What is the Carbon Footprint of McCain’s Countless Homes?

(Alternet.org) - If McCain can't even keep count of the number of homes he has, you can bet he has no idea on their environmental impact.

I'd estimate it's about 150 tons of carbon dioxide, some 10 times that of the average American. But someone should ask Senator McCain. After all, he says he wants to require all Americans to cut greenhouse gas emissions 60 percent to 70 percent by 2050.

As probably the whole country knows by now, John McCain does not know how many homes he owns. But the number seems to be between seven and 12, depending on whether you count his Sedona ranch as one house or six.

Given how conservatives beat up Vice President Gore for the supposed energy excesses of his one Nashville home, I can't wait until they start running TV ads attacking McCain's climate hypocrisy. [Note to self: Don't hold your breath.] After all, McCain fashions himself as a leader on global warming, just like Gore, but his combined homes have a considerably larger square footage than Gore's -- and thus presumably a much larger energy use. That said, the energy use of McCain's homes is infinitely less relevant than their greenhouse gas emissions (see "GOP Attack on Gore Makes No Sense At All").

READ MORE HERE [ Source: Alternet.org, Joseph Romm, August 22, 2008 ]

The medal table will demonstrate the new world order – with China on top

(BlackListed News) - Gold medal tables throughout the modern Olympic era have offered a fascinating snapshot of global power – coupled, it must be said, with home advantage

They are little golden baubles that signify only athletic prowess, in disciplines as irrelevant to raw political muscle as gymnastics and beach volleyball.

But gold medal tables throughout the modern Olympic era have offered a fascinating snapshot of global power – coupled, it must be said, with home advantage. And with resignation rather than any burning sense of failure, America is virtually conceding in advance that at the Beijing Games of August 2008, China will seal its international emergence by knocking the United States off its golden throne.

If you have any doubts that the past 100 years have been the American century, the Olympics should banish them. True, back when a quarter of the world was coloured pink in the atlas, Britain dominated proceedings at the Home Games in London in 1908, winning 56 golds, more than double the American haul of 23. But thereafter the US ruled, until the emergence of a rival superpower. Between 1956 and 1988, America and the Soviet Union (abetted on occasion by its steroid-fuelled surrogate East Germany) battled for gold medal supremacy, a duel interrupted only by the reciprocal boycotts of the 1980 and 1984 Games in Moscow and Los Angeles respectively.

After the collapse of Communism in 1991, the US was back in the driving seat. But China was creeping up in the rear view mirror. In Los Angeles in 1984 – the Middle Kingdom's first Games after a quarter-century boycott during the Mao era – China won 15 gold medals, the fourth largest national haul.

By Sydney 2000, it had climbed to third, and at the last Olympics, in Athens four years ago, it came second, behind the US. This time the progression should reach its climax. If the old yardstick of global might plus home advantage is any guide, China should make it to number one. Such, too, is the best guess of US prognosticators. An analysis in yesterday's USA Today predicts that China will top the medal count over the next fortnight, with 51 golds compared with 43 for the US.

It will be the first time in 72 years that a country other than the US or the former Soviet Union heads the table – the last being Germany at the Hitler Games of 1936, (another example of how rising national power plus home advantage has been a reliable gauge of Olympic dominance). But there is no gnashing of teeth here, merely an acceptance that the US is looking at second place. "We're not used to being an underdog," Pete Ueberroth, who ran the Los Angeles Games and now chairs the US national Olympic Committee, told USA Today. "So we'll get used to that and do our best."

This may be a case of the politicians' game of downplaying expectations. But all the non-sporting, as well as the sporting, indicators are pointing south for the US. Its economy is in the biggest crisis of a generation, its global reputation has tumbled, its relative power is waning. It is tempting to see these Games as a hinge of history, the passage from the former American century to a new Chinese one. But there is little of the bitter antagonism that used to mark the US rivalry with the Soviets during the Olympics of the Cold War. For one thing, there is relatively little sporting overlap. The US still dominates in track and field and swimming, while much of China's medal haul will come in events which barely figure on the radar screen here.

More important, however, for all the complaints about its human rights record, China just isn't perceived to be that threatening.

READ MORE HERE [ Source: Times Online, Rupert Cornwell ]

Virus hits Facebook, MySpace social networking sites with bogus emails

(The Canadian Press) - MONTREAL — A virus has been infecting popular social networking sites MySpace and Facebook, tech experts said Thursday.

On Facebook, the virus is causing email messages to be sent to people on “friends” lists asking them to watch a video supposedly on YouTube. A user has to download what purports to be a plug-in to watch the video.

Tech expert Marc Saltzman said the plug-in is actually a virus.

The bogus email appears to come from a friend, he said.

“Even when you go to the fake site, it has their name and profile picture right on the site, so you really believe it,” said Saltzman, a syndicated tech columnist who received several of these emails a few days ago.

READ MORE HERE [ Source: The Canadian Press, August 8, 2008 ]

ACTIVISM: Beijing Olympics: How to stage a protest

(Telegraph.co.uk) - But for those who do not wish to take the risk of arrest and deportation, there is another, perfectly legal way to get heard at the Olympics: Chinese authorities have earmarked three “designated protest zones” around the capital city.

