Hard Rain Journal 9-29-06: Sustainability Update -- Freedom to Flourish and Water to Survive, Both are Vanishing...What Will You Do?

The US Senate has chosen to rally around W. Jong-il rather than the US Constitution, the Geneva Accords, the Magna Carta, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights or even its own atrophied conscience.

The passage of Bush's torture and disappearance bill is perhaps the final turn of the screw. We will know soon enough. If there is no change of control over one or both houses of the US Congress in November 2006 (i.e., if enough seats are stolen to blunt the tsunami of voter contempt for the reich-wing), the republic as it was constituted by the founders is dead.

The Buzzflash editorial, "Mourning in America," captures the mood: "Just as it is hard to fully comprehend the grief of a beloved friend or relative killed needlessly in an accident, it is excruciatingly painful to try to come to terms with the pernicious betrayal of our Constitution and liberty that occurred in the Senate on Thursday, September 28....This isn’t just a Rubicon that has been crossed that may mean the death of the American Republic, as we know it. This isn’t just our Reichstag fire. This is a suicidal act in terms of our national security. It is giving unConstitutional and barbaric powers to a man who has miserably and persistently failed us and lied to this nation at every turn – as born out by the facts. It is a thuggish game of forcing an alternative reality upon America, a noxious, deadly one."

I really have nothing more to say about the Bush-Cheney regime, or about their enablers in the US Congress (on both sides of the aisle) and in the US mainstream news media. I have said it already.

I will focus on the only necessity of life more vital than the freedoms we are losing (note that it is not being safe from terrorist attacks); it is something we take for granted to an even greater extent than our freedoms...

Here are three important stories on the global water crisis:

The statistics are mind-boggling: of the more than six billion people in the world today, over one billion have no access to improved drinking water -- a basic necessity for human life -- and about 2.6 billion people do not have access to improved sanitation. And according to the U.N. children's agency UNICEF, polluted water and lack of basic sanitation claim the lives of over 1.5 million children every year, mostly from water-borne diseases....In a 33-page report titled "Progress for Children: a Report Card on Water and Sanitation" released Thursday, UNICEF says these "tragic statistics" underscore the need for the world to meet its commitment to one of eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs): to halve by 2015 the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation....Overall, the statistical snapshot of the world's progress towards MDG targets for water and sanitation "offers a mixed message", UNICEF warns...According to estimates by UNICEF and the World Health Organisation, developing nations need at least 11.3 billion dollars a year to meet low-cost basic levels of service for both drinking water and sanitation by the year 2015. And more than 80 percent of the total resources will be needed in Asia and Africa....
On a more positive note, UNICEF points out that four developing regions -- East Asia/Pacific, Middle East/North Africa, South Asia and Latin America/Caribbean -- are on track to meet their MDG targets for safe water.
But current progress rates in sub-Saharan Africa and in Central and Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) "will leave those regions short". Thalif Deen, Dirty Water Kills 4,000 Children a Day, Inter Press Service, 9-28-06

MAXINE MCKEW: With much of the country battling through one of the worst droughts on record, water restrictions have become a part of everyday life for millions of Australians. Some inland towns and cities are literally running out of water, while rivers like the Darling are in trouble...
DON HENRY: We're absolutely in a water crisis in Australia at the moment. Our rivers are in real trouble. Take for instance the Murray, the lower reaches are literally dying for a drink.
PETER CULLEN: If this current dry spell continues as it is, then some of our cities will be in trouble in the next 12 18 months.
MATT PEACOCK: The most arid inhabited continent on the planet, now gripped by drought. Yet Australians are amongst the most profligate users of water on earth. Professor Peter Cullen of the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists is urging action.
PETER CULLEN: Governments are now at a stage where they can't really keep talking. They've got to make some hard choices and just get on and do some of these things....
MATT PEACOCK: There are solutions to Australia's water scarcity, urges Professor Cullen.
PETER CULLEN: We have some absolutely world's best practice irrigators that are using best technology with sensors buried under the ground that turn the water on automatically when the plant needs it and we have, at the other end of the spectrum, people who are slopping water onto the grass in the way that the Pharaohs would have done 2,000 years ago...
MATT PEACOCK: But wherever you are, and whatever you do, says the Australian Conservation Foundation, there are smarter, less wasteful ways to use water.
DON HENRY: We can all do a lot about water. At home, we can cut water waste by using water efficient shower heads. If you're an irrigator, shifting to drip irrigation rather than flood irrigation saves budgets of water. But at the end of the day, we need leadership of governments, we need firm targets, timelines and serious investment to restore rivers to health and cut wasted water in our cities.Water crisis prompts creation of new office, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 9-26-06

The quest for water can drive a woman mad.
Ask Ritu Prasher. Every day, Mrs. Prasher, a homemaker in a middle-class neighborhood of this capital, rises at 6:30 a.m. and begins fretting about water.
It is a rare morning when water trickles through the pipes. More often, not a drop will come. So Mrs. Prasher will have to call a private water tanker, wait for it to show up, call again, wait some more and worry about whether enough buckets are filled in the bathroom in case no water arrives.
“Your whole day goes just planning how you’ll get water,” a weary Mrs. Prasher, 45, recounted one morning this summer, cellphone in hand and ready to press redial for the water tanker. “You become so edgy all the time.”
In the richest city in India, with the nation’s economy marching ahead at an enviable clip, middle-class people like Mrs. Prasher are reduced to foraging for water. Their predicament testifies to the government’s astonishing inability to deliver the most basic services to its citizens at a time when India asserts itself as a global power.
The crisis, decades in the making, has grown as fast as India in recent years. A soaring population, the warp-speed sprawl of cities, and a vast and thirsty farm belt have all put new strains on a feeble, ill-kept public water and sanitation network.
The combination has left water all too scarce in some places, contaminated in others and in cursed surfeit for millions who are flooded each year. Today the problems threaten India’s ability to fortify its sagging farms, sustain its economic growth and make its cities healthy and habitable. At stake is not only India’s economic ambition but its very image as the world’s largest democracy....
New Delhi’s water woes are typical of those of many Indian cities. Nationwide, the urban water distribution network is in such disrepair that no city can provide water from the public tap for more than a few hours a day.
SOMINI SENGUPTA, In Teeming India, Water Crisis Means Dry Pipes and Foul Sludge, New York Times, 9-29-06

RELATED POSTS:

Hard Rain Journal 9-18-06: Update on Sustainability -- There is Peril Ahead, Whether Water is Privatized, Militarized or Simply Ignored for Too Long

Hard Rain Journal 8-18-06: Water, Water Nowhere, & Only A Few Drops to Sell --- An Update on the Water Aspect of the Global Sustainability Crisis

Hard Rain Journal 8-4-06: No Blood for Water? Are Lebanon & Tibet Being Robbed of The Most Vital Resource?

Words of Power #25: Lost Symbols, Part II -- The Rainbow Serpent Hisses, Lessons about Sustainability & Survival from Darfur, Senegal and Ecuador

Words of Power #20: Cusco, Kyoto and The Yellow Sand Storm

Richard Power is the founder of GS(3) Intelligence and http://www.wordsofpower.net. His work focuses on the inter-related issues of security, sustainability and spirit, and how to overcome the challenges of terrorism, cyber crime, global warming, health emergencies, natural disasters, etc. You can reach him via e-mail: richardpower@wordsofpower.net. For more information, go to www.wordsofpower.net

Global Warming Water Wars Water Crisis Sustainability Rivers UN Millennium Goal, Climate Change Environmental Security Australia UNICEF India, Population, Buzzflash, Words of Power

Hard Rain Journal 9-27-06: The Republic Strikes Back!

Image by TKphoeToe

I challenge the American people to get informed and speak out. Remember that the Congress represents and works for the people. Congressional oversight committees have been strangely silent for too long, and our elected officials must step up to their responsibilities or be replaced. This is not about partisan politics, but rather what is good for our country. Our November elections are crucial. Every American needs to understand the issues and cast his or her vote. I believe that one needs to vote for the candidate who understands the issues and who has the moral courage to do the harder right rather than the easier wrong. Testimony of John R.S. Batiste, Major General US Army Retired, Senate Democratic Policy Committee Hearing, 9-25-06

Hard Rain Journal 9-27-06: The Republic Strikes Back!

By Richard Power

The revolt of the professionals has only intensified. Just as it says in the Rove playbook, "never introduce a new product before Labor Day.” Revelation after revelation has been brought forth over these last three weeks. And yet, most of the US mainstream news media (the broadcast media, in particular) continues to carry the filthy water of the Bush-Cheney National Insecurity Team.

