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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on June 29th, 2008 As per e-mail and Conference website at http://www.aspo-usa.org/aspousa4/
—————– Agenda Spotlight: Sunday afternoon, Sept. 21 On Sunday you will be able to choose from the following concurrent sessions: - Reporting the Peak Oil Story
- Scenarios Planning for State and Local Government
————— Two Full Days of Plenary Sessions, on Monday, Sept. 22 and Tuesday, Sept. 23 Monday, Sept. 22 Demand, Meet Supply Our luncheon presentation will feature Jim Buckee on “Big Oil & Resource Nationalism”, and a surprise evening presentation (Hint: The words “Exponential” and “growth” will be mentioned.) Tuesday, Sept. 23 Where Now? Choices for the Long Haul
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on June 20th, 2008 Sierra Club Releases National Faith Appreciation Report: “Faith in Action” highlights environmental initiatives from 50+ faith groups. June 20, 2008, Washington, DC – Highlighting one exceptional faith-based environmental initiative from each of the fifty states, the Sierra Club today released its first ever national faith appreciation report, “Faith in Action: Communities of Faith Bring Hope for the Planet.” The report illustrates the growing momentum of the “creation care” movement and recognizes local leaders. “This report demonstrates that the call to care for the earth comes no matter what one’s faith background is,” said Lyndsay Moseley, of the Sierra Club’s Environmental Partnerships Program. “We are inspired by the faith community’s leadership in working to protect the planet, and this report is our way of saying ‘thank you’ to the many people of faith working on creation care initiatives across the country.” The National Faith Appreciation Report is a project of the Sierra Club’s Environmental Partnerships Program, which works actively with faith groups around the United States to broaden support for environmental protection. “We are excited by the opportunity to recognize these phenomenal efforts, and hope that this report will further encourage people of faith by illuminating a broad array of successful models of environmental engagement,” said Moseley. The groups highlighted are engaged in a variety of environmentally-conscious initiatives. Some examples from the report include: • The Texas Christian Life Commission, the largest Baptist organization in Texas educating congregations about creation care and calling for a moratorium on building new coal-fired power plants to reduce health risks. To read the full report, visit www.sierraclub.org ———————- For those interested in studies more in depth of environmental ethics - here what seems to be an enlightening and very pleasant experience: Montana Summer Environmental Ethics Institute. See www.umt.edu for more details. The Center for Ethics at The University of Montana will hold its third annual Environmental Ethics Institute in early August of 2008. The institute provides a unique opportunity for scholars, students, professionals, and interested citizens to gather in Missoula , MT to discuss and reflect on environmental issues. The institute consists of a seminar, a course, and several public lectures/panel discussions. Students may enroll for either the 5-day course or the 2-day seminar (or both). The course requires 4 to 5 weeks of asynchronous online study prior to 5 days of face-to-face contact in Missoula . Students last year loved this format, one commenting that it was “the perfect balance of a variety of teaching strategies!” The seminar is a new offering in 2008, and will be held over two days. A wide variety of interested individuals — students, professors, community members and professionals– will have the opportunity to take part. To learn more about the Environmental Ethics Institute and last year’s events visit: http://www.umt.edu/ethics/Qeei/2007/defa… The 2008 course offering will be Environmental Ethics and Policy, taught by Andrew Light, Professor of Philosophy and Public Policy at the University of Washington . The 2008 weekend seminar will be taught by Karen Warren, Professor of Philosophy at Macalester College ( St. Paul , MN ), and is called Gender, Health, The Environment, and Social Justice: Exploring Their Interconnections. Registration information can be found at: http://www.umt.edu/ethics/programs/EEI.h… For more information please contact Dane Scott ( dane.scott at mso.umt.edu) or Christopher Preston ( christopher.preston at mso.umt.edu) Permalink | ### |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on June 8th, 2008 The Sixth Annual Explorers Club Film Festival - Celebrating the Spirit of Exploration June 13-14, 2008 46 East 70th Street, New York City, NY 120021 SCREENING SCHEDULE For reservations, please call 212-628-8383 or email reservations at explorers.org. (See below for ticket pricing.) FRIDAY EVENING, JUNE 13 OPENING NIGHT (tickets $40) 