Why Fly When You Can Float?  Behemoths in the Air - A New Age for Dirigible.

ZLT Zeppelin Luftschifftechnik

for details please see:

 http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/05/busine…

Ethiopian Sigd made official State holiday. Knesset decides to include Ethiopian holiday in official holiday calendar. Holiday’s history, traditions, ceremonies to be included in educational system’s curriculum

Published:     07.02.08, www.ynetnews.com

The Knesset plenum decided to formally add the Ethiopian Sigd holiday to the list of State holidays, and will be holding an annual state ceremony for it during the Hebrew month of Heshvan, which usually falls on October or November.

Sigd is a traditional Ethiopian day of fast, dedicated to prayers for the rebuilding of the Temple and giving thanks for the right to return to the Holy Land. The fasting ends in mid-day, in a Seder of sorts.

The Ethiopian community in Israel has been celebrating the holiday by holding a mass ceremony in Mount Zion in Jerusalem, topped with a procession to the Western Wall. In the past few years, the ceremony has been held in Jerusalem’s Armon Hanatziv Promenade.

The motion was brought before the House by Knesset Member Uri Ariel (National Union-National Religious Party) and was widely backed by MKs from Shas, Meretz, Labor and the Likud parties.

The motion passed its Knesset readings, effectively becoming a holiday by law. Its main ceremony will be funded by the Prime Minister’s Office; the holiday’s history, traditions and ceremonies will be included in the educational system’s curriculum and going to work during the holiday will be optional.

MK Ariel welcomed the Knesset’s decision, saying it was “upholding the sacred duty Israel has to the blessed Ethiopian immigration, which has enriched Israeli society.”

World News Desk – July 3, 2008 - www.realtruth.org
AFRICA

African Union Seeks to Resolve Zimbabwe Crisis.

The African Union (AU) held its 11th summit, primarily to discuss the political crisis in Zimbabwe. The result wa a call for a national unity government, following the widely condemned run-off re-election of incumben President Robert Mugabe. To escape the ensuing violence, the challenging opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, has withdrawn a week earlier, taking refuge in the Dutch embassy for more than a week.

The meeting of the pan-African summit highlighted a deep division among the continent’s other countries regarding what to do about the Zimbabwean crisis, particularly Mr. Mugabe, who has historically been considered a “liberation hero.” The summit’s resolution fell short of a much stronger statement wanted by some nations.

According to a Reuters report, Botswana, which borders Zimbabwe’s west, called for Mr. Mugabe to be barred from both the AU and the Southern African regional body SADC. Mompati Merafhe, vice-president of Botswana, said that Mr. Mugabe’s participation in African meetings “would give unqualified legitimacy to a process which cannot be considered legitimate.” He added that the government and opposition must be treated as equal in any mediation. Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga made a similar call.

South Africa, the regional power, resisted the stronger statement for the AU, and called for the crisis to be resolved by the SADC, which it chairs. South African President Thabo Mbeki, however, has been criticized for what has been seen as ineffective mediation and favoritism towards Robert Mugabe. The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), an opposition party to Mr. Mugabe’s Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF), issued a statement: “The MDC’s reservations about the mediation process under President Mbeki are well known. It is our position that unless the mediation team is expanded to include at least one permanent representative from the African Union, and the mediation mechanism is changed, no meaningful progress can be made toward resolving the Zimbabwean crisis. If this does not happen, then the MDC will not be part of such a mediation process.”

In addition, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who just began his six-month presidency of the European Union, said the EU would only accept a Zimbabwean government led by Mr. Tsvangirai, who is generally accepted to have beaten Mr. Mugabe in the first round of the March 29 election.
The AU’s position is tenuous at best, as Mugabe representative George Charamba had earlier rejected any Kenyan-style power-sharing deal, and MDC Secretary-General Tendai Biti more recently said there was no chance of negotiations.

A Christian Science Monitor article pointed out that the AU’s inability to directly rebuke Robert Mugabe regarding an election that its own monitors say “fell short” of AU standards (e.g., due to acts of violence) shows that the body is unable to live up to promises of “African solutions for African problems.”

“This clearly indicates that there are no shared and common values around what good governance is, what democracy is,” said Chris Maroleng, a security analyst at the Institute for Security Studies in Tshwane, South Africa. “A lot of our leaders have questionable democratic credentials, so it’s not surprising that the AU fell short of the mark” (ibid.).