Recently, Air America Radio talk show host Randi Rhodes read aloud from the Mora Memo. What is the Mora Memo? It is a “Statement for The Record” from the “Office of the General Counsel” of the US Department of the Navy. The Mora Memo documents the US Navy’s principled resistance to the systematic abuse of prisoners at Guantanamo, something the Navy was told was sanctioned at “the highest levels.”

As I listened to Randi, I wondered what the impact would have been if had been Katie Couric that read it aloud instead of Randi? The reading wouldn’t have been delivered with such insight and such passion, but it would have reached tens of millions of people, instead of hundreds of thousands.

Instead, Couric was busy sucking up to Condi Rice. Rice never should have been National Security Adviser. She wasn't qualified. (But they didn't want anybody who really knew the job did they?) And she should have lost the job on 9/12/01. Instead, she was kicked upstairs to Secretary of State after Colin Powell gave up on these people.

Here are five stories about the debacle in Iraq and the coming debacle in Iran. These stories highlight the brave resistance of the USA’s military, intelligence and law enforcement professionals. Please take a few moments to consider them as a whole and then urge your fellow citizens to join you in taking action. If there is an election, you must heed the plea of Major General Batiste, you must vote for change. If the election is subverted, you must not accept it.

What do we do now? We are where we are, plagued by the mistakes of the past. Thankfully, we are Americans and with the right leadership, we can do anything. First, the American people need to take charge through their elected officials. Secretary Rumsfeld and the Administration are fighting a war in secret that threatens our democratic values. This needs to stop right now, today. Second, we must replace Secretary Rumsfeld and his entire inner circle. We deserve leaders whose judgment and instinct we can all trust. Third, we must mobilize our country for a protracted challenge, which must include conveying the “what, why, and how long” to every American… I challenge the American people to get informed and speak out. Remember that the Congress represents and works for the people. Congressional oversight committees have been strangely silent for too long, and our elected officials must step up to their responsibilities or be replaced. This is not about partisan politics, but rather what is good for our country. Our November elections are crucial. Every American needs to understand the issues and cast his or her vote. I believe that one needs to vote for the candidate who understands the issues and who has the moral courage to do the harder right rather than the easier wrong. I for one will continue to speak out until there is accountability, until the American people establish momentum, and until our Congressional oversight committees kick into action. Testimony of John R.S. Batiste, Major General US Army Retired, Senate Democratic Policy Committee Hearing, 9-25-06

Corporate media present: apparently none.
Panel 1: Witnesses: Lt. Gen. William Odom, Dr. Paul Pillar.
Pillar spoke first. He addressed the question of whether the disaster in Iraq is the result of poor execution or of the initial decision to go in at all. "Most of what we are seeing," he said, "and in particular the communal violence, is an almost inevitable result of having ousted the dictator Saddam Hussein."
Odom spoke second and addressed points of argumentation that he hears too often and is tired of hearing, including being told to ignore the past and focus on the future, to ignore how we got into Iraq and only talk about what to do from here on. Unless, Odom said, we discuss whose interests this war served, we cannot decide what to do. It served no U.S. interests. It served the interests of al Qaeda and Iran...
Pillar drew a comparison between Iraq and Afghanistan. The jihad in Afghanistan for 10 years against the Soviet Union served to train terrorists, he said, and we are still experiencing the results. Iraq is now that training ground, and we may see results for many years, he said.
Rep. Hinchey asked Odom "How do we get out?" Odom's reply came without a pause: "Well, the Constitution gives the House the right to impeach." Lt. General Odom speaks truth in basement of U.S. Capitol. Dome shakes, Rep. Woolsey and 15 Other Congress Members Hold Hearing on Iraq, David Swanson, After Downing Street, 9-26-06

A stark assessment of terrorism trends by American intelligence agencies has found that the American invasion and occupation of Iraq has helped spawn a new generation of Islamic radicalism and that the overall terrorist threat has grown since the Sept. 11 attacks. The classified National Intelligence Estimate attributes a more direct role to the Iraq war in fueling radicalism than that presented either in recent White House documents or in a report released Wednesday by the House Intelligence Committee, according to several officials in Washington involved in preparing the assessment or who have read the final document. The intelligence estimate, completed in April, is the first formal appraisal of global terrorism by United States intelligence agencies since the Iraq war began, and represents a consensus view of the 16 disparate spy services inside government. Titled “Trends in Global Terrorism: Implications for the United States,’’ it asserts that Islamic radicalism, rather than being in retreat, has metastasized and spread across the globe. An opening section of the report, “Indicators of the Spread of the Global Jihadist Movement,” cites the Iraq war as a reason for the diffusion of jihad ideology. The report “says that the Iraq war has made the overall terrorism problem worse,” said one American intelligence official. MARK MAZZETTI, Spy Agencies Say Iraq War Worsens Terrorism Threat, New York Times, 9-23-06

The "pardon" is buried in Bush's proposed legislation to create a new kind of military tribunal for cases involving top al-Qaida operatives. The "pardon" provision has nothing to do with the tribunals. Instead, it guts the War Crimes Act of 1996, a federal law that makes it a crime, in some cases punishable by death, to mistreat detainees in violation of the Geneva Conventions and makes the new, weaker terms of the War Crimes Act retroactive to 9/11. Press accounts of the provision have described it as providing immunity for CIA interrogators. But its terms cover the president and other top officials because the act applies to any U.S. national. Elizabeth Holtzman, Bush Seeks Retroactive Immunity for Violating War Crimes Act, Chicago Sun-Times, 9-23-06

As reports circulate of a sharp debate within the White House over possible US military action against Iran and its nuclear enrichment facilities, The Nation has learned that the Bush Administration and the Pentagon have moved up the deployment of a major "strike group" of ships, including the nuclear aircraft carrier Eisenhower as well as a cruiser, destroyer, frigate, submarine escort and supply ship, to head for the Persian Gulf, just off Iran's western coast....According to Lieut. Mike Kafka, a spokesman at the headquarters of the Second Fleet, based in Norfolk, Virginia, the Eisenhower Strike Group, bristling with Tomahawk cruise missiles, has received orders to depart the United States in a little over a week. Other official sources in the public affairs office of the Navy Department at the Pentagon confirm that this powerful armada is scheduled to arrive off the coast of Iran on or around October 21...First word of the early dispatch of the "Ike Strike" group to the Persian Gulf region came from several angry officers on the ships involved, who contacted antiwar critics like retired Air Force Col. Sam Gardiner and complained that they were being sent to attack Iran without any order from the Congress....
"I think the plan's been picked: bomb the nuclear sites in Iran," says Gardiner. "It's a terrible idea, it's against US law and it's against international law, but I think they've decided to do it."
DAVE LINDORFF, “War Signals?”, The Nation, 9-21-06


SOME RELATED POSTS:

Words of Power #28: On 9/11/06, Ask Yourself "Is This My Country?"
Hard Rain Journal Weekend Edition (9/9-9/10): Five Years into the Era of the National Insecurity State, Some Context & Continuity
Hard Rain Journal 9-7-06: While ABC Catapults the Propaganda, Bush’s “Key Ally” Makes Peace with Al Qaeda
Hard Rain Journal 9-3-06: Remember, Remember the First Week of September
Hard Rain Journal 8-22-06: The Central Theme of Future Historians will be Betrayal, Just Ask Judge Anna Diggs Taylor, Spike Lee & Valerie Plame Wilson
Hard Rain Journal 7-25-06: As the Next Bait & Switch Get Pulled, Remember Osama Bin Laden & the Child Brides of Afghanistan
Hard Rain Journal 7-5-06: Al Qaeda Endorsed Bush-Cheney in 2004, But US Mainstream News Media Chose to Ignore It
Hard Rain Journal 6-19-06: Coulter, Beck and The Death of The News
Hard Rain Journal 6-15-06: Foreign Affairs survey of 100 US policy leaders grades Bush-Cheney "failed" at 1.8 out of 10
Hard Rain Journal 6-14-06: Wrongly Premised “War on Terrorism” has Increased Danger from Terrorism, and Ignored Greater Risks
Words of Power #23: A Reality Check, What A Real World War on Terrorism Would Look Like, and a US Mid-Term Election Strategy
Words of Power #21: Judith Miller, Ken Lay, Florida, 9/11 and The Return of The Forbidden Truths?
Words of Power #15: Bring Me the Head of Osama, Nero Fiddles while the Planet Burns, Religion as the Crystal Meth of the People, & The Democrats' Plan
Words of Power #13: What You Need To Know About The Port Security Scandal
Words of Power #21: Judith Miller, Ken Lay, Florida, 9/11 and The Return of The Forbidden Truths?

