Al Gore goes before Congress to speak about Global Warming on Wednesday. He will bring with him more than 200,000 signatures from people just like you and me that agree with the Geneva 8 and the UN along with now 99% of the worlds more prominent climate scientists whoe feel this is an important urgent issue that needs to be addressed. Please add your name to the list before Wed March 21st. To learn more rent "Inconvenient Truth" at your local video store or go to www.climatecrisis.net Please pass this on to friends on your list to add to the Gore signature list click here NOW to add yours:
http://www.algore.com/cards.html
Gore gets signatures for climate change By ERIK SCHELZIG, Associated Press Writer
Fri Mar 16, 7:18 PM ET
Former Vice President Al Gore has collected nearly 300,000 electronic signatures asking Congress to take action on global warming, Gore said in an entry on his Web site Friday. Gore said the signatures demonstrate "that hundreds of thousands of people share my sense of urgency" on climate change. Gore is scheduled to testify before Congress about the issue Wednesday.
"Political will is a renewable resource, and enough already exists to start solving this crisis," Gore said. "We just have to communicate that forcefully to the political leaders of our country."
As of Friday morning, Gore's Web site had received 294,374 signatures. Gore called on supporters to urge friends and family to come up with enough new signatures for him to collect 350,000 by Wednesday.
Gore said members of Congress have "failed to act, because they have not yet faced a sufficient expression of political will on the part of the American people demanding they confront our climate crisis head on."
Gore, who starred in the documentary film "An Inconvenient Truth" about global warming, has said repeatedly he has no plans to join the field of 2008 Democratic presidential aspirants.
But Gore's unwillingness to rule out a run completely has given some activists hope that he might change his mind. Gore lost his home state in the 2000 presidential election to George W. Bush.
Gore said there is a consensus on global warming among scientists.
"The debate on the science has long been over — except for a diminishing number of skeptics and deniers," he said.
Gore cited findings reported last month by the Intergovernmental Panel in Climate Change reported that global warming is so severe that it will "continue for centuries," leading to a far different planet in 100 years.
The panel, established by the United Nations, concluded that global warming is "very likely" caused by man, meaning more than 90 percent certain.
If nothing is done to change current emissions patterns of greenhouse gases, global temperature could increase as much as 11 degrees Fahrenheit by 2100, the report said.
___
On the Net:
Gore's Web site: http://www.algore.com
Saturday, March 17, 2007
Finally on the docket in Washington
WASHINGTON: Since the current session began, lawmakers have introduced more than 10 bills addressing global warming. Several committees have scheduled hearings, including two yesterday and another today . And former vice president Al Gore, whose Oscar-nominated film "An Inconvenient Truth" has drawn millions of moviegoers, is scheduled to testify on Capitol Hill this month. After hearing from scientists and conservationists, Senator John Warner, Republican of Virginia, suggested a road trip to see the changes in the environment first hand. Though scientists have long warned about global warming, the issue had taken a back seat on the national agenda in recent years because of the Bush administration's opposition to mandatory caps on greenhouse gas emissions, which many scientists blame for the problem. But the Democratic takeover of Congress in November -- along with a disturbing report from a meeting of world-renowned scientists last week -- has given the issue new urgency among lawmakers. Although there were just five senators present and five panelists at one of the hearings yesterday, the clashes between lawmakers and specialists on the topic could be seen as a preview of the hearings that lay ahead. One prominent scientist warned of catastrophic changes, while another said he was skeptical. Senator James M. Inhofe , an Oklahoma Republican, reiterated his belief that no one really knows what is causing global warming, but Senator Barbara Boxer , a California Democrat, presented poster-sized pictures of polar bears, saying that human-generated greenhouse gas emissions must be stopped or the bears would be threatened with extinction. Yesterday's hearing was the first-ever session of the Subcommittee on Private Sector and Consumer Solutions to Global Warming and Wildlife Protection . Boxer heralded a report last week by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, in which hundreds of the world's top scientists declared that humans are almost certainly the reason behind the irrefutable warming of the planet. "If the Earth continues to warm, many animals will be forced to live in conditions that they are not well adapted" to , Boxer said. Four specialists testified that's already happening. Thomas E. Lovejoy , president of the Washington-based Heinz Center for Science, Economics and the Environment , said that climate change disrupts the timing of animal migration and flowering of plants. "Nature is on the move," he said, citing reports that showed tree swallows laying eggs nine days early by 1991 compared with 1959; lilacs in the Western United States flowering two days earlier per decade; and the Edith's Checkerspot butterfly moving its geographical range steadily northward and upslope over the past decades. Lovejoy said destructive pests like the pine bark beetle, which had been held in check by other species, are now thriving, due in part to warmer weather. That, he said, has led to the loss of wide areas of pine forests. Roger Mann , a professor at the College of William and Mary who has