This Blog is created to stress the importance of Peace as an environmental directive. “I never give them hell. I just tell the truth and they think it’s hell.” – Harry Truman
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Iranian reformist 2005 Presidential candidate Mostafa Moin (L) and former Iranian reformist Interior Minister Abdolvahed Mousavi Lari attend the opening ceremony of the 10th Congress of Islamic Iran Participation in Tehran October 26, 2007.
In a 2006 interview with Nature (click title to entry - thank you), Moin, a former minister for higher education and for science, argued that building a stronger civil and democratic society in Iran was key to the country's scientific development and it becoming a knowledge-based society. In an exclusive new interview, he discusses where the current situation leaves those ambitions.
...In our last interview, you said that support by Iranian young people and women for the principles of a civil and democratic society were what would "shape Iran's future". Has that shaping moment come?
Yes. The recent growth in Iranian women's and young people's political and social awareness has set the stage for their current demands for greater civil liberties, and structural and democratic reforms. The outcome of the 2005 presidential election, combined with the subsequent mismanagement of the government, has catalysed this process — and explains the 85% voter turnout in last month's presidential election, and the demand for change. The youth, and in particular the supporters of the reformist candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi, played a major role in creating the extraordinary enthusiasm and motivation surrounding the elections. I remain optimistic as to the role, and the movement, of Iran's youth....
President Barack Obama and Italy's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi tour earthquake damage on the sidelines of the G8 Summit in L'Aquila, Italy, Wednesday, July 8, 2009. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
G8 summit: leaders warn global economy faces more danger (click here) The global economy faces "significant" dangers in the coming months and a recovery from recession is still some way off, world leaders have warned. By James Kirkup in L'Aquila Published: 7:38PM BST 08 Jul 2009 ...Despite seeing some signs of stabilisation in economies, the G8 listed rising oil prices, fragile banking sectors, falling trade and investment and rising unemployment as the main threats to a recovery. Speaking after their talks on the economic outlook, leaders signalled they feared the world may not have seen the worst of the slowdown yet. Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, said: "The crisis is a long way from being over. If we are lucky, then we have nearly reached the bottom." Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, said: "There are warning signs about the world economy we cannot afford to ignore."...
U.S. President Barack Obama, left, and his first lady Michelle Obama, right, arrive in Pratica di Mare military airport on the outskirts of Rome, Wednesday, July 8, 2009. Obama is in Italy to attend the G8 (Group of Eight) summit in L'Aquila from July 8 to July 10. (AP Photo/Mauro Scrobogna, LaPresse)
This summit is more or less a planning session for the December Conference in Copenhagen where plans surrounding initiatives on Climate Change should take shape.
I have said from the beginning of this entire mess, the USA has to lead and it has to stop being the biggest CO2 emitter on the planet. That is a sincere reduction. If that reduction puts other countries ahead of the USA through the changes the USA impliments alone, then so be it.
The USA has to 'lead by example' and provide mentoring while opening technologies to countries such as China and India. Kyoto Protocol was never designed to burden third world countries with the sins of the USA. Never in the wildest imaginations of the authors of Kyoto did anyone believe the USA would sit on the sidelines hoping everyone else would carry its burden.
The next Kyoto meeting in 2012 will have to address the new economic achievements of China and India and bring them on board. Hopefully, by the time 2012 has rolled around there will be notable reductions in all countries CO2 levels or at the very least strategies that are legislated to engage with the new protocol. President Obama isn't responsible for the lethargy and 'blaming' of other countries by Bush. China is NOT the 'first' problem, the USA is.
Very inventive. Clever. Well done. The 'art' of opposition that is, not the planet. Activists wearing masks of G8 leaders from left; French President Nicolas Sarkozy, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, US President Barack Obama, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and dressed as chefs "cook the planet" in a fake cauldron as they stage a demonstration against the G8 (Group of Eight) summit scheduled from July 8 to July 10 in L'Aquila, in front of the ancient Temple of Vesta, in Rome, Wednesday, July 8, 2009. The G8 is schedule(AP Photo/Sandro Pace)
A dollar a day could keep climate change away-EPA (click here) Tue Jul 7, 2009 3:21pm EDT * Fighting climate change to cost families under $1 a day * Energy efficiency, R&D key to cutting emissions in U.S. * Top Obama officials confident a climate bill can pass(Adds details on carbon offsets and comments from Salazar) By Jasmin Melvin WASHINGTON, July 7 (Reuters) - The average American family would pay at most $1 a day more to fight climate change, the head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency told a Senate committee on Tuesday. EPA head Lisa Jackson said carbon-cutting legislation would, on average, amount to a 50-cent per day cost per household in 2020 and edge up for wealthier families, people who drive long distances and those living in states dependent on coal for electricity. But even a doubling of the national average would only cost families $1 per day, Jackson said....
"We intend to secure our present and future prosperity by taking the lead in the fight against climate change," the statement said.
I think we have every right to BELIEVE and not hope the new adminisration in DC will definitively stand and lead with an ambitious agenda on Climate Change. It has to be. There are no more options.
