The Globe and Mail and CTV have tested a range of canned foods and found that they are leaching more than double the amount of the stuff than the baby bottle and Nalgenes that everyone has been dumping. Tomato sauce had 18.2 parts per billion, kid's ravioli 6.2 ppb and tomato juice 14.1 ppb. "These results provide further evidence that we are marinating in this chemical on a daily basis," said Rick Smith, executive director of Environmental Defence.
Maratin Mittelstaedt writes in the Globe and Mail: Based on Health Canada's current exposure guideline, which was developed in 1995 before it was widely known that BPA could act like a female hormone at very small doses, an adult would need to consume hundreds of cups of the tested products each day to exceed the limit.
But less than half a cup of tomato sauce or a cup of chicken noodle soup would exceed the lowest dose found in recent research to have an adverse effect on animals. That was a 2005 experiment at Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston on mice exposed to amounts far below those detected in the Globe/CTV testing. . ::Globe and Mail
Food protests and riots have swept more than 20 countries in the past few months, including Egypt.
On 2 April, World Bank President Robert Zoellick told a meeting in Washington that there are 33 countries where price hikes could cause widespread social unrest. The UN World Food Programme called the crisis the silent tsunami, with wheat prices almost doubling in the past year alone, and stocks falling to the lowest level since the perilous post-WWII days. One billion people live on less than $1 a day. Some 850 million are starving. Meanwhile, world food production increased a mere 1 per cent in 2006, and, with increasing amounts of output going to biofuels, per capita consumption is declining.
The most commonly stated reasons include rising fuel costs, global warming, deterioration of soils, and increased demand in China and India. So is it all just a case of hard luck and poor planning?
There is just too much of a pattern, and too many elements all pointing in the same direction. Anyone following the news will have heard of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), which first met in 1921, and the group that represents the inner circle within the inner circle, the Bilderberg Group, which first met in 1954. The latter, once a highly secretive organisation bringing together select world political and business leaders, was exposed to the media spotlight in 1990s and since then has had to endure increasing criticism for its, to say the least, undemocratic role in shaping political leaders’ thinking and actions in accordance with the desires of the world business elite.
The US has never been shy about flaunting world opinion. A case in point is its sole “nay” to multiple UN General Assembly and conference resolutions which declare that “health care and proper nourishment are human rights.” The resolution was approved by a vote of 135-1 in 1981 under president Ronald Reagan, and at UN-sponsored food summits by similar margins in 1996 under president Bill Clinton and in 2002 under President George W. Bush, dismissing any “right to food.”
Whether Republican or Democrat, Washington instead champions free trade as the key to ending the poverty which it argues is at the root of hunger, and expresses fears that recognition of a right to food could lead to lawsuits from poor nations seeking aid and special trade provisions. And these are only resolutions by a powerless body which is in any case virtually subservient to the US. We can see at this very moment how this international humanitarian body is not above using starvation of innocent Gazans as a political tool in the interests of the status quo. Despite loud protestations to the contrary, there is little real international will opposing a future where millions die of starvation while a world elite consolidate their power.
Trying to come to grips with the world food crisis, it’s hard not to subscribe to some version of a conspiracy theory -- that somehow, for some reason, this rush towards widespread world famine is actually a plan by a world clique intent on drastically reducing the world population, accelerating the collapse of national governments, allowing gigantic world corporations effectively to take their place, controlling vast areas of land, leading towards a world governed by these corporations. Especially with the US so clear in its assumption that indeed widespread famine is in the cards, for which it does not want to be held responsible. Forget about global warming (which is of course very real and harmful to food production). Here are a few more red flags... onlinejournal.com
Explanation: What is that white arch over the water? What is being seen is a fogbow, a reflection of sunlight by water drops similar to a rainbow but without the colors. The fog itself is not confined to an arch -- the fog is mostly transparent but relatively uniform. The fogbow shape is created by those drops with the best angle to divert sunlight to the observer. The fogbow's relative lack of colors are caused by the relatively smaller water drops. The drops active above are so small that the quantum mechanical wavelength of light becomes important and smears out colors that would be created by larger rainbow water drops acting like small prisms reflecting sunlight. The above striking image of a fogbow was taken last week with the Sun behind the photographer. The rocks in the foreground are part of Ocean Beach in California, USA.
