Why Copenhagen doesn't matter: Rather than pinning our hopes on global solutions, anyone concerned about mitigating climate change should be hoping that the few big emitters decide to act now, regardless of what other countries decide to do. The Center for American Progress on myth vs. reality on international climate change negotiations. Planetary boundaries: Scientists propose guardrails for how far mankind can push the planet tomorrow, while others examine how far collapsed civilizations pushed it yesterday. Should we seek to save industrial civilisation? George Monbiot debates Paul Kingsnorth. A look at why green Catholics are not communists. From TNR, a review essay on the usefulness of cranks: Is environmentalism a natural ally of liberalism?; Earth to Obama: You can't negotiate with the planet; and what would Jesus drive? Republicans may think denying climate change is wrong, but at least it’s politically useful. To support the launch of the 10:10 climate change campaign to reduce carbon emissions, The Guardian asked artists, authors and poets to respond to the crisis. Call it eco-angst, the moment a new bit of unpleasant ecological information about some product or other plunges us into a moment (or more) of despair. A review of Eric Roston’s The Carbon Age: How Life’s Core Element Has Become Civilization’s Greatest Threat. A review of Green Metropolis: What the City Can Teach the Country About True Sustainability by David Owen (and more).

An impulse for a new Central Europe, the Nobel Prize for Literature goes to Herta Muller, a patriot of an estranged homeland, for work "steeped in Europe's terrible history", which includes the novel Everything I Own I Carry With Me (and an excerpt). From Sign and Sight, twenty years after Ceausescu's execution his secret service is still active; for the first time, Romanian-German writer Herta Muller describes her ongoing experience of Securitate terror (and more on the tenacity of Romania's corrupt secret service). A look at how great literature knows no bounds — in time or place. From LRB, James Wood reviews The Children’s Book by A.S. Byatt (and more; and an interview at Bookforum). A review of Peter Lamarque’s The Philosophy of Literature (Blackwell’s "Foundations of the Philosophy of the Arts") by Peter Lamarque. So what exactly is conceptual writing?: An interview with Kenneth Goldsmith. Does the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy still answer the ultimate question? From TNR, a review of Arthur Miller by Christopher Bigsby. A review of Knut Hamsun: Dreamer and Dissenter by Ingar Sletten Kolloen. A review of The Beats: A Graphic History. From Boston Review, a review of The Yeats Brothers and Modernism’s Love of Motion by Calvin Bedient and Our Secret Discipline: Yeats and Lyric Form by Helen Vendler. Thoughts on form: An interview with Philip Pullman. How to read a masterpiece: An essay on coming to terms with Marie-Claire Blais. Next time you finish reading a book, take a minute to write a note to the author — you will likely soon have a story of your own to tell.

A review of War: A Short History by Jeremy Black. A review of War and Peace in Ancient and Medieval History. A review of Soldiers of Fortune: A History of the Mercenary in Modern Warfare by Tony Geraghty. A review of Why America Fights: Patriotism and War Propaganda from the Philippines to Iraq by Susan Brewer. A review of Advice to War Presidents: A Remedial Course in Statecraft by Angelo Codevilla. The first chapter from The Science of War: Defense Budgeting, Military Technology, Logistics, and Combat Outcomes by Michael E. O'Hanlon. By eschewing certainties and formulas, Carl von Clausewitz developed a powerful and controversial philosophy of war. Their martyrs, our heroes: Armies and guerrilla movements both deploy suicide missions, and both believe in a shared culture of heroic sacrifice; the difference between a "just war" and terrorist targeting of civilians has been blurred for a long time. A review of Frames of War: When is Life Grievable? by Judith Butler and Killing in War by Jeff McMahan (and more). The first chapter from The Cognitive Challenge of War by Peter Paret. Lawfare: An article on preserving the balance between the law and war. Geneva conventions at 60: The chasm is still too wide between noble Swiss ideas and the hard reality of locations where war is hell. The first chapter from How Wars End by Dan Reiter. Does peace have a chance? Wars are less deadly than they've been for 12,000 years. In trouble spots around the world, Peace Brigades International volunteers observe and protect, reminding human rights violators that the world is watching. Dangerous Prize: Why Nobel Peace Prize victories have a poor track record of producing change; and here are seven people who that never won the prize, but should have.

From Identity Theory, an interview with Joe Quirk, author of It’s Not You, It’s Biology: The Science of Love, Sex and Relationships. A review of The Nature of Sexual Desire by James Giles. Oral sex is the new goodnight kiss: As long as women and men are seen as sexually-different, there will never be gender equality in other realms of our lives. Asexuals, also known as “aces”, have begun to assert their place as a valid and healthy sexual orientation; even SpongeBob is in on the (lack of) action. From The Hindu, the case for sexual minorities should have been built on analogous reasoning with various other minorities like Dalits, adivasis and religious minorities. Johann Hari reviews The East, the West, and Sex: A History of Sex by Richard Bernstein (and a response by Bernstein; and more and more and more and more and more and more). German teenager Kim Petras, the world's youngest transsexual, is poised for pop stardom. Gender Blender: Straddling the sexes can be a bitch. Designing the margin of feasible bodies: An article on truths and binary oppositions in the construction of sexes-genders-sexualities. A review of Between XX and XY: Intersexuality and the Myth of Two Sexes by Gerald N. Callahan (and more and more and more and more). Bourgeois society's reduction of sexuality to the logic of (re)production results in a series of rigid dichotomies; Marcel Stoetzler rejects sexual dimorphism and the gay/straight split to imagine a sexuality that is free to recreate itself. Top scientists get to the bottom of gay male sex role preferences. A look at why lesbians are the butt of gay men's jokes.