Richard Power is the founder of GS(3) Intelligence and http://www.wordsofpower.net. His work focuses on the inter-related issues of security, sustainability and spirit, and how to overcome the challenges of terrorism, cyber crime, global warming, health emergencies, natural disasters, etc. You can reach him via e-mail: richardpower@wordsofpower.net. For more information, go to www.wordsofpower.net

Major General John Batiste, Paul Pillar, William Odom, The Nation, 911, Cheney, Bush, National Intelligence Estimate, Security, Terrorism, Iraq, Iran, Randi Rhodes, Air America Radio, Elizabeth Holtzman, John Conyers, Senate Democratic Policy Committee

Hard Rain Journal 9-26-06: Climate Crisis Update -- Global Warming & The Nuclear Option, A Convergence of National Security Issues

The planet's temperature has climbed to levels not seen in thousands of years, warming that has begun to affect plants and animals, researchers report in Tuesday's issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The Earth has been warming at a rate of 0.36 degree Fahrenheit per decade for the last 30 years, according to the research team led by James Hansen of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York. That brings the overall temperature to the warmest in the current interglacial period, which began about 12,000 years ago. Global Temperature Highest in Millennia, Associated Press, 9-26-06

Hard Rain Journal 9-26-06: Climate Crisis Update -- Global Warming & The Nuclear Option, A Convergence of National Security Issues
By Richard Power

Global warming and climate change should be one of the two or three dominant topics of discussion both within the political establishment and within the mainstream news media; but tragically, and unforgivably, it is not...

Here are some important insights and urgent issues for debate -- brought forward via podcasting, progressive talk radio and amplified here in the blogosphere. Sustainability is vital to the survival of civilization, and, clearly, so is independent media.

In the conclusion to a recent series of podcasts on the issue of global warming, Gen. Wesley Clark, (US Army, Retired), former Supreme Commander of NATO forces and serious US presidential contender, articulates the threat of global warming in a way no other political leader has dared (with of course the heroic exception of Al Gore):

"Just the warmer weather and the raising of the sea levels and the greater temperatures in the oceans will bring stronger and more frequent storms. It means storms like Rita and Katrina could occur every five years instead of every hundred years. It will mean changes in rainfall patterns that will force nations and people to compete for land and food and water. And just these minimal effects may not imperil American security, but it will certainly push the less well-off nations into strife, pulling to the limits treaties, traditions and relationships among nations....What I say about global warming is that it is not an EPA problem, it is not an environmental problem, per se; it is really a national security problem. You have to see it that way and treat it that way."
ClarkCast 008: Final Thoughts on Global Warming

On a recent edition of Eco-Talk, Air America Radio's environmental news and analysis program, now airing Monday thru Friday (yes, you can download it as a podcast!), award-winning journalist Betsy Rosenberg did in-depth interviews with Helen Caldicott and James Lovelock.

Caldicott is busy putting together "a roadmap for a totally carbon-free, nuclear energy free future." Lovelock believes that sustainable development is a "fantasy" and advocates what he terms "sustainable retreat."

Betsy Rosenberg: "Now what about James Lovelock. He is an esteemed scientist, and he has been looking at environmental issues for more than three decades. What do you think of his claim that nuclear really is the answer?"

Helen Caldicott: "He's wrong. I have talked to James Lovelock twice. And he was very enthusiastic when I called him. He said, "Your book, Nuclear Madness, is the best book I have read on the medical effects of nuclear power. But he has been a supporter of nuclear power for twenty years. He is not a physician, he is a medical scientist. But you know I have to suspect....He is absolutely right on global warming, and absolutely wrong on nuclear power. If he knew more about it as a scientist he would not be in favor of it. Clearly, he doesn't understand the nuclear fuel cycle. He doesn't understand the isotopes. He doesn't understand the bio-concentration in the food change..."

Betsy Rosenberg: Helen Caldicott says you are "absolutely right on global warming and absolutely wrong on nuclear power." Let's jump right in...

James Lovelock: I am not nuclear fanatic. Countries like the UK (where I live), West Germany and other European countries don't have any indigenous energy supplies, and so they don't have many options. A city dies in about a week if it you cut off electricity. We have a lot of big cities. Nuclear is the safest and surest way of making sure that they can keep going. It is necessary in America, but not as vital as it is for us. Unless you live in Iceland where they have all the geo-thermal energy they need, and in fact are going to export it.

There are some profound issues to be debated and decided upon -- if the human race is going to mitigate the impact of global warming and adapt to its consequences. Unfortunately, the political establishment in many countries is not providing leadership; nor is the mainstream news media. In both cases, this failure of leadership, at least among the great nations, is most egregious in the USA.

Want to participate in the effort to mitigate the impact of global warming? Download "Ten Things You Can Do"

There is a powerful magic in personal commitment.

RELATED POSTS:
Hard Rain Journal (9-24-06): Climate Crisis Update -- News on Farmers, Home Builders and Small Business Owners from Costa Rica and the UK
Hard Rain Journal 9-19-06: Climate Crisis Update – Gore Articulates The Profit in Prophecy and The Return on Reality
Hard Rain Journal 9-15-06: Climate Crisis Update – If You Have Children, or Care About the Future for Any Reason, You Should Read These Five News Items
Hard Rain Journal 8-28-06: Six Ways for the US to Fight Global Warming
Hard Rain Journal 8-17-06: Typhoon Season Intensifies, Canada Starts to Slide into Denial, New Study Offers Insight on Global Warming Impact
Hard Rain Journal 8-2-06: North Korean flood toll thought to be 10,000, Agence France Press reports
Hard Rain Journal 7-27-06: Killer Heat Waves, Massive Blackouts -- You Were Warned 3 Years Ago
Hard Rain Journal 7-26-06: NRDC Reports on Global Warming's Direct Threat to 12 National Parks in Western USA
Hard Rain Journal 7-24-06: Five Stories about the Reality of Global Warming, Is Continued Denial Criminally Insane?
Hard Rain Journal 7-21-06: Heat Waves in Europe & US are Direct Consequences of Global Warming
Words of Power #25: Lost Symbols, Part II -- The Rainbow Serpent Hisses, Lessons about Sustainability & Survival from Darfur, Senegal and Ecuador
Hard Rain Journal 6-27-06: Global Warming, Bush's Alleged "Incompetence," and the So-Called "Conservative" Agenda
Words of Power #20: Cusco, Kyoto and The Yellow Sand Storm
Words of Power #7: Global Warming Is A Security Threat To Your Family & Your Business
Words of Power #1: Truths Salvaged from Post-Katrina Debacle

Global Warming, Energy Security, Environmental Security, Alternate Energy, Sustainability, Renewable Resources, Climate Change, Weather, Al Gore, An Inconvenient Truth, Extreme Weather, Green Homes, CATIE, Crisis Management, Wesley Clark, Helen Caldicott, Germany, United Kingdom,
Nuclear Power, Air America

Hard Rain Journal (9-24-06): Climate Crisis Update -- News on Farmers, Home Builders and Small Business Owners from Costa Rica and the UK

Hard Rain Journal (9-24-06): Climate Crisis Update -- News on Farmers, Home Builders and Small Business Owners from Costa Rica and the UK
By Richard Power

Climate change and sustainability are interdependent issues that demand urgent and sweeping action at all levels of government and business throughout the world.

