Tag Archives: united-nations

Not News: IPCC Economist’s Statement That ‘Climate Change’ Is Really About Wealth Redistribution

I owe Ottmar Edenhofer thanks for two things. First, I am grateful that Edenhofer, a German economist who is “co-chair of the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) Working Group III on Mitigation of Climate Change,” has a last name on which searching is easy. I quickly determined that his name last name doesn't currently come up in searches at the Associated Press's main web site , the New York Times , the Washington Post , or the Los Angeles Times . That's because he hasn't said or done anything newsworthy, right? Wrong. What's newsworthy is my second reason for thanking him. First covered

What the FDA doesn’t want you to know about GE salmon

One of the arguments against expanding the FDA's powers over food safety is that the agency has repeatedly shown an unwillingness to enforce existing laws and to regulate aggressively in the face of corporate lobbying. Unfortunately, we now have more evidence that the FDA may indeed be a bad-faith regulator. The Center for Food Safety has unearthed convincing evidence that the FDA is attempting to freeze out marine and fisheries experts from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in its rush to approve biotech company AquaBounty's genetically modified salmon for human consumption. According to documents obtained by the consumer group via a Freedom of Information Act request, the FDA has held only “preliminary” discussions with these agencies regarding AquaBounty's product and has not allowed government scientists to review some of the company's “confidential” data. According to an email sent between staffers at Fish and Wildlife and NOAA, they've been kept out of the loop for some time: Shortly after the Atlantic salmon was listed as endangered, several of us from USFWS and NMFS spent 2 days down in Maryland meeting with AquaBounty and FDA about development of genetically modified salmon and discussion around the need for FDA to engage in Section 7 consultation with the Services. We never heard a peep out of FDA or AquaBounty after that. It's ironic that the FDA, an agency so bureaucratically unprepared to regulate GE foods that it considers AquaBounty's salmon the same way it would a “veterinary drug” has decided that this process has no place for scientists who actually understand fish biology and marine ecosystems. Specifically, the Center for Food Safety accuses the FDA of having “knowingly withheld a Federal Biological Opinion by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) prohibiting the use of transgenic salmon in open-water net pens pursuant to the U.S. Endangered Species Act.” cont. added by: JanforGore

As cholera worsens, violence breaks out in Haiti

The death toll is quickly approaching 1,000 and health workers worry that its impact on earthquake-torn Port-au-Prince will be grave. The United Nations estimates that as many as 200,000 people could be sickened within six to 12 months. Anger over the cholera outbreak has led to violent demonstrations today as protesters set fire to a police station and clashed with U.N. forces in Cap-Haitien, a city on the north coast. One protester was killed. Many Haitians blame a Nepalese U.N. contingent for causing the outbreak when sewage from their camp leaked into the Artibonite. added by: btucker

President Ahmedinejad Threatens U.S. With War ‘Without Boundaries’

Iranian President Says Country Will Defend Its Nuclear Facilities Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad warned the Obama administration today that if Iran's nuclear facilities are attacked, the U.S. will face a war that “would know no boundaries.” The Iranian president, who is in New York for the annual meetings of the United Nations General Assembly, spoke at a breakfast meeting with reporters and editors at Manhattan's Warwick Hotel. He said that Iran is on the brink of becoming a nuclear power, and warned Israel and the U.S. against attacking its nuclear facilities. Asked about the possibility of a U.S.-supported Israeli air strike against Iran, the fiery Iranian leader said an attack would be considered an act of war, and suggested the U.S. is unprepared for the consequences. Such a war “would know no boundaries,” Ahmedinejad said. “War is not just bombs.” Iran claims it has no plans to make a nuclear weapon, but the country is faced with United Nations sanctions, spearheaded by the U.S., meant to convince Iran to comply with international regulations and abandon its nuclear program. In a wide-ranging question-and-answer session, Ahmedinejad said he was prepared to meet with the Obama administration, but that “the whole outlook has to shift.” Sanctions in particular, he said, had damaged the chances for an improvement in U.S.-Iranian relations. He took some credit for last week's release of Sarah Shourd, one of three American hikers who were jailed 14 months ago and accused of espionage. The decision to free Shourd, he said, was a judgment made by the judiciary and by Ahmedinejad himself. “A combination of both” a judicial act and an act of sympathy, he said. Shourd, who still faces charges, had to guarantee a $500,000 bond before she was released. Her fiance and and another male friend remain in Iranian custody. Ahmedinejad acknowledged the possibility that Palestinian leaders may ultimately make peace with Israel, he questioned the legitimacy of Palestinian negotiators and raised questions about the Holocaust that have marked his tenure as president. http://www.prisonplanet.com/president-ahmedinejad-threatens-u-s-with-war-without… added by: im1mjrpain