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm Registration 7:00 pm - 7:30 pm Introduction and discussion with Norman Dyhrenfurth HON’62 7:30 pm - 9:00 pm Screening of THE CONQUEST OF EVEREST 9:00 pm - 10:00 pm Reception THE CONQUEST OF EVEREST (90 minutes) - The classic 1953 feature documentary of the British expedition to Mt. Everest, led by Sir John Hunt, which culminated in Sir Edmund Hillary and Tensing Norgay’s historic summit. The film details how the peak was discovered and named, and outlines the previous attempts to reach its summit, beginning in 1922. It takes viewers into the complex planning before the victorious climb, and then accompanies the mountaineers and their Sherpa guides on the actual expedition. Both The New York Times and Time magazine named it one of the ten best films of the year and it received a “Best Documentary” Academy Award nomination as well as a British Academy Award. Directed by George Lowe. The film will be introduced by Norman Dyhrenfurth, Honorary Explorers Club Fellow, who led the first successful American team to Mt. Everest, having spent three years on the organization and fundraising of this privately-mounted venture. Mr. Dyhrenfurth is coming from his home in Austria as the festival’s honored guest. SATURDAY, JUNE 14 MORNING SESSION (tickets $20) 9:00 am - 9:30 am Registration 9:30 am - 12:30 pm Program RETURN TO PENGUIN CITY (Best Science Exploration Film - 48 minutes) - A fascinating, wonderfully told documentary about the Adelie penguins of Antarctica, with the science that was missing from “March of the Penguins.” Researchers Viola Toniolo and Grant Ballard discover that rapid climate changes may not only affect the penguins ability to survive, but it could also have major repercussions well beyond this distant corner of the world. Produced and directed by Lloyd Fales, who will introduce the film. DOG GONE ADDICTION (Best Adventure Film - 67 minutes) - Hang onto your dog team and join three women competing in the grueling Yukon Quest dog sled race. A young Canadian mother, a Polish adventurer and an Alaska dog sled veteran test their limits and the limits of their huskies through 1,000 miles of sub-zero Yukon and Alaska terrain. This spirited and uplifting account of what can be achieved when you face your fears reveals why the lesser-known Yukon Quest is considered by many to be the toughest dog sled race on earth. Produced and Directed by Becky Bristow, who will introduce the film. ICE CHALLENGER (Best Film by an Explorers Club Member - 48 minutes) - The first crossing of the frozen Bering Strait from Alaska to Russia in a land-based vehicle. An Explorers Club Flag Expedition by British adventurer Steve Brooks in his Snowbird 6 vehicle, which must be capable of driving on the frozen ice, crossing the open sea, mounting and leaving huge frozen ice pans - all in -40 degree weather. Written and produced by Celia Carey Meyer. Directed by Sean Davison. AFTERNOON SESSION (tickets $25) 1:00 pm - 1:30 pm Registration 1:30 pm - 5:30 pm Program PRIZE OF THE POLE (Best Expedition Film - 78 minutes) - An unforgettable film about the darker angels of Robert Peary’s nature - the rarely examined story of his secret Eskimo wife and family and his highly controversial transport of young Eskimos to New York for anthropological study — all told through the odyssey of the renowned polar explorer’s Eskimo great-grandson, who travels to America in search of one lost boy’s fate. A riveting, heart-breaking tale eloquently told by filmmaker Staffan Julen. STRANGE DAYS ON PLANET EARTH: DIRTY SECRETS (Best Environmental Film - 55 minutes) - The fifth episode of this renowned National Geographic series, produced by the Sea Studios Foundation. Beautifully written and photographed, “Dirty Secrets” propels the audience into a new set of compelling environmental mysteries and inspiring solutions, revealing the strange and often unpredictable consequences of the pollutants we pour into our waters. Produced and directed by Rob Whttlesey. Narrated by Edward Norton. Executive Producer Mark Shelley will introduce the film. GREENPEACE: MAKING A STAND (Special Jury Award - 48 minutes) - With dramatic action footage, still photographs, lively interviews with unforgettable characters, evocative period and contemporary music, “Greenpeace: Making a Stand” explores what inspires people to risk their lives for their beliefs - to sail a ship into a nuclear test zone, to get between a pod of whales and an explosive harpoon, or to block bulldozers mowing down a forest. This compelling documentary looks at the 35-year evolution of Greenpeace, from the early days of the environmental movement in the 1970s to the front lines of a potentially dangerous campaign in Argentina. Produced and Directed by Leigh Badgley, who will introduce the film. EVENING SESSION (tickets $30) 6:30 pm - 7:00 pm Registration 7:00 pm - 10:00 pm Program THE THIRD POLE (Best Exploration