Here are three stories that both underscore the all-encompassing nature of this imperative and illustrate its global scope:

Small businesses in the UK are ill-equipped to cope with flooding caused by climate change, according to a report by AXA Insurance. Nine out of 10 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are under-insured, leaving a £865 million ($1.64 billion) insurance gap, according to the report. Although 85% of businesses surveyed by AXA think that climate change is a problem for the world, only 26% think it is a threat to them.
The firm also surveyed small and medium-sized businesses in flood risk areas in England and Scotland, and found that 71% were not concerned about the risk that flooding would disrupt their business and 69% had no business contingency plan.
One third of businesses in these areas had no insurance to cover them for loss of earnings or business interruptions caused by flooding.
AXA Insurance chief executive Peter Hubbard said: "Despite their vulnerability to the impacts of climate change, SMEs are yet to take the threat posed by climate change seriously enough, and it is imperative that government and the insurance industry work in partnership to ensure that business is adequately prepared and supported." Small businesses at risk on climate change – AXA, 9-21-06

Radical plans are being drawn up to make Britain's houses the most environmentally friendly in Europe, with new "zero-carbon" developments proposed to cut back on global warming. The measures - being drawn up by Yvette Cooper, the housing and planning minister - will surprise environmentalists, who have long criticised the country's appalling record on building "green" homes. She plans to introduce new codes and building regulations to surpass Scandinavian standards, for decades the best in Europe, and is to launch a competition to encourage builders to produce eco-housing. And last Friday she launched a study into how to provide zero-carbon developments in the Thames Gateway.
Britain's homes produce about a quarter of the country's entire emissions of carbon dioxide, the major cause of climate change. Half of them have less than a third of the right amount of loft insulation, though two-thirds of Britons say that they would be ready to pay more for an energy-efficient home....This revolutionary eco-development is to be built in the Thames Gateway by a new company, Bioregional Quintain Ltd, specifically formed to construct green housing. It has been designed by Foster and Partners with finance from the Government and WWF.
1 Low dual-flush WC.
2 Sewage is sent to be turned into fuel in a biogas plant.
3 Low-flow shower head.
4 Wastewater sent to be treated.
5 Electricity from wind turbines, solar panels and a combined heat and power plant fuelled by biomass.
6 Built-in recycling containers.
7 Energy-saving lighting and appliances.
8 Space heating and cooling.
9 Fruit trees and farmers' market.
10 Green roofs and terraces growing grass and plants.
11 Store for cold water in aquifer to cool buildings in summer.
12 Store for warm water in aquifer to heat them in winter.
13 Wind turbines.
14 Energy centre with anaerobic digester biogas plant.
15 Gravel and reed beds for purifying wastewater before it is used for irrigation. Geoffrey Lean, The green house of the future, 9-24-06

It wasn't so long ago that farmers and cattle herders in southern Costa Rica, in their efforts to survive, had nearly destroyed part of one of the world's most beautiful rain forests.
The forests were burned for pasture and farming land. Their trees, like valuable mahogany, were illegally logged. Once the forests were burned away, the land was farmed and grazed until it was stripped of nutrients, barren and dry. Because it could no longer sustain life, families who once lived on the land became immigrants, migrating to cities to find jobs....
The story is one well known by members of CATIE, the Costa Rica-based Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center....
In Costa Rica, Ferreira says CATIE has had some major success. Visit that same patch of barren land in the south today, and you will find a completely different scenario.
Illegal logging has been nearly eliminated because loggers have been taught how to harvest trees sustainably. Because the methods they use do not harm the rain forest, the wood is certified sustainable, and loggers sell it in international markets where environmentally friendly wood is in fashion.
Cattle herders have been taught how to graze their cattle on limited pasture without stripping it of its nutrients. They also are given money to plant trees on some of the pasture they had cleared for grazing. The result is that the rain forest, at least in Costa Rica, is coming back. Tourism in the area has increased....
But CATIE still has a lot of work to do. The group, which also is a university, is on the front lines in preventing climate change. The burning of rain forests is still a huge problem in Central and South America and because of the way it affects the climate, it will become a world-wide problem, said scientist Bryan Finegan, who teaches at CATIE.
The carbon dioxide released by burning rain forests is a major factor contributing to global warming. Scientists attribute 20 to 25 percent of the harmful carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to the practice of burning the forests by loggers, miners, cattle ranchers and subsistence farmers....
In Brazil, Finegan said the situation is accelerating with two successive years of droughtlike conditions. When farmers set fires to clear land, the fires often spread out of control because of the dry conditions.
Deforestation happens anyway, but climate change is making the situation worse... NATALIE STOREY, Costa Rican center on front lines of climate-change fight, The New Mexican, 9-24-06

Unfortunately, the political establishment in many countries is not providing leadership; nor is the mainstream news media. In both cases, this failure of leadership, at least among the great nations, is most egregious in the USA.

Want to participate in the effort to mitigate the impact of global warming? Download "Ten Things You Can Do"

There is a powerful magic in personal commitment.

RELATED POSTS:
Hard Rain Journal 9-19-06: Climate Crisis Update – Gore Articulates The Profit in Prophecy and The Return on Reality
Hard Rain Journal 9-15-06: Climate Crisis Update – If You Have Children, or Care About the Future for Any Reason, You Should Read These Five News Items
Hard Rain Journal 8-28-06: Six Ways for the US to Fight Global Warming
Hard Rain Journal 8-17-06: Typhoon Season Intensifies, Canada Starts to Slide into Denial, New Study Offers Insight on Global Warming Impact
Hard Rain Journal 8-2-06: North Korean flood toll thought to be 10,000, Agence France Press reports
Hard Rain Journal 7-27-06: Killer Heat Waves, Massive Blackouts -- You Were Warned 3 Years Ago
Hard Rain Journal 7-26-06: NRDC Reports on Global Warming's Direct Threat to 12 National Parks in Western USA
Hard Rain Journal 7-24-06: Five Stories about the Reality of Global Warming, Is Continued Denial Criminally Insane?
Hard Rain Journal 7-21-06: Heat Waves in Europe & US are Direct Consequences of Global Warming
Words of Power #25: Lost Symbols, Part II -- The Rainbow Serpent Hisses, Lessons about Sustainability & Survival from Darfur, Senegal and Ecuador
Hard Rain Journal 6-27-06: Global Warming, Bush's Alleged "Incompetence," and the So-Called "Conservative" Agenda
Words of Power #20: Cusco, Kyoto and The Yellow Sand Storm
Words of Power #7: Global Warming Is A Security Threat To Your Family & Your Business
Words of Power #1: Truths Salvaged from Post-Katrina Debacle

Global Warming, Energy Security, Environmental Security, Alternate Energy, Sustainability, Renewable Resources, Climate Change, Weather, Al Gore, An Inconvenient Truth, Extreme Weather, Green Homes, CATIE, Crisis Management, Floods, Droughts, Forest Fires, Costa Rica, United Kingdom

Hard Rain Journal (9-22-06): Election Security Update -- In MX, Lopez Obrador Will Be Sworn In First; In US, RFK, Jr. Asks Will 2006 Be Hacked?

On September 16, over one million people raised their hands in a vote to recognize center-left leader Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador as the “legitimate president” of Mexico. Gathered in Mexico City’s historic center, the delegates to the National Democratic Convention (NDC) agreed to inaugurate their president on November 21—nine days before the inauguration of the officially recognized candidate, Felipe Calderon. This act of civil resistance ushered in a new stage in an electoral conflict that has developed into an all-out battle for the country’s future.
The NDC constituted an unprecedented event in Mexico’s tumultuous sequence of starts and stalls toward democracy. No matter what the outcome, the convention will go down in history as a defining moment in the nation’s political development...
After months of protesting fraud, the convention represented a change in direction. Amid the morass of unexplained discrepancies and manipulated results that have characterized Mexico’s presidential elections, the distinction between the demand for a fair vote count and the need to redress deeply felt social wrongs has been subsumed into a general movement for fundamental reforms. Laura Carlson, Mexico's Two Presidents, Foreign Policy In Focus (FPIF), 9-20-06

Hard Rain Journal (9-22-06): Election Security Update -- In MX, Lopez Obrador Will Be Sworn Before Calderon; In US, RFK, Jr. Asks Will 2006 Be Hacked?
By Richard Power

I do not know what will happen in Mexico, but I do know that the story is not finished, and that it deserves prominent attention in the US mainstream news media (which, of course, it is not receiving). I also know that there is no excuse for denying the Mexican people a full and transparent recount of a national election in which the margin of "victory" was so narrow.

It is important for us to bear witness to what is happening in Mexico, not only because it is an event of profound and unprecedented significance in our southern neighbor's troubled political history, but also because of what Lopez Obrador's laboratory of democratic resistance might tell us about our own future.

Meanwhile, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has written another expose on election security issues for Rolling Stone Magazine.

