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Technorati'Planet Burns While G8 Fiddles'
TOYAKO, Japan - While the world's major industrialised nations expressed satisfaction over their three-day summit meetings that concluded Wednesday, non-governmental organisations, after some early and limited approval, were deeply disappointed with the outcome on the whole.
"The summit (in Toyako on the northern Japanese island Hokkaido) has been another betrayal of the poor and citizens of G8 countries," Kumi Naidoo, co-chair of the Global Call to Action against Poverty (GCAP) told IPS.
"The outcome shows a lack of understanding of the heart of the issues causing hunger and desperation in many countries. We hope the citizens of these eight countries (Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Russia, Japan, Canada and the United States) will put more pressure on their out-of-touch leaders," Naidoo said.
"The planet is burning while the G8 is fiddling," the GCAP co-chair added.
Naidoo said the GCAP representatives of ten countries observing the G8 were deeply concerned at how out of touch with reality the G8 seemed to be on the main issues related to ending poverty.
GCAP is a growing alliance of trade unions, community groups, faith groups, women and youth organisations, NGOs and other campaigners working together across more than 100 countries. GCAP is calling for action from the world's leaders to meet their promises to end poverty and inequality.
"The lack of any real discussion on biofuels in relation to the food price crisis is appalling. References to health, education and water are, sadly, not supported by adequate resources and a timeline commitment," said Naidoo.
While the G8 pays "lip service to the MDGs", their commitments suggest that even these minimalist goals are seriously at risk of failing by 2015, Naidoo said.
MDGs are the eight Millennium Development Goals that range from halving extreme poverty to halting the spread of HIV/AIDS and providing universal primary education, to be met by the target date of 2015. These were agreed by heads of state and government at a special session of the UN General Assembly in September 2000.
The G8 said in a document on Development and Africa that "although progress has been made, significant challenges remain. We renew our commitment to these goals by reinvigorating our efforts, and by strengthening our partnerships with, as well as encouraging the efforts of, the developing countries based on mutual accountability."
Minar Pimple, Asia director of the UN Millennium Campaign commented: "Reaffirmation of MDG commitment is a positive signal in the run-up to the MDG high level event in September, but the financial resources on the table fall short of what needs to be achieved by 2015."
GCAP said that the G8 communiqué this year only reiterates most of the group's earlier commitments "but the world has changed for the worse since 2005."
The increase in food prices by 30 to 45 percent has had a devastating effect, especially on women and children trying to survive on less than a dollar a day, GCAP warns. Millions more are being pushed into poverty, it says.
"Japan was not able to muster up the leadership we hoped to see from them as summit host," GCAP Japan representative Tatsuo Hayashi said. "The Japanese people wanted more action to end poverty, so they will be disappointed too."
These remarks stand in stark contrast to the kudos Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda received this week from summit participants for his "leadership, commitment and sense of purpose," as one participant described it.
In another analysis of the conference documents, GCAP welcomed the 10 billion dollars pledged by the G8 since January 2008 towards the global food price crisis, but said "it is still a knee-jerk response that doesn't address the long-term structural causes.
"The G8 promotion of the 'development of open and efficient agricultural and food markets' has denied poor people the chance to feed themselves today. It treats food as a mere commodity," said Joseph Ssuuna of the PELUM Association in Uganda, which is a member of GCAP.
"The G8 also seem to be pressing for quick-fix trade negotiations which we believe would be devastating -- no deal is better than a bad deal," said Charles Abani of GCAP Africa.
"Tragically, market-driven development, one of the principal causes of the present food crisis, appears to be the solution offered by the present G8 leaders. This is appalling," said Dian Kartika of GCAP Indonesia.
Reacting to the G8 leaders' statement on the Global Food Security Tuesday, farmer leader from the 'Via Campesina' group Yoshitaka Mashima said: "We do not understand why the G8 leaders pretend to solve the food crisis with more free trade while it is the liberalisation of agriculture and food markets that continue to lead us to the current crisis.
"People need to eat local food to protect themselves from the instability of world markets. We do not need more imported food," Mashima told IPS.