studied the Chesapeake Bay ecology for 30 years, said that a 3.5-degree rise in the water's temperature in 2005 killed large underwater fields of eel grass, the prime habitat for small crabs and fish. The crabs and fish have struggled to survive without it, he said. "Just a very small temperature change led to very significant losses," Mann said. But Inhofe doubted that carbon dioxide emissions, and humans, are to blame. "If a particular species is declining, it does not mean that man is at fault or that it is due to global warming," he said. "The fact is that the relationship between species and climate is not clearly understood." A. Lee Foote, an associate professor at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, said the decline in population of polar bears could be due to an increase in hunters, not global warming. Late last year, the Bush administration proposed listing polar bears as threatened on the list of the Endangered Species Act because of melting ice. If polar bears are put on the list, it would force the administration to try to do something to protect the bears' habitat. Many scientists believe that would mean forcing industries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, something the administration has long opposed. In the middle of the debate sat Warner, 79, who recalled boyhood hunting and fishing trips taken with his father in Virginia. He said he worries that climate change is threatening the lakes, rivers, and woods he knew when he was young, and proposed a fact-finding "field trip" so senators could see any changes for themselves. One environmentalist suggested traveling to the shrinking glaciers at Glacier National Park in Montana. Another recommended exploring the "dead zones" in Chesapeake Bay . Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, a Connecticut independent who chaired the subcommittee, suggested after the meeting that another trip could be to New England. Lieberman, who stated that Warner's influence "will be very significant" when lawmakers begin considering climate change legislation, said he would like to show the senator maple trees in northern New England, where maple syrup makers are tapping trees as much as a month or more earlier than March, the usual beginning of sap runs. Globe reporter Beth Daley contributed to this report.
DC Protest
War anniversary draws protesters to D.C. By LARRY MARGASAK and CALVIN WOODWARD, Associated Press Writers
41 minutes ago
Denouncing a conflict entering its fifth year, protesters raised their voices Saturday against U.S. policy in Iraq and marched by the thousands to the Pentagon in the footsteps of an epic demonstration four decades ago against another divisive war.
A counterprotest shadowed the anti-war crowd on a day of dueling signs and sentiments such as "Illegal Combat" and "Peace Through Strength," and songs like "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" and "War (What's It Good For?)."
Thousands crossed the Memorial Bridge over the Potomac River from the Lincoln Memorial to rally as close to the Pentagon as they could get. Smaller protests were organized across the country and held abroad, stretching to Tuesday's four-year anniversary of the Iraq invasion.
"Too many people have died and it doesn't solve anything," said Ann O'Grady, who drove through snow with her husband, Tom, and two children, 13 and 10, from Athens, Ohio. "I feel bad carrying out my daily activities while people are suffering, Americans and Iraqis."
Retired Marine Jeff Carroll, 47, an electrician in Milton, Del., held a sign saying: "Proud of our soldiers, ashamed of our president." Carroll said he served in Lebanon when the Marine barracks was bombed in a deadly attack in 1983, and thinks the U.S. should be focusing on Afghanistan and Osama bin Laden instead of Iraq. "We're fighting the wrong country."
Police on horseback and foot separated the two groups of demonstrators, who shouted at each other from opposite sides of Constitution Avenue in view of the Lincoln Memorial before the anti-war group marched. Barriers also kept them apart.
Protesters walked in a blustery, cold wind across the Potomac River with motorcycles clearing their way and police boats and helicopters watching.
The anti-war group carried signs saying "U.S. Out of Iraq Now," "Stop Iraq War, No Iran War, Impeach." The other side carried signs saying "al-Qaida Appeasers On Parade" and "Fight Jihad Not GIs."
Protesters met at the starting point of the Oct. 21, 1967, march on the Pentagon, which began peacefully but turned ugly in clashes between authorities and more radical elements of the estimated crowd of 50,000 on the plaza in front of the Defense Department's headquarters. More than 600 were arrested that day.
That protest has lived on in the popular imagination because of the crowd's attempts to lift the Pentagon off the ground with their chants; they fell short of their fanciful goal.
Organizers of the Saturday protest did not anticipate numbers comparable to those of the Vietnam era. Authorities no longer give crowd estimates publicly.
Veterans, some from the Rolling Thunder motorcycle group, lined up at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and waved U.S, POW-MIA and military-unit flags. Not all were committed to the U.S. course in Iraq, however.
"I'm not sure I'm in support of the war," said William "Skip" Publicover of Charleston, S.C., who was a swift boat gunner in Vietnam and lost two friends whose names are etched on the memorial's wall. "I learned in Vietnam that it's difficult if not impossible to win the hearts and minds of the people."
But Larry Stimeling, 57, a Vietnam veteran from Morton, Ill., said the loss of public support for the Iraq war mirrors what happened in Vietnam and leaves troops without the backing they need.
"We didn't lose the war in Vietnam, we lost it right here on this same ground," he said, pointing to the grass on the National Mall. "It's the same thing now."
