A current incident drew my attention to a probably old drawback. Dutch inspectors opened a shipping container and found Europe’s electric waste which should be shipped to China. Containers are often packed with legal goods in front to hide illegal material. Exporting waste illegally to poor countries has sadly become a growing international business. Paper, plastic and metal trash exported from Europe rose dramatically in the last years, with now 20 million containers of waste shipped each year (legally and illegally). How would it be possible to make that “business” less interesting for corrupt companies, or give the so called “poor” countries power to affect against that.
--------------------------------------------
“Rotterdam, the busiest port in Europe, has unwittingly become Europe’s main external garbage chute, a gateway for trash bound for places like China, Indonesia, India and Africa. There, electronic waste and construction debris containing toxic chemicals are often dismantled by children at great cost to their health. Other garbage that is supposed to be recycled according to European law may be simply burned or left to rot, polluting air and water and releasing the heat-trapping gases linked to global warming.”
“In the United States, more states are passing laws that require the recycling of goods, especially electronics. But because the United States places fewer restrictions on trash exports and monitors them far less than Europe, that increasing volume is flowing relatively freely overseas, mostly legally, experts say. Up to 100 containers of waste from the United States and Canada arrive each day, according to environmental groups and local authorities in Hong Kong.”
“The temptation to export waste is great because recycling properly at home is expensive: Because of Europe’s new environmental laws, it is four times as expensive to incinerate trash in the Netherlands as to put it — illegally — on a boat to China. And the vast container ships that arrive in Europe and North America from Asia filled with cheap garments and electrical goods now have a profitable return cargo: garbage like steel cables, circuit boards and leftovers from last night’s pasta meal.” “In July, a shipment of 1,400 metric tons of British household garbage that was illegally sent to South America — labeled as clean plastic for recycling — was apprehended only after it landed in Brazil.“
It's great to know that we currently live in a country that allocates so much of its economic stimulus money for environmental causes (79%, according to this article, which is more than two times more than China, who is second on the list). But since S. Korea is far from being the country that produces the most carbon emissions, it is only a start- countries like the US, Brazil, France, etc., also have to make their mark. The fact that stimulus is still being spent on subsidies for fossil fuels and pesticides that worsen climate change is, frankly, sad. So much more money should be allocated to making our existing technologies greener, and trying to reverse the effects of climate change!
--------------------------------------- " But only 3 percent of stimulus funds committed to environmental projects were actually disbursed by the middle of this year, the agency said. What’s more, it said, the total in committed funds is still below 1 percent of global gross domestic product — the amount economists recommend to reduce dependence on carbon-based fuels and accelerate the transition to a greener world economy.
The level of financing for renewable energy is not enough to cut carbon emissions and limit average global warming to 2 degrees Celsius, or 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit, the increase above which some of the most severe effects of climate change are predicted.
The agency’s executive director, Achim Steiner, called on the G-20 leaders to institute stimulus packages that doubled their green investments in sustainable energy to $500 billion a year to keep the global temperature increase below that threshold.
The report also noted that global stimulus commitments included about $250 billion in what the agency called “perverse subsidies” for fossil fuels and agriculture that add to climate change. (...)
In order of the percentage of stimulus money committed to environmental projects, South Korea was first with 79 percent; China had 34 percent; Australia, 21 percent; France, 18 percent; Britain, 17 percent; Germany, 13 percent; the United States, 12 percent; South Africa, 11 percent; Mexico, 10 percent; Canada, 8 percent; Spain, 6 percent; Japan, 6 percent; and Italy, 1 percent."
Microfinance started in the 1970’s with the aim to reduce/end poverty. Very poor people can borrow small loans for starting businesses in the hopes of increasing profit. This article is looking at the topic from different point of views. It says that areas with the most severe poverty probably don’t benefit from this program and that it may serve to increase inequality. Though it’s unclear for whom microcredits work, it’s clear that they work for some. In my opinion, it’s at least a step in the right direction.
