[Site Fwd: DMZ Hawai'i] Marshallese confront existential threat with climate change 마샬 군도 인들, 기후 변화와 함께 존재적 위협에 직면

DMZ Hawai'i
Marshallese confront existential threat with climate change

December 7, 2010 by kyle

As reported in the Honolulu Star Advertiser, Marshall Islands delegates to the UN climate change conference in Cancun are confronting unique problems as a nation state that is rapidly disappearing under rising seas. Not only have Marshallese and other Micronesians had to deal with the legacy of imperialism, wars, and nuclear testing; they are now facing extinction as an entire nation due to the greenhouse gas emissions of the industrialized countries:

CANCUN, Mexico >> Encroaching seas in the far Pacific are raising the salt level in the wells of the Marshall Islands. Waves threaten to cut one sliver of an island in two.

“It’s getting worse,” says Kaminaga Kaminaga, the tiny nation’s climate change coordinator.

The rising ocean raises questions, too: What happens if the 61,000 Marshallese must abandon their low-lying atolls? Would they still be a nation? With a U.N. seat? With control of their old fisheries and their undersea minerals? Where would they live, and how would they make a living? Who, precisely, would they and their children become?

READ THE FULL ARTICLE

Video Fwd: CLIMATE CHANGE UPDATE 기후 변화 엎데이트: 수면 상승, 파나마 위협

Bruce Gagnon's organizing Notes blog
Friday, December 03, 2010
CLIMATE CHANGE UPDATE

Video Fwd: CLIMATE CHANGE WATCH: FLOODS DEVASTATE BENIN 기후 변화 감시: 홍수는 아프리카 베닌을 황폐화시킴

Bruce Gagnon blog
Friday, October 29, 2010
CLIMATE CHANGE WATCH: FLOODS DEVASTATE BENIN



West Africa is reeling from severe flooding following heavy rain. Hundreds of people are known to have died. Worst affected is the tiny nation of Benin, where the receding waters are revealing the true extent of the damage. Al Jazeera's Jonah Hull has our exclusive report.

Instead of increased global militarism we should be marshaling the world to deal with our real coming crisis - climate change.

Text Fwd: [famoksaiyanfriends] Julian Aguon: US Department of Defense is the Worst Polluter on the Planet 미 국방부는 행성의 가장 큰 오염 원인

* Text Fwd from Martha Duenas on Oct. 25, 2010

Projectcensored.org

Excerpt

Project Censored Top 25 Censored Stories for 2009-2010

Sources:

Sara Flounders, “Add Climate Havoc to War Crimes: Pentagon’s Role in Global Catastrophe,” International Action Center, December 18, 2009

Mickey Z., “Can You Identify the Worst Polluter on the Planet? Here’s a Hint: Shock and Awe,” Planet Green, August 10, 2009

Julian Aguon, “Guam Residents Organize Against US Plans for $15B Military Buildup on Pacific Island,” Democracy Now!, October 9, 2009

Ian Macleod, “U.S. Plots Arctic Push,” Ottawa Citizen, November 28, 2009

Nick Turse, “Vietnam Still in Shambles after American War,” In These Times, May 2009

Jalal Ghazi, “Cancer—The Deadly Legacy of the Invasion of Iraq,” New America Media, January 6, 2010

The US military is responsible for the most egregious and widespread pollution of the planet, yet this information and accompanying documentation goes almost entirely unreported. In spite of the evidence, the environmental impact of the US military goes largely unaddressed by environmental organizations and was not the focus of any discussions or proposed restrictions at the recent UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. This impact includes uninhibited use of fossil fuels, massive creation of greenhouse gases, and extensive release of radioactive and chemical contaminants into the air, water, and soil.

The extensive global operations of the US military (wars, interventions, and secret operations on over one thousand bases around the world and six thousand facilities in the United States) are not counted against US greenhouse gas limits. Sara Flounders writes, “By every measure, the Pentagon is the largest institutional user of petroleum products and energy in general. Yet the Pentagon has a blanket exemption in all international climate agreements.”

While official accounts put US military usage at 320,000 barrels of oil a day, that does not include fuel consumed by contractors, in leased or private facilities, or in the production of weapons. The US military is a major contributor of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that most scientists believe is to blame for climate change. Steve Kretzmann, director of Oil Change International, reports, “The Iraq war was responsible for at least 141 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (MMTCO2e) from March 2003 through December 2007. . . .