Film - 89 minutes) - The extraordinary and untold story of husband and wife mountaineers and filmmakers Hettie and Gunter Dyhrenfruth, who in the 1930s mounted private world-class international expeditions to the Himalaya that were milestones in the exploration of its unclimbed and virtually unknown 8,000-meter peaks. Swiss citizens, Hettie and her son, Norman, were in the U.S. in 1939 when war broke out in Europe. Norman went on to become a prominent American mountaineer and filmmaker, organizer of the first American expedition to summit Everest in 1963. Featuring Norman Dyhrenfurth, Reinhold Messner and Sir Christian Bonington. A film by Andreas Nickel and Juergen Czwienk. Norman Dyhrenfurth will introduce the film, along with Andreas Nickel. POLYNESIA: THE WAYFINDERS (Best People and Culture Film - 47 minutes) - Part of Wade Davis’ brilliant series, Light at the Edge of the World, this film chronicles the Wayfinders of Polynesia, who inhabited the largest culturesphere in human history, spanning one-fifth of the surface of the planet. The navigators could pinpoint tiny islands in the vastness of the Pacific by reading the stars, the winds and the seas swells. However, this culture that once flourished over 25 million square kilometers of ocean has seen much of its history and tradition die out. To preserve Wayfinding, one Hawaiian learns this art form of navigation and designs a traditional Polynesian boat to sail across the islands. Written and Produced by Wade Davis and Andrew Gregg. Directed by Andrew Gregg. National Geographic photographer Chris Rainier will introduce the film. For reservations, please call 212-628-8383 or email reservations at explorers.org. Tickets are priced as follows: Saturday Morning Session - $20 Saturday Afternoon Session - $25 Saturday Evening Session - $30 All-Day Saturday Pass - $60 (includes all three sessions on Saturday) All-Festival Pass - $95 (includes all four sessions on Friday and Saturday) Permalink | ### |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on April 21st, 2008 Please see attached the results from meeting of organizations of Indigenous Peoples and Traditional Communities from Latin America, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Papua, Indonesia, in the city of Manaus, Brazil for the Latin American Workshop, “Climate Change and Forest Peoples: Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) and the Rights of Indigenous and Traditional Peoples”, 1-4th of April, 2008. Please forward to who ever you may think is interested, in particular indigenous and traditional population organizations. Please note that the Manaus Declaration and the Synthesis of the working groups are attached in all workshop languages: Spanish, French, Bahasa, English and Portuguese. Other info: Link to workshop other documents http://partnerpage.google.com/amazonfore… Link workshop’s photos: http://amazonforestpeople.multiply.com/ Press news below English (NYT and Mongabay) and Spanish (El Publico) Sorry for sending so many documents, but it is really important for the REDD Southern Outreach. Best regards, Paula Moreira El Publico, Spain: ChequeIndígena (attached) Mongabay: http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0407-manau… Rainforest peoples form alliance to demand representation at climate talks Rainforest peoples from 11 nations have formed a coalition to demand a greater say in future climate negotiations. Meeting in Manaus, Brazil, in the heart of the Amazon rainforest, representatives of forest communities from Brazil, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ecuador, French Guyana, Guyana, Indonesia, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Suriname and Venezuela signed an agreement that calls on governments to respect forest dwellers’ rights to their land, natural resources and traditional livelihoods. The coalition hopes to gain access to ecosystem services payments like the proposed REDD (”reduction of emissions from deforestation and forest degradation”) mechanism that won preliminary approval at last year’s U.N. climate talks in Bali, Indonesia. Proponents of the initiative say that REDD could deliver billions of dollars to rural communities while protecting forests and fighting climate change. Some indigenous groups have been supportive of REDD, but others fear that the mechanism could worsen conflicts over land. The new alliance hopes that it can allay these concerns by ensuring that native peoples are represented in climate discussions. The scenario provided by the REDD mechanisms brings together the interests of forest communities and the interests of scientists, environmentalists and members of social movements throughout the world, said Paulo Moutinho, from the Institute for Environmental Research of the Amazon (IPAM). The indigenous people need to understand exactly what is happening to their forests. They have always been forgotten when it is time for decision-making