Here are some fascinating excerpts on Georgia 2002 and the recent Maryland primary (I urge you to click on the link, read the entire piece and then contact Bobby at Ring of Fire to thank him for his courage and conscience):

Chris Hood remembers the day in August 2002 that he began to question what was really going on in Georgia. An African-American whose parents fought for voting rights in the South during the 1960s, Hood was proud to be working as a consultant for Diebold Election Systems, helping the company promote its new electronic voting machines....
Then, one muggy day in mid-August, Hood was surprised to see the president of Diebold's election unit, Bob Urosevich, arrive in Georgia from his headquarters in Texas. With the primaries looming, Urosevich was personally distributing a "patch," a little piece of software designed to correct glitches in the computer program. "We were told that it was intended to fix the clock in the system, which it didn't do," Hood says. "The curious thing is the very swift, covert way this was done."
Georgia law mandates that any change made in voting machines be certified by the state. But thanks to Cox's agreement with Diebold, the company was essentially allowed to certify itself. "It was an unauthorized patch, and they were trying to keep it secret from the state," Hood told me. "We were told not to talk to county personnel about it. I received instructions directly from Urosevich. It was very unusual that a president of the company would give an order like that and be involved at that level."
According to Hood, Diebold employees altered software in some 5,000 machines in DeKalb and Fulton counties - the state's largest Democratic strongholds. To avoid detection, Hood and others on his team entered warehouses early in the morning. "We went in at 7:30 a.m. and were out by 11," Hood says. "There was a universal key to unlock the machines, and it's easy to get access. The machines in the warehouses were unlocked. We had control of everything. The state gave us the keys to the castle, so to speak, and they stayed out of our way." Hood personally patched fifty-six machines and witnessed the patch being applied to more than 1,200 others....
It is impossible to know whether the machines were rigged to alter the election in Georgia: Diebold's machines provided no paper trail, making a recount impossible. But the tally in Georgia that November surprised even the most seasoned political observers. Six days before the vote, polls showed Sen. Max Cleland, a decorated war veteran and Democratic incumbent, leading his Republican opponent Saxby Chambliss - darling of the Christian Coalition - by five percentage points. In the governor's race, Democrat Roy Barnes was running a decisive eleven points ahead of Republican Sonny Perdue. But on Election Day, Chambliss won with fifty-three percent of the vote, and Perdue won with fifty-one percent....
And touch-screen technology continues to create chaos at the polls. On September 12th, in Maryland's first all-electronic election, voters were turned away from the polls because election officials had failed to distribute the electronic access cards needed to operate Diebold machines. By the time the cards were found on a warehouse shelf and delivered to every precinct, untold numbers of voters had lost the chance to cast ballots. It seems insane that such clear threats to our election system have not stopped the proliferation of touch-screen technology. In 2004, twenty-three percent of Americans cast their votes on electronic ballots - an increase of twelve percent over 2000. This year, more than one-third of the nation's 8,000 voting jurisdictions are expected to use electronic voting technology for the first time. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Will the Next Election Be Hacked?, Rolling Stone, 10-5-06

I will continue to monitor the election security issue both in the USA and in Mexico, and I will report on major developments. To follow them more closely, go to Greg Palast, Mark Crispin Miller's Notes from the Underground, and especially Brad Blog

RELATED POSTS:

Hard Rain Journal 8-23-06: Struggle for Sanctity & integrity of Electoral Process Rages on in Both US & Mexico

Hard Rain Journal 8-9-06: Lamont & McKinney Stories Underscore the Importance of Lopez Obrador's Struggle

Hard Rain Journal 7-30-06: Struggle for Fair Elections, North & South of the Rio Grande

Hard Rain Journal 7-22-06 Weekend Edition: Updates on US Election Fraud and the Dan Rather Watch

Hard Rain Journal 7-18-06: Update on Disputed Mexican Presidential Election

GS(3) Thunderbolt 7-10-06: Will the Disputed Mexican Election Lead to Insurrection? Lessons for Mexico from the US, and Lessons for the US from Mexico

GS(3) Thunderbolt 7-7-06: Mexican Presidential Election Still in Doubt

GS(3) Thunderbolt 7-3-06: Greg Palast on the Case in the Mexican Presidential Election

Hard Rain Journal 6-28-06: NYU Law School's Brennan Center Reports E-Voting Software Attacks are a Real Danger

SPECIAL EDITION: “Until this issue is burning on the mind of every citizen” -- Words of Power Interviews Mark Crispin Miller

Words of Power #22: Election Fraud As Information Warfare, and a National Security Issue

Richard Power is the founder of GS(3) Intelligence and http://www.wordsofpower.net. His work focuses on the inter-related issues of security, sustainability and spirit, and how to overcome the challenges of terrorism, cyber crime, global warming, health emergencies, natural disasters, etc. You can reach him via e-mail: richardpower@wordsofpower.net. For more information, go to www.wordsofpower.net

Information Warfare, Cyber Security, Voting, Elections, Election, Vote, Vote Fraud, fraud, cybercrime, cyber crime, Mexico, Rolling Stone, López Obrador, Maryland, Robert F. Kennedy Jr, Scoop, Laurel Carlson, Georgia

GS(3) Intel Brief 9-20-06: EU Economic Insecurity, Turkey Turns Away, Energy Security in China, Birth Control in Chile, and Much More!

NOTE: Words of Power explores the interdependence of security, sustainability and spirit. It monitors global risks and threats including global warming, terrorism, national disasters and health emergencies, cybercrime, economic espionage, etc. It also analyses issues and trends in the struggle for geopolitical hegemony, the pursuit of energy security and environmental security, the cultivation of human rights, and the strengthening of democratic institutions. Words of Power champions security, sustainability and spirit, both at work and in the home. The site has four components: Words of Power, which delivers in-depth commentary, and GS(3) Intelligence Briefing, which provides global risk-related news, are posted on an alternating, bi-weekly basis. Hard Rain Journal is posted daily, and provides updates and insights on developing stories. GS(3) Thunderbolts are posted as appropriate to deliver timely news on developing stories that require urgent attention. For more information on Richard Power, Words of Power and GS(3) Intelligence, go to www.wordsofpower.net


GS(3) Intel Brief 9-20-06: EU Economic Insecurity, Turkey Turns Away, Energy Security in China, Journalist Murdered in Central Asia, Population Control in Chile, Corporate Investigators Run Afoul of the Law, and Much More!
By Richard Power

Here are highlights from 15 items, including both news stories and op-ed pieces, from 11 diverse, international news sources: EU Observer, Der Spiegel, Inter Press Service, Asia Times, Eurasianet, The Australian, Mercosur Press, CNET News, and The Age. They provide insight on important global issues and trends.

(NOTE: I continue to monitor developments in regard to the genocide in Darfur, the spread of bird flu, and the struggle over the disputed results of the Mexican presidential election. I will post updates as circumstances dictate.)

Here is a summary. Longer excerpts and links follow below. Customized analysis is provided for clients.


Europe, Middle East & Africa

The eurozone risks breaking up in the near future putting the entire EU single market into jeopardy unless member states – particularly Italy - undertake crucial economic reforms, according to a new report. (EU Observer, 9-19-06)

The moderate Islamist government in power in Turkey is steering the country away from a pro-US foreign policy and is rapidly orienting itself with its Muslim neighbors....A recent survey showed that only 12 percent of Turks viewed the United States positively, down from 52 percent in 2000. (Eurasianet, 9/15/06)

Those who take a stand for the rights of Muslim women -- by criticizing the practice of forced in marriage, for example -- put themselves at considerable risk in Germany. Murder threats and attacks by conservative Muslims are common, and the police can offer only limited help....(DER SPIEGEL, 9-11-06)

Asia

At the current speed of extraction, experts say, these energy resources will last just 15, 30 and 80 years respectively. The corresponding world averages are 45, 61 and 230 years....Given its grave energy-security concerns, China is stepping up efforts to develop renewable energies...According to statistics, US$38 billion was invested in renewable-energy development worldwide in 2005. China topped the list with a commitment of $6 billion, which did not include its spending on large hydro projects. (Asia Times, 9-21-06)

JAPANESE security officers today raided 25 offices of the doomsday cult behind the 1995 Tokyo subway nerve gas attacks, after its founder lost a last appeal against his death sentence. “Since his death sentence was finalised, we are afraid that his followers may possibly plan something illegal,” said a Public Security Intelligence Agency spokesman....(The Australian, 9-16-06)

Journalist Ogulsapar Muradova was murdered in a Turkmen prison after one of her children challenged police surveillance methods...."The pending Interim Trade Agreement is predicated on Turkmenistan promoting progress on human rights. The EU has a rare opportunity to call things by their proper name in Turkmenistan, put human rights ahead of energy interests, and vote down the Agreement." (Eurasianet, 9-14-06)