“A government of national unity at this stage is a nonstarter,” Mr. Maroleng added. Unless there is a complete restructuring of the Zimbabwean constitution, a change in the executive powers of the presidency, any power-sharing deal at this point would permanently tilt the advantage, in the favor of Mr. Mugabe. “It’s placing icing over a rotten core. It would look nice, but underneath, it would still be rotten” (ibid.).

In the meantime, the U.S. was preparing a United Nations resolution calling for economic sanctions against Robert Mugabe and 11 of his compatriots, as well as imposing an embargo on arms sales or military hardware to Harare. The position was to express “deep concern at the gross irregularities during the June 27 run-off presidential election (and) the violence and intimidation perpetrated in the run-up to the election that made impossible the holding of free and fair elections” (Reuters).

All the while, the people of Zimbabwe continue to endure severe financial and social hardship.

We received an e-mail showing how little costs to buy gasoline (in German called Benzin) and diesel fuel if you live in a so called developing oil-exporting country or in the USA

Date: July 4, 2008

1 Liter = 0.264174 gal (US Liq)
US$ 1 = Euro 1.5682 as of 7/4/2008

The Austrian e-mail evokes the following list. We went then and looked up other countries and found that Austria is actually a bargain when compared to other developed economies.

The Austrian 1.32 Euro/liter is 2.16 times what the complaining American sissies are paying, but only 78.7% of what Norwegians are paying or 80.7% of what the Dutch are paying.

On the other hand Japan at 0.99 Euro/liter is another chaeap-shot so is Canada at 0.88 Euro/liter.

And you know already what we think? Those that pay more for their gasoline have also decreased their dependence on oil by efficiency methods and conservation - they also developed alternatives to oil and have started building the economy of the future. So, it is actually the US that is falling behind while it transfers its funds to the Gulf States hoping that the increased National Debt will devalue the US$ to the point that it remains valueless paper in their hand.The problem is that they do not sit on the money anymore. They actually buy assets with that money - among that buying spree they also buy up chunks of America. So what then? Will they agree to American taxation without representation - or the US will eventually find out that Bush made a Faustian Deal with the US oil companies and with his Arab friends.

Our advice to our Austrian readers is thus - DO NOT COMPLAIN ABOUT THE TAX ON FUEL - BUT MAKE SURE THE MONEY IS USED SO THAT EVENTUALLY YOU WILL HAVE TO BUY LESS OF IT.

The following is what we got in the mail - then look at what we added for the sake of analysis. if our other readers want to get the actual numbers in US dollars, please use the above conversion factors.

BENZINPREISE INTERNATIONAL

Benzin that is Gasoline - but much of the posting is about Diesel - this because in Europe the motor-fuel of choice is high quality Diesel.

Afghanistan Normalbenzin € 0,43

Algerien Diesel € 0,11

Aserbaidschan Diesel € 0,31

Ägypten Diesel € 0,14

Ãthiopien Super € 0,24

Bahamas Diesel € 0,25

Bolivien Super € 0,25

Brasilien Diesel € 0,54

China Normal € 0,45

Ecuador Normal € 0,24

Ghana Normal € 0,09 !!!!!!!

Grönland Super € 0,50

Guyana Normal € 0,67

Hong Kong Diesel € 0,84

Indien Diesel € 0,62

Indonesien Diesel € 0,32

Irak Super € 0,60

Kasachstan Diesel € 0,44

Katar Super € 0,15

Kuwait Super € 0,18

Kuba Normal € 0,62

Libyen Diesel € 0,08 !!!!!!!

Malaysia Super € 0,55

Mexico Diesel € 0,41

Moldau Normal € 0,25

Oman Super plus € 0,20

Peru Diesel € 0,22

Philippinen Diesel € 0,69

Russland Super € 0,64

Saudi Arabien Diesel € 0,07 !!!!!!

Südafrika Diesel € 0,66

Swasiland Super € 0,10 !!!!!!

Syrien Diesel € 0,10 !!!!!

Trinidad Super € 0,33

Thailand Super € 0,65

Tunesien Diesel € 0,49

USA Diesel € 0,61

Venezuela Diesel € 0,07 !!!!!

Vereinigte Arabische Emirate Diesel € 0,18

Vietnam Diesel € 0,55

Weißrussland Diesel € 0,51

EU und dem Finanzminister sei dank ist der Österreicher bzw. Europäer dumm
genug sich abzocken zu lassen (Mineralölsteuer und Mehrwertsteuer auf
Benzin).

