Developing nations led by China and India pledged they’d work toward an agreement that would limit their fossil fuel emissions for the first time, the biggest advance in the fight against global warming in 14 years.
Envoys from more than 190 nations also extended the Kyoto Protocol, the only ratified treaty limiting greenhouse gases. They will develop document with “legal force” by 2015 that would curb pollution for all nations, according to a text adopted today in Durban, South Africa.
The move breaks a division enshrined in the United Nations- led discussions since 1992 that allowed the poorest nations to escape commitments on burning coal and oil while requiring industrial nations to clean up the atmosphere. That rift prevented the U.S. from ratifying Kyoto, which is the heart of the international effort to protect the environment.
“Historic is the word,” Grenadian ambassador Dessima Williams, lead negotiator for a coalition of 42 island nations, said in an interview. “The idea that we got everybody to agree to take some form of legal commitment is a major outcome.”
Social Justice: Current Affairs, Business, Politics, and all the reasons in the world to Thrive on Creative Discontent!
Saturday, December 10, 2011
‘Russia Without Putin’ Россия без Путина!
Russians rallied across the country against election fraud in the biggest protests faced by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in his 12 years in power.
Twenty-five thousand people gathered in the center of Moscow today in near-freezing temperatures and dispersed after 6 p.m. without detentions or violence, police said. Several thousand demonstrated in St. Petersburg and more than 15,000 in about 30 other cities across the world’s biggest country by area, RIA Novosti reported.
The swelling resentment threatens to weaken Putin’s bid to return to the Kremlin in a presidential contest in March. His United Russia party retained a narrow majority in the State Duma, the lower house of parliament, amid accusations of vote rigging in the Dec. 4 parliamentary ballot.
“We are for free elections, we are for democracy,” Ilya Ponomaryov, a Duma lawmaker and one of the protest organizers, told the crowd in Bolotnaya Square, on an island just south of the Kremlin. “We want a recount of the vote.”
As many as 150,000 people turned out for the biggest rally in the capital in two decades, said Vladimir Ryzhkov, a former lawmaker. The organizers are planning to stage protests the next two weekends and will apply for a permit to hold a 500,000- person rally on Sakharov Prospekt, he said.
Twenty-five thousand people gathered in the center of Moscow today in near-freezing temperatures and dispersed after 6 p.m. without detentions or violence, police said. Several thousand demonstrated in St. Petersburg and more than 15,000 in about 30 other cities across the world’s biggest country by area, RIA Novosti reported.
The swelling resentment threatens to weaken Putin’s bid to return to the Kremlin in a presidential contest in March. His United Russia party retained a narrow majority in the State Duma, the lower house of parliament, amid accusations of vote rigging in the Dec. 4 parliamentary ballot.
“We are for free elections, we are for democracy,” Ilya Ponomaryov, a Duma lawmaker and one of the protest organizers, told the crowd in Bolotnaya Square, on an island just south of the Kremlin. “We want a recount of the vote.”
As many as 150,000 people turned out for the biggest rally in the capital in two decades, said Vladimir Ryzhkov, a former lawmaker. The organizers are planning to stage protests the next two weekends and will apply for a permit to hold a 500,000- person rally on Sakharov Prospekt, he said.
Friday, December 9, 2011
The price of Oil = The price of War for citizens of Falluja, Iraq & their Babies...
As U.S. forces pull out of Iraq, residents and officials in Falluja say they leave behind bullet-riddled homes, destroyed infrastructure and a worrying increase in birth defects and maladies in a city polluted by weapons and war chemicals.
Amir Hussain and Awfa Abdullah got married in Falluja in 2004 but their lives were turned upside by the birth of their two babies.
Their first child, a baby boy born in 2006, had brain damage and died last year. The second, a baby girl who was born in 2007, suffers from severe skin rashes and has one leg longer than the other.
"We've decided to stop having babies. We don't want any more, because it means new suffering and a new battle against new diseases," Hussain said. "It is our bad luck. Maybe because we got married in the wrong time and in the wrong place."
Falluja, in the desert province of Anbar, served as a base for Iraqi fighters after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, and witnessed two major conflicts in 2004. U.S. troops used overwhelming force, tanks, fighter jets and helicopter gunships to crush insurgents there.
Falluja's residents await the U.S. withdrawal by year-end with a mixture of relief and fear that al Qaeda militants might return. Some are still seeking compensation for the suffering they endured.
