yesterday in Prague. Incidentally, this is one of the most positive articles around on the subject. Many journalists remain skeptical about the importance of the treaty whilst commentators on the American right are hostile to what it means for US hegemony in international affairs.

Jon Snow writes from a personal perspective on his C4 blog.

I grew up in the shadow of the bomb. The mushroom cloud struck awesome fear into our small hearts. Neville Shute’s ‘On the Beach’, dominated our schoolboy book shelves. We knew there were others of our age who practiced survival beneath their desks. We actually feared radiation, nuclear fallout, radiation sickness, and oblivion. I was an impressionable fifteen years old amid the terrifying events of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Today who gives the detail of nuclear war a thought?

Here in the UK, this historic agreement between the two most powerful nuclear states in the world has received minimal news coverage. A real shame.

Forty-five nations (Israel will not be attending) will meet next week in the Washington Convention Center for a nuclear security summit. In addition, the United Nations, the European Union and the International Atomic Energy Agency will be represented. Let us hope the US-Russia nuclear pact reached in Prague yesterday is a prelude to increased nuclear cooperation between others in the coming months and years.

Best of the Web

Paul Krugman in the NYTimes – on building a green economy. Krugman explores in length whether it is possible to: “make drastic cuts in greenhouse-gas emissions without destroying our economy?”

Another heavyweight economist, Larry Summers, makes a strong case for energy and climate legislation.

According to Joss Garman of LeftFootForward, the “great green transition has already begun.”

Over at the American based Climate Progress, the irony of British peer and climatechange denialist Lord Monckton’s involvement in the Tea Party movement is not lost.

LA Times – reports on the Prague nuclear treaty between the US and Russia. Check back later for more coverage and analysis of this story later.