ROME — Advocacy groups such as Greenpeace, Water Aid and End Water Poverty issued a call to leaders of the G8 nations prior to the start of their 2009 summit in Italy to tackle global water and sanitation issues, especially those in developing countries....
There is much about the G8 that will be pivotal from here on. The 'idea' that rain will return with adjustments to carbon dioxide levels is not realistic. It took five decades to achieve this insult to Earth and it is complicated by the negative feedback loop of Human Induced Global Warming.
This year the Atlantic Hurricane season is proving to be very puny. The reason for that is the lack of water vapor in the lower troposphere.
Technologies have to supply water to populous until Earth returns to a reasonable balance and that includes desalination plants. California is already planning desalination plants for help with a very dry southern region. Desalinations plants should have been in the works for California a long time ago, it is a far better alternative than syphoning off Mona Lake and running aqueducts that evaporate the very water they carry. With a melting ice cap and diluted ocean salinity, there should be thoughts about depositing the unused salt back into the global ocean circulation depending on measured and monitored ocean salinity levels.
New Bin Laden Recording Accuses Obama of Planting Seeds of Hatred Across America (click title to entry for video - thank you) by Steven Emerson ...BREWER: It's interesting though, because we've seen this recent poll that shows that 8 out of 11 Arab countries show double-digit jumps in the amount of positive feelings toward the United States....
The nay-sayers can down the new statistics all they want. An up tick of approval to USA policy CHANGE is a clear indication there is 'interest' in the words President Obama spoke to the Arab Community. Where there is interest, there is opportunity. The current USA administration is not going 'soft' on Israel. There is a great deal of hope in that statistic and one that should not be ignored. We all have to 'start' somewhere and beginning with 'the old agenda' for the Arab populous as a place of common understanding is a good place to be.
This is President Obama's first term. It is his first year in his first term. With the ground laying ability he has exhibited across the spectrum of international and domestic policy we will see significant changes during his administration. Anyone that is not impressed hasn't opened their eyes to the disaster of the past eight years.
One of these days, President Obama, First Lady Michelle and the girls and Bo will vacation. It might be a breather the country needs as well. This adminisration is very fast paced and ambitious. It is a new dynamic for Americans. They are 'used to' slow progress in areas of federal government. I believe some of the skepticism shown by Americans is due to the uneasy feeling of such a fast pace, but, this administration doesn't dare slow its progress. The economy was inherited on an already 'very, slippery slope.' I sincerely believe that slope is flattening out and it wouldn't have been achieved without the ambitions of this young administration.
To say Berlusconi is on shakey ground with the Italians is an understatement.
Silvio Berlusconi picks former topless model Mara Carfagna as G8 escort (click here) Faced with the thorny problem of having no "First Lady" to look after the G8 leaders' spouses on their three day trip to Italy, Silvio Berlusconi has come up with a solution in keeping with his reputation. By Nick Squires in Rome Published: 6:37PM BST 06 Jul 2009 The Italian prime minister has asked a former topless model turned government minister to stand in for his estranged wife. The 72-year-old premier has chosen Mara Carfagna – now Italy's equal opportunities minister – to take care of the likes of Michelle Obama and Sarah Brown. Miss Carfagna, 33, is an ex-glamour girl whose sultry looks and portfolio of lingerie calendars earned her the title of the world's sexiest government minister from men's magazine Maxim. The one-time Miss Italy contestant will be supported in the role by another attractive young member of the cabinet, education minister Maria Stella Gelmini. Mr Berlusconi is said to have chosen Miss Carfagna and Miss Gelmini to reward them for being "staunch champions" as he has battled allegations that he slept with a high-class call-girl at his mansion in Rome last November. Together they will guide the G8 wives around Rome and the mountain town of L'Aquila 65 miles away, where the summit is being held from Wednesday to Friday....
By Steve Scherer and Brian Parkin July 8 (Bloomberg) -- As world leaders arrived in L’Aquila, Italy to begin their annual summit, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.began showing his counterparts damage from the earthquake that prompted him to move their meeting there. Berlusconi led German Chancellor Angela Merkel through Onna, where the April 6 temblor damaged or destroyed virtually every building and killed 41 people, more than 10 percent of its population. The German government pledged to rebuild the town, partly as compensation for the Nazi execution of 16 residents of Onna during World War II....
G8 summit: Silvio Berlusconi faces new party allegations (click here) Silvio Berlusconi, the host of the G8 summit in Italy, has faced new allegations about his parties attended by young women. By Nick Squires in Rome Published: 12:00PM BST 08 Jul 2009 A fourth woman has come forward to claim that she was paid 1,000 euros (£870) to attend a party at one of the Italian prime minister's private homes. Maria Teresa De Nicolo, 37, said the 72-year-old premier was the "perfect host" when he danced with her after the candle-lit dinner and that contrary to reports he did not have his hands all over her "like an octopus". "I danced with the prime minister and also with some of the other men who were present," said Miss De Nicolo. "When he danced, he was very formal: his hands didn't wander, he wasn't like an octopus as some of the other girls have told the papers in the last few days." Miss De Nicolo corroborated much of the detail offered by the three other women who have said they attended Mr Berlusconi's parties....