and time has come for them to be taken into account because their ancestral knowledge on nature enables them to provide important inputs for the climate debate, added Yolanda Hernández, the indigenous representative of the Maya Kakchiquel people, of Guatemala. Adilson Vieira, the Secretary General of the Amazon Work Group, said Brazil was an appropriate choice for the conference given the long battle by its native peoples to gain rights to the vast Amazon rainforest. The experience of the people of the Brazilian forests in their struggle for the establishment of indigenous lands and extractive and sustainable development reserves is an experience that can be used by the other countries in the alliance as an inspiration on their path towards conquering their own rights, Vieira said. The Manaus declaration was unanimously approved this Friday, April 4th, 2008 by 13 countries. UN observers and non-governmental organizations from Brazil, England and the United States attended the signing. PRESS RELEASE: International Alliance will unite the forest peoples (The objective is to influence the UN debate on climate change) Manaus, Brazil (4.4.08) – The forest peoples of the world are joining forces in in order to have access to resources deriving from the thriving green market, based on future mechanisms for the reduction of emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD), to be created through the UN Climate Convention. They want to use this opportunity so that their fundamental rights may be fulfilled: the right to land and to natural resources and respect to their traditional livelihoods. Gathered in Manaus, in the heart of the Brazilian Amazon, the participants of the Peoples of the Forest and Climate Change workshop have just set the basis for an international alliance, based on a Brazilian model with a 20-year long history that brings together indigenous people, extractive producers and riverine populations, inspired in the efforts of Chico Mendes. The new alliance to be established will function as a network and transnational forum for the exchange of experiences between forest populations and mostly for influencing international discussions on climate, deforestation and mechanisms for the reduction of greenhouse emissions. “When one single country manifests itself and claims its rights at the international level, it is a drop of water in the ocean”, compares Manoel da Cunha, the president of the National Rubber Tappers Council (CNS). According to Cunha, the initiative of establishing a transnational alliance brings greater density to the claims of the forest people and increases the chances from them to be answered. “The indigenous people need to understand exactly what is happening to their forests. They have always been forgotten when it is time for decision-making and time has come for them to be taken into account because their ancestral knowledge on nature enables them to provide important inputs for the climate debate”, said Yolanda Hernández, the indigenous representative of the Maya Kakchiquel people, of Guatemala. ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. More information available at www.amazonforestpeople.com Photos at http://amazonforestpeople.multiply.com/ For interviews, please contact Jaime Gesisky – (55) ** 61 81226042 – jaimegesisky at gmail.com ; Milena del Rio do Valle (55)** 91 8121 6940 – mdrvalle at gmail.com Permalink | ### |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on April 16th, 2008
From: Ron Barness, Founder and CEO Ph: (801) 355-6555 This is a natural proposition following Mr. Hadley’s TV appearance on which www.SustainabiliTank.info posted on April 13, 2008: http://www.sustainabilitank.info/2008/04…
The Snow Lion e-mail follows: (Salt Lake City, Utah – April 15, 2008). Utah-based adventure travel company Snow Lion Expeditions today issued an all-expenses-paid invitation to U.S. National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley for one of its fall departures to Tibet and Nepal. On a Sunday appearance on ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos, Hadley referred to Nepal at least six times during a discussion of President George W. Bush’s visit to the 2008 Summer Olympics. Hadley said the ongoing situation in Nepal had “nothing to do” with heads of state decisions to attend the Games’ Opening Ceremonies. He was right! China’s policy towards the region of Tibet, however, is causing several global leaders much consternation. In a letter sent to the National Security Advisor today, Snow Lion president Ron Barness suggested, “It was probably a slip of tongue, but why don’t you let Snow Lion give you a quick tour of the Himalayas to make sure you don’t confuse the two again? By the way, since Mr. Stephanopoulos didn’t correct you, we’ve invited him as well.” Since 1992, Snow Lion Expeditions has www.snowlion.com) offered multiple trips per year to Nepal and Tibet, in addition to dozens