Such zones have been a feature of every Olympics since Sydney in 2000, and for China they are a response to criticisms that freedom of speech would be limited during the event. They are, however, a far cry from Speakers’ Corner in Hyde Park.

For one, they are tucked away in hard-to reach suburbs, seven miles from the main Olympic stadium. And for another, the rules on exactly who can demonstrate and about what are as strict and complex and as any in China’s byzantine bureaucracy. Human rights activists have branded them as worthless “protest pens” and predict they are likely to stay empty for the duration of the Games.

READ MORE HERE [ Source: Telegraph.co.uk, David Eimer, August 9, 2008 ]

WAR: Georgia declares state of war with Russia

(CNN) - Georgia’s parliament approved a request by President Mikhail Saakashvili on Saturday to impose a “state of war,” as the conflict between Georgia and Russia escalated, Georgian officials said.

Saakashvili accused Russia of launching an unprovoked full-scale military attack against his country, including targeting civilian homes, while Russian officials insist that their troops were protecting people from Georgia’s attacks on South Ossetia, a breakaway Georgian region that borders Russia.

Russia’s Interfax news agency said the death toll was at least 2,000 in the capital of South Ossetia and claimed that the city has been destroyed.

Separatist-backed South Ossetian sources reported that about 1,600 people have died and 90 have been wounded in provincial capital Tskhinvali since Russian forces entered the territory Thursday.

READ MORE HERE [ Source: CNN, Associated Press, Elene Gotsadze, August 9, 2008 ]

RUSSIA & GEORGIA at WAR! Aug. 8, 2008. (part 2/9)

War between South Ossetia and Georgia - the Green Light

RUSSIA & GEORGIA at WAR! Aug. 8, 2008. (part 1/9)

WAR: War erupts in Georgia

(Economist.com) - GEORGIAN soldiers, tanks and fighter-planes struck Tskhinvali, the capital of the breakaway (Russian-backed) region of South Ossetia, on Friday August 8th. Parts of the city were reported to be burning as Georgia’s president, Mikheil Saakashvili, declared that his forces had “freed” much of the area from separatist control.

The immediate cause of the fighting is unclear as claim and counterclaim abound. But what is clear is that a conflict which has been simmering for years, has at last erupted. What happens next will depend almost entirely on Russia’s response: 150 Russian tanks were reported to be entering South Ossetia on Friday. Georgia’s government says that Russian planes have dropped bombs outside of South Ossetia including on the edge of Tblisi, the Georgian capital. Alexander Lomaia, the secretary of Georgia’s National Security Council, told The Economist on Friday that “this is an open military aggression and we are now at the state of undeclared war with Russia. What else could you call it?”. He also said that Georgia had announced a ceasefire in South Ossetia from 3pm on Friday.

READ MORE HERE [ Source: Economist.com, August 8, 2008 ]

WAR: Georgia declares ’state of war’ over South Ossetia

(Guardian.CO.UK) - Georgia today declared itself at war as Russian planes bombed a Georgian city in an escalation of the conflict over South Ossetia. Moscow claims the fighting has killed more than 2,000 people.

As the neighbouring countries edged closer to a full-scale conflict over their conflicting claims and allegiances to the territory, Britain was among a number of countries tonight pressing for an immediate ceasefire in Georgia as part of a high-level international delegation attempting to quell escalating violence in the region.

The British foreign secretary, David Miliband, expressed fears that the conflict over South Ossetia was spreading to other parts of the region with the prospect of “large scale” civilian losses.

READ MORE HERE [ Source: Guardian.co.uk, Peter Walker, August 9, 2008 ]

WAR: Russia launches air strikes in Georgia

(CBC.ca) - As fighting raged for a second day Saturday in the former Soviet republic of Georgia, Russian jets bombed the town of Gori, near the breakaway province of South Ossetia.

An apartment building and military base were among the targets hit in Russia’s attempt to force back Georgian troops seeking control over the separatist enclave on its southern border.

Freelance reporter Giorgi Lomsadze told CBC News that neighbours told him five people who were living in the building are killed.

READ MORE HERE [ Source: CBC.ca, August 9, 2008 ]

ACTIVISM: Canadian among pro-Tibet protesters removed from Tiananmen Square

(CBC.ca) - Five activists, including a 24-year-old Canadian, were taken away by police Saturday after holding a protest in Tiananmen Square over China’s policies in Tibet.

Montrealer Chris Schwartz, a student at Concordia University and longtime member of the pro-Tibetan movement, was among a group of activists from Students for a Free Tibet.

The other protesters came from the United States and Germany. There are reports the five are facing deportation for staging the mock “die-in,” starting around 12:30 p.m. local time.

Members of the group covered their mouths with fake blood and pretended to be dead before rising up and chanting slogans in support of human rights and the Tibetan cause, according to journalists who were invited to witness the event.

READ MORE HERE [ Source: CBC.ca, August 9. 2008 ]

Russia in ‘Full Scale Invasion’ of Georgia

Are Contractors in War Zones Above the Law?