At a press conference Wednesday, farmers' leaders said that the G8 governments were mistakenly using the current food and climate crisis to promote the free trade agenda that is serving large companies, and not producers of food or the consumers.
The G8 leaders' statement insists on reviving the agonising WTO negotiations and on preventing countries from regulating food exports.
"Small farmers around the world, men and women, have experienced the devastating effects of free trade and WTO policies on livelihoods and local food production," the farmers' statement said. "They defend the right of countries to protect their domestic markets, to support sustainable family farmers, and to market food in the countries where it is produced."
It said that the G8 leaders also fail to address two major causes of the current food price crisis: speculation by major traders and transnational companies, and the development of bio-fuel as a new source of energy.
"It is important to keep in mind that these root causes of the food crisis are the consequences of the neo-liberal policies promoted by the G8 governments, the WTO, the World Bank and other institutions," Mashima said.
The farmers point out that the G8 also explicitly promotes genetically modified organisms (GMO) as a solution to the food crisis. In doing so, they say, the G8 countries forget that the development of industrial agriculture, with the use of GMO seeds, large amounts of chemical pesticides, fertilisers and monoculture has left millions of farmers in debt.
The statement also challenges the G8 claim about "fostering small holder agriculture." But Mashima said: "We are wondering how the world's richest nations will support small farmers if they do not even allow them to enter the countries where they are meeting."
Nineteen Korean farmers from Via Campesina were deported from Hokkaido airport Jul. 5 after being detained for 48 hours on the grounds that they could disturb the official meetings.
Mashima said that peasants and small food producers currently produce the bulk of world food, and no solution to the current crisis will be found without listening to them.
© 2008 Inter Press Service
24 Comments so far
Show AllMETHANE ___BURPS ___ "A TICKING TIME BOMB".
This is about a three minute read, I wonder if anyone can tell us the author is not correct.
http://www.energybulletin.net/3647.html
How about it ~MiMiCcS~, let's hear some more of your incredible, ignorant comments on the subject. Sorry BUD, but you are horribly ignorant on this subject.
I understand methane is ordorless gas ~PAULK~. And it really doesn't matter if it is called farts or burps, millions of tons of methane is escaping into our atmophere and we have been well warned about it for the past several years and few seemed to care or understnsd how serious that is.
Methane is 25 times as potent as a Greenhouse gas as Co-2 is. For every unit of methane, it's equivelant to 25 units of Co2.
Geologist Michael J. Benton and many others warned us and Benton wrote a book on the subject titiled, "When Life Nearly Died". His unheeded warning is about to transpire and it may be too late to correct it.
All life on Earth as we know it, save some bacteria and deep sea life may easily be wiped out, or obliterated, within the next twenty years or less. You would be surprised at how many bloggers here get irate with me for posting that. It is not MY opinion, it's the scientists who have studied the issure for their entire adult lives who say so.
It's a shame that the world's children have no say about what we adults have done, or continue to do to enhance global warming, seemingly oblivious as to our utter stupidity.
BELIEVE in the miracle of LIFE, and life and inner spirit is pleased to respond
The thinking of it as good, makes it so ( per Shakespeare )
Why do we waste our precious minds ( energy / focus /talent ) to consider so much of the "bad" -- for again our intention and attention -- will make it so.
|_______ W H A T __ ARE __ Y O U ________|
|____ CHOOSING __ TO __ C R E A T E ____|
|________ T _ O _ D _ A _ Y __ ? ________|
Namaste « Presence »
« We must be the change we wish to see in the world » — Gandhi
« There is a sufficiency in the world for man's need but not for man's greed » — Gandhi
« We adopt the means of nonviolence because our end is a community at peace with itself » — ML King
The deliberate delays and blockages of vital environmental measures by the U.S. under this administration defies logic and honor. Their unprecedented manipulation of science and deception to achieve these misdeeds is akin to treason. The resulting damage to our planet is immeasurable, and will be paying for these outrageous acts in health, economy, and security for generations.
elmysterio: I'm disturbed by your report. Apparently all of the permafrost, not just the Arctic wetlands, may be farting up millions of years of methane. Scientists are only studying Arctic methane lakes because the bubbling is obvious in the lakes. We need to nudge a few researchers.