That war emits more than 60 percent that of all countries. . . . This information is not readily available . . . because military emissions abroad are exempt from national reporting requirements under US law and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.”

According to Barry Sanders, author of The Green Zone: The Environmental Costs of Militarism, “the greatest single assault on the environment, on all of us around the globe, comes from one agency . . . the Armed Forces of the United States.”

Throughout the long history of military preparations, actions, and wars, the US military has not been held responsible for the effects of its activities upon environments, peoples, or animals. During the Kyoto Accords negotiations in December 1997, the US demanded as a provision of signing that any and all of its military operations worldwide, including operations in participation with the UN and NATO, be exempted from measurement or reductions. After attaining this concession, the Bush administration then refused to sign the accords and the US Congress passed an explicit provision guaranteeing the US military exemption from any energy reduction or measurement.

Environmental journalist Johanna Peace reports that military activities will continue to be exempt based on an executive order signed by President Barack Obama that calls for other federal agencies to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by 2020. Peace states, “The military accounts for a full 80 percent of the federal government’s energy demand.”

As it stands, the Department of Defense is the largest polluter in the world, producing more hazardous waste than the five largest US chemical companies combined. Depleted uranium, petroleum, oil, pesticides, defoliant agents such as Agent Orange, and lead, along with vast amounts of radiation from weaponry produced, tested, and used, are just some of the pollutants with which the US military is contaminating the environment. Flounders identifies key examples:

READ MORE

Text Fwd: NATURAL GUARD NEEDED

* Image source: Bruce Gagnon blog

* Image source: Haiti Emergency Relief Fund

* Bruce Gagnon blog
Jan. 13, 2009
NATURAL GUARD NEEDED

* The terrible earthquake in Haiti is just one more reminder that we need a Natural Guard established to be a quick response unit to help people all over the world after these kinds of disasters happen. Instead of spending ga-zillions of dollars on our military we should be insisting that we use these funds to prepare to deal with the coming harsh reality of climate change. Climate experts are predicting that an angry, and increasingly ailing Mother Earth, will be thrashing about in pain which means more such natural disasters for the people of this planet. Instead of pouring money down the military rat hole we need the Natural Guard.

A good place to go if you wish to send a donation for humanitarian aid to Haiti is here. [check the top right]

The Associated Press is reporting, "The Obama administration plans to ask Congress for an additional $33 billion to fight unpopular wars in Afghanistan and Iraq on top of a record request for $708 billion for the Defense Department next year." With our current 40 state fiscal crisis, and the need for a Natural Guard more than endless war, we find the magician in the White House going the wrong direction once again.

* In the good news department we just learned that the new space film Pax Americana: The Weaponization of Space has won the award for the Best Documentary at the Whistler Film Festival in British Columbia, Canada. I have seen a sneak preview of the film and it is a stunner. I am proud to say that it features Global Network members Karl Grossman, Loring Wirbel and myself. Not sure when it will be released in the US but people are going to want to show this film in their local community. It is going to be a huge help internationally for our side on this issue. It will also be aired on public TV throughout Europe.

NEWS FLASH: Pat Robertson, the right-wing Christian fundamentalist, had this to say today about the Haiti earthquake on his TV program called 700 Club:

And you know Christy, something happened a long time ago in Haiti and people might not want to talk about it. They were under the heel of the French, uh you know Napoleon the third and whatever. And they got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said we will serve you if you’ll get us free from the French. True Story, and so the Devil said OK it’s a deal. And they kicked the French out. You know, the Haitians revolted and got themselves free. But ever since they’ve been cursed by one thing after the other desperately poor. That island is Hispaniola is one island. It’s cut down the middle. On one side is Haiti on the other side is the Dominican republic. Dominican Republic is prosperous, healthy, full of resorts, etc.. Haiti is in desperate poverty. Same island. Uh, they need to have, and we need to pray for them a great turning to God and out of this tragedy. I’m optimistic something good may come but right now we’re helping the suffering people and the suffering is unimaginable.

These words begin at 6 minutes into the video......he is one sad, crazy, MF...