Henry Sowell, 22, Raleigh N.C., who fought with the Marines in Iraq in 2005, asserted that anti-war protesters were "taking away what my buddies died for and what I fought for."
Some active-duty service members joined the anti-war protest, following rules that allow them to demonstrate but limit what they can say.
Speaking into a microphone hooked to massive speakers, Petty Officer Jonathan Hutto, who is on active duty with the Navy, told the crowd that the people had voted against the war in the November elections and "we're here to cash the check."
Rallies also were planned in Los Angeles, Denver, Chicago, Oklahoma City, Hartford, Conn., and Lincoln, Neb.
Overseas, more than 3,000 people protested peacefully in Istanbul, Turkey, and about 1,000 in Athens, Greece.
___
Associated Press writers Matthew Barakat and Ann Sanner contributed to this report.
41 minutes ago
Denouncing a conflict entering its fifth year, protesters raised their voices Saturday against U.S. policy in Iraq and marched by the thousands to the Pentagon in the footsteps of an epic demonstration four decades ago against another divisive war.
A counterprotest shadowed the anti-war crowd on a day of dueling signs and sentiments such as "Illegal Combat" and "Peace Through Strength," and songs like "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" and "War (What's It Good For?)."
Thousands crossed the Memorial Bridge over the Potomac River from the Lincoln Memorial to rally as close to the Pentagon as they could get. Smaller protests were organized across the country and held abroad, stretching to Tuesday's four-year anniversary of the Iraq invasion.
"Too many people have died and it doesn't solve anything," said Ann O'Grady, who drove through snow with her husband, Tom, and two children, 13 and 10, from Athens, Ohio. "I feel bad carrying out my daily activities while people are suffering, Americans and Iraqis."
Retired Marine Jeff Carroll, 47, an electrician in Milton, Del., held a sign saying: "Proud of our soldiers, ashamed of our president." Carroll said he served in Lebanon when the Marine barracks was bombed in a deadly attack in 1983, and thinks the U.S. should be focusing on Afghanistan and Osama bin Laden instead of Iraq. "We're fighting the wrong country."
Police on horseback and foot separated the two groups of demonstrators, who shouted at each other from opposite sides of Constitution Avenue in view of the Lincoln Memorial before the anti-war group marched. Barriers also kept them apart.
Protesters walked in a blustery, cold wind across the Potomac River with motorcycles clearing their way and police boats and helicopters watching.
The anti-war group carried signs saying "U.S. Out of Iraq Now," "Stop Iraq War, No Iran War, Impeach." The other side carried signs saying "al-Qaida Appeasers On Parade" and "Fight Jihad Not GIs."
Protesters met at the starting point of the Oct. 21, 1967, march on the Pentagon, which began peacefully but turned ugly in clashes between authorities and more radical elements of the estimated crowd of 50,000 on the plaza in front of the Defense Department's headquarters. More than 600 were arrested that day.
That protest has lived on in the popular imagination because of the crowd's attempts to lift the Pentagon off the ground with their chants; they fell short of their fanciful goal.
Organizers of the Saturday protest did not anticipate numbers comparable to those of the Vietnam era. Authorities no longer give crowd estimates publicly.
Veterans, some from the Rolling Thunder motorcycle group, lined up at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and waved U.S, POW-MIA and military-unit flags. Not all were committed to the U.S. course in Iraq, however.
"I'm not sure I'm in support of the war," said William "Skip" Publicover of Charleston, S.C., who was a swift boat gunner in Vietnam and lost two friends whose names are etched on the memorial's wall. "I learned in Vietnam that it's difficult if not impossible to win the hearts and minds of the people."
But Larry Stimeling, 57, a Vietnam veteran from Morton, Ill., said the loss of public support for the Iraq war mirrors what happened in Vietnam and leaves troops without the backing they need.
"We didn't lose the war in Vietnam, we lost it right here on this same ground," he said, pointing to the grass on the National Mall. "It's the same thing now."
Henry Sowell, 22, Raleigh N.C., who fought with the Marines in Iraq in 2005, asserted that anti-war protesters were "taking away what my buddies died for and what I fought for."
Some active-duty service members joined the anti-war protest, following rules that allow them to demonstrate but limit what they can say.
Speaking into a microphone hooked to massive speakers, Petty Officer Jonathan Hutto, who is on active duty with the Navy, told the crowd that the people had voted against the war in the November elections and "we're here to cash the check."
Rallies also were planned in Los Angeles, Denver, Chicago, Oklahoma City, Hartford, Conn., and Lincoln, Neb.
Overseas, more than 3,000 people protested peacefully in Istanbul, Turkey, and about 1,000 in Athens, Greece.
___
Associated Press writers Matthew Barakat and Ann Sanner contributed to this report.
March on the Pentagon
Marchers and protestors for Peace I am with you in Spirit!