Bitte dieses E-Mail weiter zu schicken damit wenigstens einige Leute
erkennen wie stark Österreich geneppt wird.

Benzinpreise auf der eigenen Webseite

And looking at international prices for July 4, 2008 at - http://benzinpreis.de/international.phtm…

Land Normalbenzin in € Superbenzin in € SuperPlus in € Diesel in €

Österreich 1,26 1,29 * 1,28 1,32 *

UK 1,40 1,46 1,50 1,58

Finnland 1,47 1,50 1,50 1,36

Frankreich 1,39 1,34 * 1,44 1,37 *

Irland 1,26 1,26 1,15 1,43

Island 1,35 1,40 1,47 1,50

Israel - 1,05 - -

Italien 1,36 1,46 1,34 1,45

Japan 0,99 1,08 - 0,79

Kanada 0,88 0.87 0.82  0.90

Neuseeland 1,03 0,97 - 1,46

Niederlande 1,56 1,61 1,69 1,31 **

Norwegen 1,60 1,61 1,46 1,56

Schweden 1,37 1,39 1,36 1,47

Schweiz 1,24 1,21 * 1,23 1,37 *

Ungarn 1,29 1,26 1,20 1,31

Groundbreaking Lawsuit Accuses Big Oil of Conspiracy to Deceive Public About Climate Change.  Now you see why the Bushies love “tort reform”…

Posted by Democracy Now!, www.Democracy Now!  on July 3, 2008.
Attorney Stephen Susman helped file a groundbreaking lawsuit earlier this year on behalf of 400 Inuit villagers in the Alaskan town of Kivalina who are being forced to relocate because of flooding caused by global warming. The suit accuses 20 oil, gas and electric companies–including ExxonMobil, Chevron, BP, ConocoPhillips and Peabody–of being responsible for emitting millions of tons of greenhouse gases causing the Arctic ice to melt.

Earlier this week a judge in Georgia blocked the construction of a coal-fired power plant because the plant did not set limits on carbon dioxide emissions.

In what is being described as an unprecedented ruling, the judge said the plant could not receive an air pollution permit unless it limits its emissions.

Today we are going to look at the rapidly growing field of global warming litigation.

I am joined here in Aspen, Colorado by the attorney Steve Susman. He is the founding partner of the law firm Susman Godfrey.

Earlier this year he helped file a groundbreaking lawsuit on behalf of 400 Inuit villagers in the Alaskan town of Kivalina who are being forced to relocate because of flooding caused by global warming.

The suit accuses 20 oil, gas and electric companies of being responsible for emitting millions of tons of greenhouse gases causing the Arctic ice to melt. Companies named in the suit include ExxonMobil, Chevron, BP, ConocoPhillips and Peabody. The suit also accuses eight of the corporations of being involved in a conspiracy to mislead the public about the causes of global warming.

Susman and his legal team have adopted a legal strategy similar to that used by lawyers who fought Big Tobacco in the 1990s. Susman was also involved in that litigation – he was an attorney for the tobacco giant Philip Morris.

Steve Susman also recently represented the Texas Cities for Clear Air Coalition in their successful effort to block the energy company TXU from building 10 new coal-burning power plants. The case was featured in Robert Redford’s documentary, “Fighting Goliath—Texas Coal Wars.” Attorney Steve Susman joins me here in Aspen.

Steve Susman is founding partner of the law firm Susman Godfrey. He recently filed a pioneering global warming lawsuit against Exxon Mobil, BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips and 20 other oil, coal and electric companies on behalf of residents of the Alaskan Native coastal village of Kivalina.

IGES White Paper - Climate Change Policies in the Asia-Pacific:
Re-uniting Climate Change and Sustainable Development.

July 2, 2008
The Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES), Hayama, Japan, is pleased to announce the publication of its second white paper Climate Change Policies in the Asia-Pacific: Re-uniting Climate Change and Sustainable Development.

This White Paper is a summary of current climate change policies in the Asia-Pacific region and new recommendations, based on strategic research carried out at IGES so far.

The Asia-Pacific is experiencing rapid economic development and, as well as being a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, it is feared that the region will suffer the worst impact. Climate change is the most urgent problem facing the international community and in pursuing a post-2012 framework, attention is focused on ways to deal with climate change in Asia Pacific countries.

This White Paper proposes climate strategies that fully take into account the needs of developing countries in Asia and the Pacific. It looks at the impact of climate change in the Asia-Pacific region and current policies from various aspects such as international framework, market mechanisms, forestry, biofuels, waste, water and business, and sets out policy recommendations that integrate climate change policies and sustainable development and shows the way for new development towards the realisation of a low-carbon society.