(AlterNet.org) - In January of 2008, Staff Sgt. Ryan Maseth, 24, was electrocuted while showering in his Baghdad barracks. His death prompted last week’s congressional report concluding that defense contractor KBR, (until a year ago a subsidiary of the oil services giant Halliburton) was well aware that the electrical system in Maseth’s complex was faulty. An accident like this, the report found, was bound to happen. But this report also now raises a larger and thornier question about military defense contractors: can they be held legally liable for their actions — or inactions? Will anyone be held responsible for Maseth’s death?

This is an increasingly important question as the U.S. government hires ever more military contractors to do work that used to be done by U.S. soldiers. The war in Iraq has already involved more outsourcing of military functions than any previous war in American history. An estimated 180,000 civilian contractors now work in Iraq and Afghanistan to support the U.S. government there. They do everything from guard U.S. officials and dignitaries to truck fuel, food and other supplies to military bases — all jobs that used to be done by soldiers.

Private contractors operating in Iraq are not subject to U.S. military authority, or to U.S. or Iraqi law. Their employees are not subject to the rigors of Army basic training; and their superiors are not held to the strict rules and ethics that apply to the U.S. military.

READ MORE HERE [ Source: AlterNet.org, Daphne Eviatar, Washington Independent, August 7, 2008 ]

Energy integration agenda hits speed bump: Mexicans vote in favour of public ownership

(Council of Canadians) - In a major rebuke to the Mexican government’s integrationist plans, on July 27th over 80 percent of voters rejected President Calderon’s plans for Mexico’s nationalized energy sector.  This vote which brought out large numbers of people is significant. 

It demonstrates a clear opposition to the market-based energy integration between Mexico, the U.S. and Canada being pursued by the North American Energy Working Group (NAEWG) under the auspices of the secretive Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP).  

Key components of NAEWG’s work includes supporting more privatization along with harmonization of regulations (potentially to the detriment of social and environmental priorities) and less public-control, more market (or corporate) control of oil and gas imports and exports. To read more about this significant vote and how it relates to the SPP, please refer to these articles.

The Battle over PEMEX: Mexicans vote to continue their public ownership
By Rick Arnolds, Common Frontiers Coordinator

Mexico’s Oil Referendum
Manuel Perez-Rocha, Associate Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies

READ MORE HERE [ Source: Council of Canadians, Andrea Harden, August 8, 2008 ]

SCUM ALERT: Government won’t interfere in wireless texting charges: Prentice

(CBC.ca) - Minister of Industry Jim Prentice said Friday the government had no intention of introducing new legislation to regulate cellphone companies over changes in text messaging services.

Prentice had met with the heads of Bell Mobility and Telus over the companies’ new texting charges introduced in July, which called for customers whose cellphone plans did not include texting bundles to be charged 15 cents for incoming text messages. Previously, customers without text plans were only charged for outgoing messages.

The charges were not popular with consumer groups, and New Democratic Party leader Jack Layton called them a “cash grab” and called for the government to step in.

But Prentice said in a statement Friday that after meeting with the two companies, he was “assured that customers charged for spam could contact their service provider to have the charges removed from their bills.”

READ MORE HERE [ Source: CBC.ca, August 8, 2008 ]

HERO ALERT: Class action suit filed against Bell, Telus for new texting fees

(CBC.ca) - A Quebec man has launched a class action lawsuit against Bell Mobility and Telus, following a move by the cellphone providers to charge customers for incoming text messages.

Eric Cormier, who has subscribed to Bell Mobility for the past decade, says by introducing the new fees, the companies have changed the terms of their cellular contracts.

“This was something that was free up until then and the problem for the consumers is that they cannot re-negotiate the contract,” said lawyer Noel Saint-Pierre.

“What we’re trying to get the court to say is that for the duration of a contract … the telephone company should not be able to unilaterally modify the conditions of the contract.”

READ MORE HERE [ Source: CBC.ca, July 28, 2008 ]

SCUM ALERT: Bell introduces controversial new texting charges

(StopThePropaganda.com) - One of the most blatant corporate money-grabbing schemes in recent history has just been slapped in the faces of Canadian Bell Mobility subscribers. This tactic is clearly meant to force mobility subscribers into spending more by upgrading their service accounts or duping subscribers into paying for text messages they did not request. Yes, you heard it right. Bell subscribers will have to pay 15 cents for each unsolicited, unwanted, unrequested text message they recieve. Want to bet that unsolited text messaging with start increasing?

(CBC.ca) - Bell Mobility went ahead Friday with its plan to begin charging some customers for incoming text messages, despite mounting consumer and political pressure to drop the changes.

Under new texting charges announced last month, customers whose cellphone plans did not include texting bundles will be charged 15 cents for incoming text messages.

Previously, customers without text plans were only charged for outgoing messages. Customers with a text messaging rate plan or bundle are not affected by the new charges.

Telus announced a similar plan, with its changes set to take effect on Aug. 24.

READ MORE HERE [ Source: CBC.ca, August 8, 2008 ]

Did the U.S. Prep Georgia for War with Russia?

(Wired: Danger Room) - Georgia and Russia are careening towards war. And the U.S. isn't exactly a detached observer in the fight. The American military has been training and equipping Georgian troops for years.