As my husband said once so succinctly "responsibility sucks
all the jism out of spontaneity" I'd love to be able to
road trip or fly in to DC to be amidst the grass roots,
passionate Americans at the heart of what Democracy and
Sovereignty is all about. But---unable to. This sea change
needs to occur on many levels, the war, health care, middle
class living wages etc. It's the key across the chasm to
for a smooth transition. Status Quo will devestate us all.
Peace out- Jill
On March 17, 2007, the 4th anniversary of the start of the criminal invasion of Iraq, tens of thousands of people from around the country will descend on the Pentagon in a mass demonstration to demand: U.S. Out of Iraq Now! 2007 is the 40th anniversary of the historic 1967 anti-war march to the Pentagon during the Vietnam War. The message of the 1967 march was "From Protest to Resistance," and marked a turning point in the development of a countrywide mass movement.
In the coming days and weeks, thousands of organizations and individuals will begin mobilizing for the upcoming March on the Pentagon. Organizing committees and transportation centers are being established to bring people to the March on the Pentagon.
We will assemble at 12 noon at 23rd St. and Constitution Ave. NW. Click here for more information.
Click here to read the full ANSWER statement on why we're marching.
Initial endorsers include:
Ramsey Clark, former U.S. Attorney General
Maxine Waters, Congresswoman
Alice Walker, Pulitzer prize winning author
Cynthia McKinney, Congresswoman
Cindy Sheehan, co-founder Gold Star Families for Peace, author
Ron Kovic, Vietnam Veteran, author, Born on the 4th of July
Malik Rahim, Founder, Common Ground Collective, New Orleans
Bishop Thomas Gumbleton, Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit
Paul Haggis, Director of Crash, 2005 Academy Award for Best Picture
Elias Rashmawi, National Coordinator, National Council of Arab Americans (NCA)
Howard Zinn, Author, A People's History of the United States
Rev. Luis Barrios, Iglesia de San Romero de las Americas, UCC
Heidi Boghosian, Executive Director, National Lawyers Guild
Chaplain James Yee, former Army chaplain, Guantánamo Detention Center
Mahdi Bray, Executive Director, Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation
Father Roy Bourgeois, Founder, School of the Americas Watch
Leonard Weinglass, Attorney for the Cuban Five
Eric LeCompte, National Office, School of the Americas Watch
Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, Co-founder, Partnership for Civil Justice
Brian Becker, National Coordinator, ANSWER Coalition
Mounzer Sleiman, TV commentator and Vice Chair, National Council of Arab Americans
Waleed Bader, Vice chair of the National Council of Arab American, Chair of NCA NY/NJ Chapter, Former President of Arab Muslim American Federation - NY
Ben Dupuy, Co-Director, Haiti Progres
Juan Jose Gutierrez, Executive Director, Latino Movement USA
Calvin Gipson, Former President, San Francisco LGBT Pride Committee
Rev. Graylan Hagler, Senior Pastor, Plymouth Congregational Church, Washington D.C
Kay Lucas, Director, Crawford Peace House, Crawford, TX
Iglesia de San Romero - United Church of Christ
Claudia de la Cruz, Director, Dominican Women’s Youth Development Center
Chuck Kaufman, Co-coordinator of the Nicaragua Network
Al Garcia, Alliance for a Just & Lasting Peace in the Philippines
Macrina Cardenas, Mexico Solidarity Network
Eugene Puryear, Howard University, student leader
Gloria La Riva, Coordinator, National Committee to Free the Cuban Five
CAAAV: Organizing Asian Communities
Nodutdol for Korean Community Development
Iglesia de San Romero - United Church of Christ
Da Urban Butterflies
KAWAN: Korean Americans Against War and Neoliberalism
Justice Committee
Ed Asner, Actor
Shirley Knight, Actor
Debra Sweet, National Coordinator, World Can't Wait -- Drive Out the Bush Regime
Jennifer Harbury, Human Rights Lawyer, author
United Teachers of Los Angeles (UTLA)
Jim Lafferty, Director, National Lawyers Guild - Los Angeles
James Petras, Professor Emeritus, SUNY Binghamton (State University of New York)
Mimi Kennedy, Actor (Dharma & Greg)
As my husband said once so succinctly "responsibility sucks
all the jism out of spontaneity" I'd love to be able to
road trip or fly in to DC to be amidst the grass roots,
passionate Americans at the heart of what Democracy and
Sovereignty is all about. But---unable to. This sea change
needs to occur on many levels, the war, health care, middle
class living wages etc. It's the key across the chasm to
for a smooth transition. Status Quo will devestate us all.
Peace out- Jill
On March 17, 2007, the 4th anniversary of the start of the criminal invasion of Iraq, tens of thousands of people from around the country will descend on the Pentagon in a mass demonstration to demand: U.S. Out of Iraq Now! 2007 is the 40th anniversary of the historic 1967 anti-war march to the Pentagon during the Vietnam War. The message of the 1967 march was "From Protest to Resistance," and marked a turning point in the development of a countrywide mass movement.
