For decades climate-change protesters have had an easy target: the gas-guzzling Americans who emit more carbon dioxide per capita, and more as a civilisation, than anybody else. If only the US would change its ways, all would be well. It is true that America’s attitude and behaviour are global problems; but it is also true that it is a democracy exposed to argument and evidence, shifts in public opinion and international pressure – and that it may be moving its position. No such claim can be made of China. And here is the brutal reality. From now on it is China and not the US who will be the number one threat to the planet. Privately, energy experts and international climate officials know that within 40 years the Chinese will have melted the Himalayan ice-cap – with incalculable consequences for themselves and the world. And that is only the beginning. This, of course, is not being acknowledged at Bali, where some 20,000 delegates and activists have been discussing how to achieve the vital international climate-change agreement to succeed Kyoto when it expires in 2012. Nor is it top of the agenda in international conventions that discuss global warming […]
TEHRAN –Major crude producer Iran has completely stopped carrying out its oil transactions in dollars, Oil Minister Gholam Hossein Nozari said on Saturday, labeling the greenback an ‘unreliable’ currency. ‘At the moment selling oil in dollars has been completely halted, in line with the policy of selling crude in non-dollar currencies,’ Nozari was quoted as saying by the ISNA news agency. ‘The dollar is an unreliable currency, considering its devaluation and the oil exporters’ losses,’ he added. The world’s fourth-largest oil exporter, Iran has massively reduced its dependence on the dollar over the past year in the face of U.S. pressures on its financial system. The U.S. has successfully encouraged major European and Asian banks to cut their dealings with Iran in a bid to make the Islamic republic give way on its controversial nuclear program. Washington has also blacklisted major Iranian banks for alleged support of terrorism and seeking nuclear weapons, charges denied by Tehran. Iran has reduced its assets in dollars held in foreign banks and urged OPEC to take collective action to price oil in other currencies such as the euro, instead of the U.S. currency which is used across the […]
Political firestorm erupts on Capitol Hill over CIA’s destruction of tapes By WILLIAM BRANIGIN, DAN EGGEN and JOBY WARRICK The Washington Post WASHINGTON | President Bush does not recall being informed before Thursday about the existence or subsequent destruction of videotapes showing harsh CIA interrogations of terrorism suspects, the White House said Friday. However, administration sources acknowledged Friday night that Harriet Miers, White House counsel at the time, knew about the plan to destroy the tapes and urged CIA officials not to do it. The recordings, which CIA Director Michael Hayden disclosed Thursday had been made in 2002 but destroyed three years later, set off a furor Friday on Capitol Hill. Senate Democrats demanded a Justice Department investigation, and Thomas Kean, chairman of the bipartisan commission that investigated the Sept. 11 attacks, said that the CIA apparently had illegally concealed information from the panel. The Senate intelligence committee will begin its own investigation into the destroyed videotapes, said its chairman, Sen. Jay Rockefeller, a West Virginia Democrat. ‘We do not know if there was intent to obstruct justice, an attempt to prevent congressional scrutiny, or whether they were simply destroyed out of concern they […]
Regular use of mobile telephones increases the risk of developing tumours, a new scientific study by Israeli researchers and published in the American Journal of Epidemiology revealed on Friday. An extract of the report seen by Israel’s Yedoit Aharonot newspaper put the risk of developing a parotid gland tumour nearly 50 percent higher for frequent mobile phone users — more than 22 hours a month. The risk was still higher if users clamped the phone to the same ear, did not use hands-free devices or were in rural areas. ‘Analysis restricted to regular users or to conditions that may yield higher levels of exposure (eg heavy use in rural areas) showed consistently elevated risks,’ said an abstract of the report in the US journal made available to AFP. The study included 402 benign and 58 malignant incident cases of parotid gland tumour diagnosed in Israel at age 18 years or more, in 2001-2003. The research was led by Dr Siegal Sadetzki, a cancer and radiation expert at the Chaim Sheba Medical Centre in Israel and as part of a World Health Organisation project.
The news that Australia had signed up to the Kyoto protocol was greeted with applause on the first day of climate talks in Bali yesterday, leaving the US as the only developed nation not to ratify the pact. Australia’s new Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, wasted no time in breaking with the policies of his conservative predecessor, John Howard. The thousands of delegates to the UN-led talks will try to agree a path toward a successor to the largely symbolic Kyoto pact over the next fortnight. An increasingly isolated US delegation, led by the veteran negotiator Harlan Watson, sought to deflect criticism with claims that they would not block efforts to launch a new agreement. ‘We’re not here to be a roadblock,’ he said. While much of the focus at Bali will be on cutting emissions, comparatively little attention is being given to the costs to poor countries of climatic changes that we are already locked in to. Any cuts in current emissions levels, scientists warn, will take 20 years to change the balance of heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere. A UN fund set up by rich countries to help poor countries to adapt to climate change has […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