of other Asian destinations. Mr. Hadley and his wife, Ann, were offered two of the last remaining spots on the Journey to the Roof of the World expedition, which departs September 30 from Kathmandu, Nepal. Tibet and Nepal are historic, distinct, neighboring Himalayan kingdoms. Tibet was largely independent from the 17th century to its occupation by China in 1951, which led to the exile of its spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, in 1959. Nepal, on the other hand, has maintained its independent status for more than 200 years, despite its tenuous position in Asia between China and India. “Being keenly tuned in to the Tibet situation is of paramount importance to us every day at Snow Lion,” Barness said. “We hope the National Security Advisor will come away from our trip with us with the same awareness.” Since 1992, Snow Lion Expeditions has been a pioneer in Asian travel, creating enchanting itineraries to 15 Asian nations. Snow Lion now offers more than 40 different itineraries include World Heritage Sites like the Kathmandu Valley, Mt. Everest and Angkor, plus less-traveled spots like Burma and North Korea. Snow Lion Corporation • 404 North 300 West • Salt Lake City, UT 84103 signed: 404 N 300 West Permalink | ### |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on April 15th, 2008 nbsp;http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/con… Economists Debate Link Between War, Credit Crisis
For House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the connection between the Iraq conflict and the U.S. economic downturn is simple: “The president has taken us into a failed war,” the California Democrat said recently. “He’s taken us deeply into debt, and that debt is taking us into recession.” This assessment was put to powerful political effect in the latest congressional hearings on the war, when Democrats and Republicans alike told Army Gen. David H. Petraeus that the oil-rich Iraqi government should relieve the United States of the conflict’s financial burdens. And Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) echoed the theme yesterday at a manufacturing forum in Pittsburgh. “If we can spend $10 billion a month rebuilding Iraq,” the Democratic presidential contender declared, “we can spend $15 billion a year in our own country to put Americans back to work and strengthen the long-term competitiveness of our economy.” But this logic may have more political salience than economic validity, according to many economists, who say that the assertions linking the five-year-old conflict in Iraq to the domestic economic slide have been oversimplified. “You should support the war or oppose the war, which I do and have done from the start, on the merits of the war itself,” said Martin N. Baily, a former chairman of President Bill Clinton’s Council of Economic Advisers. But, he added, “the current problems the United States is facing have very little to do with the war in Iraq.” Even so, the theme resonated in Congress last week. “We’re kind of bankrupting this country,” Sen. George V. Voinovich (R-Ohio) told Petraeus, the top U.S. military commander in Iraq, and Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker. “We’re eating our seed corn. We’re in a recession, and God only knows how long we’re going to be in it.” The link between Iraq and the downturn reflects a growing public perception that individual economic anxieties must stem somehow from the unpopular war — a unified theory of political misery, said Peter D. Hart, a Democratic pollster. “It’s a sour economy, it’s a sour mood and it’s a sour situation in Iraq,” he said. “The public has for the last two years been told about the cost of Iraq in terms of human life. But then there was a direct and important switch, when we went into what I call the surge period, where the budget costs became front and center. While the administration was touting military successes, what the American public saw directly were the costs.” Joseph E. Stiglitz, a Nobel Prize-winning economist who wrote the new book “The Three Trillion Dollar War,” contends that the connection is real. Even with a growing energy demand from China, the United States and elsewhere, oil traders anticipated before the war that the price of oil would remain about $25 a barrel. Instead, it has soared to more than $100 a barrel. Iraqi oil production has not risen with demand, in part because investment in the Middle East has been stunted by war-related unrest. Those price increases are self-perpetuating, Stiglitz argues. Oil-rich Persian Gulf states are so awash in money that they are not sure what to do with it all. By holding back oil production, they make more off what they do produce and keep their greatest asset — oil — in the ground as they search for ways to spend their cash. That cash, through state-owned sovereign wealth funds, has flowed into stocks, bonds and other investments, creating incentives for lenders