Africa: World Leaders Fail in Human Rights, Says Amnesty
Amnesty International has accused world leaders over what it calls failure to deliver on the promise of justice and equality as enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
In a hard hitting report, compiled for the year 2007, the global Human rights organisation has accused many governments, in America, Africa and Asia for gross violation of human rights.
According to the report, people are still tortured or ill-treated in at least 81 countries; they face unfair trials in at least 54 countries and are not allowed to speak freely in at least 77 countries.
The report says that the governments have shown more interest in the abuse of power or in the pursuit of political self-interest, than in respecting the rights of those they lead.
The African Union is under fire for failing to curb human rights abuses during armed conflicts in Africa. Similarly, the European Union was castigated with most of its members said to be unwilling to follow the letter and spirit of the declaration... allafrica.com
Five Arctic coastal countries will meet in Greenland on Wednesday to discuss how to carve up the Arctic Ocean, which could hold up to one-quarter of the world's undiscovered oil and gas reserves, far more than Saudia Arabia’s.
Canada, Denmark, Norway, Russia and the United States are squabbling over much of the Arctic seabed and Denmark has called them together for talks in its self-governing province to avert a free-for-all for the region's resources.
Russia angered the other Arctic countries last year by planting a flag on the seabed under the North Pole in a headline-grabbing gesture that some criticised as a stunt.
Russia’s lead explorer Artur Chilingarov, declared at the time,: "The Arctic is ours," thereby staking Moscow's claim to 460,000 square miles of ocean floor, more than five times the area of Britain.
Canada, apparently taken by surprise, responded with a military build-up, as have Denmark in Greenland and the United States in Alaska... www.telegraph.co.uk
Unless you live in an organic bubble, chances are that most days you interact with plastics, paper goods, synthetic fibers, and other household items that contain trace amounts of toxins—toxins that, in large enough doses, could kill you, but in small doses might still be causing some damage. But fear not: new research shows that readily available and conveniently decorative plants are natural detoxifiers, scrubbing the air of these potentially harmful poisons.
Here are three commonly found toxins, and the plant species that mollify their effects... www.goodmagazine.com
NEW YORK - The George W Bush administration plans to launch an air strike against Iran within the next two months, an informed source tells Asia Times Online, echoing other reports that have surfaced in the media in the United States recently. Two key US senators briefed on the attack planned to go public with their opposition to the move, according to the source, but their projected New York Times op-ed piece has yet to appear. The source, a retired US career diplomat and former assistant secretary of state still active in the foreign affairs community, speaking anonymously, said last week that that the US plans an... www.atimes.com
A leading global energy monitor fears there may not be enough oil out there to slake the world's thirst -- and is preparing a landmark forecast that could reverberate through the global economy even as major companies announce fuel-related cutbacks. The IEA study was prompted by concern about volatile world oil markets and uncertainty about supplies. The International Energy Agency is studying depletion rates at about 400 oil fields in a first-of-its-kind study of world oil supply, chief economist Fatih Birol said.
"We are entering a new world energy order, " Birol told The Associated Press. Market analysts call the Paris-based IEA the world's most reliable independent source of oil information and welcomed its decision to undertake a deep study of oil supplies.
But the IEA's new forecasts are likely to further upset markets. Oil prices hit an all-time high Thursday above $135 a barrel before falling back... www.cnn.com
Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens has placed an the largest ever order for wind turbines: he ordered 667 wind turbines from GE, each costing $3 million dollars, making the total order $2 billion. Pickens plans to develop the world’s largest wind farm in the panhandle of Texas.
The $2 billion order is just one quarter of the total amount he plans to purchase. Once built, the wind farm would have the capacity to supply power to over 1,200,000 homes in North Texas. Each turbine will produce 1.5 megawatts of electricity. The first phase of the project will produce 1,000 megawatts, enough energy to power 300,000 homes. GE will begin delivering the turbines in 2010, and current plans call for the project to start producing power in 2011.Ultimately, Picken’s company, Mesa Power, plans to have enough turbines to produce 4,000 megawatts of energy, the overall project is expected to cost $10 billion and be completed in 2014.