What is this garbage about the "Illuminati," Julius Caesar and the worship of Lucifer? Give me a break!
There are essentially three profitable enterprises in the world: Petroleum, weapons, and drugs. All three are intertwined at the top in a consortium of major corporations, national Intelligence agencies and organized crime interests. In fact, at the top of the pyramid, these three enterprises along with these three interest groups are virtually indistinguishable from each other.
The head of an Israeli organized crime syndicate could step right into the chairmanship of General Electric corporation and a top CIA official could take his place in the Israeli syndicate while the CEO of Exxon-Mobile could be appointed assistant CIA director TOMORROW and nobody would bat an eyelash.
This is the REAL world government. It has to do with financial interests not the friggin' House of Herod.
chris antonelli "I don't think the so-called elites have much personal connection to or awareness of the natural limits imposed by meta-human, physical earth realities.
Most are either delusioned by religious fantasies that promise some kind of God will intervene and rescue Its human creation from folly, or else too distracted and blinded by the daily pressures of managing greed-based economic/political systems in their respective countries to see the forest for trees."
You could not be more wrong. You vastly underestimate the elite (their numbers are measured at no more than 6000). They do not need day jobs, and are not distracted or blinded. The CEO's and various think tanks and governments work for them. They are rich beyond comprehension. Nobody knows how rich since much is held by private entities that need not be disclosed publicly.
The roots and beliefs of the conspiracy go back 2600 years to Babylon, it is in essence the worship of Lucifer and belief that man, or at least it's electors can achieve god like status and rule the world under a Totalitarian One World Government.
The elite of today are descendents of a coalescence of families that produced the leading Illuminati bloodlines, centered around the House of Herod, and included an important Armenian bloodline in the House of Commagene that is descended from the Lost Tribes and mixed Alexandian and Persian heritage, a hereditary Syrian priesthood of Baal, and the family of Julius Caesar. The coalescence of these families 2000 years ago incepted the conspiracy, which evolved and crystallized into the current plan for global domination in the late 19th century. These bloodlines have been carefully tracked and preserved through intermarriages.
The elite believe Lucifer liberated man, showing him the truth that there is no truth. All morality, or sins, are mere conventions to dull the masses. Those who can, do. Morality is a restraint preventing man from achieving that which he desires, and is considered evil. All religion is simply superstition, the enemy of "Liberty". The freedom they fight for is the freedom to do what they wish. Therefore, they worship Lucifer as he represents freedom, and since the son of god that enslaves mans with rules called sins, he is the enemy, and is the evil one.
Hegel proposed that history was the unfolding of an idea, as God coming to know himself. It is man who becomes God as he overcomes superstition, and liberating himself. Our elites are Gods, so they believe. They are not waiting for any Messiah, that is a scam to get the religous to go along with the evil being played out, praying for the Messiah to return and rescue them.
Leo Strauss, a post WW II German philisopher, has influenced the current generation of leaders, and taught that within societies, some are fit to lead, while others are fit only to be led. For Strauss, a NWO would accept, understand, and harness man's tendency for "self-interest", or "human nature". Those who are fit to rule are those who realize there is no morality. He believed the world to be a place where policy advisers may have to deceive their own public leaders. If exposed to the absence of absolute truth, the masses would quickly succumb to nihilism or anarchy. They "can't handle the truth". Thus, according to Strauss, it is necessary to maintain "the Noble Lie".
Strauss believed that the aggressive nature of human beings could only be restrained by a powerful state. Today, most nations central governments are a blend of socialism and fascism, and Fascism (thesis) and Socialism (anti-thesis) will form Global Communism (synthesis). "Because mankind is wicked, he has to be governed," he once wrote. "Such governance can only be established, however, when men are united – and they can only be united against other people." Or against external threats such as GWOT and Global warming.
This is not really a new concept. Indeed, Plato recognized this 2300 years ago. In his "Republic" he outlined the basis of the future totalitarian state, ruled by the elite he called "philosopher kings", or "guardians". The Republic provided the basis for communism, the elimination of marriage and the family, compulsory education, the use of eugenics by the state, and the employment of deceptive propaganda methods. Global Warming and the GWOT are products of propaganda.