The news thus far: Georgia, which has been locked in a drone war over the separatist enclave of Abkhazia, has launched an offensive to reclaim another breakaway territory, South Ossetia. Latest reports indicate that Georgian forces are laying siege to Tskhinvali, the South Ossetian capital. And Russia, which has backed the separatists, is sending in the tanks.

So why should we care? Oh, just the prospect of a larger regional war that could drag in Russia – and involve the United States as well. Since early 2002, the U.S. government has given a healthy amount of military aid to Georgia. When I last visited South Ossetia, Georgian troops manned a checkpoint outside Tskhinvali -- decked out in surplus U.S. Army uniforms and new body armor.

READ MORE HERE [ Source: Wired: Danger Room, Nathan Hodge, August 8, 2008 ]

Navy Preps New EMP Blaster

(Wired: Danger Room) - Every corner of the military community has its own boogeyman. Some lock in on bioterrorists; others, crybercriminals, or the growing Chinese Navy. For nearly ten years, a collection of Congresscritters and missilemen have fixated on the possibility that some madman might detonate a nuclear in the skies -- triggering a king-sized electromagnetic pulse that would instantly fry all of America's electronics. The country would be instantly returned back to the mid-20th Century. Or worse.

The other day, driving through Alaska, I heard one of these types on talk radio, warning that Iran was thisclose to be able to bring America on her knees with such a weapon. Previous predictions to the same haven't exactly panned out -- and have often been based on fishy evidence. But Iran has made strides in missile and nuke technology, this fellow argued. And besides, remember what EMPs did in the Matrix trilogy?

READ MORE HERE [ Source: Wired: Danger Room, Noah Shachtman, August 8, 2008 ]

Army Deploys All-In-One Nonlethal Warfare Kit

(Wired: Danger Room) - The U.S. Army is deploying an all-in-one package of nonlethal devices that covers everything from checkpoint control to riot control. "The first of the Brigade Non-Lethal Capability Sets (NLCS) is now fielded to the Army's 1st Heavy Brigade Combat Team," reports Defense Daily, an industry newsletter (sorry, subscription only).

READ MORE HERE [ Source: Wired: Danger Room, Sharon Weinberger, August 8, 2008 ]

Canadian military acquiring new helicopters, drones

(CBC.ca) - The Canadian military confirmed plans Thursday to bolster its troops by purchasing and leasing new helicopters and unmanned aerial vehicles.

“Our government is determined to give the Canadian Forces the tools that they need to do the important work that we ask of them,” Defence Minister Peter MacKay said, speaking to reporters in the Montreal-area city of Longueuil.

MacKay said the new acquisitions will be made over time, with some equipment available to troops immediately, while other resources will arrive several years from now.

The equipment will be used in Afghanistan and other overseas missions, MacKay said. It will also be used at home, to protect the sovereignty of Canada’s High Arctic and patrol coastal areas.

READ MORE HERE [ Source: CBC.ca, August 7, 2008 ]

Bush criticizes China before visit to Beijing Olympics

(CBC.ca) - U.S. President George W. Bush delivered a strong condemnation of China’s approach toward the freedom and rights of its citizens Thursday in a speech on the eve of a visit to the host of the 2008 Olympic Games.

In Thailand as part of a three-country tour through Asia, Bush said his country supports a free press, free assembly and labour rights, and that China must follow that example if it hopes to prosper.

“America stands in firm opposition to China’s detention of political dissidents and human rights advocates and religious activists,” Bush said in Bangkok.

“We press for openness and justice not to impose our beliefs, but to allow the Chinese people to express theirs.”

READ MORE HERE [ Source: CBC.ca, August 7, 2008 ]

China tells Bush to stay out of other countries’ affairs

(CBC.ca) - Chinese officials have told U.S. President George W. Bush to stay out of other countries’ affairs after he condemned Beijing’s human rights record before heading to the Olympic Games.

“We resolutely oppose any words or actions which interfere in the internal affairs of another country in the name of issues such as human rights and religion,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said Thursday in a statement on its website that was translated by the Associated Press.

The statement was published hours after Bush criticized China’s approach to freedom and rights of citizens in a speech in Thailand during a three-country tour of Asia before heading to China for Friday’s Olympic opening ceremonies.

READ MORE HERE [ Source: CBC.ca, August 7, 2008 ]

NOAA: Sunspot is Harbinger of New Solar Cycle, Increasing Risk for Electrical Systems

(NOAA) - A new 11-year cycle of heightened solar activity, bringing with it increased risks for power grids, critical military, civilian and airline communications, GPS signals and even cell phones and ATM transactions, showed signs it was on its way late yesterday when the cycle’s first sunspot appeared in the sun’s Northern Hemisphere, NOAA scientists said.

“This sunspot is like the first robin of spring,” said solar physicist Douglas Biesecker of NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center. “In this case, it’s an early omen of solar storms that will gradually increase over the next few years.”

A sunspot is an area of highly organized magnetic activity on the surface of the sun. The new 11-year cycle, called Solar Cycle 24, is expected to build gradually, with the number of sunspots and solar storms reaching a maximum by 2011 or 2012, though devastating storms can occur at any time.