The Associated Press quoted Rupert Powell, the managing director of Bloomsbury Auctions, as describing the unidentified buyer as having “a passion for theoretical physics and all that that entails.” Among the unsuccessful bidders, according to The Guardian newspaper, was Oxford evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, an outspoken atheist.
The price makes the Gutkind letter one of the best sellers among Einstein manuscripts. That $404,000 is only a little less than the $442,500 paid for the entire collection of 53 love letters between Einstein and his first wife, Mileva Maric, at an auction at Christie’s in New York in 1996. At that same auction a paper by Einstein and his best friend, Michele Besso, attempting a calculation that would later be a pivotal piece of his crowning achievement, the General Theory of Relativity, went for $398,500.
Diana L. Kormos-Buchwald, a historian at the California Institute of Technology and head of the Einstein Papers project, said she was not surprised that the Gutkind letter, which was known to Einstein scholars, fetched such a high price.
“It is an important expression of Einstein’s thoughts and views on religion, on Judaism, on his views about God and religious texts,” she wrote in an e-mail message. She said the letter, which was not written for publication, was “concise and unvarnished” and more straightforward than the metaphors he usually turned to in public.
Gerald Holton, a historian of science at Harvard and a longtime Einstein expert, also was not surprised. He said Einstein’s marketability had been improved by the last few years of hoopla about the 100th anniversary of relativity, which included his selection as Time magazine’s Man of the Century in 2000, and several new biographies. Dr. Holton described the letter as “a feat of eloquent Credo in short form.”
Einstein, as he says in his autobiographical notes, lost his religion at the age of 12, concluding that it was all a lie, and he never looked back. But he never lost his religious feeling about the apparent order of the universe or his intuitive connection with its mystery, which he savored. “The most incomprehensible thing about the universe is its comprehensibility,” he once said.
“If something is in me that can be called religious,” he wrote in another letter, in 1954, “then it is the unbounded admiration for the structure of the world so far as science can reveal it.”
Einstein consistently characterized the idea of a personal God who answers prayers as naive, and life after death as wishful thinking. But his continual references to God — as a metaphor for physical law; in his famous rebuke to quantum mechanics, “God doesn’t play dice”; and in lines like the endlessly repeated, “ Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind” — has led some wishful thinkers to try to put him in the camp of some kind of believer or even, not long ago, to paint him as an advocate of intelligent design.
Trying to distinguish between a personal God and a more cosmic force, Einstein described himself as an “agnostic” and “not an atheist,” which he associated with the same intolerance as religious fanatics. “They are creatures who — in their grudge against the traditional ‘opium for the people’ — cannot bear the music of the spheres.”
The problem of God, he said, “is too vast for our limited minds.”
Einstein’s latest words offer scant comfort to the traditionally faithful.
In the letter, according to the A.P. account, he wrote that “the word God is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honorable but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish.”
As for his fellow Jews, he said that Judaism, like all other religions, was “an incarnation of the most childish superstitions.”
He claimed a deep affinity with the Jewish people, he said, but “as far as my experience goes they are also no better than other human groups, although they are protected from the worst cancers by a lack of power. Otherwise I cannot see anything ‘chosen’ about them.”
A new report from the Department of Energy claims that wind turbines could generate 300 gigawatts by 2030, which would power about 20 percent of the US electrical grid. The forecasting scenario would require tremendous growth in the wind industry, which currently produces about 17 gigawatts of electricity, or a little over one percent of total capacity.
"To dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions and enhance our energy security, clean power generation at the gigawatt-scale will be necessary, and will require us to take a comprehensive approach to scaling renewable wind power," said Andy Karsner, the DOE's assistant secretary of energy efficiency and renewable energy in a release.