At Falluja Hospital, pediatrician Samira al-Ani said the most insidious legacy of the war is seen every day in a startling increase in deformed newborns since 2005.
Amir Hussain and Awfa Abdullah got married in Falluja in 2004 but their lives were turned upside by the birth of their two babies.
Their first child, a baby boy born in 2006, had brain damage and died last year. The second, a baby girl who was born in 2007, suffers from severe skin rashes and has one leg longer than the other.
"We've decided to stop having babies. We don't want any more, because it means new suffering and a new battle against new diseases," Hussain said. "It is our bad luck. Maybe because we got married in the wrong time and in the wrong place."
Falluja, in the desert province of Anbar, served as a base for Iraqi fighters after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, and witnessed two major conflicts in 2004. U.S. troops used overwhelming force, tanks, fighter jets and helicopter gunships to crush insurgents there.
Falluja's residents await the U.S. withdrawal by year-end with a mixture of relief and fear that al Qaeda militants might return. Some are still seeking compensation for the suffering they endured.
At Falluja Hospital, pediatrician Samira al-Ani said the most insidious legacy of the war is seen every day in a startling increase in deformed newborns since 2005.
Republicans we only care for the poor and middle class if we can make the rich richer!!!
U.S. House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid are poised for a collision next week of their bids to extend or expand a payroll tax cut for workers.
House Republicans rallied yesterday behind a plan Boehner is preparing that would pair an extension of the current payroll tax cut with eased restrictions on some industrial emissions and expedited approval of an oil pipeline from Canada. Reid is focused on expanding cuts to the worker payroll tax and using a surtax on annual income exceeding $1 million to pay for it.
The biggest fights likely will center on a Republican demand that the bill include language that would expedite the approval of the Keystone XL pipeline in Canada. The proposed TransCanada Corp. (TRP) pipeline would carry oil from Canada to the U.S. The Obama administration has put off a decision on the pipeline until 2013. An independent study concluded that the pipeline would create no meaningful new jobs and pose an unacceptable risk to the USA’s environment as well as contributing to Canada becoming the largest GHG emitter per capita due to the extraction and processing methods used in the oil sands.
“House Republicans’ bill is a partisan joke that has no chance of passing the Senate,” the Nevada Democrat said in a press release. “Instead of playing political games, Congress should work to find common ground.”
House Republicans rallied yesterday behind a plan Boehner is preparing that would pair an extension of the current payroll tax cut with eased restrictions on some industrial emissions and expedited approval of an oil pipeline from Canada. Reid is focused on expanding cuts to the worker payroll tax and using a surtax on annual income exceeding $1 million to pay for it.
The biggest fights likely will center on a Republican demand that the bill include language that would expedite the approval of the Keystone XL pipeline in Canada. The proposed TransCanada Corp. (TRP) pipeline would carry oil from Canada to the U.S. The Obama administration has put off a decision on the pipeline until 2013. An independent study concluded that the pipeline would create no meaningful new jobs and pose an unacceptable risk to the USA’s environment as well as contributing to Canada becoming the largest GHG emitter per capita due to the extraction and processing methods used in the oil sands.
“House Republicans’ bill is a partisan joke that has no chance of passing the Senate,” the Nevada Democrat said in a press release. “Instead of playing political games, Congress should work to find common ground.”
Thursday, December 8, 2011
What led to the Russian Revolution of 2011? The possible return of Tsar Putin!!
Thousands of people have taken to Moscow streets to protest the result of the Dec. 4 parliamentary election, which was marred by complaints of violations and ballot-stuffing. The Solidarity movement, an umbrella opposition group, has planned a rally tomorrow near the Kremlin. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party lost 12 million votes, or more than a quarter of the support it garnered four years ago. Urals crude, Russia’s chief export blend, hit a two-week low.
“Russian politics has become an issue, and for investors, that’s something new, and for some people, it does create uncertainty,” Martin Diggle, director of the $70 million Vulpes Russian Opportunities Fund, said in a phone interview from Geneva. “Europe remains a drag on stocks, and oil is also down.”
“Russian politics has become an issue, and for investors, that’s something new, and for some people, it does create uncertainty,” Martin Diggle, director of the $70 million Vulpes Russian Opportunities Fund, said in a phone interview from Geneva. “Europe remains a drag on stocks, and oil is also down.”
Ahhh the great outdoors in Wyoming...just don't drink the water!!!