----------------------------------
Dominic Sasia Malusi, a loan recipient and supermarket owner in Kenya, recounts his success story: "Since I was 11 years old, I have wanted to be an entrepreneur. With the loans provided by K-Rep Bank I have been able to realise my business plans." Some researchers argue that microcredit is only applicable to the "well-off poor" and those with some access to education, as loan recipients need verbal math skills and a sense of entrepreneurialism to succeed. "Poverty eradication is not a simple, linear process. And microfinance is not a simple solution. It is a long-term proposition and only a component of poverty eradication," Christina Barrineau of the U.N. Development Programme told IPS. The statistics on microcredit's ability to reduce poverty are unclear. The Grameen Bank, for example, conducted a study on its own programme and found that it lifted as many as five percent of participants out of poverty each year, making it a fairly successful antipoverty tool. However, another researcher contextualised these findings. In Bangladesh, where the bank operates, microcredit programmes reach about 20 percent of the population - probably one of the largest percentages in the world. But this still means that only one percent of the total population in Bangladesh can rise from poverty each year through microcredit. While this one percent rises from poverty, the population is increasing by 1.8 percent. The overall effect of microcredit programmes is then to hold poverty at bay rather than defeat it. This has led some academics, like Khandakar Q. Elahi and Constantine Danopolous, to suggest that microcredit only helps populations live with poverty instead of freeing them from it. "Helping people live in and with poverty is not sustainable poverty alleviation," they argued in a 2004 article in the International Journal of Social Economics, titled "Microcredit in the Third World". Microcredit's expansion is another source of contention. If microcredit programmes reached a higher percentage of the population, it would seem that they would have more of an effect on poverty elimination. But a 2004 U.N. report on microcredit notes that "populations that are geographically dispersed or have a high incidence of disease may not be suitable microfinance clients." Areas that often have the most severe poverty, such as rural areas or countries severely affected by the AIDS epidemic would, therefore, not benefit from microcredit. Many in microfinance institutions claim that microcredit does not work for the severely poor. Anne Hastings, a director of a microcredit agency in Haiti, comments on the limits of microcredit, "We're really reaching primarily the upper half of those who are in poverty," she says. "For the poorest of the poor, which is a majority in Haiti, we now know that microcredit alone is not the solution. Instead, it ends up being a burden." In other words, microcredit can make poor people even poorer by giving them a loan they can't repay.
Did anyone say trap? China is such a generous country. They loan the poor countries money without demanding them to use them in any specific way. Or are they? It seems that millions and millions are being posted into African countries with the only purpose of enchancing the Chinese political dominance, as well as making even more money through the African investments of the very money they have borrowed from the Chinese government. As I remember, this was the approach the Western countries used before - with the result of undermining any form of justice, democracy and economical stability in Africa.
------------------
WINDHOEK, Namibia — It is not every day that global leaders set foot in this southern African nation of gravel roads, towering sand dunes and a mere two million people. So when President Hu Jintao of China touched down here in February 2007 with a 130-person delegation in tow, it clearly was not just a courtesy call.
And in fact, China soon granted Namibia a big low-interest loan, which Namibia tapped to buy $55.3 million worth of Chinese-made cargo scanners to deter smugglers. It was a neat illustration, Chinese officials said, of how doing good in Namibia could do well for China, too.
Or so it seemed until Namibia charged that the state-controlled company selected by China to provide the scanners — a company until recently run by President Hu’s son — had facilitated the deal with millions of dollars in illegal kickbacks. And until China threw up barriers when Namibian investigators asked for help looking into the matter.
Now the scanners seem to illustrate something else: the aura of boosterism, secrecy and back-room deals that has clouded China’s use of billions of dollars in foreign aid to court the developing world.
From Pakistan to Angola to Kyrgyzstan, China is using its enormous pool of foreign currency savings to cement diplomatic alliances, secure access to natural resources and drum up business for its flagship companies. Foreign aid — typically cut-rate loans, sometimes bundled with more commercial lines of credit — is central to this effort.
