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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on June 29th, 2008
Please see http://nysunworks.org - for one thing their photos are better then ours. New York City, located mostly around Greenwich Village. From its founding in 1919 and for most of its history, the currently-styled New School was known as the New School for Social Research. Between 1997 and 2005 it was known as New School University. The university and each of its colleges were re-branded to their current names in 2005. The graduate school of The New School began in 1933 as the University in Exile, an emergency rescue program for threatened scholars in Europe. In 1934 it was chartered by the New York state board of regents and its name was changed to the Graduate Faculty of Political and Social Science, a name it would keep until 2005 when it was renamed New School for Social Research. Parsons The New School for Design is the university’s highly-competitive art school. The current president of the New School is former U.S. Senator Bob Kerrey (D-NE), who assumed his role in 2000. When I visited the barge on Wednesday June 25th, we were shown around by Maia Raposo of the New School. She told me that the program was run by Benjamin Linskey under Dean Jonathan Veitch. As said earlier in scanned in material, the barge is out in the summer - this is the second year - and wanders to different locations at the New York City waterfront - so that schools and others, can be shown that a more rational life-style is good for you and for the world as well. This is about: Building Integrated Agriculture -
Building Integrated Agriculture What this means - if we were to use all flat rooftops in the New York City for the production of vegetables, we would have more then enough - actually we could also feed all suburbs with our vegetables. We could have healthy food and we also would save fuel by not having trucked the vegetables in from Mexico or California, or flown in from Chile and Peru. The barge is just an educational tool to help disseminate the ideas of NYSUN Works. Further BrightFarm (TM) is the trade-mark registered name of a business that makes available technologies and equipment to whoever wants to implement the ideas put forward by the staff of the barge and the scientists involved with this program. The Science Barge:
The Science Barge Dr. Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University The Science Barge is a prototype, sustainable urban farm and environmental education center. It is the only fully functioning demonstration of renewable energy supporting sustainable food production in New York City. The Science Barge grows tomatoes, cucumbers, and lettuce with zero net carbon emissions, zero chemical pesticides, and zero runoff.
BrightFarm LLC is a commercial design consultancy. We provide technical services in support of rooftop greenhouses and building-integrated agriculture (BIA) in both educational and commercial settings worldwide. Our core value is ecological sustainability. The company’s team presents a unique expertise in ecological engineering and science, focused exclusively on the application of controlled environment agriculture to the urban domain. We offer sustainable system design, facility layout, crop selection, energy and water analysis, system commissioning, and educational curricula. Current clients come from the United States, the United Kingdom, France, India, China, and the Middle East. Our designs include both horizontal layouts, integrated into rooftops, and vertical formats, integrated into glass facades. Further reading: The barge uses solar energy 85% - and has also a demonstration program for wind energy. It is basically about hydroponics and a controlled hothouse. For water it uses river water - filtered and cleaned. Water is recycled. In the city they suggest the use of catchment water as there is plenty of rain in New york City. Plants are stacked vertically in what Maia called Dutch Baskets set up vertically. We also saw a compound for seeding the plants and other substrates made from recycled materials - mainly glass.