READ MORE HERE [ Source: NOAA, January 4, 2008 ]

Sun approaches Solar Cycle 24, could wreak havoc

(Open Press Wire) - It’s official the NOAA, or more specifically the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration rings in a new 11-year cycle of heightened solar activity. The new solar cycle is dubbed as Solar Cycle 24. The major climax of this new cycle is predicted to be in 2011 or 2012. Once the solar cycle reaches it’s maximum level you can expect it to bring greater risk of havoc on things like GPS signals, power grids, cell phones, civilian and airline communications, military communications and a whole lot more.

As stated from solar physicist Douglas Biesecker of NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center, “This sunspot is like the first robin of spring.” This robin has started to hatch early since a major group of solar experts predicted the cycle would most likely begin in March of 2008. The catch to the prediction was that it could occur 6 months before or after the March of 2008 date.

READ MORE HERE [ Source: Open Press Wire, January 6, 2008 ]

Solar Cycle 24 has officially started

(What’s Up With That) - What a day! First a major storm whacks the west coast, now we have the official start of solar cycle 24.

Solar physicists have been waiting for the appearance of a reversed-polarity sunspot to signal the start of the next solar cycle. The signal for the start of a new cycle is sighting a particular kind of sunspot. That wait is over.

A magnetically reversed, high-latitude sunspot, dubbed as number 981, emerged on the surface of the sun today. Just a few months ago, an “All Quiet Alert” had been issued for the sun. This reversed polarity sunspot today marks the beginning of Solar Cycle 24 and the sun’s return back to Solar Maximum.

READ MORE HERE [ Source: What's Up With That, Anthony Watts ]

Solar Cycle 24 Begins

(NASA) - Hang on to your cell phone, a new solar cycle has just begun.

“On January 4, 2008, a reversed-polarity sunspot appeared—and this signals the start of Solar Cycle 24,” says David Hathaway of the Marshall Space Flight Center.

Solar activity waxes and wanes in 11-year cycles. Lately, we’ve been experiencing the low ebb, “very few flares, sunspots, or activity of any kind,” says Hathaway. “Solar minimum is upon us.”

The previous solar cycle, Solar Cycle 23, peaked in 2000-2002 with many furious solar storms. That cycle decayed as usual to the present quiet leaving solar physicists little to do other than wonder, when would the next cycle begin?

READ MORE HERE [ Source: Nasa, January 10, 2008 ]

Scientists Predict Big Solar Cycle

(Science@Nasa) - Evidence is mounting: the next solar cycle is going to be a big one.

Solar cycle 24, due to peak in 2010 or 2011 “looks like its going to be one of the most intense cycles since record-keeping began almost 400 years ago,” says solar physicist David Hathaway of the Marshall Space Flight Center. He and colleague Robert Wilson presented this conclusion last week at the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco.

READ MORE HERE [ Source: Science@Nasa, December 21, 2006 ]

Assault Ship Sets Sail, Packed with Doctors

(Wired: Danger Room) - Her job, originally, was to deliver 2,000 Marines and their gear to war. Now, instead of hauling grunts and Harrier jump jets and Cobra attack choppers, the amphibious assault ship USS Kearsarge is loaded with 550 humanitarian workers including Navy and Air Force construction workers; military doctors and dentists from the U.S., The Netherlands and Brazil; civilian plastic surgeons; and even a couple of historians. Kearsarge left Norfolk, Virginia, on Thursday Wednesday for a four-month Central and South American cruise, calling at six countries, including Nicaragua, to deliver free medical care and economic assistance. The 41,000-ton, 844 foot-long, and 106 foot-wide Kearsage is one of two East Coast-based assault ships pioneering a new naval strategy. The idea, says Commodore Frank Ponds, is “influencing generations to come.”

“This is not a new mission for the Navy,” contends Kearsarge skipper Captain Walter Towns. He says the Navy has always had a humanitarian bent.

READ MORE HERE [ Source: Wired: Danger Room, David Axe, WarisBoring.com, August 7, 2008 ]

Carpooling numbers on the rise

(DenverPost.com) - Someplace between Kipling Street and the Mousetrap, somewhere between the driver’s seat where Brian Scarborough sipped hazelnut coffee and the shotgun seat where Brian McCall slurped regular, at some mark on the radio dial between Rush Limbaugh and NPR, a commuting insurgency began.

The three people riding from Arvada to Greenwood Village in Scarborough’s BMW station wagon concluded they had become committed carpoolers, rather than random employees thrown together by $4 gas. One month into their experiment, and the three road warriors have gladly given up their American birthright to drive to the office alone.

“You find out it’s easy. You don’t have to give up too much freedom,” McCall said on a recent workday as the BMW sped past Belleview Avenue at 6:42 a.m. “I used to feel guilty as the only person in the car. If gas went down to $2 a gallon, I’d still carpool.”

READ MORE HERE [ Source: DenverPost.com, Michael Booth ]

Patrol frigate to escort aid ships in Somalia

(CBC.ca) - A Canadian naval frigate will provide protection from pirate attacks for ships carrying food and other supplies through the waters off Somalia.