Currently, fossil fuels generate 85 percent of American energy, and about 70 percent of our electricity. Renewables (outside hydroelectric dams) are only responsible for a couple percent of our current electricity capacity. However, wind power has been expanding rapidly, growing 45 percent in 2007, as its cost has become competitive with traditional fossil fuel sources... blog.wired.com
It sounds like the start of a Kurt Vonnegut novel:
Nobody worried all that much about the loss of a few animal species here and there until one day the bees came to their senses and decided to quit producing an unnaturally large surplus of honey for our benefit. One by one, they went on strike and flew off to parts unknown.
Among the various mythologies of the apocalypse, fear of insect plagues has always loomed larger than fear of species loss. But this may change, as a strange new plague is wiping out our honey bees one hive at a time. It has been named Colony Collapse Disorder, or CCD, by the apiculturalists and apiarists who are scrambling to understand and hopefully stop it. First reported last autumn in the U.S., the list of afflicted countries has now expanded to include several in Europe, as well as Brazil, Taiwan, and Canada.
Apparently unknown before this year, CCD is said to follow a unique pattern with several strange characteristics. Bees seem to desert their hive or forget to return home from their foraging runs. The hive population dwindles and then collapses once there are too few bees to maintain it. Typically, no dead bee carcasses lie in or around the afflicted hive, although the queen and a few attendants may remain... Please_Lord_not_the_bees
An oil-addicted ex-superpower
Nineteen years ago, the fall of the Berlin Wall effectively eliminated the Soviet Union as the world's other superpower. Yes, the USSR as a political entity stumbled on for another two years, but it was clearly an ex-superpower from the moment it lost control over its satellites in Eastern Europe. Less than a month ago, the United States similarly lost its claim to superpower status when a barrel of crude oil roared past US$110 on the international market, gasoline prices crossed the $3.50 threshold at American pumps, and diesel fuel topped $4. As was true of the USSR following the dismantling of the Berlin Wall, the US will no doubt continue to stumble on like the superpower it once was; but as the nation's economy continues to be eviscerated to pay for its daily oil fix, it, too, will be seen by increasing numbers of savvy observers as an ex-superpower-in-the-making. That the fall of the Berlin Wall spelled the erasure of the Soviet Union's superpower status was obvious to international observers at the time. After all, the USSR visibly ceased to exercise dominion over an empire (and an associated military-industrial complex) encompassing nearly half of Europe and much of Central Asia. The relationship between rising oil prices and the obliteration of America's superpower status is, however, hardly as self-evident. So let's consider the connection... www.atimes.com
MANILA–The Philippines went to the international auction table like a high-stakes gambler, desperate to win rice for its 88 million people – lots of it, in fact 675,000 tonnes. But when regular supplier Vietnam upped the ante to something close to $1,200 per tonne, the Philippines held its cards and walked away. Gutsy?Or just plain foolish?
"We're in a precarious situation," says Dr. Robert Ziegler, head of the International Rice Research Institute here. "Of course, if all goes well, we're fine. But if a few things go wrong, we're not so fine. And if more than a few things go wrong – well, then we're not very good at all."
The Philippines is the world's single largest importer of rice. Some 35 million of its people teeter on the brink of survival, earning less than $2 per day. These poorest of the poor outnumber Canada's total population. And every day the price of rice climbs higher.
Today, the government of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo still needs another 675,000 tonnes. In addition, the government is betting on domestic rice harvests will come on stream swiftly – just as the typhoon season is set to explode.
But nothing is certain in these times of unpredictable turbulence.Except for this: as the West looks on from the cocoon of its comforts – seeing rice as little more than a side dish for an exotic Asian meal – in the Philippines, rice is destiny... www.thestar.com
Worldwide shortage of rice shoots prices soaring
Asia News Network . Bangkok
As the price of rice climbs across South Asia, farmers and millers in Thailand are sitting on stocks and waiting for it to rise even further, said a top rice exporter in Bangkok.
The exporter, who requested anonymity, told The Straits Times: 'In my 25 years of trading, I have never seen such a bad position.' There is a rice shortage in Bangladesh and China too, among other countries, while there is a wheat shortage in Afghanistan.
In local markets in Pakistan, the price of rice has gone up over the past month by more than 60 per cent year on year. India recently contributed to soaring world prices when it imposed a ban on rice exports — relaxed only partially to allow some supplies to Madagascar, Mauritius, the Comoros Islands and cyclone-hit Bangladesh. China has banned rice exports to ensure enough is available for domestic demand.
