News: Archive for May, 2013
‘(Reuters) – A decline in the diversity of farmed plants and livestock breeds is gathering pace, threatening future food supplies for the world’s growing population, the head of a new United Nations panel on biodiversity said on Monday.’
via Decline in biodiversity of farmed plants, animals gathering pace | Reuters.
May 9, 2013, San Francisco
Jeremy Scahill spoke at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco on a variety of topics covered in his book “Dirty Wars: The World Is A Battlefield”, including drone strikes on American citizens, Awlaki’s Facebook wife, the Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF), Congresswoman Barbara Lee’s speech against the war, and the ideal role of journalists and the press. He also mentioned a Dirty Wars movie version in the works which was a winner at the Sundance Film Festival. Scahill was ‘interrogated’ by Barry Eisler, novelist and former CIA Operative.
Selected Excerpts
7:35 “And now here we are, twelve years later, and President Obama is using this AUMF to go after people, some of whom were toddlers on 9-11, which was passed to go after the people responsible for the 9-11 attacks…”
7:54 “But there’s something that no one ever talks about, article two of the Constitution, the commander in chief clauses. Cheney and Rumsfeld believe that that made the president a dictator when it comes to national security policy, and the Obama administration has continued to interpret it that way. So what we’ve really seen is a bipartisan power grab by the executive branch that was legitimized by a Constitutional law professor/Nobel peace prize winning president.”
“The whole war machine is just like one catastrophic threat to the environment writ large” ~ Jeremy Scahill
36:57 “We have an obligation to go to the other side of the barrel of the gun and talk to the people that we’re being told are our enemies…. We have an obligation to tell the stories of people in countries around the world who are impacted by our policies. in operations paid for with our money, and that telling their story is part of fighting for the future of our country too.”
“What we’ve really seen is a bipartisan power grab by the executive branch that was legitimized by a Constitutional law professor/Nobel peace prize winning president” ~ Jeremy Scahill
“And I think that’s what good journalism does, it’s twofold, it gives voice to the voiceless and it holds those in power accountable. And at the end of the day what I want this book to be is actionable intelligence for citizens to make- it’s an intelligence term – I want it to be actionable intelligence that people can use to inform their decisions on what the policy should be or shouldn’t be and decide whether they want to get off their butt and try to do something about it.”
“Empathy is a powerful powerful force, and at the end of the day I think that empathy results in people standing up for themselves and standing up for others.” ~ Jeremy Scahill
Dirty Wars, The World is a Battlefield book signing
Report by James George
‘May 23 (Reuters) – A tax on carbon dioxide emissions could help the United States mitigate climate change while significantly increasing government revenue, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said this week.’
via U.S. carbon tax could boost revenue, curb climate change – report | Reuters.
‘MOUNTAIN VIEW — The world is fast approaching a tipping point after which the damage caused by climate change can’t be undone, Gov. Jerry Brown told a technology summit Thursday.’
April 22, 2013, Berkeley
The Lawrence Berkeley Lab hosted a Science at the Theater event on Earth Day entitled “How Hot Will It Get?” at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre, where researchers discussed their latest findings on the earth’s changing climate. The scientist who spoke included Margaret Torn, Jeff Chambers, and Bill Collins, Michael Wehner , and Maximilian Auffhammer.
‘May 20 (Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear an Alaskan village’s claim that it should be able to sue oil companies and utilities for damages attributed to climate change.’
via U.S. Supreme Court declines to hear Alaska climate change case | Reuters.
May 22 (Reuters) – A casual observer familiar with the Keystone XL saga would think the United States was making it very hard to build any oil sands-related pipelines. But nothing could be farther from the truth.
via COLUMN-Keystone XL double standard: Tale of 2 pipelines: Campbell | Reuters.
‘Chinese officials identify water scarcity as one of the nation’s most pressing difficulties. The problems are social, political and economic. This year Beijing for the first time issued water quotas to every province, setting targets for annual consumption by 2015.’
‘…In rejecting Keystone, President Obama would not solve the underlying problem, which, as pipeline proponents correctly point out, is consumption. Nor would he halt exploitation of the tar sands. But he would put a brake on the process. After all, if getting tar-sands oil to China were easy, the Canadians wouldn’t be applying so much pressure on the White House. Once Keystone is built, there will be no putting the tar back in the sands. The pipeline isn’t inevitable, and it shouldn’t be treated as such. It’s just another step on the march to disaster. ‘
via Elizabeth Kolbert: Obama’s Keystone Decision : The New Yorker.
‘The news that atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide, the most important global warming gas, have hit 400 parts per million for the first time in millions of years increases the pressure on President Obama to deliver on his pledges to limit this country’s greenhouse gas emissions.’