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said for the first time it found chemicals used in extracting natural gas through hydraulic fracturing in a drinking-water aquifer in west-central Wyoming.
Samples taken from two deep water-monitoring wells near a gas field in Pavillion, Wyoming, showed synthetic chemicals such as glycols and alcohols “consistent with gas production and hydraulic-fracturing fluids,” the agency said today in an e- mailed statement.
The U.S. gets about one-third of its gas from fracturing, or fracking, in which millions of gallons of chemically treated water and sand are forced underground to break rock and let trapped vapor flow. The findings give ammunition to environmental groups, such as the Natural Resources Defense Council, that have said the drilling risks tainting drinking water and needs stronger regulation.
“This is just evidence of why we need better rules,” Amy Mall, senior policy analyst for the group in Washington, said in an interview. “It’s a game-changer. EPA experts and scientists have recognized that there is real contamination, that there is a real scientific basis for linking it to fracking.”
After complaints from residents of Pavillion, about 230 miles (370 kilometers) northeast of Salt Lake City, the EPA began investigating private drinking-water wells about three years ago. Calgary-based Encana Corp. (ECA), Canada’s largest natural- gas producer, owns about 150 wells in Pavillion, according to spokesman Doug Hock.
Samples taken from two deep water-monitoring wells near a gas field in Pavillion, Wyoming, showed synthetic chemicals such as glycols and alcohols “consistent with gas production and hydraulic-fracturing fluids,” the agency said today in an e- mailed statement.
The U.S. gets about one-third of its gas from fracturing, or fracking, in which millions of gallons of chemically treated water and sand are forced underground to break rock and let trapped vapor flow. The findings give ammunition to environmental groups, such as the Natural Resources Defense Council, that have said the drilling risks tainting drinking water and needs stronger regulation.
“This is just evidence of why we need better rules,” Amy Mall, senior policy analyst for the group in Washington, said in an interview. “It’s a game-changer. EPA experts and scientists have recognized that there is real contamination, that there is a real scientific basis for linking it to fracking.”
After complaints from residents of Pavillion, about 230 miles (370 kilometers) northeast of Salt Lake City, the EPA began investigating private drinking-water wells about three years ago. Calgary-based Encana Corp. (ECA), Canada’s largest natural- gas producer, owns about 150 wells in Pavillion, according to spokesman Doug Hock.
Republican gifts for the Xmas Holiday: No Consumer Protection, No Payroll Tax Cut and a Drive to Dump on the Environment... HO HO HO!!!
President Barack Obama said the Senate’s failure to confirm Richard Cordray as head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau “makes no sense” and will leave middle-income Americas without protection from “unscrupulous” lenders.
“There is no reason why Mister Cordray should not be nominated and should not be confirmed by the Senate,” Obama said at a White House news conference, less than an hour after Republicans in the Senate blocked a motion to end debate on the nomination. He vowed to keep pushing for confirmation.
“We’re not giving up on this,” he said.
Asked whether he would consider using his authority to make a recess appointment of Cordray, bypassing the Senate, Obama said, “We’re going to look at all our options.”
The motion to end debate on the nomination failed with a vote of 53 in favor and 45 opposed. Sixty votes were needed to proceed.
Obama also pressed Congress to pass an extension of the temporary payroll tax cut before leaving for the holidays and without adding provisions that don’t directly apply.
House Republicans are proposing to add a provision to the tax legislation that would expedite approval of TransCanada Corp. (TRP)’s proposed Keystone XL pipeline that is under review by the State Department. A decision has been put off until early 2013 to address environmental concerns about the route.
“There is no reason why Mister Cordray should not be nominated and should not be confirmed by the Senate,” Obama said at a White House news conference, less than an hour after Republicans in the Senate blocked a motion to end debate on the nomination. He vowed to keep pushing for confirmation.
“We’re not giving up on this,” he said.
Asked whether he would consider using his authority to make a recess appointment of Cordray, bypassing the Senate, Obama said, “We’re going to look at all our options.”
The motion to end debate on the nomination failed with a vote of 53 in favor and 45 opposed. Sixty votes were needed to proceed.
Obama also pressed Congress to pass an extension of the temporary payroll tax cut before leaving for the holidays and without adding provisions that don’t directly apply.
House Republicans are proposing to add a provision to the tax legislation that would expedite approval of TransCanada Corp. (TRP)’s proposed Keystone XL pipeline that is under review by the State Department. A decision has been put off until early 2013 to address environmental concerns about the route.
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