In The Light Of The Bush / Paulsen Demand For Full Reins To The Secretary of the Treasury In The Matter of Over 1.5 Trillion Dollars - What will be the role of Next US President? If Obama and McCain Accept the Proposed Set Of Rules They Might Just As Well Go Hunting Moose In Alaska Instead of Fighting for the Right To Become The White House Christmas Tree.  We hope That Sarah Palin Was Able To Negotiate With Mr. Karzai to Get Some Afghan Hounds To Accompany Them.

We got the following e-mail from the Obama people:

Pincas –

The era of greed and irresponsibility on Wall Street and in Washington has created a financial crisis as profound as any we have faced since the Great Depression.

Congress and the President are debating a bailout of our financial institutions with a price tag of $700 billion or more in taxpayer dollars. We cannot underestimate our responsibility in taking such an enormous step.

Whatever shape our recovery plan takes, it must be guided by core principles of fairness, balance, and responsibility to one another.

They Suggest - Please show your support for an economic recovery plan based on the following:

• No Golden Parachutes — Taxpayer dollars should not be used to reward the irresponsible Wall Street executives who helmed this disaster.
• Main Street, Not Just Wall Street – Any bailout plan must include a payback strategy for taxpayers who are footing the bill and aid to innocent homeowners who are facing foreclosure.
• Bipartisan Oversight — The staggering amount of taxpayer money involved demands a bipartisan board to ensure accountability and oversight.

Show your support and encourage your friends and family to join you.

The failed economic policies and the same corrupt culture that led us into this mess will not help get us out of it. We need to get to work immediately on reforming the broken government — and the broken politics — that allowed this crisis to happen in the first place.

And we have to understand that a recovery package is just the beginning. We have a plan that will guarantee our long-term prosperity — including tax cuts for 95 percent of families, an economic stimulus package that creates millions of new jobs and leads us towards energy independence, and health care that is affordable to every American.

It won’t be easy. The kind of change we’re looking for never is.

But if we work together and stand by these principles, we can get through this crisis and emerge a stronger nation.

Thank you,

Barack

—————

Our difficulty with the above is that the moment Obama accepts the proposed recovery plan - he loses the Presidency even if he wins the election. This because of the simple fact that it takes all the air out of his lungs - that is all the money that he could have used to change the system.

What the Bushites do now is to perpetuate the present situation and make sure that nothing will change for many years to come - or ever. Ah! and you must buy this in a rush, right this week - because Congress must go home to campaign for their reelection - so they will buckle first.

Will the Senate buckle also? Will they just be pushed around further by tales that the FBI will study next 15 years the wrong-doers and their institutions, and take this for their fig-leave and jump to the commands they were just given? Blah!

Mc Cain / Palin can do what they want - but from Obama we expect now real show of backbone. He must stand up like Samson and say - with me the Philistines. He must dare Washington by saying that US Democracy requires that taxation of $1,5 Billion is a matter for Congress. The Giants  in Cartoon #136 must be asked to raise from their graves - “Capitalism” and “Private Enterprise.” If things get worse and other companies fold - he will be accused of not playing the game set for him by the establishment in Washington - and it will be clear and evident for all to see who is the reformer and who is the dog musher.
We expect that Right and Left will back him against the timid crooked Center. He will win and his win will finally  have a meaning. He will get the reins not of oppression - but of reform.

WE HOPE THAT THE OBAMA STAFF WILL STUDY THIS POSTING OF OURS, WITH ITS BORROWED CARTOON - AND OBAMA WILL CONSIDER IT WHEN HAVING THE UNENVIABLE TASK TO DECIDE HOW TO RUN HIS CAMPAIGN IN THE LIGHT OF THE BLOW THAT WAS Already PREDICTED SEVERAL MONTHS AGO BY FINANCIAL MAGICIAN GEORGE SOROS, BUT WAS LOWERED ON THE CAMPAIGNS ONLY NOW.  OBAMA MUST ALSO DECIDE IN TWO DAYS  HOW TO BUILD HIS POSITION AHEAD OF THE FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2008, FIRST DEBATE WITH MCCAIN IN MISSISSIPPI. THAT DEBATE COULD NOW GIVE THE REAL START OF THE ELECTION FINALS A COMPLETE NEW TURN. DO THE US CITIZENS WANT TO ALLOW THEMSELVES FLEECED FOR EVER, OR THEY ARE READY TO BE COUNTED SAYING: “DON’T TREAD ON ME.”