In the coming days and weeks, thousands of organizations and individuals will begin mobilizing for the upcoming March on the Pentagon. Organizing committees and transportation centers are being established to bring people to the March on the Pentagon.
We will assemble at 12 noon at 23rd St. and Constitution Ave. NW. Click here for more information.
Click here to read the full ANSWER statement on why we're marching.
Initial endorsers include:
Ramsey Clark, former U.S. Attorney General
Maxine Waters, Congresswoman
Alice Walker, Pulitzer prize winning author
Cynthia McKinney, Congresswoman
Cindy Sheehan, co-founder Gold Star Families for Peace, author
Ron Kovic, Vietnam Veteran, author, Born on the 4th of July
Malik Rahim, Founder, Common Ground Collective, New Orleans
Bishop Thomas Gumbleton, Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit
Paul Haggis, Director of Crash, 2005 Academy Award for Best Picture
Elias Rashmawi, National Coordinator, National Council of Arab Americans (NCA)
Howard Zinn, Author, A People's History of the United States
Rev. Luis Barrios, Iglesia de San Romero de las Americas, UCC
Heidi Boghosian, Executive Director, National Lawyers Guild
Chaplain James Yee, former Army chaplain, Guantánamo Detention Center
Mahdi Bray, Executive Director, Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation
Father Roy Bourgeois, Founder, School of the Americas Watch
Leonard Weinglass, Attorney for the Cuban Five
Eric LeCompte, National Office, School of the Americas Watch
Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, Co-founder, Partnership for Civil Justice
Brian Becker, National Coordinator, ANSWER Coalition
Mounzer Sleiman, TV commentator and Vice Chair, National Council of Arab Americans
Waleed Bader, Vice chair of the National Council of Arab American, Chair of NCA NY/NJ Chapter, Former President of Arab Muslim American Federation - NY
Ben Dupuy, Co-Director, Haiti Progres
Juan Jose Gutierrez, Executive Director, Latino Movement USA
Calvin Gipson, Former President, San Francisco LGBT Pride Committee
Rev. Graylan Hagler, Senior Pastor, Plymouth Congregational Church, Washington D.C
Kay Lucas, Director, Crawford Peace House, Crawford, TX
Iglesia de San Romero - United Church of Christ
Claudia de la Cruz, Director, Dominican Women’s Youth Development Center
Chuck Kaufman, Co-coordinator of the Nicaragua Network
Al Garcia, Alliance for a Just & Lasting Peace in the Philippines
Macrina Cardenas, Mexico Solidarity Network
Eugene Puryear, Howard University, student leader
Gloria La Riva, Coordinator, National Committee to Free the Cuban Five
CAAAV: Organizing Asian Communities
Nodutdol for Korean Community Development
Iglesia de San Romero - United Church of Christ
Da Urban Butterflies
KAWAN: Korean Americans Against War and Neoliberalism
Justice Committee
Ed Asner, Actor
Shirley Knight, Actor
Debra Sweet, National Coordinator, World Can't Wait -- Drive Out the Bush Regime
Jennifer Harbury, Human Rights Lawyer, author
United Teachers of Los Angeles (UTLA)
Jim Lafferty, Director, National Lawyers Guild - Los Angeles
James Petras, Professor Emeritus, SUNY Binghamton (State University of New York)
Mimi Kennedy, Actor (Dharma & Greg)
Monday, March 12, 2007
Darfur update
Sudan orchestrated Darfur crimes, U.N. mission says By Richard Waddington
Mon Mar 12, 3:39 PM ET
A U.N. human rights mission accused Sudan's government on Monday of orchestrating and taking part in gross violations in Darfur and called for urgent international action to protect civilians there.
The team, led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Jody Williams, was dispatched by the United Nations Human Rights Council to investigate charges of widespread abuse in Sudan's vast western region, where observers say some 200,000 people have been killed since a revolt broke out in 2003.
"The situation is characterized by gross and systematic violations of human rights and grave breaches of international humanitarian law," the mission said in a report to the Council.
"The mission further concludes that the government of Sudan has manifestly failed to protect the population of Darfur from large-scale international crimes and has itself orchestrated and participated in these crimes," the 35-page report said.
While rebel groups were also guilty of serious abuses, the "principal pattern is one of a violent counterinsurgency campaign" being waged by government forces and their militia allies, the so-called Janjaweed, the report said.
The mission, which was refused entry to Sudan, urged the U.N. Security Council to take "urgent further action" to protect civilians, including through the deployment of peacekeepers.
The Sudanese government denies responsibility for abuses and blames them on rebel groups which refused a 2006 peace deal.
The Darfur violence, described as genocide by Washington, has killed tens of thousands of people and driven 2.5 million from their homes as rebels, charging the government in Khartoum with neglect, battle pro-government Arab militias.
'VIOLENT COUNTERINSURGENCY'
Britain called a letter from Sudanese President Omar Hassan Bashir contesting a plan for U.N. peacekeepers in Darfur "a major setback" that the Security Council needed to discuss.