Leaders of developing nations have embraced China’s sales pitch of easy credit, without Western-style demands for political or economic reform, for a host of unmet needs. The results can be clearly seen in new roads, power plants, and telecommunications networks across the African continent — more than 200 projects since 2001, many financed with preferential loans from the Chinese government’s Exim Bank.
Increasingly, though, experts argue that China’s aid comes with a major catch: It must be used to buy goods or services from companies, many of them state-controlled, that Chinese officials select themselves. Competitive bidding by the borrowing nation is discouraged, and China pulls a veil over vital data like project costs, loan terms and repayment conditions. Even the dollar amount of loans offered as foreign aid is treated as a state secret.
This article talks about newly found species, include Fanged Frog, in Mekong River area. It contains 162 other species ranged from plants from mammals. Actual numbers are 100 plants, 28 fish, 18 reptiles, 14 amphibians, 2 mammals and a bird. The new discoveries are contributed by many factors like better access to the region that have seen decades of war and more spending by governments on research to protect and identify plants and animals. It is an urgent matter to protect these animals from current climate change because it may harm what is already restricted habitats of these species.
---------------------------------------------
"WWF International said that scientists in 2008 discovered 100 plants, 28 fish, 18 reptiles, 14 amphibians, two mammals and one bird species in the region. That works out to be about three species a week and is in addition to the 1,000 new species catalogued there from 1997 to 2007, the group said. Researchers working for WWF warned that the effects of climate change, including an upsurge in droughts and floods, threaten the diverse habitat that supports these species. That is on top of traditional threats such as poaching, pollution and habitat destruction."
Myanmar minister promises 'free and fair' elections
Buma is one of the country that are caught in a conflict trap-civil war. The junta is now making an effort to escape the trap by free and fair elections in 2010. However, there were no goverments which said that the election was unfair by itself even they rigged the ballot. Moreover if political parties including NLD cannot participate all, the election will be restricted and unfair. So if they really want to hold a meaningful election which have people's confidence, they have to release Suu Kyi and then enter NLD for an election.
--------------------------------------------
"In my country free and fair elections will be held. We have already announced it," Myanmar foreign minister Nyan Win told reporters after a meeting with counterparts in Cambodia's northwestern tourist hub.
"(Whether) the elections are free and fair or not, so far no one can judge it. After the elections will be held, you can judge whether the elections are free and fair or not."
A Myanmar court Friday rejected an appeal by Suu Kyi against her conviction over an incident in which a US man swam uninvited to her home in May, earning her an extra 18 months' detention.
The sentence sidelines her from the elections promised for 2010, leading critics to say the polls are a sham.
A study of the ‘Kaarse Christenen’ of a Denish university, publiced in Lancet, showed that the life expectancy increased with thirty year in Western-Europe, North-America and Australia, and even more in Japan, Spain and Italy.
The chance for 80-year-old people to become 90-year-old was in 1950 15 to 16 percent for women and 12 percent for men. In 2002 the percentage already increased with 37 and 25 percent. In Japan, the countre where people reach the highest age, the percentage already increased up to 50 percent.
More and more babies nowadays born will reach the cape of 100 years, and in good health.
A study finds that life expectancy is increasing in many countries and babies born today in developed countries will have a good shot at scoring a century.
German and Danish researchers have found that increasing life expectancy in many countries have measured beyond scientific expectations.
James Vaupel of the Max Planck Institute in Germany and colleagues in Denmark wrote in Friday medical journal Lancet that the process of aging may be "modifiable."
Japan has the world's longest life expectancy and the new study shows that more than half of the country's 80-year-old women are expected to make it to their 90th birthday.
"Improvements in health care is leading to ever slowing rates of aging, challenging the idea that there is a fixed ceiling to human longevity," said aging expert at University College London David Gems, who studies drugs that can increase the life span of mice.