———————

Please Obama People - read also our other posting on this subject and see what a bright Journalist thinks of this. The bottom line is that whatever Obama decides to do - he will be blamed by the American people anyway - that is what the world thinks of the American electorate, so why not going out all the way and do the right thing? The hope here is that the better part of solid Republicans will vote Obama.

Gwynne Dyer, A London Based Journalist, Writes About Comrade Bush And The Banks. She Reaches The Conclusion About A Convergence Of The US And Chinese States - And Explains That In The End The Americans Will Blame The Democrats if Obama Wins.

Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on September 24th, 2008
by Pincas Jawetz ( PJ at SustainabiliTank.com)

Tiempo Climate NewswatchEnergy in the Pacific

http://www.tiempocyberclimate.org/newswatch

Tom Roper considers action that energy utilities can take in vulnerable Pacific island countries.
The author is a board member of the Climate Institute.
The world’s 51 Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and Territories are amongst the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change despite the fact that they contribute almost nothing to the growth of global greenhouse emissions - less than 0.02 per cent.

They are characterized by small populations, limited resources, lack of economies of scale and financial and technical resources, remoteness, a susceptibility to natural disasters and are highly dependent on and vulnerable to international trade. The pressures of climate change, particularly sea-level rise and extreme weather events, add to often already stressed social and environmental conditions.

In this article, I’ll be examining the most recent climate change assessments, probing SIDS vulnerability, explaining why electric utilities matter, suggesting new energy investment possibilities and urging immediate action.

At last the public argument about whether climate change is real or fiction has been resolved. Climate change is a threat to humankind’s future. Al Gore’s movie, Richard Stern’s review, the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report and Hurricane Katrina have all moved the debate to the conclusion that urgent action is overdue and must be taken immediately.

In February 2007, the IPCC Chair, Rajendra Pachauri, said:

“Warming of the climate system is unequivocal, as is now evident from observations of increases in global average air and ocean temperatures, widespread melting of snow and ice, and rising global mean sea level.”

The IPCC Working Group III found climate change “to be irreversible over human time scales, and much of the damage… likely to be irreversible even over longer time scales” (Chapter 1, page 9). Carbon dioxide concentrations have increased by more than a third since the 19th century and will continue to grow. Growth rates have actually increased significantly over the past decade. By 2100, temperature rises could be as high as six degrees Celsius.

Harvard University’s Professor of Environmental Policy, John Holdren, says that “the United Nation’s goal of avoiding dangerous human interference is already out of reach,” that the “current level of interference is dangerous,” and that “the issue is whether catastrophic interference is avoidable.”

Potential impacts are increased temperatures, sea-level rise, extreme events and changes in precipitation. These impacts directly affect many sectors:

• health - infectious and respiratory diseases and heat stress;
• agriculture - lower crop yields and irrigation demands;
• forest - composition, health, and productivity;
• water resources - supply and quality;
• coasts - inundation, erosion, loss of coral and mangroves; and,
• species and natural areas - loss of habitat and species.

Rachel Warren, from the Tyndall Centre in the United Kingdom, highlights an 80 per cent loss of coral reefs with a one degree Celsius rise, the onset of Greenland ice sheet melt, 97 per cent loss of reefs, sea-level rise and cyclones displacing increasing numbers of people and the potential to trigger melting of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet.

Coral reefs and mangroves provide coastal defenses, encourage fishing and promote tourism. Coral is under threat with higher water temperatures, and in July 2006 the United Nations Environment Programme reported that over half of the Pacific mangroves could be steadily lost.

Estimates of sea-level rise have varied over time and between computer models. The recent IPCC report, for example, suggested a rise of up to 50cm as a result of thermal expansion and melting glaciers. Stefan Rahmstorf of Potsdam University in Germany suggests a metre this century. Standing on a Marshall Islands atoll, a metre rise would see almost total immersion.

Speaking at a United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change meeting in February 2007 in Jamaica, Graham Sem of Sustainable Environmental Management Ltd in Auckland, New Zealand, said that a 50cm rise would result in a loss of up to 60 per cent of beaches in some areas. Most economic and social activity in small islands is within two metres of sea level and more than half the population of Small Island States live within 1.5kms of the shore.