Bashir objected to indications the U.N. would share control with the African Union which has 7,000 under-financed troops in Darfur. Bashir's letter dashed hopes U.N. peacekeepers could be deployed soon, even in auxiliary functions, in Darfur.
"The letter is very disappointing," British U.N. Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry said. "It's a major setback, and is tantamount to a requirement for a renegotiation of some of the points in the ... package."
The Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC) has summoned a junior government minister and a Darfur militia leader to answer war crimes charges in a first step toward bringing to trial those deemed responsible for atrocities, including mass rape and murder of civilians.
Khartoum, which says it will hold trials of its own, is adamant that it will not hand over anybody to face the court.
The decision to send the six-person team to Sudan was taken by the U.N.'s human rights watchdog only after a bitter debate. Some Arab and African countries on the 47-state body were unhappy at singling out Sudan for special attention.
The Sudanese government, which is resisting calls for a U.N. force, at first agreed to cooperate but then refused to issue visas to the mission.
The team traveled to Chad's border with Sudan, where the conflict in Darfur has spilled over, and to Addis Ababa, headquarters of the African Union.
One team member, Indonesia's ambassador Makarim Wibisono, withdrew when it failed to get access to Darfur.
Mon Mar 12, 3:39 PM ET
A U.N. human rights mission accused Sudan's government on Monday of orchestrating and taking part in gross violations in Darfur and called for urgent international action to protect civilians there.
The team, led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Jody Williams, was dispatched by the United Nations Human Rights Council to investigate charges of widespread abuse in Sudan's vast western region, where observers say some 200,000 people have been killed since a revolt broke out in 2003.
"The situation is characterized by gross and systematic violations of human rights and grave breaches of international humanitarian law," the mission said in a report to the Council.
"The mission further concludes that the government of Sudan has manifestly failed to protect the population of Darfur from large-scale international crimes and has itself orchestrated and participated in these crimes," the 35-page report said.
While rebel groups were also guilty of serious abuses, the "principal pattern is one of a violent counterinsurgency campaign" being waged by government forces and their militia allies, the so-called Janjaweed, the report said.
The mission, which was refused entry to Sudan, urged the U.N. Security Council to take "urgent further action" to protect civilians, including through the deployment of peacekeepers.
The Sudanese government denies responsibility for abuses and blames them on rebel groups which refused a 2006 peace deal.
The Darfur violence, described as genocide by Washington, has killed tens of thousands of people and driven 2.5 million from their homes as rebels, charging the government in Khartoum with neglect, battle pro-government Arab militias.
'VIOLENT COUNTERINSURGENCY'
Britain called a letter from Sudanese President Omar Hassan Bashir contesting a plan for U.N. peacekeepers in Darfur "a major setback" that the Security Council needed to discuss.
Bashir objected to indications the U.N. would share control with the African Union which has 7,000 under-financed troops in Darfur. Bashir's letter dashed hopes U.N. peacekeepers could be deployed soon, even in auxiliary functions, in Darfur.
"The letter is very disappointing," British U.N. Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry said. "It's a major setback, and is tantamount to a requirement for a renegotiation of some of the points in the ... package."
The Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC) has summoned a junior government minister and a Darfur militia leader to answer war crimes charges in a first step toward bringing to trial those deemed responsible for atrocities, including mass rape and murder of civilians.
Khartoum, which says it will hold trials of its own, is adamant that it will not hand over anybody to face the court.
The decision to send the six-person team to Sudan was taken by the U.N.'s human rights watchdog only after a bitter debate. Some Arab and African countries on the 47-state body were unhappy at singling out Sudan for special attention.
The Sudanese government, which is resisting calls for a U.N. force, at first agreed to cooperate but then refused to issue visas to the mission.
The team traveled to Chad's border with Sudan, where the conflict in Darfur has spilled over, and to Addis Ababa, headquarters of the African Union.
One team member, Indonesia's ambassador Makarim Wibisono, withdrew when it failed to get access to Darfur.
Wednesday, March 07, 2007
Blessings beyond measure
I hope you enjoy my latest video creation on You Tube. It
is a wonderful creative outlet for me to share. This time
it was a collaborative effort with my friend
Reiki master and conscious channel Isaac George across the
seas from North Dakota to Scotland. The text/message is
an excerpt from a message Isaac facilitated in 2006 from the
Christ presence. The music is an original composition to be
featured on his upcoming CD. I plan to put more of the
beautiful messages he has relayed over the past year to video
as I feel they are so very helpful in the Emergence energies.
I encourage you to visit his site which has a link here at the
G.E always on the right
www.puredivinelove.com
This particular video also features the Gratitude symbol from
the Go Gratitude experiment. A series of emails focusing intent
on Gratitude over 43 "lessons" that I found to be quite profound.
My husband and I like so many others that have participated in
these lessons- are now seeing the Gratitude symbol everywhere!
In USA TODAY one day front page, on billboards, magazines, it's
really something.