Defence Minister Peter MacKay said the federal government is sending HMCS Ville de Quebec at the request of the UN World Food Program.

“Food supplies are urgently needed in Somalia but deteriorating security has made delivery difficult by land and sea,” MacKay said in a release.

READ MORE HERE [ Source: CBC.ca, August 6, 2008 ]

Pro-Tibet protesters defy security near Beijing’s Olympic Stadium

(CBC.ca) - Police in Beijing on Wednesday detained several foreign protesters who breached tight security and unfurled a banner calling for a free Tibet, as the Olympic torch made its way through the city.

Two of the protesters scaled a lamp post near the city’s now iconic stadium, known as “Bird’s Nest” Stadium, where in just two days the world’s athletes and thousands of spectators will gather for the Games’ Opening Ceremonies.

It came as Chinese authorities are on high alert after an attack in the northwestern province of Xinjiang that killed 16 police officers and wounded 16 others. The attack is believed to have been carried out by Muslim Uyghur separatists.

READ MORE HERE [ Source: CBC.ca, August 6, 2008 ]

‘Land that never melts’ is melting: Erosion probed in Nunavut park

(CBC.ca) - Experts working with Parks Canada say flooding and erosion at Nunavut’s Auyuittuq National Park are related to a flood that hit the nearby hamlet of Pangnirtung in June.

The south end of the Baffin Island park has been closed to visitors since July 28, as a severely eroded moraine at Crater Lake has raised the risk of flash flooding into the Akshayuk Pass.

The partial closure means visitors cannot enter the park from Pangnirtung in the south. Park officials say they will decide in the next couple of days whether to reopen the south end.

READ MORE HERE [ Source: CBC.ca, August 6, 2008 ]

Good news, bad news

(EnergyBulletin.net) - I starting reading the news, and following links, and reading a backlog of articles I've been meaning to read, and lo and behold, I noticed a pattern. Our society is changing. We rely so much on oil, that as the price skyrockets, we have no choice but to change. Are you noticing a shift?

read more [ Source: EnergyBulletin.net ]

Peak caviar

(EnergyBulletin.net) - Once, black caviar from the Caspian Sea was ubiquitous in Russia in its typical blue cans. Now, it has disappeared. "Peak Caviar" has taken place around 1980 in Russia. ... "Peak Caviar" is another confirmation of how common the "Hubbert" behavior is. It doesn't matter if a resource is theoretically renewable, as sturgeons and whales are. If sturgeons or whales are killed much faster than they can reproduce, then they behave as a non renewable resource; just as crude oil.

read more [ Source: EnergyBulletin.net ]

Stephen Harper government pursues NAU agenda to break-up Canada through “new deal for provinces”

(The Canadian) - The Stephen Harper government is using the public relations cover story of pursuing a “new deal with the provinces” to pursue the fascistic Big Business agenda of North American Union (NAU).

Big Business elites have instructed the managers of the media empires they own to present Mr. Harper’s initiative, as an attempt to create a new era of so-called “peace” between the federal and provincial levels of government. However, in actuality, Mr. Harper, along with his political confederates on Parliament Hill, is seeking to break down a sense of nationhood in Canada. Indeed, provincial governments’ power far outstrips state powers in the United States, and other societies, that have a corresponding federal structure of power.

On February 21 2006, the Globe and Mail’s front page had been strewn with the title “Empower provinces, CEOs say”. These are the same CEO’s that were invited to participate in secretive NAU talks in Montebello, Quebec on the Security and Prosperity and Partnership (SPP) , in late August 2007. The SPP is the Constitution of the NAU, which transfers power from members of society as a whole, to a political-military-industrial complex.

READ MORE HERE [ Source: The Canadian, John Stokes, August 1, 2008 ]

U.S. agents can seize travelers’ laptops: report

(StopThePropaganda.com) - Careful what you keep on your laptop or even your iPod when travelling to the United States.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. federal agents have been given new powers to seize travelers’ laptops and other electronic devices at the border and hold them for unspecified periods the Washington Post reported on Friday.

 

Under recently disclosed Department of Homeland Security policies, such seizures may be carried out without suspicion of wrongdoing, the newspaper said, quoting policies issued on July 16 by two DHS agencies.

 

Agents are empowered to share the contents of seized computers with other agencies and private entities for data decryption and other reasons, the newspaper said.

READ MORE HERE [ Source: Reuters ]

Bush Signs Bill To Take All Newborns’ DNA

(InfoWars.net) - President Bush last week signed into law a bill which will see the federal government begin to screen the DNA of all newborn babies in the U.S. within six months, a move critics have described as the first step towards the establishment of a national DNA database.

Described as a “national contingency plan” the justification for the new law S. 1858, known as The Newborn Screening Saves Lives Act of 2007, is that it represents preparation for any sort of “public health emergency.”

The bill states that the federal government should “continue to carry out, coordinate, and expand research in newborn screening” and “maintain a central clearinghouse of current information on newborn screening… ensuring that the clearinghouse is available on the Internet and is updated at least quarterly”.