Americas

President Evo Morales has announced plans to build three military bases with Venezuelan assistance along Bolivia's eastern borders with Brazil and Paraguay, where more than 2,000 elite troops will receive advanced training. Mr. Morales says the bases are needed because the United States is "scheming" against Bolivia through neighboring countries, but domestic critics think he is more interested in having the troops available to stem unrest in a region that increasingly is demanding autonomy....(Mercosur Press, 9-19-06)

Vice Pte. A. Garcia Garcia Linera said at a press conference that the government was aware of some companies alleged attitude of stalling the process but insisted that come October 31, if no agreements are signed, Bolivia’s government managed oil company YPFB was ready to take over oil and natural gas assets....(Mercosur Press, 9-19-06)

According to a 2003 survey, around 15% of all babies in Chile are born to teenage mothers. The proportion ranges from 22% in the poorest neighbourhood of Santiago to just 1% in the richest. The centre-left coalition, which has governed Chile since 1990, is partly to blame for that glaring difference. For several years now, the private health services, used by better-off Chileans, have been prescribing the morning-after pill to teenagers even without their parents' consent, while the national health service, catering for poorer Chileans, is still restricting its use to rape victims. (Economist, 9-14-06)

Global

The economic success stories of the world's 50 poorest nations are also predicated on "good governance", including multi-party democracy, rule of law, gender empowerment, respect for human rights and transparency and accountability, according to the United Nations.(Inter Press Service, 9-19-06)

Several developing countries are not reaching sustainable development targets fast enough despite numerous international agreements, says a report, launched here amidst criticism that World Bank energy and mining projects were not doing enough to protect the environment and improve the plight of the poor.(Inter Press Service, 9-20-06)

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, in a farewell address to global leaders yesterday, depicted a world divided by an unjust economy, contempt for human rights and a failure to make peace in the Middle East....“The events of the last 10 years have not resolved, but sharpened, the three great challenges I spoke of — an unjust world economy, world disorder, and widespread contempt for human rights and the rule of law,” Annan said. “As a result, we face a world whose divisions threaten the very notion of an international community, upon which this institution stands,” he said....(Mercusor Press, 9-20-06)

Cyberspace

Federal regulators say that 18 million computer users worldwide were affected by malicious spyware allegedly distributed by parties that agreed the day before to a $US2 million ($A2.6 million) settlement. Analysts and government officials said huge hurdles remain in containing the problem.(The Age, 9-8-06)

Investigators hired by Hewlett-Packard to find a media leak used sensitive information to access phone-company computers and get the calling records of nine reporters without authorization, media reports said on Thursday. The revelations came a day after complaints by a former member of HP's board of directors forced the company to file a statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), acknowledging that investigators hired by the board had fraudulently accessed the private telephone records of boardmembers and reporters. (Security Focus, 9-8-06)

Phone companies are once again feeling the heat as another scandal erupts highlighting how easily unauthorized individuals can access personal phone records....The telecommunications industry came under fire nine months ago when news reports pointed to Web sites where customer records could be openly purchased. The news prompted several phone companies, including Cingular Wireless, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless, to sue brokers selling customers' phone records. (CNET News.com 9-11-06)


Europe, Middle East & Africa

The eurozone risks breaking up in the near future putting the entire EU single market into jeopardy unless member states – particularly Italy - undertake crucial economic reforms, according to a new report. Entitled Will the eurozone crack?, the report by the London-based Centre for European Reform, argues that instead of European Monetary Union in 1999 leading to progress in the reform needed for membership of a single currency zone, it resulted in national governments becoming complacent and no longer feeling obliged to push through unpopular economic changes. The result is that today the 12-nation zone faces a situation where Italy, the laggard among the EU economies that matter, could eventually be forced to leave the common currency because the economic costs of staying in outweigh those of leaving. "A failure by Italy to regain competitiveness would ultimately bring into question its membership of the eurozone and the sustainability of EMU itself," says the 59-page report, which puts the odds of an Italian eurozone exit as high as 40 percent. Honor Mahony, Eurozone could fall apart due to slow economic reforms, says report, EU Observer, 9-19-06

The moderate Islamist government in power in Turkey is steering the country away from a pro-US foreign policy and is rapidly orienting itself with its Muslim neighbors, a regional expert said during testimony before a congressional committee September 14. Soner Cagaptay, a fellow at the conservative-leaning Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said that ever since the Justice and Development Party (AKP in Turkish), took power in 2002, Ankara has viewed foreign policy issues increasingly through the prism of religion....Once steadfast allies, the United States and Turkey have experienced bilateral tension in recent years, mainly connected with the Iraq invasion and the subsequent imbroglio....He noted that the Turkish public tends to follow its rulers’ lead: A recent survey showed that only 12 percent of Turks viewed the United States positively, down from 52 percent in 2000. Joshua Kucera, TURKISH FOREIGN POLICY MOVING AWAY FROM US POSITION – EXPERT, Eurasianet, 9/15/06

Those who take a stand for the rights of Muslim women -- by criticizing the practice of forced in marriage, for example -- put themselves at considerable risk in Germany. Murder threats and attacks by conservative Muslims are common, and the police can offer only limited help….It happened in April, on the freeway, on the way home from a book reading in the western German city of Saarbrücken. Fatma Bläser, author of the novel "Hennamond" ("Henna Moon"), stepped on the brakes -- but nothing happened. She steered the car into the shoulder, "in a state of panic," she says, and let it roll to a halt. A mechanic later found that someone had tampered with the brakes….Berlin-based lawyer and writer Seyran Ates recently renounced her accreditation as a lawyer, explaining that she fears for her life after having been threatened repeatedly by Muslims. She wants to continue her political work, but she says that direct confrontations in the courtroom have become too dangerous for her. Ates, who is a German citizen of Turkish origin, stood up for Muslim women for years, attacking their intolerable condition in a way that drew considerable public attention. As early as 1984, Ates was shot in the neck by a man associated with the Turkish extremist group known as the "Grey Wolves." Cordula Meyer, Reading under Police Protection: Advocates for Muslim Women Face Constant Danger, DER SPIEGEL, 9-11-06

Asia

In per capita terms, China is relatively poor in many energy resources. Its remaining exploitable reserves of petroleum, natural gas and coal equal merely 7.7%, 7.1% and 58.6% of the world averages respectively. At the current speed of extraction, experts say, these energy resources will last just 15, 30 and 80 years respectively. The corresponding world averages are 45, 61 and 230 years....
Given its grave energy-security concerns, China is stepping up efforts to develop renewable energies. According to the Medium- and Long-Term Program for Renewable Energy Development, prepared by NDRC, renewable energies are expected to account for 16% of the country's total energy mix by 2020. Hydropower capacity will reach 300 million kilowatts, wind power 30 million, biomass energy 30 million, and solar energy 1.8 million...According to statistics, US$38 billion was invested in renewable-energy development worldwide in 2005. China topped the list with a commitment of $6 billion, which did not include its spending on large hydro projects. China's energy focused on renewable sources, Asia Times, 9-21-06

JAPANESE security officers today raided 25 offices of the doomsday cult behind the 1995 Tokyo subway nerve gas attacks, after its founder lost a last appeal against his death sentence. “Since his death sentence was finalised, we are afraid that his followers may possibly plan something illegal,” said a Public Security Intelligence Agency spokesman....Shoko Asahara, the 51-year-old founder of the cult that attacked the Tokyo subway with nerve gas, lost his final appeal against his death sentence on Friday, meaning he can be executed at any time. The bearded guru, who ordered Japan's worst ever terror attack which claimed 12 lives, was revered as a god by his sect, whose hardline followers are under constant surveillance. The security agency raided the sect's facilities to determine what impact yesterday's decision had on his estimated 1650 followers, the spokesman said. Japan security raids death cult offices, The Australian, 9-16-06

Journalist Ogulsapar Muradova was murdered in a Turkmen prison after one of her children challenged police surveillance methods. The adult-age children were taken early September 14 to an Ashgabat morgue to identify the body, which showed signs of a "violent death." "The last year has seen dramatic escalations of harassment of dissidents and perceived dissidents and their families. In the past few months in particular we have received increased numbers of cases of arbitrary detention, interrogation, house arrest, bans on leaving the country, and beatings. But Ogulsapar Muradova’s apparent murder signals unequivocally that the gloves are now off," said Erika Dailey, the director of the Turkmenistan Project at the Open Society Institute...."The European Union is currently debating whether to grant Turkmenistan most-favored-nation trading status," Dailey continued. "The pending Interim Trade Agreement is predicated on Turkmenistan promoting progress on human rights. The EU has a rare opportunity to call things by their proper name in Turkmenistan, put human rights ahead of energy interests, and vote down the Agreement." TURKMENISTAN TAKES TERROR TO NEW LEVEL, Eurasianet, 9-14-06