"Laboratory studies of mice, including our own, demonstrate that if you slow aging even just a little, it has a strong protective effect," he said. "A pill that slowed aging could provide protection against the whole gamut of aging-related diseases."
Although the elderly are in a constant challenge with various illnesses, medical advancements help them remain active for longer.
A complicating element, however, still remains and that is the obesity epidemic that makes overweight people more susceptible to diseases and eventually an earlier death.
El Niño or La Niña themselves were not such big problems long time ago. They occurred quite regularly and La Niña was little stronger than El Niño. But we can see El Niño is much stronger than La Niña thesedays and scientists consider effects of the global warming on El Niño. So we have extreme events such as droughts and floods regionally and it's getting harsh. I think the biggest problem is the occurrence of epidemic diseases. I can understand why we had diseases like Malaria or Pest in the past, but it's hard to get the reason why we still have new pandemic diseases now in this scientifically and medically developed era. I think relations between El Niño, La Niña and Global warming are quite an issue to look into.
----------------------------
Some scientists believe that the increased intensity and frequency—now every two to three years—of El Niño and La Niña events in recent decades is due to warmer ocean temperatures resulting from global warming. In a 1998 report, scientists from NOAA explained that higher global temperatures might be increasing evaporation from land and adding moisture to the air, thus intensifying the storms and floods associated with El Niño.
Another take on what’s happening is from Kevin Trenberth, a climatologist at the Colorado-based National Center for Atmospheric Research. Trenberth believes that the Southern Oscillation may be functioning like a pressure release valve for the tropics. With global warming driving temperatures higher, ocean currents and weather systems might not be able to release all the extra heat getting pumped into the tropical seas; as such an El Niño occurs to help expel the excess heat.
This article is about leading climate scientists gathering at the Oxford University conference room considering about the consequences for a 4 degree Celsius rise in global temperatures. Dr Richard Betts, Head of Climate Impacts at the Met Office Hadley Center talked about the possibility of a 4 degree warming that could happen before the end of the century. He also said that continuing emissions of greenhouse gases could bring this 'scenario' forward by 20 years. At this conference the scientists are going to review the best possible consequences of these huge climate changes and the solutions to these problems. (I knew that due to increasing emissions of greenhouse gases that the global temperatures are rising continuously and that the warming of the temperatures could bring tremendous effect on the environment and society. And I thought 4 degree doesn't make a huge difference but through reading this article I realized how much it could mean for the world if there is a 4 degree Celsius rise in global temperatures.)
----------------------------
Conference convenor Dr Mark New, from the Oxford University School of Geography and the Environment, and the Tyndall Centre, said: "Since the late 1990s, greenhouse gas emissions have increased at close to the most extreme IPCC scenarios, meaning that rates of warming will be faster than most people expect.
In this presentation Dr Betts warned that 4 degrees of warming could have extreme regional implications along with major changes in rainfall. He said: "If greenhouse emissions are not cut soon, then we could see major climate changes within our own lifetimes."
A very down to earth* kind of guy. I'm an environmental sociologist interested in establishing material and organizational sustainability worldwide. I'm always looking for interesting materials/technologies, inspiring ideas, or institutional examples of sustainability to inspire others to recognize their choices now. To be fatalistic about an unsustainable world is a sign of a captive mind, given all our options.
*(If "earth" is defined in a planetary sense, concerning comparative historical knowledge and interest in the past 10,000 years or so anywhere...) See both blogs.
Nicole Niedermeier
ReplyDelete“Smuggling Europe’s Waste to Poorer Countries”
A current incident drew my attention to a probably old drawback. Dutch inspectors opened a shipping container and found Europe’s electric waste which should be shipped to China. Containers are often packed with legal goods in front to hide illegal material. Exporting waste illegally to poor countries has sadly become a growing international business.
Paper, plastic and metal trash exported from Europe rose dramatically in the last years, with now 20 million containers of waste shipped each year (legally and illegally).