READ MORE HERE [ Source: InfoWars.net, Steve Watson, May 2, 2008 ]

2012: NASA sees start of “new solar cycle”

(StopThePropaganda.ca) - Here is a MUST READ about Solar Cycle 24 starting in 2012 - from Mark Baard’s ParallelNormal.com. Read some of the interesting comments made on this post. Something to think about. 

Please post any comments about 2012 or links to any 2012 research you have found below.

(ParallelNormal.com) - A bumpy ride ahead for sats and power grids. NASA today published a forecast for a “big and intense” new solar cycle in 2011 or 2012, which its suggests will wreak havoc on satellite GPS and telecommunications, power grids and air traffic. NASA says the next solar cycle, Solar Cycle 24, “could make itself felt as never before.”

READ MORE HERE [ Source: Parallelnormal.com, Mark Baard, December 17, 2007 ]

Per capita US military energy consumption

(EnergyBulletin.net) - We all know that energy consumption per capita in the U.S. is amongst the highest in the world. How much is the per capita consumption in the Department of Defense? 25 per cent more than the U.S. average.

read more [ Source: EnergyBulletin.net ]

Deep Green: peak oil changes everything

(Greenpeace UK) - Here’s the latest in the Deep Green column from Rex Weyler - author, journalist, ecologist and long-time Greenpeace trouble-maker. The opinions here are his own.

As the era of cheap liquid fuels draws to an end, everything about modern consumer society will change. Likewise, developing societies pursuing the benefits of globalization will struggle to grow economies in an era of scarce liquid fuels. The most localized, self-reliant communities will experience the least disruption.

Oil is a fixed asset of the planet, representing stored sunlight accumulated over a billion years as early marine algae, and other marine organisms (not dinosaurs) captured solar energy, formed carbon bonds, gathered nutrients, died, sank to the ocean floors, and lay buried under eons of sediment. Like any fixed non-renewable resource, oil is limited, and its consumption will rise, peak, and decline.

World oil production increased for 150 years until the spring of 2005, when world crude oil production reached about 74.3 million barrels per day (mb/d), and total liquid fuels, including tar sands, liquefied gas, and biofuels reached about 85 mb/d. In spite of the efforts since, and tales of “trillions of barrels” of oil in undiscovered fields, liquid fuel production has remained at about 85.5 mb/d for three years, the longest sustained plateau in modern petroleum history. Discoveries of new fields peaked 40 years ago.

Meanwhile economies everywhere want to grow, so demand for oil soars worldwide. The gap between this surging demand and flat or declining production will drive price increases and shortages. That’s peak oil.

READ MORE HERE [ Source: Greenpeace UK, Rex Weyler, August 4, 2008 ]

12 Tips for the sustainability shift

(The Huffington Post) - These days, most people sense that our world is off balance and that we are sliding steadily towards some dark abyss. It can be hard to keep a cheerful positive outlook when you consider just these three signs of trouble:

1. Recent record high oil prices may be just the beginning of never-ending price escalations as increasing demand for oil (China and India are growing at about 10% per year) collides with global oil production that has been pretty much flat for the past three years, and shows all the warning signs of impending decline (Peak Oil).

2. Even the best-case projections from the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) indicate that escalating natural disasters exacerbated by global climate changes may be enough to bankrupt many nations over the course of the next few decades.

3. Roughly 90 percent of the large commercial fish (swordfish, marlin, tuna, shark, etc.) have disappeared from the oceans over the last fifty years and it is projected that current trends will result in the collapse of all commercial seafood species in the oceans by the year 2048.

I hate to break it to you, but simple steps, like changing your light bulbs and driving a hybrid car, though they are good steps in the right direction, will not be enough to save our world from collapse. If we consider “Plan A” to be business as usual, which is currently consuming, depleting, and poisoning the natural systems that maintain life on Earth, then we might call a sustainable alternative “Plan B”. It has been estimated that a viable Plan B could be implemented by diverting just 1/6th of the world’s current military expenditures to supporting and implementing the sweeping changes needed to shift our world’s course from collapse to sustainability. Are we that stupid, short sighted, or selfish that we can’t devote this much to saving our planet?

There is no single “right way” to implement Plan B, but the following list (an excerpt from Edition II of When Technology Fails) would go a long way towards insuring that we and our children will have a world worth living in:

1. Change the tax structure. Plan B will only succeed if we shift the tax structure to provide significant support for those materials, processes, industries and investments that contribute towards building a sustainable economy, while penalizing those industries and structures that stick to the “old way” of doing things, continuing to consume our dwindling resources and ecosystems in non-sustainable ways. Funds gained from fees and penalties can be used to pay for rebates and tax incentives that promote the rapid industrial retooling and changeover to energy and resource conserving processes, machines, automobiles, and so on. During World War II, in a matter of just 6 months, the entire US production of consumer automobiles was shut down and converted to production in support of the war effort. If we could do that, We Can Do This!

2. Rebuild our cities. Over one half the human population now lives in cities, and they consume more than one half of our energy and materials. By restructuring our cities for mass transportation, moving away from their current focus centered on the individual automobile, and retrofitting our buildings for energy efficiency and integrated distributed renewable energy power generation (our buildings could generate most or all the power they need using current technologies), we could reduce our cities’ fossil fuel consumption by a factor of 10:1 within the next decade or two.