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on June 28th, 2008 No Ice at the North Pole ? by: Steve Connor, The Independent UK
Polar scientists reveal dramatic new evidence of climate change. We mention the UN Secretary-General as tour leader to the North Pole which is closer to his home then the South Pole, where he got close in his trip to Antarctica on the way from New York to Valencia Spain - a trip on which our website had quite a few things to say in its time. Permalink | ### |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on May 21st, 2008 nbsp;http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/st…
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/st…
CTV.ca News Staff Famed environmentalist David Suzuki has strongly backed Liberal leader Stephane Dion’s emerging carbon tax plan and slammed the NDP and Conservatives. After hearing the NDP’s criticism of Dion’s plan, Suzuki said: “I’m really shocked with the NDP with this. I thought that they had a very progressive environmental outlook.” “To oppose (the carbon tax plan), its just nonsense. It’s certainly the way we got to go,” he said Sunday on CTV’s Question Period. While Dion has not fully revealed his plan, this week he said that he is proposing a revenue-neutral carbon tax, where the carbon tax is paired with a reduction in other taxes. “Instead of taxing things we want more of, like income … we shift taxes to things we don’t want, like greenhouse gases,” Liberal environment critic David McGuinty explained on Question Period, while stressing the plan is not yet finalized. NDP MP Peggy Nash said the NDP’s environment plan is not revenue neutral. She said her party wants a system where polluters pay and the money is put into “green solutions.” Environment Minister John Baird told Question Period that Dion’s plan was “made on Bay Street” and is actually supported by big business and polluters. “Mr. Dion wants to give some kind of licence to pollute and simply allow big business to buy their way out of this problem,” Baird said. Baird touted the Conservatives’ environmental plan, saying that the Harper government would force big business into polluting less. “Our plan we deliver an absolute 20 per cent reduction by 2020,” he said. However, the Tories plan uses 2006 as the baseline year, which Baird failed to mention. The world generally uses 1990, the Kyoto Protocol’s baseline. Most environmental groups have slammed the Conservatives’ environmental plan as ineffectual and say even if it works, it would still result in emissions that are eight per cent above Canada’s 2012 Kyoto target. They also say the Tory plan relies on intensity targets, not absolute ones. Intensity targets mean that businesses must cut the amount of carbon that goes into each unit of production. However, that means total emissions could go up if output increased substantially. Suzuki criticized Baird’s leadership, saying that the minister was working against and not with environmentalists. Suzuki also said Ottawa politicians in general are too focused on the next election and not thinking of the future. “Thank goodness for the United States or we’d be dead last (in the environment),” he said. “Let’s get on with hard targets and thinking more about what we are leaving our children and grandchildren.” Suzuki mentioned that Swedes pay about carbon tax of $150 a tonne, while British Columbians are “yelling and screaming over a $10 tax.” B.C introduced a carbon tax in February. Permalink | ### |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on May 11th, 2008 From: gdeville at envirosecurity.org In this context, Europe can show how change can be achieved. While it is currently not a major player, Europe still has a vital role to play as a torch-bearer, if not yet a consolidated political leader. Such vision is required now more than ever as Europe is hosting two COPs in succession, providing Europe with a special opportunity to demonstrate leadership”. {Above talks about the Poznan (2008) and Copenhagen (2009) COPs of the UNFCCC. Above Forgets to note that the US can also make a terrific contribution in the 2008 elections for US Presidency. This if next US President will be ready to participate in the leadership on climate change. The problem is nevertheless that the US does not change Presidents before January 20, 2009 - so - at Poznan the US willl still be outside the leadership circle and foreseably still considered a wall-flower. We bring this up as it increases the onus on the EU to become central player, have contact with the US President-elect and make sure that his people take into consideration the EU proposed route when forging a new US aproach to climate change policy.} —– Permalink | ### |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on March 25th, 2008 UN WATCH is Enraged: Khaddafi Ally Eyes Post as UN Human Rights Council Expert Advisor - Backed By His Government - Switzerland! (Originally Posted March 21, 2008)
Presumptive Nominee? Jean Ziegler and the UN Human Rights Council. Click Here to Watch New Video Unless his sponsor changes course. Ziegler enjoys close ties with Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey, and according to a report this week from the Human Rights Tribune, Swiss diplomats are engaged in an intense lobbying and vote-trading campaign to elect Ziegler, whom they nominated in November. Only the Swiss withdrawal of their nomination will prevent Ziegler from being elected. Click Here to Take Action.
Analysis: Astonishing to believe — but at the UN, too often, not too astonishing for it not to happen. Jean Ziegler has a long history of supporting unsavory rulers and regimes, including some of the world’s worst human rights violators. As UN hunger expert for the past 7 years, he ignored regions with the most severe food crises, and instead devoted his time to anti-Western polemics. Apologist for some of the worst human rights criminals of our time. Click here to see new video.