How would it be possible to make that “business” less interesting for corrupt companies, or give the so called “poor” countries power to affect against that.
--------------------------------------------
“Rotterdam, the busiest port in Europe, has unwittingly become Europe’s main external garbage chute, a gateway for trash bound for places like China, Indonesia, India and Africa. There, electronic waste and construction debris containing toxic chemicals are often dismantled by children at great cost to their health. Other garbage that is supposed to be recycled according to European law may be simply burned or left to rot, polluting air and water and releasing the heat-trapping gases linked to global warming.”
“In the United States, more states are passing laws that require the recycling of goods, especially electronics. But because the United States places fewer restrictions on trash exports and monitors them far less than Europe, that increasing volume is flowing relatively freely overseas, mostly legally, experts say. Up to 100 containers of waste from the United States and Canada arrive each day, according to environmental groups and local authorities in Hong Kong.”
“The temptation to export waste is great because recycling properly at home is expensive: Because of Europe’s new environmental laws, it is four times as expensive to incinerate trash in the Netherlands as to put it — illegally — on a boat to China. And the vast container ships that arrive in Europe and North America from Asia filled with cheap garments and electrical goods now have a profitable return cargo: garbage like steel cables, circuit boards and leftovers from last night’s pasta meal.”
“In July, a shipment of 1,400 metric tons of British household garbage that was illegally sent to South America — labeled as clean plastic for recycling — was apprehended only after it landed in Brazil.“
----------------------
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/27/science/earth/27waste.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&ref=earth
Alexandra Vorobyova
ReplyDelete"Stimulus is Greenest in South Korea and China"
It's great to know that we currently live in a country that allocates so much of its economic stimulus money for environmental causes (79%, according to this article, which is more than two times more than China, who is second on the list). But since S. Korea is far from being the country that produces the most carbon emissions, it is only a start- countries like the US, Brazil, France, etc., also have to make their mark. The fact that stimulus is still being spent on subsidies for fossil fuels and pesticides that worsen climate change is, frankly, sad. So much more money should be allocated to making our existing technologies greener, and trying to reverse the effects of climate change!
---------------------------------------
" But only 3 percent of stimulus funds committed to environmental projects were actually disbursed by the middle of this year, the agency said. What’s more, it said, the total in committed funds is still below 1 percent of global gross domestic product — the amount economists recommend to reduce dependence on carbon-based fuels and accelerate the transition to a greener world economy.
The level of financing for renewable energy is not enough to cut carbon emissions and limit average global warming to 2 degrees Celsius, or 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit, the increase above which some of the most severe effects of climate change are predicted.
The agency’s executive director, Achim Steiner, called on the G-20 leaders to institute stimulus packages that doubled their green investments in sustainable energy to $500 billion a year to keep the global temperature increase below that threshold.
The report also noted that global stimulus commitments included about $250 billion in what the agency called “perverse subsidies” for fossil fuels and agriculture that add to climate change. (...)
In order of the percentage of stimulus money committed to environmental projects, South Korea was first with 79 percent; China had 34 percent; Australia, 21 percent; France, 18 percent; Britain, 17 percent; Germany, 13 percent; the United States, 12 percent; South Africa, 11 percent; Mexico, 10 percent; Canada, 8 percent; Spain, 6 percent; Japan, 6 percent; and Italy, 1 percent."
-------------------
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/25/business/global/25green.html
Anna Maislinger
ReplyDelete"The Hope and Hype of Microcredit"
Microfinance started in the 1970’s with the aim to reduce/end poverty. Very poor people can borrow small loans for starting businesses in the hopes of increasing profit. This article is looking at the topic from different point of views. It says that areas with the most severe poverty probably don’t benefit from this program and that it may serve to increase inequality. Though it’s unclear for whom microcredits work, it’s clear that they work for some. In my opinion, it’s at least a step in the right direction.