Americas

President Evo Morales has announced plans to build three military bases with Venezuelan assistance along Bolivia's eastern borders with Brazil and Paraguay, where more than 2,000 elite troops will receive advanced training. Mr. Morales says the bases are needed because the United States is "scheming" against Bolivia through neighboring countries, but domestic critics think he is more interested in having the troops available to stem unrest in a region that increasingly is demanding autonomy....Military delegations from Bolivia and Venezuela met yesterday to establish "economic cooperation" for new army installations in Bolivia's Amazonic region along the Paraguay River said Defense Minister Walker San Miguel. He said the project will cost $22 million. "It will be a large headquarters for elite units and professional military training which is very much wanted by the Bolivian army and now thanks to Venezuelan cooperation will become a reality," Mr. San Miguel said. The facilities are expected to house an airfield and 2,500 personnel.
Officers of Bolivia's 8th Army Division based in Santa Cruz say Venezuelan army engineers are already at the sites and that Venezuela is bringing in AK-103 assault rifles recently acquired from Russia. Military officials said 14 Venezuelan air force pilots are in Bolivia. Bolivia and Venezuela, military cooperation agreement, Mercosur, 9-19-06

Vice Pte. A. Garcia Garcia Linera said at a press conference that the government was aware of some companies alleged attitude of stalling the process but insisted that come October 31, if no agreements are signed, Bolivia’s government managed oil company YPFB was ready to take over oil and natural gas assets.
"We told them in a very firm and respectful way: the timetable is not going to be changed, if by October 28 they have not concluded ... contracts that benefit the firm and the country, we will proceed as set forth in the nationalization decree" he said. In the May 1 decree, Socialist President Evo Morales gave foreign energy companies doing business in Bolivia six months to accept minority shares in partnerships with YPFB. Firms unable or unwilling to accept that condition face having to abandon their operations in Bolivia and then negotiate with La Paz compensations. The government will not change "either the dates or the basis and basic philosophy of the total and absolute recovery of the hydrocarbon (production) chain" Garcia Linera emphasized warning companies they will gain nothing “from a strategy of delay”. However Garcia Linera said the Bolivian government’s offer was "flexible, tolerant and ready to change certain issues" like details of the model framework for the new operations contracts....Natural gas exports from Bolivia to Argentina and Brazil are the country’s main source of foreign income and are under the control of mainly Petrobras. Bolivia’s second attempt to nationalize oil and gas, Mercosur,

For many in Latin America's most socially conservative country, the idea of their teenage daughters being able to nip round to their local health centre for emergency contraception—the morning-after pill—without their knowledge or consent, is too much for them to swallow....But the government of Michelle Bachelet, president since March and herself a paediatrician, points out that youngsters, many of them barely in their teens, are already having sex and that, not surprisingly, many of them are getting pregnant. According to a 2003 survey, around 15% of all babies in Chile are born to teenage mothers. The proportion ranges from 22% in the poorest neighbourhood of Santiago to just 1% in the richest. The centre-left coalition, which has governed Chile since 1990, is partly to blame for that glaring difference. For several years now, the private health services, used by better-off Chileans, have been prescribing the morning-after pill to teenagers even without their parents' consent, while the national health service, catering for poorer Chileans, is still restricting its use to rape victims. In defiance of the solidly Catholic Christian Democrat party, the ruling coalition's biggest partner, Ms Bachelet, who is herself an agnostic socialist, has now decided that the national health service should prescribe the morning-after pill to anyone over the age of 14, the legal age of consent, who wants it. In response to protests by horrified parents and opposition politicians, the Santiago Appeals Court issued a temporary injunction on September 13th banning the national health service from prescribing the pill to anyone aged under 19 without their parents' consent....A difficult pill to swallow: A plan to tackle teenage pregnancies, Economist, 9-14-06

Global

The economic success stories of the world's 50 poorest nations are also predicated on "good governance", including multi-party democracy, rule of law, gender empowerment, respect for human rights and transparency and accountability, according to the United Nations. "Such governance means ensuring that the poor have a real political voice," says U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Mark Malloch Brown. If the world's 50 least developed countries (LDCs) are to eradicate poverty and promote human development, Malloch Brown told delegates at a two-day ministerial meeting on LDCs which concluded Tuesday, "we need to do there what we do anywhere else -- and that is to stress democratic governance as one of the main foundations of progress." ....Of the 50 LDCs, 26 have ratified all eight international labour rights conventions while 23 have signed and four have ratified the U.N. Convention Against Corruption. Additionally, 28 LDCs have signed and 15 ratified the U.N. Convention Against Transnational Organised Crime....In a report to the high level meeting on LDCs, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan points out that since 2001, there has been a diminution of conflicts in LDCs -- particularly in Africa -- "and this has been a critical factor in improving development prospects."....Of the 16 U.N. peacekeeping operations, nearly half are in LDCs, while civil unrest has erupted or festers in a number of other LDCs. Current U.N. missions in LDCs include Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Liberia, Haiti and Burundi. Thalif Deen, U.N. Ties Prosperity to Good Governance, Inter Press Service, 9-19-06

Several developing countries are not reaching sustainable development targets fast enough despite numerous international agreements, says a report, launched here amidst criticism that World Bank energy and mining projects were not doing enough to protect the environment and improve the plight of the poor. The Sustainability Watch 2006 Report, launched by civil service organisations at the annual meetings of the Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) stressed that sustainable development was crucial as about three billion people -- almost 50 percent of the world population -- now live on less than two dollars a day. This figure was expected to rise by 100 million by 2015 unless implementation of internationally agreed commitments was substantially improved.
The most critical factor is the market-oriented development frameworks, which promote trade liberalisation and privatisation, said Roy Cabonegro, regional facilitator for Asia of Sustainability Watch, a civil society network in 15 southern countries monitoring promises to improve sustainability. These frameworks do not pay serious attention to environmental constraints, especially in the case of planning for land and natural resource use. Anil Netto, World Bank Careless About Development Goals – Report, Inter Press Service, 9-20-06

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, in a farewell address to global leaders yesterday, depicted a world divided by an unjust economy, contempt for human rights and a failure to make peace in the Middle East.
To a standing ovation from presidents, prime and foreign ministers, Annan, who ends 10 years in office on December 31, said there had been some progress in living standards, security and a drop in global conflicts since he first addressed the General Assembly in 1997.
“And yet. And yet. Every day, reports reach us of new laws broken, of new bestial crimes to which individuals and minority groups are subjected,” Annan said.
“The events of the last 10 years have not resolved, but sharpened, the three great challenges I spoke of — an unjust world economy, world disorder, and widespread contempt for human rights and the rule of law,” Annan said.
“As a result, we face a world whose divisions threaten the very notion of an international community, upon which this institution stands,” he said....Annan had pushed for the right of the international community to protect populations when their governments refused to do so, which was enshrined in a document adopted by world leaders a year ago. But Annan, a Ghanaian, said the conflict in Sudan’s Darfur region made that commitment of protection from atrocities seem an empty promise. “Divisions threaten world," Mercusor, 9-20-06

Cyberspace

Federal regulators say that 18 million computer users worldwide were affected by malicious spyware allegedly distributed by parties that agreed the day before to a $US2 million ($A2.6 million) settlement. Analysts and government officials said huge hurdles remain in containing the problem. The Federal Trade Commission's settlement against two California companies and three individuals was the second-biggest ever made by the agency, bringing the running total to about $US8 million ($A10.45 million) in settlements with more than a dozen companies over the past two years.
"In terms of breadth and perniciousness ... this was probably the most widespread infection we've dealt with," said Mona Spivack, lead lawyer on the case....At the commission's request, a federal judge froze the defendants' assets in November and ordered it shut down. The settlement includes a suspended judgment of $US8.5 million ($A11.1 million) for alleged violations of the FTC Act....In May, the FTC announced a $4 million spyware settlement with Seismic Entertainment Productions Inc., of Rochester, New Hampshire, which was accused of exploiting a security vulnerability in Microsoft's Internet Explorer's browser. Spyware affected 18m computer users worldwide, The Age, 9-8-06