In July 2007, Vaitoto Tupa, head of the Cook Islands National Environment Service, wrote in Tiempo that sea-level rise “could be devastating for the Cook Islands as all our population is dependent on the coastal areas in one way or another.”

The results for SIDS, according to the IPCC Summary for Policy Makers (2Mb download), are:

• deterioration in coastal conditions through erosion of beaches and coral bleaching which will affect local resources;
• exacerbation of inundation, storm surge, erosion and other coastal hazards, threatening vital infrastructure, settlements and livelihoods;
• by mid century, water resources reduced to where they are insufficient to meet demand during low rainfall periods; and,
• with higher temperatures, increased invasion by non-native species and diseases.

Storm and flood numbers doubled over the 20 years to 2000 (see figure below). The Red Cross estimates that more than 200 million people are affected annually. The cost of extreme weather events in the Pacific in the 1990s exceeded US$2 billion. Cyclones accounted for 76 per cent of reported disasters between 1950 and 2004, followed by earthquakes, droughts and floods. According to a World Bank finding in 2006, cyclones cost an average of US$75.7 million per cyclone at 2004 values. Damage in some cases has exceeded the national Gross Domestic Product of countries such as Samoa in 1990/1 and Niue in 2004. In April 2004, Cyclone Sudal destroyed or damaged 90 per cent of homes in Yap.

Trends in natural disasters
Source: UNEP-GRID
Global warming may not result in more cyclones, but it is likely that they will become more powerful (perhaps by 10 per cent), produce greater rainfall (20 per cent more), higher storm surges and greater human and infrastructure damage. Their power is influenced by warmer water, and storm strength could increase by half a category. For instance a mid category 4 storm would become category 5 - from wind speeds of 229 to 253km per hour.

Storm surges present an often greater threat with waves in recent cyclones 12m higher than normal levels. Model-based studies suggest that, by the year 2080, the number of people flooded by these “super storm surges” will be more than five times higher than present. The islands of the Caribbean and the Indian and Pacific Oceans face the largest relative increase in flood risk, with the number of people at risk being some 200 times higher than in most other parts of the world.

The Tuvalan people are already discussing resettlement and refugee status. Papua New Guinea’s Carteret islanders are the first direct climate change refugees with islands inundated and damaged, gardens and water supplies destroyed by salt water intrusion and evacuation announced in 2005 (video report).

Can the Small Island States be defended? Island people and communities have been resilient in the face of disasters but that capacity is now being undermined. National plans for the inevitable threats include the “soft” measures of conserving natural sea defenses, such as the mangrove, and the “hard” approach of moving and strengthening infrastructure.

Espen Ronneburg of the South Pacific Regional Environment Programme points out that the “costs of overall infrastructure and settlement protection is a significant portion of Gross Domestic Product well beyond the means of SIDS.” In 2004, a World Bank report concluded that Kiribati’s Tarawa Atoll could face annual climate change damages between US$8 and US$16 million, from a Gross Domestic Product of US$50m. Periodic storm surges could inundate 55 to 80 per cent of the land in North Tarawa.

One of the first actions, even if symbolic, in response to the climate threat is for Small Island States to reduce their own emissions, tiny though they are, to set an international example.

Energy utilities are major players in island economies, enabling industry development, improved lifestyles and a higher standard of living. A badly run or ill-prepared utility damages the economy, destroys opportunities and penalizes the less well off. Utilities must be a key element in national development and climate change plans and promote energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies.

As Tuiloma Neroni Slade, former chairman of the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) and Ambassador of Samoa to the United Nations, said:

“The Small Island States can by promoting a clean energy environment set an example for the rest of the world. Too much of our national budgets are spent on fossil fuels for diesel generation of electricity. This is a drain on our national budgets and does not work towards a solution to the problems of climate change. When the tanker comes in the foreign reserves go out.”

The starting point is to look at everything utilities do. For many utilities, the losses from generation and transmission are an unacceptable 20 per cent or more. If they were halved the diesel requirement would drop by one gallon or litre in ten. Prices have gone up by more than 250 per cent since 2001, with fuel imports taking up more than half the value of exports. These are countries working hard just to meet the fuel bill. We urgently need to bench mark performance and document and adopt best practice.

The fuel used can also change. UNELCO of Vanuatu has experimented successfully with local coconut oil for one of its generators. New capacity will be specifically adapted for coconut oil and a target of 30 per cent set for 2010 - a real balance of payments boost.