----------------------------------
Dominic Sasia Malusi, a loan recipient and supermarket owner in Kenya, recounts his success story: "Since I was 11 years old, I have wanted to be an entrepreneur. With the loans provided by K-Rep Bank I have been able to realise my business plans."
Some researchers argue that microcredit is only applicable to the "well-off poor" and those with some access to education, as loan recipients need verbal math skills and a sense of entrepreneurialism to succeed.
"Poverty eradication is not a simple, linear process. And microfinance is not a simple solution. It is a long-term proposition and only a component of poverty eradication," Christina Barrineau of the U.N. Development Programme told IPS.
The statistics on microcredit's ability to reduce poverty are unclear. The Grameen Bank, for example, conducted a study on its own programme and found that it lifted as many as five percent of participants out of poverty each year, making it a fairly successful antipoverty tool.
However, another researcher contextualised these findings. In Bangladesh, where the bank operates, microcredit programmes reach about 20 percent of the population - probably one of the largest percentages in the world. But this still means that only one percent of the total population in Bangladesh can rise from poverty each year through microcredit.
While this one percent rises from poverty, the population is increasing by 1.8 percent. The overall effect of microcredit programmes is then to hold poverty at bay rather than defeat it.
This has led some academics, like Khandakar Q. Elahi and Constantine Danopolous, to suggest that microcredit only helps populations live with poverty instead of freeing them from it.
"Helping people live in and with poverty is not sustainable poverty alleviation," they argued in a 2004 article in the International Journal of Social Economics, titled "Microcredit in the Third World".
Microcredit's expansion is another source of contention. If microcredit programmes reached a higher percentage of the population, it would seem that they would have more of an effect on poverty elimination.
But a 2004 U.N. report on microcredit notes that "populations that are geographically dispersed or have a high incidence of disease may not be suitable microfinance clients." Areas that often have the most severe poverty, such as rural areas or countries severely affected by the AIDS epidemic would, therefore, not benefit from microcredit.
Many in microfinance institutions claim that microcredit does not work for the severely poor. Anne Hastings, a director of a microcredit agency in Haiti, comments on the limits of microcredit,
"We're really reaching primarily the upper half of those who are in poverty," she says. "For the poorest of the poor, which is a majority in Haiti, we now know that microcredit alone is not the solution. Instead, it ends up being a burden." In other words, microcredit can make poor people even poorer by giving them a loan they can't repay.
-------------
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=29851
Christoffer Grønlund
ReplyDeleteChina Spreads Aid in Africa, With a Catch
-----------------
Did anyone say trap? China is such a generous country. They loan the poor countries money without demanding them to use them in any specific way. Or are they? It seems that millions and millions are being posted into African countries with the only purpose of enchancing the Chinese political dominance, as well as making even more money through the African investments of the very money they have borrowed from the Chinese government. As I remember, this was the approach the Western countries used before - with the result of undermining any form of justice, democracy and economical stability in Africa.
------------------
WINDHOEK, Namibia — It is not every day that global leaders set foot in this southern African nation of gravel roads, towering sand dunes and a mere two million people. So when President Hu Jintao of China touched down here in February 2007 with a 130-person delegation in tow, it clearly was not just a courtesy call.
And in fact, China soon granted Namibia a big low-interest loan, which Namibia tapped to buy $55.3 million worth of Chinese-made cargo scanners to deter smugglers. It was a neat illustration, Chinese officials said, of how doing good in Namibia could do well for China, too.
Or so it seemed until Namibia charged that the state-controlled company selected by China to provide the scanners — a company until recently run by President Hu’s son — had facilitated the deal with millions of dollars in illegal kickbacks. And until China threw up barriers when Namibian investigators asked for help looking into the matter.
Now the scanners seem to illustrate something else: the aura of boosterism, secrecy and back-room deals that has clouded China’s use of billions of dollars in foreign aid to court the developing world.