UN Watch Op-Ed in Today’s Jerusalem Post Mar. 25, 2008 UN Watch Op-ed: “Show some backbone, EU” The following editorial was published in the op-ed page of today’s edition of The Jerusalem Post. Show some backbone, EU Hillel Neuer The UN Human Rights Council’s preoccupation with Israel will surge to a new intensity this week with the expected election of two officials who describe the Jewish state in Nazi terminology, along with three more resolutions indicting it for a litany of alleged crimes. Unless the European Union starts showing backbone, the UN’s other powerful voting blocs will continue scapegoating the Middle East’s only democracy in order to divert attention from situations of gross human rights abuses in places like Tibet, Saudi Arabia and Zimbabwe, which target peaceful protesters, women and dissidents. The council was created in June 2006 to reform the discredited Commission on Human Rights, criticized by many for its regular focus on Israel to the exclusion of the world’s worst human rights violators. However, apart from some passing attention to Burma, the supposedly reformed body has devoted all of its condemnatory resolutions to the Jewish state — 16 to date. Even still, the upcoming week, wrapping up the council’s main annual session, will stand out as particularly egregious. First, the 47-nation council will vote on three separate resolutions, introduced by the Arab and Islamic states, slamming Israel for alleged human rights violations in the Golan Heights, concerning the settlements, and for “severely impeding the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination.” There is not a word about recent Palestinian rocket and shooting attacks targeting civilians. As it happens, the council already condemned Israel during the first week of this session — over events in Gaza — after Arab and Islamic states pushed the panel to rearrange its schedule and open with Agenda Item 7, “the Human Rights situation in Palestine and other Occupied Arab Territories,” before anything else. BY CONTRAST, the council has maintained strict silence on the bloody shootings and mass arrests taking place in Tibet. Its resolutions have been equally silent about abuses in 190 other countries. Second, the Arab and Islamic states applied massive pressure on the council leadership to list Richard Falk as the only nominee to be the next Special Rapporteur on the Palestinian territories, to replace John Dugard, whose six-year term ends soon. The terms of the mandate, unchanged from February 1993, are to investigate “Israel’s violations of the principles and bases of international law.” Actions by Palestinians and other Middle East regimes — rocket attacks, suicide bombings, state sponsorship of terror — are excluded from the investigator’s purview. Falk, an emeritus professor at Princeton, is a veteran figure on the international scene of radical Left and pro-Palestinian politics. “It is especially painful for me, as an American Jew,” he wrote in a recent article, “to feel compelled to portray the ongoing and intensifying abuse of the Palestinian people by Israel through a reliance on such an inflammatory metaphor as ‘holocaust.’” After describing the Nazi horrors, he asked, “Is it an irresponsible overstatement to associate the treatment of Palestinians with this criminalized Nazi record of collective atrocity? I think not.” Falk’s article concluded by warning of a “Palestinian holocaust in the making.” If appointed, Falk will be a ubiquitous voice undermining the balanced approach of the road map for peace. THIRD, THE council is expected to elect Jean Ziegler, a radical Geneva politician, to its 18-member advisory committee. As the UN expert on the right to food for the past seven years, Ziegler ignored many of the world’s most starving populations, instead launching polemics against the West, the US and Israel. In 2005, Ziegler compared Israeli soldiers to concentration camp guards. During a 2006 interview, he said, “I refuse to describe Hizbullah as a terrorist organization. It is a national resistance movement. I can understand Hizbullah when they kidnap soldiers.” As documented by a new UN Watch documentary available on YouTube, Ziegler also has an odd affinity for dictators. In 1989, shortly after Libyan agents blew up Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, he went to Libya to co-found the “Moammar Khaddafi Human Rights Prize,” and served as its spokesman. The prize has since been awarded to anti-Western dictators such as Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez, as well as racists and anti-Semites such as Louis Farrakhan, leader of the Nation of Islam, and Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Muhammad. In 2002, the award went to Roger