Our leaders worship at the alter of Strauss and Plato, all of them followers of Lucifer. This is their secret religion, and we live under their rules. They see themselves as Gods. They dictate, we obey. Those who do not obey their rules are sinners, and punished. Those who do not work, will not eat.
It's truly an Orwellian world we live in. The reality would be too much for most to take. As Strauss said, they must be protected from the truth. By speaking truth, we sin. Their lies are our truth.
I guess you could say we are a Pathocracy. The consensus reality says otherwise, but remember who has given you this consensus.
Why are these Bastards meeting? We have had 40 years of Republican bullshit about the FREE MARKET and 28 years of just the kind of destruction of laws and regulation that MORONS like Phil Gramm desired.
The Chicago economists predicted, we will remain in a blissful state caused by the rhythmic stroking of the invisible hand of the free market on our happy places.
Funny, most of the people I meet are getting the invisible hand of the market up the butt without Vaseline.
¿ __ D O _ Y O U _ H E A R _ T H A T _ S O U N D __ ?
It's the gears of change.
T H E _ W A R _ O F _ T E R R O R
Is making OUR new _ F E A R S _ STRONGER, of
the apocalyptic failure of Earth's very LIFE
support, due to our foolish hubris and greed.
We must welcome the new global challenge to
preserve the American Way, and join the fight of
T H E _ W A R _ O F _ O U R _ W O R L D
Some exceptions may apply, not all servants will be facing immediate death, and all products will not be available to all players, while certain offers may expire before you do.
Thank you for your dedication and heroic attitude, and continued illogic that will quickly lead to your ultimate doom - as we have a very special place reserved for you.
SIGNED
___ t h e __ o w n e r s __
I don't think the so-called elites have much personal connection to or awareness of the natural limits imposed by meta-human, physical earth realities.
Most are either delusioned by religious fantasies that promise some kind of God will intervene and rescue Its human creation from folly, or else too distracted and blinded by the daily pressures of managing greed-based economic/political systems in their respective countries to see the forest for trees.
It is interesting to remember the speculations of others, though.
When Star-Trek creator Gene Roddenberry imagined The Ferengui's (a civilization of super psychopathic capitalists who'd survived the greed ruination of their own planet and continued their greed from spaceship based loci), he's reported to have had in mind the logical extention of a future, unchecked human corporate capitalism. This in the late '60's!
At the time, everybody thought Roddenberry's creation of the fictional Ferengui's was a cynical, tongue-in-cheek funniment.
But lo and behold...30 years later, we're actually, seriously musing on the prospects!
Somehow we survived the Medieval Warm period without that great burp of Methane. I suppose we will survive again, much to the disappointment of those who embrace fear and terror as tightly as a child hugs their Teddy Bear. Believe what you will, it's obviously a religion where faith in the high priests of the consensus is such that they can not be questioned.
The world alternates between warm periods and ice ages every 100,000 years. The ice ages tend to dominate. Enjoy the warmth while it lasts, and perhaps mans CO2 will prevent the next ice age. An ice age would wipe out 95% of the worlds population and lower sea levels 120 meters. Maybe thats why they want us to reduce CO2.
Ice ages last 90-300,000 years. The period between ice ages last on average 12,000 years. We are 10,000-14,000 years since the last ice age ended. These are facts. Once you get into an ice age, the sun is not hot enough to get us out. What happens is most of the worlds water ends up as ice, and you have droughts over the non-ice covered land, and expanding deserts. Life is tough. Sea levels drop 120 meters lower than today. CO2 plummets due to the lack of biomass and absorbtion of CO2 by the cooler oceans, and the air is dry, so the most important GHG are depleted, global temperatures are 14 deg C lower than today, like an ice box. Then due to the lower pressure in the ocean at depth, a cricial trigger point is reached and you get great burps of methane from methane hydrates. Yes the ocean temperatures are colder, but not enough to compensate for the lower pressure. The methane then warms the earth by trapping heat, and the warmer oceans allow more methane to be released until the sea rises enough due to melting ice to increase the pressure and stop the release. This rapid warming occurs in very short periods of time.
http://www.utopiasprings.com/methane.htm
Climate change is natural. Climate stability in the warm periods is very short lived. Man faces a far greater danger from an ice age. An ice age would be a great way for the neo-malthusians who give you your consensus reality to get rid of those humans that are turning the earth into a human feed lot.