Investigators hired by Hewlett-Packard to find a media leak used sensitive information to access phone-company computers and get the calling records of nine reporters without authorization, media reports said on Thursday. The revelations came a day after complaints by a former member of HP's board of directors forced the company to file a statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), acknowledging that investigators hired by the board had fraudulently accessed the private telephone records of boardmembers and reporters. The private investigators fraudulently used the identities of the victims to get the necessary login credentials to access online telephone records without authorization, according to media reports. Under Title 18 Section 1030(a)(4), whoever: knowingly and with intent to defraud, accesses a protected computer without authorization, or exceeds authorized access, and by means of such conduct furthers the intended fraud and obtains anything of value, unless the object of the fraud and the thing obtained consists only of the use of the computer and the value of such use is not more than $5,000 in any 1-year period could be charged with a felony. Prosecutors frequently call violations of Section 1030, "computer hacking." HP has maintained that the investigators had represented their investigative methods as legal. HP-funded hacking included reporters' data, Security Focus, 9-8-06

Phone companies are once again feeling the heat as another scandal erupts highlighting how easily unauthorized individuals can access personal phone records....The news has once again highlighted a growing problem plaguing the telecommunications industry called "pretexting," a scam where unauthorized individuals pretend to be someone they're not to obtain personal information. Private investigators and con artists have been using this technique for years not just to obtain phone records, but also to get access to bank records, credit card information and other sensitive information.
The telecommunications industry came under fire nine months ago when news reports pointed to Web sites where customer records could be openly purchased. The news prompted several phone companies, including Cingular Wireless, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless, to sue brokers selling customers' phone records. And lawmakers in Congress have also drafted legislation criminalizing the act of pretending to be someone else to get telephone records....Marguerite Reardon, Security breaches are wake-up calls to phone companies, CNET News.com 9-11-06


Richard Power is the founder of GS(3) Intelligence and http://www.wordsofpower.net. His work focuses on the inter-related issues of security, sustainability and spirit, and how to overcome the challenges of terrorism, cyber crime, global warming, health emergencies, natural disasters, etc. You can reach him via e-mail: richardpower@wordsofpower.net. For more information, go to www.wordsofpower.net

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Hard Rain Journal 9-19-06: Climate Crisis Update – Gore Articulates The Profit in Prophecy and The Return on Reality

In Greenland the barley is growing for the first time since the Middle Ages....Herdsmen in the north of Kenya have been driven to war over the few cattle that have survived the drought....Rising sea levels have forced the relocation of Inuit villages and polar bears have been drowning because of shrinking sea ice...Few images have offered such stark evidence of the advance of climate change as those of the dry bed of the Amazon river. Last year, the largest river in the world was reduced to a trickle by an unprecedented drought...Temperature increases in the Pacific are killing off coral reefs. Some scientists say it is already too late to prevent their destruction....Most ominous of all, environmentalists are warning of disaster in the Himalayas, where glaciers are melting. Several glacier lakes have already burst in Nepal and Bhutan. The disappearance of the glaciers could dry up major rivers as far away as China, India and Vietnam. Daniel Howden, Andrew Buncombe, Justin Huggler, From Alaska to Australia, The World is Changing in Front of Us, lndependent/UK, 9-15-06

Hard Rain Journal 9-19-06: Climate Crisis Update – Gore Articulates The Profit in Prophecy and the Return on Reality

Do you get it yet? Do you understand? Are you ready to fight for the survival of your planet?

But, of course, as Al Gore articulated in a historic speech in New York City on 9-18-06, it is also a fight for the renewal of the US economy.

Perhaps those who cannot get their minds around the global imperative will be able to grasp the potential profitability of leading the world’s largest economy into sustainability and green power.

If the moral imperative doesn’t reach you, perhaps the profit motive will.

Here are some excerpts from Gore’s speech (although I urge you to click on the link and read it in its entirety):

The serious debate over the climate crisis has now moved on to the question of how we can craft emergency solutions in order to avoid this catastrophic damage....
Many Americans are now seeing a bright light shining from the far side of this no-man’s land that illuminates not sacrifice and danger, but instead a vision of a bright future that is better for our country in every way — a future with better jobs, a cleaner environment, a more secure nation, and a safer world.
After all, many Americans are tired of borrowing huge amounts of money from China to buy huge amounts of oil from the Persian Gulf to make huge amounts of pollution that destroys the planet’s climate. Increasingly, Americans believe that we have to change every part of that pattern.
When I visit port cities like Seattle, New Orleans, or Baltimore, I find massive ships, running low in the water, heavily burdened with foreign cargo or foreign oil arriving by the thousands. These same cargo ships and tankers depart riding high with only ballast water to keep them from rolling over.
One-way trade is destructive to our economic future. We send money, electronically, in the opposite direction. But, we can change this by inventing and manufacturing new solutions to stop global warming right here in America. I still believe in good old-fashioned American ingenuity. We need to fill those ships with new products and technologies that we create to turn down the global thermostat. Working together, we can create jobs and stop global warming. But we must begin by winning the first key battle — against inertia and the fear of change.
In order to conquer our fear and walk boldly forward on the path that lies before us, we have to insist on a higher level of honesty in America’s political dialogue. When we make big mistakes in America, it is usually because the people have not been given an honest accounting of the choices before us. It also is often because too many members of both parties who knew better did not have the courage to do better....
So, what would a responsible approach to the climate crisis look like if we had one in America?
Well, first of all, we should start by immediately freezing CO2 emissions and then beginning sharp reductions...A responsible approach to solving this crisis would also involve joining the rest of the global economy in playing by the rules of the world treaty that reduces global warming pollution by authorizing the trading of emissions within a global cap. At present, the global system for carbon emissions trading is embodied in the Kyoto Treaty....The absence of the United States from the treaty means that 25% of the world economy is now missing. It is like filling a bucket with a large hole in the bottom. When the United States eventually joins the rest of the world community in making this system operate well, the global market for carbon emissions will become a highly efficient closed system and every corporate board of directors on earth will have a fiduciary duty to manage and reduce CO2 emissions in order to protect shareholder value...Third, a responsible approach to solutions would avoid the mistake of trying to find a single magic “silver bullet” and recognize that the answer will involve what Bill McKibben has called “silver-buckshot” — numerous important solutions, all of which are hard, but no one of which is by itself the full answer for our problem...
I look forward to the deep discussion and debate that lies ahead. But there are already some solutions that seem to stand out as particularly promising:
First, dramatic improvements in the efficiency with which we generate, transport and use energy will almost certainly prove to be the single biggest source of sharp reductions in global warming pollution....A second group of building blocks to solve the climate crisis involves America’s transportation infrastructure. We could further increase the value and efficiency of a distributed energy network by retooling our failing auto giants — GM and Ford — to require and assist them in switching to the manufacture of flex-fuel, plug-in, hybrid vehicles...
In a market economy like ours, however, every one of the solutions that I have discussed will be more effective and much easier to implement if we place a price on the CO2 pollution that is recognized in the marketplace. We need to summon the courage to use the right tools for this job.
For the last fourteen years, I have advocated the elimination of all payroll taxes — including those for social security and unemployment compensation — and the replacement of that revenue in the form of pollution taxes — principally on CO2. The overall level of taxation would remain exactly the same. It would be, in other words, a revenue neutral tax swap. But, instead of discouraging businesses from hiring more employees, it would discourage business from producing more pollution.
Global warming pollution, indeed all pollution, is now described by economists as an “externality.” This absurd label means, in essence: we don’t to keep track of this stuff so let’s pretend it doesn’t exist.
And sure enough, when it’s not recognized in the marketplace, it does make it much easier for government, business, and all the rest of us to pretend that it doesn’t exist. But what we’re pretending doesn’t exist is the stuff that is destroying the habitability of the planet. We put 70 million tons of it into the atmosphere every 24 hours and the amount is increasing day by day. Penalizing pollution instead of penalizing employment will work to reduce that pollution.
When we place a more accurate value on the consequences of the choices we make, our choices get better. At present, when business has to pay more taxes in order to hire more people, it is discouraged from hiring more people. If we change that and discourage them from creating more pollution they will reduce their pollution. Our market economy can help us solve this problem if we send it the right signals and tell ourselves the truth about the economic impact of pollution...
What is motivating millions of Americans to think differently about solutions to the climate crisis is the growing realization that this challenge is bringing us unprecedented opportunity.
Al Gore, NYU Law School, 9/18/06, Think Progress

Unfortunately, the political establishment is not providing leadership, nor is the mainstream news media.

Want to participate in the effort to mitigate the impact of global warming? Download "Ten Things You Can Do"

There is a powerful magic in personal commitment.

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