Renewable energy can also play its part. Clean non-greenhouse producing power sources include photovoltaics, solar hot water, wind turbines and hydro. Although, unfortunately, we still do not have enough examples, they are increasing. For example, a grid-connected solar array in Tuvaluhas been provided by the company E8 and cyclone-resistant wind turbines have been installed in New Caledonia.

The Solomon’s is a leader, particularly at the village level, with solar-powered Australia and New Zealand Bank automated teller machines (ATMs). Community email stations and schools and resorts are also relying on the sun.

Equally important is working with customers to reduce their power use. At a cost of 25 US cents per kWh or more, energy efficiency can assist customers by reducing their bills and the utility by decreasing fuel use.

The Marshalls Energy Company is installing 10,000 energy-efficient compact fluorescent lamps, arranged by the Climate Institute and provided by Climate Care.

Improved utility performance should be combined with working with customers to reduce their consumption. This is most vital in the poorest countries where unnecessary power plant investments to run inefficient equipment divert scarce capital from basic needs such as access to electricity and clean water. Appliances are also far more likely to be wasteful.

Key features of such “demand side management” programmes include compact and high-efficiency fluorescent lighting, refrigerator and air conditioner labeling and standards, commercial refrigeration and air conditioner equipment maintenance, energy audits, street lighting, solar hot water and interruptible and time of use tariffs.

Aspirational targets

Pacific island governments might consider the following goals:

• introduce 25 per cent renewable energy targets;
• improve existing diesel generation and transmission efficiency by 20 per cent;
• reduce oil use for transportation by 20 per cent
• set efficiency targets for motors, air conditioning, appliances and lighting;
• reduce energy consumption in public offices and buildings by 10 to 15 per cent immediately; and,
• at least double village and outer island access to electricity.

To be in a position to take up these opportunities, Pacific nations must get a fair share of aid, loans and technical assistance. The World Bank, in 2005, admitted that Pacific member countries receive less than a quarter of that provided in the Caribbean. Aid distribution from all donors has concentrated on the social sectors with only five per cent going to energy and this mostly from Japan. This is surprising given that 70 per cent of Pacific islanders don’t have access to electricity.

A partial remedy is the recently announced World Bank, International Finance Corporation and Australia and New Zealand Bank’s Sustainable Energy Finance Project. The project has the potential to bring cheap reliable electricity so that Pacific Islanders can have light at night, listen to the radio, run a small refrigerator and, at the same time, use power sources that are environmentally-sound and sustainable. It is being implemented in Papua New Guinea, the Solomon islands, Vanuatu, Fiji and the Marshall islands - but this leaves out a lot of Pacific islands.

The Pacific nations face huge challenges and threats from climate change. At the same time as tackling these problems, they can improve their own communities. However, the real work of first slowing, then stopping, global warming has to be done by the big emitters, led by the developed countries which have been pouring carbon dioxide into our atmosphere for 150 years. We can’t stop the extra heat, sea-level rise and weather extremes that are already in the pipeline and will get much worse over the next 50 years. But we must make a start.

Former French President Jacques Chirac made it crystal clear:

“Soon will come the day when climate change escapes all control. We are on the verge of the irreversible. Faced with this emergency, the time is not for half-measures. The time is for revolution: a revolution of our awareness, a revolution of the economy, a revolution of political action. We are the last generation that can save our planet.”

Acknowledgements
This commentary is based on an article published in Pacific Power Magazine (volume 15, number 3, 2007), the journal of the Pacific Power Association.
Further information
Tom Roper, 702/320 St Kilda Rd, Southbank, Victoria 3006, Australia. Fax: +61-3-96966439. Email: tom.roper@talk21.com.
On the Web
Tom Roper expands on the energy issues discussed in this article in The Cheapest Kilowatt: The Lessons of Energy Efficiency (0.3Mb download). The Tiempo Climate Cyberlibrary lists relevant websites on Small Island States and alternative energy

—————

Mick Kelly Tiempo Editorial
PO Box 4260 Kamo
Whangarei 0141 New Zealand
email:  tiempo.editorial at gmail.com
web: www.tiempocyberclimate.org

Maumoon Abdul Gayoom stresses the human aspects of climate change and describes the key components of a good post-2012 climate agreement…
 http://www.tiempocyberclimate.org/newswa…

Plus the latest news on…

o Climate justice
o Arctic treaties
o New emissions trading scheme

Sunday, Sept. 14, 2008, The Japan Times online.

