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Sigma Xi, a scientific research society and The UN Foundation are calling for more efficient transportation, commercial, and residential sectors. The technology already exists to accomplish this. This action was initiated by recent published research saying that temeratures have increased 2.5 degrees Celcius since 1750.
The UN Foundation was created by Ted Turner who donated $1 Billion over 10 years for pressing world problems.
The Foundation is calling for immediate policy changes by individual counties. This is a state level system of analysis.
This report defines the seriousness and urgency that must characterize global efforts to respond to the unfolding and far-reaching challenge of climate change,” said Timothy Wirth, president of the U.N. Foundation. “There is tremendous economic opportunity in doing so.”
The foundation was created in 1998 with entrepreneur and philanthropist Ted Turner’s pledge of a $1 billion donation over 10 years to support U.N. causes. The organization builds and implements public-private partnerships to address the world’s most pressing problems and works to broaden support for the United Nations through advocacy and public outreach.
London will aid Venezuela in environmental protection techniques while Venezuela sends oil to London at a 20% discount rate to be used in buses and trams. Those in London benefitting from this deal are individuals with lower incomes.
The article reads:
The British capital will save about 16 million pounds out of the 100 million pounds that it spends annually to fuel its 8,000 buses.
In exchange, the Greater London Authority will dispatch to Venezuela experts in recycling, waste management, traffic planning and reducing carbon dioxide emissions blamed for global warming.
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I don’t forsee any problems arising from this deal as both countries share their acheivements and advantages with each other. London will recieve more of an imminent result. Critics believed that this was a ploy by President Chavez, who intoduced the deal in 05, as a way of “bartering its main resource to one of the world’s richest cities.” It is beneficial, no doubt, for Chavez to have a largely populated city use his oil. I am glad that he sees the environment as a worthy return for oil, which the world is so dependant on.
EU environment ministers try to agree 20 percent cut in CO2 by 2020
The Associated Press
The European Commission said reducing carbon dioxide by 20 percent below 1990 levels is just a starting point and it would be ready to go up to 30 percent if other regions join in.
The goal was needed to “focus minds that otherwise would not be quite so focused,” the diplomat said.
But the two former Soviet bloc countries have grown rapidly in the last decade and fear that the target means steeper cuts for them. They both generate electricity from their own coal and changing to other forms of power would mean heavy investment.
Nov. 30, 2006
Ft. Wainwright, Alaska
I stood on a folding chair, holding a sign over my head, looking for Michael as 300 or so soldiers of the 1-17 INF, 172nd Stryker Brigade marched in a relatively rigid formation across the large hangar. Many of them couldn’t help but turn their heads to the crowd and look for their wives and children, parents, and friends. Then they stopped, turned and faced a commander who began reciting words that disappeared before registering any meaningful message. When he dismissed them, a different thunder and commotion ensued as long awaited reunions rushed to begin.
I got down off the chair and scanned the building, then turned to find Michael right next to me. A small band played music but for that one minute all the outer sounds seemed compressed into a different dimension. All I heard was the patting of our hands on each other’s shoulders as we shared a great big hug. Then, standing apart at arms distance, I looked into his eyes and saw a strong and healthy young man, a soldier smiling like a teenager who just graduated from high school.
Later in the evening we went out for dinner. The restaurant was nearly vacant. He ordered a Corona and grilled salmon. In the quiet fitting the cold and dark shade of an Alaskan winter night, our voices were low and the conversation wandered without purpose.
How do you talk to a soldier who’s been overseas in a war that you believe shouldn’t have happened and should have already closed the book of failure on itself? I listened to a few stories of firefights in the night and improvised explosive devices. He patiently listened to a few of mine.
“I can’t fathom what you’ve been through,” I began telling him as we got ready to leave. “But I believe that every soldier would prefer there were no wars to fight.”
“We all hate it,” Michael replied.
I was reminded of a quote by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, the supreme commander of the allied forces in Europe during World War II. “I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity.”
Michael isn’t a general and isn’t running for president. But his simply declared truth comes with experience that commands respect. I imagined him as a student in Eisenhower’s class, then in a class with our former president that our current one will never attain.
I’m thrilled that Michael is home. They all deserve to come home. His battles are over, but our pursuit for peace isn’t.
There is an interesting quote in here by President Dwight D. Eisenhower–>”I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity.”
Yet so many times war and its threat is used as a tool of international relations. I guess it fits with the realism ideology. But Roosevelt had it right. It’s the people in the offices who are developing foreign policy and it’s soldiers who seet the true effect. Rooselvet was able to see the truth that many can’t see. I admit I’m a liberalist, but that’s because I don’t see the point of war unless is for our imminant protection, and the term “imminent threat” can’t be falsely generated to persuade me.
“We can’t change the outcome of Iraq by putting American troops in the middle of a civil war,” said Hagel, who is considering a run for the White House in 2008.
-GOP Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska
Senator John McCain has been in the news lately supporting President Bush’s recent push for an increase in troops in Iraq. The situation has turned into a civil war motivated my religion and power. Religion has been a strong motivator for man since existence. I feel that it will fuel this dilemna for many more years and keep it strong. Look to Gaza as an example. I feel that adding more troops is going to increase the casualties, keep this going longer and make a bigger mess. It’s no longer our war. It was never our war, but we made it so. Now we’re fighting and there’s no way out and no end. History repeats itself. What did we go in for? WMD’s, saving the people. There are plenty of people who need to be saved who don’t have running water and utilities. Iraqi’s had that. Instead of going to Africa, we started a trend. So let’s move down the list of the axis of evil. There’s a mess in Iraq and there is already talk about the effects of going into Iran. Then there’s North Korea and so on. Let’s coin all these phrases like “War on Terror” and “stay the course” that will never work but provoke strong feelings and patriotism. I’m patriotic too: Support our troops…bring them home. We need to ditch the “War on Terror” because following current policy, it’s never going to end. We’re going to be at war for therest of our lives.
This article was posted an hour before my comments were made:
Chavez gets nod to rule by decree
Alex Kennedy
Bloomberg
CARACAS — Venezuela’s congress granted President Hugo Chavez the power to make law by decree for 18 months yesterday, opening the way for economic and political change he has said will lead the country to “mixed” socialism.
Chavez has pledged to use his new authority to nationalise “strategic” companies in the telecoms, electricity and oil industries, to impose new taxes on second homes, boats and luxury goods, and to eliminate more than 100 municipalities.
Legislators approved the measure unanimously in a televised vote. Congress gave Chavez similar power to make law by decree in 2000-01.
“Chavez now has the ability to make rapid changes in a radical direction,” said Francisco Rodriguez, assistant professor of economics and Latin American studies at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut.
“We’re going to see an economy with much more state participation, and with property rights less and less secure.”
Chavez also plans to end presidential-term limits and establish communal property rights when a new constitution is written in the second half of the year.
The open-ended nature of the power given to Chavez by the law, and the lack of detail on how he plans to use it, had undermined investor confidence, Banco Mercantil said earlier this week.
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I am interested to see the response to Venezuela’s new system of government, especially regarding oil. How much freedom are we going to give Chavez and do we feel threatened? Economically? I found it curious that the Venezuelan legislature was so unanimous to give the president so much right to power when the purpose is somewhat ambiguous.
Re: Inter. Relations/Politics 