From Pakistan to Angola to Kyrgyzstan, China is using its enormous pool of foreign currency savings to cement diplomatic alliances, secure access to natural resources and drum up business for its flagship companies. Foreign aid — typically cut-rate loans, sometimes bundled with more commercial lines of credit — is central to this effort.
Leaders of developing nations have embraced China’s sales pitch of easy credit, without Western-style demands for political or economic reform, for a host of unmet needs. The results can be clearly seen in new roads, power plants, and telecommunications networks across the African continent — more than 200 projects since 2001, many financed with preferential loans from the Chinese government’s Exim Bank.
Increasingly, though, experts argue that China’s aid comes with a major catch: It must be used to buy goods or services from companies, many of them state-controlled, that Chinese officials select themselves. Competitive bidding by the borrowing nation is discouraged, and China pulls a veil over vital data like project costs, loan terms and repayment conditions. Even the dollar amount of loans offered as foreign aid is treated as a state secret.
----------
Whole article: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/22/world/africa/22namibia.html?ref=africa
"Newly discovered species in Mekong River"
ReplyDeleteThis article talks about newly found species, include Fanged Frog, in Mekong River area. It contains 162 other species ranged from plants from mammals. Actual numbers are 100 plants, 28 fish, 18 reptiles, 14 amphibians, 2 mammals and a bird. The new discoveries are contributed by many factors like better access to the region that have seen decades of war and more spending by governments on research to protect and identify plants and animals. It is an urgent matter to protect these animals from current climate change because it may harm what is already restricted habitats of these species.
---------------------------------------------
"WWF International said that scientists in 2008 discovered 100 plants, 28 fish, 18 reptiles, 14 amphibians, two mammals and one bird species in the region. That works out to be about three species a week and is in addition to the 1,000 new species catalogued there from 1997 to 2007, the group said.
Researchers working for WWF warned that the effects of climate change, including an upsurge in droughts and floods, threaten the diverse habitat that supports these species. That is on top of traditional threats such as poaching, pollution and habitat destruction."
http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/wilderness-resources/stories/fanged-frog-162-other-new-species-found-in-mekong
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteHyun Deok, Park
ReplyDeleteMyanmar minister promises 'free and fair' elections
Buma is one of the country that are caught in a conflict trap-civil war. The junta is now making an effort to escape the trap by free and fair elections in 2010. However, there were no goverments which said that the election was unfair by itself even they rigged the ballot. Moreover if political parties including NLD cannot participate all, the election will be restricted and unfair. So if they really want to hold a meaningful election which have people's confidence, they have to release Suu Kyi and then enter NLD for an election.
--------------------------------------------
"In my country free and fair elections will be held. We have already announced it," Myanmar foreign minister Nyan Win told reporters after a meeting with counterparts in Cambodia's northwestern tourist hub.
"(Whether) the elections are free and fair or not, so far no one can judge it. After the elections will be held, you can judge whether the elections are free and fair or not."
A Myanmar court Friday rejected an appeal by Suu Kyi against her conviction over an incident in which a US man swam uninvited to her home in May, earning her an extra 18 months' detention.
The sentence sidelines her from the elections promised for 2010, leading critics to say the polls are a sham.
-------
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5i0iQBuX58FaIGxbsdd8cwyCHH7_g
Sam Wijnants
ReplyDeleteChildren of 21st century to live 100 years
A study of the ‘Kaarse Christenen’ of a Denish university, publiced in Lancet, showed that the life expectancy increased with thirty year in Western-Europe, North-America and Australia, and even more in Japan, Spain and Italy.
The chance for 80-year-old people to become 90-year-old was in 1950 15 to 16 percent for women and 12 percent for men. In 2002 the percentage already increased with 37 and 25 percent. In Japan, the countre where people reach the highest age, the percentage already increased up to 50 percent.
More and more babies nowadays born will reach the cape of 100 years, and in good health.
A study finds that life expectancy is increasing in many countries and babies born today in developed countries will have a good shot at scoring a century.
German and Danish researchers have found that increasing life expectancy in many countries have measured beyond scientific expectations.