Regarding The Trips to Libya - “Oily Moves to Compensate” by Gwynne Dyer from London.

Libya was the diplomatic crossroads of the planet last weekend: Condoleezza Rice made the first visit by a U.S. secretary of State in 55 years (to discuss a murky deal involving payments to American victims of terrorist attacks allegedly sponsored by Libya); radical Bolivian President Evo Morales showed up (to beg for money or cheap oil); and Italy’s Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi arrived to promise Libya $5 billion in compensation for the brutalities of Italian colonial rule.

The U.S. Congress was not impressed. Last Monday the Senate Foreign Relations Committee postponed hearings on the confirmation of Gene Cretz as the first U.S. ambassador to Libya since 1972.
What bothered the senators was Libya’s delay in paying a promised $1.8 billion in compensation to the families of 180 Americans who died when Pan Am Flight 103 was brought down by a terrorist bomb over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988, and of the American soldiers targeted in a 1986 attack on the West Berlin nightclub La Belle (one killed, scores injured).
Western intelligence services blamed both those attacks on Libya’s leader, Colonel Moammar Gadhafi. U.S. aircraft bombed Libya after the 1986 attack, killing some 30 Libyans including Gadhafi’s adopted daughter. Yet the evidence for Libyan involvement is distinctly shaky, and Libya never officially admitted its responsibility. Instead, Libya finally signed a “humanitarian” deal that gives the American families $1.8 billion, but also includes an unstated amount for the Libyan victims of the American air attacks. How very curious.

Details of the deal have been left vague, and nobody will say where the money for the Libyan victims of U.S. airstrikes is coming from. If it is coming from the U.S. government, that would be an interesting precedent. But everybody knows what is really at play here.

The United States worries about the security of its oil supplies and Libya produces oil, so Washington has been seeking a way to end its quarrel with Colonel Gadhafi for a long time. Gadhafi wanted that too, because the U.N. sanctions imposed at Washington’s request were hurting his regime. But since neither government ever apologizes, it took a while.

Gadhafi’s key move was to dismantle his fantasy “nuclear weapons program” — he never really had more than bits and pieces — in 2003. This let President George W. Bush claim that his “war on terror” was scaring the bad guys into behaving better, so the mood music improved immediately. Even before that, Libya sent a couple of low-level intelligence agents to face an international court over the Lockerbie bombing (one was acquitted, one was convicted, and the Libyan regime was scarcely mentioned).

The final compensation deal was signed last month. Condoleezza Rice was in Libya this month partly to show that Gadhafi was no longer in the doghouse — and partly to ask where the money was. That is bothering the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, too, but they shouldn’t worry. Libyan banks take more than a month to transfer even thousands of dollars abroad, let alone billions.

The history behind Silvio Berlusconi’s deal with Gadhafi is much clearer, and so are the motives behind it. Italy conquered Libya, formerly part of the Ottoman Empire, in 1911, and ruled it until 1943. Tens of thousands of Libyans who resisted were killed, many more had their land confiscated and given to Italian settlers, and the country was run for Italy’s benefit, not that of its own people. Italy owes — but why is it paying now, half a century later?

The answer is partly oil — a quarter of Italy’s oil and a third of its gas come from Libya — but also illegal immigrants. Italy is the destination for a growing stream of economic migrants from Africa who use Libya as a jumping-off place for their trip across the Mediterranean, and Berlusconi needs Gadhafi’s cooperation to stem the flow. So Libya gets $5 billion of Italian money to compensate for all the wrongs of the colonial era (and Italy’s compensation will come later, in apparently unrelated deals).

“It is my duty . . . to express to you in the name of the Italian people our regret and apologies for the deep wounds that we have caused you,” Berlusconi said in Benghazi, bowing symbolically before the son of the hero of the Libyan resistance, Omar Mukhtar.

It’s a generous apology, too: $200 million a year on infrastructure projects for 25 years, and if Berlusconi’s cronies in the Italian construction business get the contracts, what’s the harm in that? But we will probably not see him making a similar apology in Mogadishu or Addis Ababa anytime soon.

Libya got off lightly. Ethiopia, Somalia and Eritrea, Italy’s other African colonies, suffered far more from its rule, and are owed far more in compensation. But they have no oil, they are not close to Italy, and they are not going to get it.