Pulling in energy of Gratitude as I have said often here- really
will LIFT you up above the fray over the chasm to the other side
to the new energies. Especially I have found this to be true
in times of great confusion,hardship, sadness, and change.
So please view it, and if you are a YouTube user- comment and
pass it on! Light begets Light! Wherever you focus your attention
it expands! So YOU too can add more light in all that you think
and do.
And on a side note- some really wonderful quotes on the G.E. quotes
to the right. I hope you find time to watch Bill Moyers speech from
the Media Reform convention. See video below. Quote about the
Plantation mentality that exists for us now is just cherry on top
of this amazingly courageous speech.
This is a critical issue. We cannot
learn of the Social injustices occurring globally without a free
and unbiased media. TRUTH will help us across the chasm and we
are NOT getting it from most media outlets currently. Although I
highly recommend DISH TV and specifically Free Speech TV (FSTV channel)
as well as LINK and now finally again, PBS.
And another great quote from Forrest Whitakers
speech at the Oscars speaking of the Light within that connects us
all to a New Reality was really something. Will try to post it here
for you to view if you missed it.
Thanks again for stopping by :) Peace be with you. Jill
is a wonderful creative outlet for me to share. This time
it was a collaborative effort with my friend
Reiki master and conscious channel Isaac George across the
seas from North Dakota to Scotland. The text/message is
an excerpt from a message Isaac facilitated in 2006 from the
Christ presence. The music is an original composition to be
featured on his upcoming CD. I plan to put more of the
beautiful messages he has relayed over the past year to video
as I feel they are so very helpful in the Emergence energies.
I encourage you to visit his site which has a link here at the
G.E always on the right
www.puredivinelove.com
This particular video also features the Gratitude symbol from
the Go Gratitude experiment. A series of emails focusing intent
on Gratitude over 43 "lessons" that I found to be quite profound.
My husband and I like so many others that have participated in
these lessons- are now seeing the Gratitude symbol everywhere!
In USA TODAY one day front page, on billboards, magazines, it's
really something.
Pulling in energy of Gratitude as I have said often here- really
will LIFT you up above the fray over the chasm to the other side
to the new energies. Especially I have found this to be true
in times of great confusion,hardship, sadness, and change.
So please view it, and if you are a YouTube user- comment and
pass it on! Light begets Light! Wherever you focus your attention
it expands! So YOU too can add more light in all that you think
and do.
And on a side note- some really wonderful quotes on the G.E. quotes
to the right. I hope you find time to watch Bill Moyers speech from
the Media Reform convention. See video below. Quote about the
Plantation mentality that exists for us now is just cherry on top
of this amazingly courageous speech.
This is a critical issue. We cannot
learn of the Social injustices occurring globally without a free
and unbiased media. TRUTH will help us across the chasm and we
are NOT getting it from most media outlets currently. Although I
highly recommend DISH TV and specifically Free Speech TV (FSTV channel)
as well as LINK and now finally again, PBS.
And another great quote from Forrest Whitakers
speech at the Oscars speaking of the Light within that connects us
all to a New Reality was really something. Will try to post it here
for you to view if you missed it.
Thanks again for stopping by :) Peace be with you. Jill
Sunday, March 04, 2007
Global Warming human rights issue
Global warming is human rights issue: Nobel nominee By Deborah Zabarenko, Environment Correspondent
Sun Mar 4, 9:03 AM ET
It sounds like a sick joke about global warming, with a series of horrible punch lines:
How hot is it? So hot that Inuit people around the Arctic Circle are using air conditioners for the first time. And running out of the hard-packed snow they need to build igloos. And falling through melting ice when they hunt.
These circumstances are the current results of global climate change, according to Nobel Peace Prize nominee Sheila Watt-Cloutier, an Inuit born inside the Canadian Arctic, who maintains this constitutes a violation of human rights for indigenous people in low-lying areas throughout the world.
Watt-Cloutier and Martin Wagner, an attorney with the environmental law firm Earthjustice, argued this case on Thursday before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights of the Organization of American States in Washington.
"We weren't going to go to court," Watt-Cloutier said in a telephone interview after her testimony to the commission. "It wasn't about lawsuits and suing for damage or compensation.
"It was more about really trying to get the world to pay attention and see this as a human rights issue."
Their best hope is that the commission will write a report on this issue, though even getting a hearing in Washington is a victory of sorts. The commission earlier rejected a petition to hear about alleged rights violations based solely on U.S. emissions of greenhouse gases.
The human rights commission has scant powers and can do little more than publicize its findings and propose a resolution to the 35-member organization.
In her address to the panel, Watt-Cloutier acknowledged the challenge of connecting climate change and human rights, but noted a practical purpose for protecting the people she called "the sentinels of climate change."
ENVIRONMENTAL EARLY-WARNING SYSTEM
"By protecting the rights of those living sustainably in the Amazon Basin or the rights of the Inuit hunter on the snow and ice, this commission will also be preserving the world's environmental early-warning system."