3. Rebuild our railways, waterways, and mass transit systems: A world running short on oil must focus on efficiency rather than simple convenience. If we don’t act now, while our economy is still working reasonably well, how will most of us get around, or ship our goods, if gas goes to $10 or $20 dollars a gallon and we have not developed better alternatives to diesel trucks for long distance hauling and private gasoline powered automobiles for local transportation?

4. Rebuild our homes, office buildings and factories. Today’s showpiece energy efficient buildings often consume one-tenth the energy of the average building, and some buildings are net energy producers that actually generate more power than they consume. The current crash in the building market could be turned around with zero-interest loans and tax incentives to retrofit buildings for energy efficiency, providing badly needed jobs while cutting green house gas emissions and reducing oil imports and trade deficits. From a resource, energy, and materials point of view, it is far “greener” to retrofit existing buildings than to tear them down and start over.

5. Rebuild our industries. There must be domestic and international financial incentives to revitalize economies while saving energy and materials through junking old inefficient processes and machines and replacing them with state-of-the-art technologies. The Western world has benefited greatly from the use of natural resources gleaned from underdeveloped countries. It is time we repay this debt by sharing renewable and sustainable technologies with the developing world, doing our part to ensure that we leave behind a world that can feed and sustain our children. All of our efforts will be to no avail, if we take care of our own country while doing little to help replace the inefficient processes and industries of rapidly industrializing giants like India and China.

6. Fund and support renewable energy development. Focus on the rapid development of renewable energy sources, such as solar, wind, geothermal, and biofuels. Particular emphasis on wind power, which is already cost competitive with coal. When you level the playing field by eliminating subsidies, wind energy is already more cost effective than coal, nuclear, or oil for the generation of electricity. Develop biofuels from multiple sources (preferably other than corn, which produces just a little more energy than it takes to grow and process), including cellulosics and algae, to provide oil alternatives both in the transportation industries and as material feedstocks for industrial processes such as plastics.

7. Eliminate population growth. Reduce global population growth to the point where the population of our planet levels off, followed by a decline in world population. On a planet where the estimated long-term carrying capacity is on the order of 1 to 2 billion people, if we can’t control our own population growth, nature will do it for us. Most people would agree that it is much more humane to provide family planning education and birth control materials for all people on Earth than for the population to find its natural level through starvation, plagues, and wars.

8. Share the wealth. Develop binding multinational regulations and governing bodies to ensure that the world’s oceans and forests are harvested sustainably. Develop some form of resource equity-sharing program to reward third-world countries for conserving their resources, such as rainforests, topsoil, and sensitive ecosystems. We must revamp our economic systems which currently reward businesses that are causing great ecological harm, by allowing them to reap higher profits due to the fact that they are not charged for the harmful resource depletion and environmental degradation resulting from their business practices. Simply exporting our polluting heavy industries to the third world, where they are not as well controlled or monitored as in the west, makes the global sustainability problem even worse.

9. Reach out to developing countries. The developing countries of the world all want what the Western countries already have. They must not be left out of the equation. We have the potential to rapidly develop and deploy technologies to shift our economy from a carbon-intensive energy base to one based on renewables. By sharing this technology with the developing world, we can help to significantly improve their average standard of living while at the same time allowing them to leapfrog older coal and oil-based technologies, much as how the cell phone created the opportunity for most of the developing world to bypass line-based phone systems. If we miss this opportunity, our chances of avoiding catastrophic global climate changes, or economic and ecological collapse, are practically zero.

10. Replace coal-burning power plants. If we are to stand a chance for capping greenhouse gas emissions, current coal-burning power plant technology must be replaced. If a successful carbon dioxide sequestering technology proves feasible, we could continue to burn coal, but only when the new technology is in place.

11. Global relocalization: buy local. Economies are bound to relocalize as energy and transportation costs rise, making it once again both environmentally and economically beneficial to live, work, produce, grow, and buy locally. Buying local helps keep our dollars circulating locally in what is known as the “local multiplier effect.” When we buy foreign oil, produce, or material goods, these dollars often leave our country for good.

12. Make all decisions based on sustainability. All business decisions should be made while giving serious consideration as to whether that particular decision contributes toward sustainability or takes us farther from the goal of creating a sustainable world.

READ MORE HERE [ Source: The Huffington Post, Matthew Stein, July 30, 2008 ]

Diseases, heat-related deaths likely to spike from climate change: report

(CBC.ca) - A new Health Canada report warns Canadians of the potential health risks of climate change, including spikes in heat-related deaths, an increase in respiratory and cardiovascular problems, and the spread and emergence of diseases.

“The findings of this assessment suggest the need for immediate action to buttress efforts to protect health from current climate hazards,” says the 500-page report, entitled Human Health in a Changing Climate: A Canadian Assessment of Vulnerabilities and Adaptive Capacity.

It examines the effects under three categories: extreme weather events and natural hazards, air quality and heat, and diseases transmitted by water, food, insects, ticks and rodents.

The projected increase of floods in some areas and drought and forest fires in others are some of the natural disasters caused by climate change that will cause health-related problems, the report says.

READ MORE HERE [ Source: CBC.ca ]