If you calculate the amount owed by other former colonial powers at the same per capita rate as Italy did for Libya — around $1,000 per head of the ex-colony’s current population — then France owes Algeria $30 billion, the U.S. owes the Philippines $75 billion, and Britain owes India $1.1 trillion.

But the victims’ heirs shouldn’t spend their money until they actually have it in their hands, and they shouldn’t hold their breaths while waiting.

From:  media at avaaz.org
Subject: Release: global Olympic handshake to reach Beijing
Date: August 22, 2008

The August 23, 2008 - PRESS RELEASE - Will Appear In the International Herald Tribune and China’s Ming Pao, on the Day of The Beijing Olympics’ Closing. It Willl Say - Love China / Love Tibet / Love Burma / Love Darfur - and Will Promote Human Rights For China - a Hanshake to the World.

175,000 STRONG GLOBAL HANDSHAKE TO LAND IN BEIJING AHEAD OF OLYMPIC CLOSING CEREMONY see avaaz.org

A virtual global handshake will land in Beijing tomorrow ahead of the Olympic Closing Ceremony.

Since the beginning of the Olympics, Avaaz.org has taken actions worldwide to promote a dual message of friendship with China and the need for renewed dialogue and action on human rights post Olympics. Aside from the handshake website, they have launched a sister website in China www.onevoicechina.org, and have run an ad campaign which has made a splash in London, New York, Hong Kong, San Francisco and Sydney using print media, adwalkers, and mobile billboards to carry the message Love China / Love Tibet / Love Burma / Love Darfur. You can see images of these ads at avaaz.org

To culminate the campaign, this weekend, Avaaz.org has taken out an advertisement in Saturday’s International Herald Tribune and China’s Ming Pao to deliver the handshake to the world.

“Some in China have slandered human rights activism as violent and anti-Chinese. Our handshake campaign is an attempt to reach out to Chinese people and show that our call is for peaceful and respectful dialogue”, said Avaaz Executive Director Ricken Patel.

However, Avaaz is concerned that the end of the Olympics may herald an era of further oppression.

“People around the world are concerned that the Olympics are coming to a close without any changes in Chinese policy on Tibet, Burma or Darfur — will things get better or worse?” said Patel.

***

The global handshake petition reads:

“With this handshake, we reach out to one another as citizens round the world in the Olympic spirit of friendship and excellence, committing to hold all our governments to a higher standard of peace, justice and respect for human dignity wherever they fall short – be it in Tibet, Iraq, Burma or beyond. Dialogue is the best way forward, for China, and the world.”
For more information, see www.avaaz.org

***

AVAILABLE FOR INTERVIEW

Ricken Patel, Executive Director,  ricken at avaaz.org, +1 646 229 5416
Brett Solomon, Campaign Director,  brett at avaaz.org, +61 407 419 320

***
ABOUT AVAAZ:

Avaaz is a global web movement with over 3.3 million members worldwide, working to ensure that the views and values of people everywhere inform global decision-making. Avaaz means “voice” in many languages.

IARU Universities [International Alliance of Research Universities (IARU)]:

The University of Copenhagen is organising the scientific congress, March 10-12, 2009, in cooperation with the partners in the International Alliance of Research Universities (IARU):

Australian National University
ETH Zurich
National University of Singapore
Peking University
University of California, Berkeley
University of Cambridge
University of Copenhagen
University of Oxford
University of Tokyo
Yale University

Congress Purpose:

The Danish Government as host of the UN Conference on Climate Change (COP15) to be held in Copenhagen at the end of 2009 supports this Congress organised by IARU as part of the run-up to the COP 15. The purpose of the congress is to try and capture some of the enormous research energy currently being devoted to the elucidation, mitigation and adaptation to climate change.

Thus, the focus of the congress is on providing a picture of the “big issues” that the scientific community feels it is necessary that policy makers are aware of in order to make enlightened decisions with respect to the balancing of adaptation and mitigation in the societal response to climate change.

All findings will be compiled in a book on climate change, and an executive summary with the main findings from the congress will, after agreement with the Danish Government, which is hosting the UN Conference on Climate Change (COP15) be handed over to policy makers at the COP15 in Copenhagen at the end of 2009.

