From the New York Times…

These new “secondary” forests are emerging in Latin America, Asia and other tropical regions at such a fast pace that the trend has set off a serious debate about whether saving primeval rain forest — an iconic environmental cause — may be less urgent than once thought. By one estimate, for every acre of rain forest cut down each year, more than 50 acres of new forest are growing in the tropics on land that was once farmed, logged or ravaged by natural disaster.

“There is far more forest here than there was 30 years ago,” said Ms. Ortega de Wing, 64, who remembers fields of mango trees and banana plants.

The new forests, the scientists argue, could blunt the effects of rain forest destruction by absorbing carbon dioxide, the leading heat-trapping gas linked to global warming, one crucial role that rain forests play. They could also, to a lesser extent, provide habitat for endangered species.

Naturally, lot of people would still argue that this new forest can never be as good as the old forest and the New York Times article gives plenty of space to their arguments. But they don’t seem very convincing to me.

From the San Francisco Chronicle…..

Berkeley’s public library will face a showdown with the city’s Peace and Justice Commission tonight over whether a service contract for the book check-out system violates the city’s nuclear-free ordinance.

(H/T National Review)

From the Telegraph….

Public sector workers – from schools, hospitals, the Post Office and publicly-funded media – will join forces with car factory workers, helicopter pilots and even ski-lift operators from the private sector, to leave much of the country paralysed.

The show of force is backed by all of France’s main unions, the opposition Socialists and 75 per cent of the public see it as justified, according to one poll.

According to François Chérèque, leader of the moderate CFDT union, the strike is a “cry of anger” from workers who feel the government has given billions to banks and industry but not protected their jobs or “purchasing power”.

Not much is going to come of this. The French government is going to back down so fast that there will be no need to prolong the strikes.

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz has a blow by blow account of Israel’s diplomatic moves. But all you really need to know comes from the first line…

The political goals of Operation Cast Lead were not formulated until a few days after the fighting in Gaza began.

If the word “war crime” had any real meaning, the above would be grounds for prosecution. It reveals a criminal level of incompetence that would be punished by death if Israel was not so much stronger than Hamas. War is always a horrible thing, but to engage in it without even knowing what you want to accomplish is no better then random killing.

It would be one thing if the operation had been a fast reaction to a sudden attack. But Israel endured the increased rocket attacks for weeks without doing anything. For the political leadership to have no idea of what they wanted to accomplish after waiting all that time is inexcusable.

Edit: A different article from Haaretz has the military perspective….

An officer who was in contact with the political echelon during the Gaza operation says he now understands what went so horribly wrong in Lebanon: “It was weird, to put it mildly.” Another senior figure adds: “It is difficult to conduct a war when an election campaign is under way. Two of the ‘kitchen cabinet’ members were interested in the operation’s implications for the elections. The third [Olmert] was busy with the question of what it would all mean for his legacy.”

From Spiegel…..

Roughly 150 politicians, ex-military officials, journalists and powerful demimonde characters stand accused. State prosecutors suspect the group of being behind plans to overthrow the government. As members of a secret network, called Ergenekon, named after a mythical valley celebrated by ancient Turks, the group allegedly planned to assassinate members of the country’s political and cultural elite.

The idea, as prosecutors see it, was for Turkey to sink into fear and chaos before being rescued by an army coup that would reinstate peace and order. The armed forces, after all, see themselves as protectors of the nation they inherited from Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of modern-day Turkey. The Turkish military has staged coups three times in the country’s recent past: in 1969, 1971 and 1980.

That is your thriller from Turkey. If tearjerkers are more to your taste, The Belmont Club has a story about a 1600 old Christian monastery in Turkey that is under threat from rising Islamic fervor in Turkey.

Holland’s national suicide note by Ezra Levant is this week’s rant of the week.

From Maureen Dowd…..

Instead they have Gillibrand, who voted against the Wall Street — as in New York — bailout bill. And who introduced a bill to balance the federal budget annually, which suggests she would oppose the $825 billion in deficit spending that President Obama proposes to rescue the country, not least New York.

Actually, this is all meant to be insults and not praise. And sadly, it is not true. I doubt that Gillibrand will have the guts to oppose anything Obama does, regardless of what she has said she believes in the past. Still if this is the best dirt that Maureen Dowd can throw at Gillibrand, it speaks pretty well of her.