Garaudy, a French Holocaust denier — in the same year that Ziegler won it himself. Bizarrely, although he once boasted of it — in five different newspapers, including Time magazine — Ziegler now denies any involvement with the prize. Can anything be done? Yes. On the resolutions, the Arab and Islamic states rely on an automatic majority of non-democratic countries. Yet the key battle is one of legitimacy, won or lost by how the democratic European Union votes. If the EU would announce a new stand of opposing the endless one-sided resolutions — instead of abstaining or even voting in favor — they might actually end. Regarding Richard Falk, the appointment tomorrow will be by consensus between the council president and the 47 member states. If Canada and the EU publicly declare their opposition to his nomination, there will be no consensus. Though Falk could be elected by the Arab-backed majority, it is considered embarrassing for any expert to begin a mandate without the support of key democratic countries. The US, while not a voting member, must also publicly declare that they do not support this US national. Finally, Ziegler’s election, also for tomorrow, will be decided by the 47 council members. His victory is virtually assured — unless Switzerland withdraws his nomination. Human rights activists from Darfur, Cuba, the US and Europe have appealed to Swiss President Pascal Couchepin to act now, as have many hundreds of individuals through a petition on www.unwatch.org. There’s only one day left. This week more than ever, the very credibility of the UN human rights system is at stake. Hillel Neuer is executive director of UN Watch in Geneva. ___________________ Human Rights Activists Urge Swiss to Suspend Tomorrow’s UN Nomination of Khaddafi Ally Pending Independent Inquiry Jean Ziegler Supported Robert Mugabe and Fidel Castro, Co-Founded “Muammar Khaddafi Human Rights Prize” Geneva, March 25, 2008 — One day before the UN Human Rights Council votes to elect its 18 expert advisors, an activist for Darfur victims, a former political prisoner from Cuba, the former deputy prime minister of Sweden, and Canada’s leading human rights advocate have joined to urge Swiss President Pascal Couchepin and Foreign Minister Calmy-Rey to suspend their nomination of Jean Ziegler, 1989 co-founder of the “Muammar Khaddadi Human Rights Prize,” pending an independent and impartial inquiry into his record. (See full text of appeal below.) Under the direction of Mrs. Calmy-Rey, who has close political ties with Ziegler, the Swiss Foreign Ministry has been engaged in an intense campaign of UN vote-trading in order to elect the former socialist politician from Geneva in tomorrow’s vote. A glossy Swiss campaign brochure, sent to capitals around the world, describes Ziegler as a highly qualified champion of human rights. However, Ziegler’s qualifications for the UN human rights post are challenged by activists Angel De Fana, a former political prisoner who spent 20 years in a Cuban jail, Gibreil Hamid, who heads the Darfur Peace and Development Center and often testifies for Darfur victims before the UN Human Rights Council, former Swedish deputy prime minister and leading pro-democracy activist Per Ahlmark, and McGill University law professor Irwin Cotler, a Canadian parliamentarian and former justice minister who served as counsel to political prisoners Nelson Mandela and Andrei Sakharov. Supported by an international coalition of more than 20 non-governmental organizations, the activists point to Ziegler’s long record of support for serial human rights violators including Libya’s Khaddafi, Fidel Castro of Cuba, Zimbabwe‘s Robert Mugabe, and Ethiopian strongman Colonel Mengistu. In 1962, Fidel Castro’s police threw Angel De Fana in jail for being a member of a pro-democracy group named after José Martí, the Cuban writer and national hero. ”We had to hide to assemble,” said De Fana, who languished in prison from 1962 to 1983, adding that he and fellow prisoners had to endure years of forced labor. “I was forced to cut stone in a quarry.” * * * * * * * Urgent Letter to Swiss President and Foreign Minister on Dear President Couchepin and Foreign Minister Calmy-Rey, We urge you to withdraw your government’s nomination of Jean Ziegler to the UN Human Rights Council Advisory Committee, the election for which is scheduled on March 26, 2008. If elected, Mr. Ziegler would occupy one of the only three seats allotted to Western countries. The official criteria for the position are expertise in human rights, high moral standing, independence and impartiality. An analysis of Mr. Ziegler’s record raises serious questions as to his satisfaction of these requirements. Concerns include: Mr. Ziegler’s abuse of his current UN