Issue 415 of New Internationalist

Reader-owned global journalism

September 2008

September 2008

Sixty years ago plastic was an exotic development of modern chemistry. Today it is the most widespread human-made substance in the world. More than 250 billion pounds of raw plastic pellets are produced from petroleum feedstock every year. It is everywhere, in places you never imagined: computers and cell phones; packaging; food and drink containers; home furnishings and building materials; cars, trucks, airplanes and boats; children’s toys and beauty products.

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In this issue

  • What can be wrong with putting five notorious Khmer Rouge leaders on trial? Plenty, argues lawyer *Brooks Duncan*, as he examines the nature of the long-awaited, and foreign-funded, trials currently underway.
  • A history of plastic.
  • This is a book that highlights how people caught in between places are denied identity, perspective and intimacy.
  • Since independence in 1966, Botswana’s annual growth rates have been the highest in the world – bar none. It is estimated that were it not for the impact of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, growth rates would be one or two per cent higher today.