_____________________________________________________________________________________

“I donated via Oxfam but in case
anybody wants to make other individual donations, Paul Farmer's
Partners in Health is one of the greatest organizations around and
they also have an emergency fund drive that you can be sure will go
straight to their clinics in Haiti. http://www.pih.org/home.html

--
Stacey Fritz
Coordinator, No Nukes North
PO Box 84997
Fairbanks, AK 99708
home: 907-457-5230
cell: 907-699-7827

http://www.NoNukesNorth.net

Kodiak Rocket Launch Information Group blog:
http://kodiaklaunchcomplex.blogspot.com/

Global Network: Bruce Gagnon's blog:
http://space4peace.blogspot.com


Article 16 of the Earth Charter:

16. Promote a culture of tolerance, nonviolence, and peace.
a. Encourage and support mutual understanding, solidarity, and
cooperation among all peoples and within and among nations.
b. Implement comprehensive strategies to prevent violent conflict and
use collaborative problem solving to manage and resolve environmental
conflicts and other disputes.
c. Demilitarize national security systems to the level of a
non-provocative defense posture, and convert military resources to
peaceful purposes, including ecological restoration.

http://www.earthcharterinaction.org/2000/10/the_earth_charter.html”

Text Fwd: IAC Statement in Solidarity with the Protests in Copenhagen

IAC Statement in Solidarity with the Protests in Copenhagen
Sent on Dec. 18, 2009

Stop Police Brutality in Copenhagen!
Release ALL Arrestees!
Shut Down the Pentagon - the World's Largest Polluter!

The International Action Center stands in solidarity with the thousands of activists from across the globe who are protesting at the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. We condemn the acts of police brutality, including use of chemical weapons and the preemptive arrests of more than 1,000 people. We demand the release of all who have been arrested.

The criminals in Copenhagen are not the activists who are in the streets demanding real solutions to the growing climate change crisis. The criminals are those politicians and the corporations they represent, motivated exclusively by the pursuit of profits, who are unable and unwilling to address the causes of climate change. There is a growing consensus among scientists that we must reverse the global growth in greenhouse gas emissions before 'runaway' climate change becomes uncontrollable. Rather than finding ways to address this crisis, U.S. and Western delegates and Wall Street bankers are discussing how to profit from climate change, by constructing a massive international speculative market buying and selling carbon emissions. These “Cap and Trade” schemes will allow major corporations to profit from their pollution.

The biggest climate criminal on the planet is not even allowed to be discussed at the Conference. By every measure, the Pentagon is the largest institutional user of petroleum products and energy in general. Yet the Pentagon has had an blanket exemption in all international climate agreements since the Kyoto Accords.

The Pentagon wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; its secret operations in Pakistan; its equipment on more than 1,000 U.S. bases around the world; its 6,000 facilities in the U.S.; all NATO operations; its aircraft carriers, jet aircraft, weapons testing, training and sales will not be counted against U.S. greenhouse gas limits or included in any count.

The climate talks will not solve the climate crisis, nor are they intended to. These talks provide a cover for politicians to pretend to address the crisis while conspiring to increase profits for the corporations they serve. The pretended debate over climate change and global warming at the Copenhagen Conference is a struggle among the national corporations for their own interests.

The best way to immediately clean up the environment is to shut down the Pentagon. What is needed to combat climate change long-term is a thoroughgoing system change - a change that puts people and the climate ahead of the blind pursuit of profits.

For updates and information on the protests in Copenhagen, see: http://indymedia.dk/

For more on the criminal role of the Pentagon in climate change, see: www.IACenter.org


* More Related Sites

At largest climate protest ever / Copenhagen police make 1,000 'preventive arrests'
By Kit Aastrup,
Copenhagen, Denmark
Dec. 18, 2009

What China is doing about climate change
By Deirdre Griswold
Dec. 18, 2009

At climate change summit/ Africa bloc leads walkout over suppression of debate
By Abayomi Azikiwe
Editor, Pan-African News Wire
(http://anphoblact.com Dec. 10)

Video Fwd: THE REAL WORLD LEADER

Bruce Gagnon blog
Thursday, December 17, 2009
THE REAL WORLD LEADER



'Democracy Now interviews the real leader of the global movement for peace, justice and environmental sanity.

Bolivian president Evo Morales calls for the end of capitalism because it is killing our Mother Earth. He calls on the US to end its wars abroad and instead invest the massive war funding on ways to deal with global climate change.

This man shows the world what a real leader is in comparison to the phony Barack Obama.'