Mandate. As UN special rapporteur on the right to food for the past seven years, Mr. Ziegler ignored many of the world’s most starving populations, instead focusing attention on his personal political agenda. As documented in the UN Watch report “Blind to Burundi,” during 2000 to 2004, Mr. Ziegler systematically failed to speak out for numerous food emergencies, in Burundi, the Central African Republic, Sierra Leone and elsewhere. Mr. Zieger’s support for serial violators of human rights. In 1986, Mr. Ziegler served as advisor to Ethiopian dictator Colonel Mengistu on a constitution instituting one-party rule. In 2002 he praised the Zimbabwean dictator, saying, “Mugabe has history and morality with him.” He paid visits to Saddam Hussein in Iraq and Kim Il-Sung in North Korea. Mr. Ziegler is also a long-time supporter of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, whose regime Mr. Ziegler hailed during an official visit in October, while he refused to meet Cuban dissidents. Also this year, during an interview in Lebanon, Mr. Ziegler said, “I refuse to describe Hezbollah as a terrorist organization. It is a national resistance movement. I can understand Hezbollah when they kidnap soldiers…” Mr. Ziegler’s involvement with Libyan propaganda. In 1989, shortly after Libyan agents blew up Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, Mr. Ziegler went to Libya to co-found the “Moammar Khaddafi Human Rights Prize,” and served as its Geneva spokesman. The prize has since been awarded to anti-Western dictators such as Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez. It has also been awarded to notorious racists and anti-Semites such as Louis Farrakhan, leader of the Nation of Islam, and Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Muhammad. Bizarrely, although he once boasted of it, Mr. Ziegler now denies any involvement with the prize. All of this was documented in a front-page story in your country’s leading newspaper. (M. Haefliger, “Ziegler’s Libyen Connection,” Neue Zurcher Zeitung, June 25, 2006.) Mr. Ziegler’s support for Holocaust denier Roger Garaudy. In 1996, Mr. Ziegler publicly defended Roger Garaudy, a French Stalinist whose book The Founding Myths of Modern Israel denies the Holocaust. “All your work as a writer and philosopher,” Mr. Ziegler wrote on April 1, 1996, “attests to the rigor of your analysis and the unwavering honesty of your intentions. It makes you one of the leading thinkers of our time.” In 2002, Mr. Garaudy was awarded the Khaddafi Prize—the same year that Mr. Ziegler received it as well. In April 2006, an international coalition of 15 non-governmental organizations, including victims of Cuban and Libyan abuses, protested Mr. Ziegler’s nomination as a UN expert, citing his disturbing record. Similarly, many scholars have questioned Mr. Ziegler’s academic credentials. For example, when he was made professor at the University of Geneva, eminent historian Herbert Luthy returned his honorary doctorate in protest. We note that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez nominated Mr. Ziegler for the same post in 2004, but that he failed to win election. In order to protect the credibility of the world’s highest intergovernmental human rights body—with which Switzerland is heavily involved—we urge you to withdraw this nomination. At a minimum, it should be suspended pending the results of an independent and impartial inquiry into Mr. Ziegler’s record. Thank you. Professor Irwin Cotler, M.P. Gibreil Hamid Angel De Fana Additional Signatories: more than 20 non-governmental organizations — click for expanded list. ___________________ Senior U.S. and European Lawmakers Protest Jean Ziegler Nomination Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, the European Parliament’s Head of Delegation for UN Relations, sent a strong protest today to the Swiss ambassador to the European Parliament concerning the Swiss nomination of Jean Ziegler to a UN human rights post. Click for full letter (in German). Permalink | ### |
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Plans For An Arctic War For Oil Are Being Prepared In Nevada For Interim Submission On The UN Table. Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on March 24th, 2008 U.S. firm lays claim to ‘potentially vast’ Arctic oil resources - U.S. firm lays claim to nearly all of what it says will be 400 billion barrels - makes it known, Friday, March 21, 2008, Randy Boswell of the The Ottawa Citizen. The company, which counts retired B.C. (British Colombia, Canada) Senator Edward Lawson among its directors, has filed a claim with the United Nations to act as the sole “development agent” of Arctic seabed oil and gas.
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