Watt-Cloutier reckons there are millions of such environmental sentinels at risk, ranging from the Inuit to residents of low-lying islands that are subject to sea level rise caused by melting ice sheets.
They chose the Organization of American States as a forum because two of the countries where Inuit communities live -- the United States and Canada -- are members. Inuit also live in Russia and Greenland.
For Inuit communities, ice and snow are intrinsic to physical and cultural survival, Watt-Cloutier said after the hearing. Even the building of igloos is under threat.
"You can just imagine the brilliance and the genius and the ingenuity of building a home out of snow, warm enough to have your baby sleep in," she said. "And now all of that is starting to leave because snow conditions are so changed."
Many Inuit live in more conventional buildings, which are constructed mainly to keep the cold out. Unfortunately, with longer and warmer summers with 24-hour-a-day sunlight, this has turned many into ovens, Watt-Cloutier said. For the first time, air conditioners are in use in the Arctic.
Seasoned Inuit hunters used to be able to tell where the ice was safe, but because warmer seas have started to melt sea ice from its underside, even the most experienced hunters find it hard to gauge, and some fall through, she said.
"The glaciers are melting so quickly that where our hunters used to be able to cross safely, now it's so unsafe that it's become torrent rivers ... and we've had a drowning as a result of that as well," she said.
Watt-Cloutier quoted a hunter in Barrow, Alaska, to sum up the impact climate change has had on Inuit life: "There's lots of anxieties and angers that are being felt by some of the hunters that no longer can go and hunt. We see the change, but we can't stop it, we can't explain why it's changing. ... Our way of life is changing up here, our ocean is changing."
Sun Mar 4, 9:03 AM ET
It sounds like a sick joke about global warming, with a series of horrible punch lines:
How hot is it? So hot that Inuit people around the Arctic Circle are using air conditioners for the first time. And running out of the hard-packed snow they need to build igloos. And falling through melting ice when they hunt.
These circumstances are the current results of global climate change, according to Nobel Peace Prize nominee Sheila Watt-Cloutier, an Inuit born inside the Canadian Arctic, who maintains this constitutes a violation of human rights for indigenous people in low-lying areas throughout the world.
Watt-Cloutier and Martin Wagner, an attorney with the environmental law firm Earthjustice, argued this case on Thursday before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights of the Organization of American States in Washington.
"We weren't going to go to court," Watt-Cloutier said in a telephone interview after her testimony to the commission. "It wasn't about lawsuits and suing for damage or compensation.
"It was more about really trying to get the world to pay attention and see this as a human rights issue."
Their best hope is that the commission will write a report on this issue, though even getting a hearing in Washington is a victory of sorts. The commission earlier rejected a petition to hear about alleged rights violations based solely on U.S. emissions of greenhouse gases.
The human rights commission has scant powers and can do little more than publicize its findings and propose a resolution to the 35-member organization.
In her address to the panel, Watt-Cloutier acknowledged the challenge of connecting climate change and human rights, but noted a practical purpose for protecting the people she called "the sentinels of climate change."
ENVIRONMENTAL EARLY-WARNING SYSTEM
"By protecting the rights of those living sustainably in the Amazon Basin or the rights of the Inuit hunter on the snow and ice, this commission will also be preserving the world's environmental early-warning system."
Watt-Cloutier reckons there are millions of such environmental sentinels at risk, ranging from the Inuit to residents of low-lying islands that are subject to sea level rise caused by melting ice sheets.
They chose the Organization of American States as a forum because two of the countries where Inuit communities live -- the United States and Canada -- are members. Inuit also live in Russia and Greenland.
For Inuit communities, ice and snow are intrinsic to physical and cultural survival, Watt-Cloutier said after the hearing. Even the building of igloos is under threat.
"You can just imagine the brilliance and the genius and the ingenuity of building a home out of snow, warm enough to have your baby sleep in," she said. "And now all of that is starting to leave because snow conditions are so changed."
Many Inuit live in more conventional buildings, which are constructed mainly to keep the cold out. Unfortunately, with longer and warmer summers with 24-hour-a-day sunlight, this has turned many into ovens, Watt-Cloutier said. For the first time, air conditioners are in use in the Arctic.
Seasoned Inuit hunters used to be able to tell where the ice was safe, but because warmer seas have started to melt sea ice from its underside, even the most experienced hunters find it hard to gauge, and some fall through, she said.
"The glaciers are melting so quickly that where our hunters used to be able to cross safely, now it's so unsafe that it's become torrent rivers ... and we've had a drowning as a result of that as well," she said.
Watt-Cloutier quoted a hunter in Barrow, Alaska, to sum up the impact climate change has had on Inuit life: "There's lots of anxieties and angers that are being felt by some of the hunters that no longer can go and hunt. We see the change, but we can't stop it, we can't explain why it's changing. ... Our way of life is changing up here, our ocean is changing."
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