UNICEF: 100,000 Pakistan kids face starvation

Suhani Bunglani fans flies away from her two baby girls as one sleeps motionless while the other stares without blinking at the roof of their tent, her empty belly bulging beneath a green flowered shirt. Their newborn sister already died on the ground inside this steamy shelter at just 4 days old, after the family's escape from violent floods that drowned a huge swath of Pakistan. Now the girls, ages 1 and 2, are slowly starving, with shriveled arms and legs as fragile as twigs. More than 100,000 children left homeless by Pakistan's floods are in danger of dying because they simply do not have enough to eat, according to UNICEF. Children already weak from living on too little food in poor rural areas before the floods are fighting to stay alive, as diarrhea, respiratory diseases and malaria attack their emaciated bodies. Doctors roaming the 100-degree camp that reeks of urine and animal manure have warned Bunglani three times to take her children to the hospital, or they will die. The mother says she knows they need help, but she cannot leave the tent without her husband's consent. She must stay until he returns, even if it means risking her daughters' lives. “I am waiting for my husband,” she says, still fanning flies from the sweating babies. “He is coming.” The floodwaters that swamped a section of Pakistan larger than Florida continue to inundate new areas, forcing even more people to flee. At least 18 million have already been affected, and nearly half of them are homeless. Many have been herded into crude, crowded camps or left to fend for themselves along roads. But doctors warn the real catastrophe is moving much slower than the murky water. About 105,000 kids younger than 5 at risk of dying from severe acute malnutrition over the next six months, the United Nations Children's Fund estimates. “You're seeing children who were probably very close to the brink of being malnourished and the emergency has just pushed them over the edge,” says Erin Boyd, a UNICEF emergency nutritionist working in southern Pakistan. “There's just not the capacity to treat this level of severe acute malnutrition.” cont. added by: JanforGore

First-Ever Carbon Map Shows Global Warming in Peru’s Amazon

This image shows an area of road building and development adjacent to primary forest in red tones, and secondary forest regrowth in green tones. Credit: Carnegie Institution. You can see the effects of global warming in a new high-resolution map that shows carbon locked up in tropical forest vegetation and emitted by land-use practices in Peru’s Amazon. The maps were created with satellite mapping, airborne-laser technology, and ground-based plot surveys. And the images may help pave the way for a new United Nations monitoring system to curb deforestation and forest degradation…. Read the full story on TreeHugger

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First-Ever Carbon Map Shows Global Warming in Peru’s Amazon

AZ Border Sheriff: ‘I Have About As Much Regard for the U.N. as I Do the Vermin’

Sheriff Larry Dever, whose officers patrol Cochise County along the border between Arizona and Mexico, said he finds it “amazing” that the U.S. State Department would refer the recently passed immigration law in his state to the United Nations Human Rights Council for review. “Well, it’s just amazing to me,” Dever told CNSNews.com. “Course, I have about as much regard for the U.N. as I do the vermin that hides in the rocks around my house here and reaches out and tries to bite me every now and then.” The Bush administration refused to join the U.N. Human Rights Council, citing lax membership criteria that allowed countries with poor human rights records to sit on the council, including countries such as China, Saudi Arabia, Libya, Russia, Cuba, Pakistan, Tunisia and Egypt. The Obama administration joined the council, citing its imperfections but made claims that U.S. efforts could change the organization for the better. Now, the U.S. State Department is asking the council to review possible human rights violations that supposedly could occur under the Arizona’s new law against illegal immigration. The U.S. Justice Department (DOJ) has also filed a lawsuit challenging the Arizona law. “Where does this end?” Dever told CNSNews.com. “Why the Department of Justice intervened in this case to begin with was beyond comprehension,” Dever said, referring to the DOJ lawsuit, which claims that the Arizona law violated the federal government’s exclusive right to enforce federal immigration laws. Dever said the State Department move, however, is in keeping with the Obama administration’s reluctance to enforce federal immigration law and that it is probably seeking support from the United Nations to further its agenda. “It’s indicative of the personality of the entire administration and what they are trying to get done,” Dever said. “This is just further evidence.” Dever added that the results of the U.N. review would not have any impact for those with boots on the ground in Arizona who, on a daily basis, fight the flow of illegal immigrants across the porous U.S. border. “They can take their declarations and their findings and pack them all up and keep them in the United Nations because we really don’t care what they think,” Dever said. In its report to the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, the State Department, headed by Secretary Hillary Clinton, said the following: “A recent Arizona law, S.B. 1070, has generated significant attention and debate at home and around the world. The issue is being addressed in a court action that argues that the federal government has the authority to set and enforce immigration law. This action is ongoing; parts of the law are currently enjoined.” added by: im1mjrpain

Setting Up and Running a School Garden. Toolkits for Teachers

All Images: United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) have released a follow up document to their 2005 publication, Setting Up and Running a School Garden. The newer manual is a School Garden Teaching Toolkit, comprising a bunch of step-by-step lessons to “engage learners actively and encourage them to observe and experiment.” Both manuals are very comprehensive, each being around the 200 page mark. As the FAO’s Growing Connection

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Setting Up and Running a School Garden. Toolkits for Teachers

Royal Dutch Shell Exonerated By UN Report, Bought and Paid For By Shell

photo via flickr While the Gulf Coast is just learning about the horrible impacts from oil drilling, the residents of Niger delta have completed a masterclass. For decades, the region has been beset by environmental devastation at the hands of Royal Dutch Shell, which has been harvesting crude oil in the delta while spilling untold amounts. But now a three-year investigation by the United Nations, funded by Shell, has almost entirely exonerated the oil giant from any wrong doing. … Read the full story on TreeHugger

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Royal Dutch Shell Exonerated By UN Report, Bought and Paid For By Shell

Can We Preach Green Without Being Preachy? (Video)

Image credit: UNEP I asked before why so many people hate environmentalists , and concluded that it might have something to do with green living as passive aggressive preaching , disasterbation , not to mention the ever-familiar but oh-so-annoying

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Can We Preach Green Without Being Preachy? (Video)