James Vaupel of the Max Planck Institute in Germany and colleagues in Denmark wrote in Friday medical journal Lancet that the process of aging may be "modifiable."
Japan has the world's longest life expectancy and the new study shows that more than half of the country's 80-year-old women are expected to make it to their 90th birthday.
"Improvements in health care is leading to ever slowing rates of aging, challenging the idea that there is a fixed ceiling to human longevity," said aging expert at University College London David Gems, who studies drugs that can increase the life span of mice.
"Laboratory studies of mice, including our own, demonstrate that if you slow aging even just a little, it has a strong protective effect," he said. "A pill that slowed aging could provide protection against the whole gamut of aging-related diseases."
Although the elderly are in a constant challenge with various illnesses, medical advancements help them remain active for longer.
A complicating element, however, still remains and that is the obesity epidemic that makes overweight people more susceptible to diseases and eventually an earlier death.
TE/SC/MD
Source:
http://www.standaard.be/Artikel/Detail.aspx?artikelId=DMF02102009_004&subsection=173
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=107763§ionid=3510210
Sujin Kwon
ReplyDeleteEl Niño, La Niña and Climate Change
El Niño or La Niña themselves were not such big problems long time ago. They occurred quite regularly and La Niña was little stronger than El Niño. But we can see El Niño is much stronger than La Niña thesedays and scientists consider effects of the global warming on El Niño. So we have extreme events such as droughts and floods regionally and it's getting harsh. I think the biggest problem is the occurrence of epidemic diseases. I can understand why we had diseases like Malaria or Pest in the past, but it's hard to get the reason why we still have new pandemic diseases now in this scientifically and medically developed era. I think relations between El Niño, La Niña and Global warming are quite an issue to look into.
----------------------------
Some scientists believe that the increased intensity and frequency—now every two to three years—of El Niño and La Niña events in recent decades is due to warmer ocean temperatures resulting from global warming. In a 1998 report, scientists from NOAA explained that higher global temperatures might be increasing evaporation from land and adding moisture to the air, thus intensifying the storms and floods associated with El Niño.
Another take on what’s happening is from Kevin Trenberth, a climatologist at the Colorado-based National Center for Atmospheric Research. Trenberth believes that the Southern Oscillation may be functioning like a pressure release valve for the tropics. With global warming driving temperatures higher, ocean currents and weather systems might not be able to release all the extra heat getting pumped into the tropical seas; as such an El Niño occurs to help expel the excess heat.
------
http://environment.about.com/od/globalwarming/a/elninolanina.htm
Hyun A Kim
ReplyDeleteWhat Could 4 Degree Warming Mean For The World?
This article is about leading climate scientists gathering at the Oxford University conference room considering about the consequences for a 4 degree Celsius rise in global temperatures. Dr Richard Betts, Head of Climate Impacts at the Met Office Hadley Center talked about the possibility of a 4 degree warming that could happen before the end of the century. He also said that continuing emissions of greenhouse gases could bring this 'scenario' forward by 20 years. At this conference the scientists are going to review the best possible consequences of these huge climate changes and the solutions to these problems. (I knew that due to increasing emissions of greenhouse gases that the global temperatures are rising continuously and that the warming of the temperatures could bring tremendous effect on the environment and society. And I thought 4 degree doesn't make a huge difference but through reading this article I realized how much it could mean for the world if there is a 4 degree Celsius rise in global temperatures.)
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Conference convenor Dr Mark New, from the Oxford University School of Geography and the Environment, and the Tyndall Centre, said: "Since the late 1990s, greenhouse gas emissions have increased at close to the most extreme IPCC scenarios, meaning that rates of warming will be faster than most people expect.
In this presentation Dr Betts warned that 4 degrees of warming could have extreme regional implications along with major changes in rainfall. He said: "If greenhouse emissions are not cut soon, then we could see major climate changes within our own lifetimes."
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http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/09/090930174655.htm