I prefer the term "fart" to "burp" to describe methane emissions. A belch can be air that you swallowed from hastily eating your food, but a fart smells of methane. Also, you can't light burps with a match, but you can light big tree-sized fireballs from the right methane lake emissions.
OPAL
just as a matter of interest, what do you see as the coming devastation?
Kitaj, I agree with tinylotus. The elites know, they understand, and they rely on their wealth, stolen from us, to save them from the coming devastation. They have abaondoned all morality, all concern for future generations.
Your question reminds me of a question feminists asked themselves in the sixties and seventies: are men out of touch with their feelings, or are they just devoid of feelings altogether? Sorry men, but that was a popular and puzzling question back then.
Bottom line is - it doesn't matter because the result is the same.
KEM PATRICK
great link..........all this monitoring and no action. but you were right on target with your 300$ a barrel of oil that is now predicted. if the food lasts that long.............we might die of starvation beforehand.
How can this BS be displayed on the same planet that knows deep ecology? We are "led" by shameless cowards.
Yeah ~Elmysterio~ the Arctic perma-frost is farting now but it's gonna be "burping" vast amounts of methane shortly and when it does, we'll have global warmimg like very few have ever imagined. And ~COCO~is correct also, Anartica will be another ice free pole. The next ~Disney World~ will be built in the Rockies.
http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2008/20080423_methane.html
tinylotus - as to your question
At least as far as this country is concerned, the reason we need to try to influence the government - and we have been totally unsuccessful - is to try to stop this insane Imperial project the neocons have put us into, and to stop pissing away our wealth on the military-industrial complex and redirect it toward a Green Transition.
this just in from the european space agency: the wilkins ice shelf in the antarctica is 'hanging by its last thread'.................beam me up scotty!!!!!
Kitaj, i think you're on to something....
The "elite" knows, they also know that they have enough money to build their own self-sufficient eco-bubble, while the rest of us gasp for air....
my question...for the human race is...Why do we have to have governments declare laws about emmissions etc. in order to "do" anything?....Like waiting for "Father" to tell us "no"....
we are delusional...
As I posted on the other G* article:
The question that always comes to my mind when I observe the behavior of our elite *leaders* is, "Are they just totally out of touch with reality because they are so lost in obsolete belief-systems, or, do they know exactly what is going on and have some sort of plan that provides for a survival of the global elites - themselves - in the coming global catastrophe and is based upon the deliberate sacraficing and die-back of billions of human beings, and that they have already factored this die-back into their plans?"
Anyone?
PaulK: I have relatives that live in Whitehorse, Yukon... and they tell me that permafrost that has been frozen 'forever' is now melting and turning "squishy" and "farts" when you step on it.
Peak oil has changed every individual government's mind about global warming. Without cheap oil, they all want to burn down all their forests, burn charcoal for power, switch their food land over to burnable biofuels for cash, and mine every last hunk of high sulfur, high carbon coal and energetically hard to get tar sand. Coal plants are going up daily, worldwide, as we read and write.
As I have said, I expect 80% of the Arctic Ocean's former ice cap to be gone by September 21 of 2008. This will trigger a significant methane bubble-up outburst on nearby Arctic mainland wetlands this summer, and a few years down the road may trigger a runaway methane clathrate melting on the Arctic's continental shelves. Methane is 50 times as potent, molecule for molecule, as CO2, and there's on the order of 500 gigatons of methane waiting to come up. Our only saving grace is that it won't all come up at once, and methane only lasts about 8 years in the atmosphere. However, it's expected to cause the same extreme runaway effect that we see historically in geologic records.
I'd rather say "runaway Arctic methane release" than "global warming". With any luck, by 2050 the worst will be over.
The G8 is a disgusting example of the hubris of the global 'elite'. They sit around, playing politics for the benefit of their cronies while the masses suffer and die because of their policies.
Something we have to understand here.... there are WAY more of us than there are of them. If we band together, we can take them out.