to offer low-interest loans, many of which have now gone sour. But that is only one factor, by Stiglitz’s accounting. The federal government has sunk deeply into debt, first with tax cuts, then with accelerating war expenditures that have easily topped half a trillion dollars. That limited the government’s ability to keep the economy on track through tax cuts or domestic investments, so the Federal Reserve Board used low interest rates and the free flow of money to keep the economy growing. Cheap credit sparked rash loans, a housing bubble and the current crisis. “The war played a very important role,” Stiglitz said. To economists on the left and the right, his analysis strains credulity. Traditional economics hold that large budget deficits “crowd out” private lending, raising interest rates and making lending scarce, not profligate. “The credit crisis we got into is because of the housing boom, the relaxation of lending standards and certainly a lack of adequate supervision,” Baily said. “I don’t see a connection with government borrowing.” And most economists still think that oil prices are soaring because of rising demand, not constrained supply. “I guess you can argue there’s been a contagion of foolishness” sparked by a spendthrift federal government, “but that seems like a stretch,” said Kevin A. Hassett, an American Enterprise Institute economist and an adviser to Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. Republicans have tried their best to beat back the argument before it takes hold, even citing one of their ideological nemeses, Princeton University economist and liberal New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, who has raised doubts about any link between the war and the credit crunch. “While both parties agree that middle-class families and small businesses are struggling with skyrocketing costs of living, this latest argument from Democratic leaders smacks of political opportunism at its very worst,” House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) said last week. The analysis is politically powerful because people believe it. A CNN poll last month found that 71 percent of Americans say government spending in Iraq is a factor in the economic downturn. “When you’re spending over $50 to fill up your car because the price of oil is four times what it was before Iraq, you’re paying a price for this war,” Obama told an audience last month at the University of Charleston in West Virginia. “When Iraq is costing each household about $100 a month, you’re paying a price for this war.” The analysis will drive the debate on the $108 billion in additional war spending that President Bush is now requesting. Congress is set to begin debate on war funding before the end of the month. “I think there is a connection between the state of our economy and Iraq, and what we’re spending over there,” said Rep. Baron P. Hill (Ind.), a leading Democratic budget hawk. “We’re limited as to what we can do to stimulate the economy. We’re limited as to what we can do on health care or any other program. We need to spend more money on infrastructure, on roads and bridges that would have a stimulative effect on the economy, and we’re not doing those things because of all the money we’re spending in Iraq.” Permalink | ### |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on April 15th, 2008 Brazil opens condom factory to help preserve the Amazon rain forest. SAO PAULO, Brazil: Brazil on Monday, April 7, 2008, inaugurated a condom factory that officials say will help hundreds of poor Brazilian rubber tappers make a living while helping to preserve the Amazon rain forest. The plant in the northwestern town of Xapuri will produce 100 million condoms a year, which the government will distribute for free as part of its massive anti-AIDS program, Brazil’s Health Ministry said in a statement. The latex will be drawn from towering jungle trees in the sprawling Chico Mendes forest reserve by small time rubber tappers who protect their trees — and thus the rain forest — to ensure their livelihood, the Health Ministry said in a statement. The reserves is named after renowned rubber tapper Chico Mendes who drew international attention to Amazon rain forest destruction. Mendes was shot dead in his home in Xapuri in December 1988 by cattle ranchers. Rubber tappers in the northwestern state of Acre, where the factory is based, already produce about 6.2 million tons of latex a year, but demand from the factory will boost that amount by about 500,000 tons annually, the ministry said. The factory will benefit at least 500 families of rubber tappers and will provide about 150 jobs for the town of 15,000, the ministry said. Brazil currently imports almost all of the condoms despite having large amounts of latex in the Amazon. Officials see factory as a way to provide rubber tappers and local residents with an economic stake in preserving the rain forest. Permalink | |