Chris Woolfrey

In recent months, the island of Cyprus has seen a renaissance Tourism is booming, and in the TRNC the North Cyprus Property Boom has been marked as the peak of prosperity for the partitioned island;it has been named as one of the world's chief property hot spots

The divided island of Cyprus, split between the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) and the Greek protected Republic of Cyprus, for 34 years, now sees a new round of peace talks, which began this morning (03/09/08) It is the fourth meeting between the leaders of the partitioned island since Demetris Christofias, head of the Greek Cypriot state, took office early this year

Conceived and promoted by a team of journalists and experts including Peter Myers, Dr Victoria Johnson and Andrew Simms, the 100 months problem is the idea that in roughly 8 years, our current lifestyles will have taken the earth beyond a revocable point when it comes to global warming and climate change

In all the debates on the effects and implications of global warming, climate change and CO2 emissions, one thing can certainly be agreed; things are changing There may or may not be reason to discredit the idea that climate change is a man-made phenomena, and there may or may not - though this writer would definitely argue that such claims are false - be reason to doubt the detrimental effect of such concepts

Over the last year, two key concepts have reigned over all others: the economy and the environment Like opposing forces they push and pull at one another, with economic downturns running counter to calls for increased spending on the environment, including renewable energy development and sustainability initiatives

World population growth is accelerating True, the rate has halved since the historical peak of 2

With the post-Olympic headlines understandably focused on the sporting achievements of the likes of Usain Bolt and his domination of the sprint events, or team GB's new record gold medal tally, it is perhaps expected that that which dominated media coverage before the event - the environmental policy of Beijing - has fallen temporarily to the sidelines

After the detailed media coverage that surrounded the Beijing Olympics highlighted the dubious effect that a highly populated nation can have on the world's environment, some of the earth's major cities are expected to come under the microscope with regards to their CO2 emissions policies As population hubs, they represent more extreme examples of the human effect on the earth's environment

Since the dominance of the Ottoman Empire during the middle of the last millennium, Turkey - in various forms - has been a prominent force in both European and middle eastern politics It has continually exerted a sphere of influence over the two continents, and never committed to both; in that respect it can be compared to Russia, who have historically felt that their dominance can be justified on its western borders in Europe, and in Asia on its eastern border

It was announced this week that genuinely committed talks on the reunification of Cyprus would come into effect in September of this year Demetris Christofias, the Greek Cypriot president, met with the Turkish Cypriot president Mehmet Ali Talat on the 28th of August, and both are reportedly keen to discuss a potential reunion of the island