To download, please visit:
 http://www.iges.or.jp/en/pub/whitepaper….

Contact:
———————————————————————————–
Ms. Kitamura, Publication officer
The Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES)
2108-11 Kamiyamaguchi, Hayama, Kanagawa, 240-0115 Japan
Tel: +81-46-855-3720 Fax: +81-46-855-3709
 pub-iges at iges.or.jp

If Africa Will Agree To Stop Shooting at Itself, and if the Donor Countries Can Agree To Do Something Positive in the Follo-up To A World-Agreement on a new Climate Change agreement, Africa Should be Indeed a Major Part of a Carbon Trading Mechanism.

In Anticipation of the Above, Some Tough Minded People Want To Try To Have Propsals On The Table For Real Plans Of Action. We Wish Them, And Ourselves - the Best of Luck.

Subject: Solicitation of African Carbon Offset Projects & Travel Sponsorship Opportunity
Reply-To: “Lars Rosendahl Appelquist” <lars.rosendahl@risoe.dk>

July 2, 2008

At COP‐13 in Bali, the UNFCCC Secretariat announced its intent to convene the first Africa Carbon Forum, in partnership with the International Emissions Trading Association (IETA) and the multilateral agencies supporting the Nairobi Framework, including UNEP, UNDP, UNIDO, UNECA, and the World Bank. The Nairobi Framework aims to assist developing countries, especially those in sub‐Saharan Africa, to enhance their participation in the CDM. This groundbreaking high‐profile event will combine a carbon investment trade fair, a policy forum for African DNAs and climate change officials, as well as targeted capacity building for the CDM.

The Forum will take place from 3 ‐ 5 September 2008 at Le Meridien Hotel, Pointe Des Almadies, in Dakar, Senegal.

Further details and a draft agenda can be downloaded from the IETA website: http://www.ieta.org/ieta/www/pages/index…

Despite the fast growth of the global carbon market and the urgent need to boost energy and infrastructure investment in Africa, local actors are only just beginning to tap into this market. The Africa Carbon Forum will strengthen links between CDM project developers and the region’s investment community, and facilitate knowledge sharing and transactions between project sponsors and global carbon offset credit buyers. Specifically, matchmaking and deal facilitation sessions will enable potential CDM project participants and developers to showcase their projects to interested parties, including investors and carbon buyers.

The organizers therefore invite all interested parties to attend and to submit their carbon offset project concepts for consideration.

As co‐organizers of the Forum, UNEP and UNDP have pledged to provide travel sponsorships for CDM project champions from across the African continent to attend the event, based on a competitive selection.

See attached document for additional details on the sponsorship procedures and requirements.

 http://www.ieta.org/ieta/www/pages/index…

————-

BACKGROUND

At COP13 in Bali, the UNFCCC Secretariat announced its intent to convene the 1st Africa Carbon Forum, in collaboration with the International Emissions Trading Association (IETA) and the partner agencies of the Nairobi Framework, including the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), The World Bank and the African Development Bank. The Nairobi Framework was initiated with the specific target of helping developing countries, especially those in sub-Saharan Africa, to improve their level of participation in the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM).

OBJECTIVE

This event will bring together representatives from designated national authorities (DNA), national focal points (NFP), representatives from several UN agencies, governments and the private sector.

The Africa Carbon Forum is a platform that will strengthen links between CDM project developers and the region’s investment community, provide opportunities for DNA representatives to exchange views and share their experiences relating to the CDM, while facilitating knowledge sharing and transactions between project sponsors and global carbon offset credit buyers.

The Forum will take place from 3-5 September 2008 in Dakar, Senegal, at Le Méridien Hotel, located in the Pointe Des Almadies area.
The event will combine a carbon investment Trade Fair, a Conference and policy forum for African DNAs and climate change officials, as well as targeted capacity building on the CDM. Specifically, matchmaking and deal facilitation sessions will enable potential CDM project participants and developers to showcase their projects to interested parties, including investors and carbon buyers.

The complete schedule of this three-day event will be available shortly.