Sign up for news. updates, etc. - see:

 http://climatecongress.ku.dk/?gclid=COar…

The “Mostly Mozart” New York City Lincoln Center Summer Festival has become a New York City annual staple. For years it is also connected to the name of the theater director Peter Sellars who would bring in, or create, some special event as part of this festival. Years ago he did this sort of work in Purchase, Westchester County, New York, just outside the city where he staged new insights into Mozart Operas - but since moved these activities to the main location of the city. Jane Moss is the Artistic Director, and to her credit that she pulled in Peter Sellars who here, as in other locations in the world, including Vienna, Austria, has become an acknowledged ferment for creativity. These activities may have only remote connection to Mozart - but he somehow manages to find some link to the culture underneath Mozart’s art. But please, do not look for Mozart’s music in some of these events.

In any case - please remember that this REQUIEM was created by invitation of the 2006 Vienna Celebration of the 250th year Anniversary of Mozart’s Birth and the director for these events was Peter Sellars.

***

This Year, in the summer of 2008, July 29 - August 23, 2008 - “Mostly Mozart came up with two such events. Both, as the vast majority of the Festival’s events are imports:

(a) REQUIEM, an event created in Vienna, that was now seen in New York for two evenings only, Friday August 8th and Saturday August 9th, and a discussion between Peter Sellars and Lemi Ponifasio, the creator, choreographer, and designer of the event on the opening night’s afternoon.

(b) LA PASSION DE SIMONE, that was actually directed by Peter Sellars, and can be attended Wednesday August 13th, Friday August 15th, and Sunday August 17th, with two discussions open to the public on August 13th - a pre-concert discussion with Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho, and August 15th - a post-concert discussion with all those involved in the production. This event is about the personal voyage of Simone Weil with text by the Paris-based Lebanese writer Armin Maalouf. We are happy to be able to note this show here as we hope to create some interest among our readers to go to see this show. We are sorry that we were not able to bring pre-event information in the case of REQUIEM.

Before moving on to REQUIEM I would like to mention that when I looked up on the internet the term “Simone Weil” I found to my astonishment, that the best material is in German, French or Spanish - nothing very enlightening in English. so I decided to post the short biography that on the english Wikipedia is posted in German -

“Simone Weil wuchs in einer großbürgerlichen jüdischen Familie in Paris auf, ihr Bruder André wurde ein berühmter Mathematiker. Am Lycée war sie Schülerin von Alain. Sie studierte an der École Normale Supérieure Philosophie und wurde danach (1931) Mittelschullehrerin in der französischen Provinz.

In diesen Jahren - sie arbeitete eine Zeit lang als Fabrikarbeiterin bei Renault - und bis zu ihrem kurzen Einsatz im Spanischen Bürgerkrieg (wo sie auf der Seite der Anarcho-Syndikalisten in der “Kolonne Durruti” kämpfte) war sie politisch aktiv. Ab 1936 traten für sie religiöse Fragen in den Vordergrund, wobei sie zuvor Atheistin war. Sie näherte sich dem Katholizismus an und ließ sich möglicherweise sogar kurz vor ihrem Tod taufen, nicht offiziell von einem Priester, aber - gültig - von einer Freundin. Von der Taufe im Londoner Krankenzimmer vor der Abreise nach Ashford berichtet zwar 1989 Georges Hourdin in seiner Biographie (Simone Weil) und teilt einen Briefwechsel mit Pater Perrin und Simone Deitz mit, in den Aufzeichnungen Simone Weils, die sie bis kurz vor ihrem Tod weitergeführt hat, findet sich allerdings kein Hinweis. Zeit ihres Lebens litt sie an schwersten, oft unerträglichen Kopfschmerzen.

Wegen der deutschen Besetzung Frankreichs floh sie zunächst nach Marseille, 1942 in die USA und anschließend nach England, wo sie Mitglied des Befreiungskomitees Charles de Gaulles wurde. Sie starb an Magersucht, wobei nicht sicher war, ob sie durch die starken Kopfschmerzen magersüchtig wurde.”

***

First, let me introduce the background material that was handed out at the August 8th discussion:

Lemi Ponifasio (photo Pincas Jawetz)

Peter Sellars (photo Pincas Jawetz)

The August 8, 2008 Lincoln Center discussion (photo Pincas Jawetz)

To show what a large scope this REQUIEM has, as I understood it, I would like to mention that the positions taken by its author when explaining what we will be going to see in his answers to Peter Sellars - in above discussion, served me also in my reporting t