From Kansas to Kabul, high rice and wheat prices are worrying officials and economists, and beginning to hit consumers — especially tens of millions of poor people — harder than many can remember. In Singapore, while rice importers and supermarkets have no problems getting the staple grain, prices have escalated... www.independent-bangladesh.com
The new Italian government will have to solve the garbage crisis in the south of Italy. Berlusconi has even promised to run the country from Naples three times per week until all the rubbish accumulated for months has been cleared. Indeed the crisis is serious, its frightening echo resonates abroad and many claim that this is yet another billion dollar racket of organized crime, which traditionally handles garbage in Italy. But how many global market consumers know that organised crime handles our toxic waste, from old cell phones to discharged batteries, and that it ends up in the garbage dumps of the world, particularly in poor developing countries, contaminating the environment? How many know that this illegal activity is a multi-billion dollar business that involves the entire industrialised world, including our governments? Those who manage this unpleasant industry are part of a new generation of globalization outlaws: the pirates of rubbish.
Wealthy countries have said no to ‘uncomfortable’ refuse that pollutes the environment and globalization has permitted them to easily dispose of it. Cost and environment are at the root of this decision. Following the directives of the European Union, decontaminating and disposing of toxic waste costs in the West over $1000 per ton. The pirates of rubbish offer prices ten times lower including the cost of transport beyond national borders to ‘dispose’ of the waste. This explains why 47 percent of European garbage, including toxic materials such as electronic waste from old computers to medical equipment, is almost completely shipped by sea to developing countries, frequently on board pirate ships.
In order to avoid controls, pirates use ‘flags of convenience’, which frequently change en route. Although international law stipulates that the country of registry is ultimately responsible for controlling the ships’ activities, some states permit vessels to fly their flag for hundreds or a few thousand dollars without any supervisions. Amongst them is Sierra Leone, a country ruled by warlords and Uzbekistan, a landlocked country.
The toxic waste business is global. According to the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP), the annual global production of electronic waste ranges from 20 and 50 million tons, comprising recyclable and non-recyclable material. The former generally ends up in India or China where it is auctioned to aspiring Asian industrialists; the latter ends up in the hands of pirates.
Modern piracy presents all the characteristics of classic piracy, i.e. it bears little resemblance to the contemporary romanticized image of pirates. Forget the blockbuster Pirates of the Caribbean. Picture instead, the model of organized global criminality operating on a world scale and apply it to the oceans, which cover 80 percent of the world’s surface and upon which anarchy reigns. In the last decade, marine piracy has increased 168 percent and the attacks are more and more violent, warned the transport commission of the English Parliament in July of 2006. Coincidentally, this report was released shortly after two attacks on British ships carrying aid to the tsunami victims in Indonesia. But it is the toxic waste industry that since the early 90s has been growing at a rate never seen before... The_Pirates_of_Rubbish
Gary Rinehart clearly remembers the summer day in 2002 when the stranger walked in and issued his threat. Rinehart was behind the counter of the Square Deal, his “old-time country store,” as he calls it, on the fading town square of Eagleville, Missouri, a tiny farm community 100 miles north of Kansas City.
The Square Deal is a fixture in Eagleville, a place where farmers and townspeople can go for lightbulbs, greeting cards, hunting gear, ice cream, aspirin, and dozens of other small items without having to drive to a big-box store in Bethany, the county seat, 15 miles down Interstate 35.
Everyone knows Rinehart, who was born and raised in the area and runs one of Eagleville’s few surviving businesses. The stranger came up to the counter and asked for him by name. “Well, that’s me,” said Rinehart.
As Rinehart would recall, the man began verbally attacking him, saying he had proof that Rinehart had planted Monsanto’s genetically modified (G.M.) soybeans in violation of the company’s patent. Better come clean and settle with Monsanto, Rinehart says the man told him—or face the consequences... www.vanityfair.com
For nearly a century, the Hall has echoed with music, drama, and debate, serving as the political, social and cultural heart of Meaford.
It's a four-season venue which hosts a wide variety of live entertainment, business events, and social gatherings.