The Africa Carbon Forum provides a platform for companies to Present, Showcase, Meet and Interact. The exhibitor section will be open to the following types of entities:
• Service providers in the carbon market (Designated Operational Entities, Applicant Entities, methodology developers etc);
• Technology providers for new technologies to reduce GHGs (sector-based, technology based, other);
• Solution providers;
• Individual industrial organizations showcasing their solutions and achievements;
• Project developers;
• Funds that will purchase emissions reductions;
• CDM Host country governments and DNAs;
• Bilateral and multilateral aid agencies and foundations; and NGOs

——————-

Also from Denmark:

Based on the unequal geographical distribution of CDM activities where the Least Developed Countries (LDC) are largely under represented and the increasing microfinance activities in these countries, the Executive Board to the CDM launched the idea to explore the possibilities for combining CDM development with microfinance mechanisms. The COP endorsed the concept and the Government of Denmark decided to finance the project.

The purpose of the project is to identify possible synergies between the CDM, especially CDM Programme of Activities (PoA), and microfinance mechanisms. The objective is to enhance CDM activities in LDCs, in particularly sub-Saharan Africa, by exploring ways to improve the financial feasibility of mitigation projects that are pertinent to LDCs.

DANIDA has appointed the Danish consulting engineering company NIRAS A/S to execute the study for which we have engaged the services of the internationally recognised experts Ms. Christiana Figueres and Mr. Hans Jürgen Stehr to enhance our in house capacity.

We would like to report to the EB on the advance of PoAs worldwide. Thus, if you are developing a PoA we would like to know the country(ies), the sector, and the foreseeable CPAs. We are particularly interested in PoAs in LDCs and Africa, but would be happy to receive information on PoAs in other regions.

We will collate the information received and make it available to users of Climate L, as well as include it in the report to the EB. We recognise the sensitivity of particular information during the project development process due to competition issues and will thus make sure that no confidential information is distributed and that the information will be collected without attribution to who is developing the PoA if requested.

Ms. Hanne Holm-Jørgensen

NIRAS
Sortemosevej 2
DK-3450 Alleroed
Denmark

email:  hhj at niras.dk
phone: +45 4810 4766

Israel hosts conference on Green Revolution in Africa.

Sunday, June 1, 2008 - Prof. Jeffrey Sachs, Special Advisor to the UN Secretary General on Millennium Development Goals, said in Israel, at the opening of the International Conference on Israel and the African Green Revolution: “Israel must make the transition from a state that receives aid to a state that gives aid.”

Sachs added that Africa would like to have Israel as a partner in the continent’s green revolution, and that Israel has the technological know-how that Africa needs in three main fields: agriculture, public health and medicine, and solar energy.

At the conference, which opened at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Jerusalem, representatives from Israel, and from the international community, presented various approaches to agricultural development on the African continent and discussed how to effectively implement them in order to alleviate the present food and water crisis. Israel and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) also signed, for the first time, a memorandum of understanding for cooperation in the field of agriculture.

Prof. Sachs, head of the Earth Institute at Columbia University in New York, is a world-renowned economist and is especially prominent in the efforts to reduce poverty in underdeveloped areas of the world. In his speech, Prof. Sachs mentioned that hundreds of millions of people around the world suffer from hunger, lack of water, disease and unemployment despite the wealth, advanced technology and know-how that exist in today’s world. “All this causes instability and emigration,” Prof. Sachs stated, “and instead of cooperating to find solutions to the problems, the world reacts with fear and builds walls.”

The conference, which was organized by MASHAV, (the Center for International Cooperation, the Israeli body responsible for extending aid to developing countries), was attended by hundreds of delegates representing African states and international aid organizations, as well as MASHAV trainees in Israel and academics.

Grist Weekly - TOP STORY

Pass the Sugar, Sugar

Florida will buy out sugar company to restore Everglades - the immediate beneficiaries are a sugar family of immigrants that escaped Cuba when Fidel Castro took the reigns.

Nearly 300 square miles of sugar plantation in the Everglades will once again become marsh, as Florida Gov. Charlie Crist announced last week that the state will buy the land from U.S. Sugar Corp. If all goes to plan, the $1.75 billion deal may be the largest environmental restoration in the history of the United States. Environmentalists have long lamented the sugar industry’s role in diverting and polluting the Everglades’ water supply; the River of Grass is only half the 11,000 square miles it was in the early 20th century. U.S. Sugar, which has farmed the Everglades for nearly 80 years, plans to go out of business within six years. The deal is, says Kirk Fordham of the Everglades Foundation, “an achievement of breathtaking significance and priceless value.” Sweet.

sources: Los Angeles Times, Herald-Tribune, Reuters, CNN, The New York Times, Associated Press
see also, in Grist: