JOE'S GARAGE: THE EMOTIONAL DIMENSION

The unlimited popularity of the tonal system in western music has a lot to do with it's capacity, combined with instrumentation and the way music is performed, to translate emotions into music in a for everybody recognisable form. It's also the way most people like to talk about music, often giving highly subjective interpretations of what the music means in their opinion along with it. Sections of music can express feelings of joy, sadness, anger and relaxation. Why this effect exists is usually not very clear. Dissonants and shouting can be associated with anger or tension, but why some melodic lines have the effect of joy and others don't is hardly explainable. It's better to take it for granted that the three downwards played notes of a minor third have the effect of sadness, and composers looking to maximize recognisable emotional impact probably have a good catalogue in their mind of melody types and their effect (compare "Debra Kadabra" from "Bongo Fury" from 2:44 onwards for a minor third effect).
Music can also be on a more emotionally abstract level, but certainly not less emotional, where it becomes difficult to translate the emotions into words other than "expressive" or "intense" and where the emotions seem to rely more on the pleasure of the listening to the music itself. Zappa prefers the more abstract level, confirmed by his unwillingness to take his personal life as the subject of his lyrics. He may talk about his lovely wife and children in "The Real Frank Zappa book", but never on his albums. Zappa's music can be very expressive, but speaking for myself I have no idea how I could describe for instance the guitar solo's on "Shut up 'n play yer guitar" in emotional terms as happiness or tension.

Climate change

"The poorest people, who are not responsible for carbon emissions into the atmosphere, will be the worst hit by the devastations of climate change - but the climate change discourse has so far not been people-centred."

"To come to Bangladesh is to see that climate change is most severely affecting the people who have contributed least to causing the problem" said Mary Robinson during a keynote speech Wednesday, at a roundtable meeting on 'Climate Change: Rights and Justice' hosted by BRAC University in the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka.

Every leader knows that we face uncertain times, driven by unprecedented change. Whether it’s continued volatility in global capital markets, political upheavals in the Middle East or technology-driven transformations that reshape and reverberate across industries, uncertainty is the “new normal.”

. The use of fossil fuels to meet the world's energy needs is a contributor to an increase in greenhouse gases (GHGs)—mainly carbon dioxide (CO₂) and methane—in the Earth's atmosphere. There is a widespread view that this increase is leading to climate change, with adverse effects on the environment.

Bangladesh is a central point of reference for the injustice of climate change.

Rising sea levels threaten inundation and saline intrusion in the southern coastal region

With 40% of coastal land already affected by salinity

Climate change: building smallholder resilience

Smallholder farmers are the backbone of the rural economy – but they are bearing the brunt of climate change. Worldwide, there are 500 million smallholder farms supporting some 2 billion people.

These farmers inhabit some of the most at-risk landscapes, including hillsides, deserts and floodplains. Climate change multiplies the threats facing smallholders, endangering the natural assets they depend on and accelerating environmental degradation.

The recent initiatives to strengthen links between the climate change and development communities are also described. These are of particular importance as climate change impacts will significantly affect national development.

The world’s climate is changing and will continue to change into the coming century at rates projected to be unprecedented in recent human history. The risks associated with these changes are real but highly uncertain.

The problem of rapid climate change is inextricably entwined with the challenges of development. Although high-income countries first created the problem through the unbridled emission of heat-trapping gases, poor people in the developing world are feeling the impacts first and worst. Moreover, some developing countries are now major emitters, and the developing world accounts for more than half of all current greenhouse gases. To be effective, responses to climate change must address developing countries’ needs, including their right to development.