Newly restored, renovated and outfitted with state-of-the-art staging, the Hall features an intimate Edwardian Opera House theatre with balcony; two large, light-flooded main-floor gallery/reception halls; a meeting room opening onto a landscaped terrace; a boardroom; and kitchen/bar facilities. The brand new East wing houses a box office, elevator, coat check, dressing rooms, and green room.
Situated in the heart of Southern Georgian Bay's recreational playground, Meaford Hall attracts year-round audiences from Owen Sound, Lora Bay, Thornbury, Blue Mountain, and Collingwood – it's the perfect location for your next event...
Pacific Gas and Electric has announced plans to work with BrightSource Energy to three four or more huge solar thermal electric generators in the Mojave desert. The first plant will be operational by 2011 and will produce almost 250 megawatts of electricity per year. Brightsource Energy’s president John Woolard claims it is “the biggest commitment ever in the history of solar”. PG&E is motivated by a California law which requires them to produce 20% of its power via renewable sources by 2010. BrightSource’s goal is to substantially lower the cost and increase the use of solar energy throughout the Western United States. “PG&E is making this goal possible by committing to power purchase agreements that will bring the benefit of carbon-free power to their customers,” noted John Woolard, president and CEO of BrightSource in making this announcement. “PG&E is demonstrating true leadership in bringing large scale solar power to California.”
Canada's plan to ensure that gasoline contains 5 percent ethanol by 2010 won support in the House of Commons on Thursday despite increasing concern about the impact of biofuels on world food supplies. The legislation, which also calls for diesel to contain 2 percent renewable fuels by 2012, passed a critical vote in the House, where the Conservative government has a minority of seats, with the support of opposition members from the Liberal and Bloc Quebecois parties.
The bill still must go through a final vote in the House but that seems assured in light of Thursday's vote. It would then have to go through the Liberal-dominated Senate. The mandate would create demand for an estimated 2 billion liters of ethanol and 600 million liters of biodiesel.
The Conservative government has also provided biofuel producers with subsidies of C$1.5 billion ($1.47 billion) or 20 Canadian cents per liter in an effort to ensure the mandate is filled with biofuel made from Canadian crops.
Canada has 16 ethanol plants using corn and wheat built or under construction, according to industry data, with a total capacity of 1.6 billion liters. There are currently three biodiesel plants with a combined capacity of 97 million liters, mainly using animal fats. A plant that would produce 225 million liters of biodiesel from canola oil is under construction in Alberta.
Water has been a serious issue in the developing world for so long that dire reports of shortages in Cairo or Karachi barely register. But the scarcity of freshwater is no longer a problem restricted to poor countries. Shortages are reaching crisis proportions in even the most highly developed regions, and they're quickly becoming commonplace in our own backyard, from the bleached-white bathtub ring around the Southwest's half-empty Lake Mead to the parched state of Georgia, where the governor prays for rain. Crops are collapsing, groundwater is disappearing, rivers are failing to reach the sea. Call it peak water, the point at which the renewable supply is forever outstripped by unquenchable demand.
This is not to say the world is running out of water. The same amount exists on Earth today as millions of years ago — roughly 360 quintillion gallons. It evaporates, coalesces in clouds, falls as rain, seeps into the earth, and emerges in springs to feed rivers and lakes, an endless hydrologic cycle ordained by immutable laws of chemistry. But 97 percent of it is in the oceans, where it's useless unless the salt can be removed — a process that consumes enormous quantities of energy. Water fit for drinking, irrigation, husbandry, and other human uses can't always be found where people need it, and it's heavy and expensive to transport. Like oil, water is not equitably distributed or respectful of political boundaries; about 50 percent of the world's freshwater lies in a half-dozen lucky countries... www.wired.com
For the first time in years, the possibility of Israel returning the Golan Heights to its arch-enemy, Syria, has made an unexpected comeback. Syrian President Bashar Assad announced last week that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert had assured him that Israel was willing to withdraw from the occupied plateau, in exchange for a peace treaty. Coming after Israel's military assault on an apparent nuclear reactor in northeastern Syria in September and the assassination of a leading Hezbollah figure in the streets of Damascus in February, many were surprised that the confrontational attitude of the two countries had so quickly changed.
They shouldn't have been. The makings of a deal have been in place for more than a decade.
When Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated in 1995, few people knew just how close he was to a peace treaty with Syria. Even his successor, foreign minister Shimon Peres, is said not to have known quite how far the Israeli leader had been prepared to move to achieve a breakthrough.
And move is the operative word... www.theglobeandmail.com
When it comes to reporting important international events in which the United States plays an enormous role, the mainstream corporate media is once again fulfilling its propagandistic function to protect elite interests by refusing to cover the facts and issues.
Over the past couple weeks, thousands of delegates have been meeting at the United Nations for the Seventh Session of the U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII). Representing over 370 million indigenous people worldwide, the forum serves as an arena for addressing pressing issues that indigenous people face across the world with a special focus on the most imperative current crisis: global climate change.... www.blogger.com
Although it went virtually unreported in the U.S., last September, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the "historic" U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Among other things, the declaration calls for nation-states to include and seek approval from indigenous peoples and nations in the constructing and implementation of any policy or "project affecting their lands or resources."
More than 20 United Nations development agencies joined the World Bank and the World Trade Organization this week in Bern, Switzerland, to discuss emergency humanitarian aid and other measures to combat the growing world food crisis. The World Food Programme says it needs an extra US$755 million just to meet existing needs for food aid.
The acute crisis is mainly due to market causes, but it is throwing the spotlight on the underlying problem of chronic underinvestment in agricultural research, experts say... www.nature.com
General Motors announced today it would be entering into a strategic relationship with Mascoma Corp., a second-generation biofuel company with the technology to produce cellulosic ethanol from non-food sources via a single-step biochemical conversion.
The undisclosed equity share aims to contribute to joint research and development along with technology exchange, plant siting, and rapid commercialization of cellulosic ethanol technology and infrastructure. This is GM’s second investment in a cellulosic ethanol company, after announcing partnership with Coskata back in January.
Mascoma is a 3 year old energy biotech company based in Boston. Their proprietary production process, called Consolidated Bioprocessing, limits the use of chemicals and enzymes required by other biochemical methods to make cellulosic ethanol. There are two basic processing methods: biochemical treatment and gasification... gas2.org
As the financial crisis enters what the governor of the Bank of England has called a "new and dangerous phase" Iain Macwhirter has been looking at the big questions
This is the worst financial crisis in 60 years, and it has shaken the banking system to its foundations. Even the Chancellor, Alistair Darling, has compared the crisis to the Great Depression and he is not given to overstatement. Banks are in the business of lending money they don't have - it is called "fractional reserve banking". But every so often the banks succumb to irrational exuberance, lend too much and find their reserves have been eaten up too fast, forcing them out of business. This is what happened to Northern Rock, and is now happening to all the big banks. That is why they had to be rescued to the tune of £50bn last month by the Bank of England - ie, us. They will be back for more.
Well, they know now. During the house-price bubble, the banks were lending recklessly to people with no prospects. In the US it was called "sub-prime" lending, and amounted to organised fraud. Loans were knowingly given to "Ninjas" - people with "no income, no job or assets" - who could never hope to repay them. Britain too had sub-prime lending. At the peak of the boom UK banks offered "suicide loans" of up to 120 per cent of the value of the house with only self-certification of income. The mortgage holders were in negative equity as soon as they got the keys. These people are in real trouble as mortgage rates rise and house prices fall. Northern Rock lent out roughly 200,000 of these in the two years before it went bust and had to be nationalised. This makes the government the biggest holder of sub-prime mortgages in Britain... www.newstatesman.com
We drive, they starve. The mass diversion of the North American grain harvest into ethanol plants for fuel is reaching its political and moral limits.
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"The reality is that people are dying already," said Jacques Diouf, of the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). "Naturally people won't be sitting dying of starvation, they will react," he said.
The UN says it takes 232kg of corn to fill a 50-litre car tank with ethanol. That is enough to feed a child for a year. Last week, the UN predicted "massacres" unless the biofuel policy is halted.
