Category: International

bookmark_borderTrans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP)

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by Daniel Brouse

The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) is a free trade agreement being negotiated by twelve countries:
Australia, Canada, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, United States, Vietnam, Chile, Brunei, Singapore, and New Zealand. The TPP will eliminate over 18,000 taxes, tariffs and other trade barriers.

One of the largest benefits of the TPP will be protecting the environment. Participating countries will need to adopt tougher pollution standards similar to the USA. “TPP includes the most robust enforceable environment commitments of any trade agreement in history,” according the United States. “TPP requires countries to play by fair environmental rules if they want to send their goods to the United States, and upgrades NAFTA by putting fully enforceable environment obligations at the core of the agreement.” In addition, TPP helps improve conditions on the ground in TPP countries by requiring them to:
* Fulfill their obligations under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) to protect and conserve iconic species, such as rhinos and elephants.
* For the first time in any trade agreement, prohibit harmful fisheries subsidies, including those that contribute to overfishing, and work to restrain new subsidy programs or enhancements to existing subsidy programs.
* Combat illegal fishing, promote sustainable fisheries management practices, and protect wetlands and important natural areas.
* Promote the long-term conservation of whales, dolphins, sharks, sea turtles, and other marine species at risk.
* Combat wildlife trafficking, illegal logging, and illegal fishing through enhanced national and regional actions.
* Protect the marine environment from ship pollution, including by implementing their obligations under MARPOL (an international agreement to prevent marine pollution).

Another benefit of the TPP will be the recognition of Intellectual Property (IP) Rights. Countries would be required to adopt standards inline with the USA. TPP copyrights are proposed to be “for the author’s life plus 70 years.”

The Agreement covers more than 40 percent of global GDP. Of the international economists questioned, the only complaint about TPP is — it doesn’t include the entire world.

Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) Map
Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) Map

Also see: GMO Rice Wins Humanitarian Award

bookmark_borderThe Truth About 9/11

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The truth is obvious if you were a witness… as I was (Recorded on-the-fly: Noon, Sept. 11, 2001) —

Horrified As I?: Terrorists attack the US, New York City, Washington DC, Hijack planes and use…

A free music video about the attacks on New York City and Washington DC in DivX, MPEG4, MPEG2, Real Player and OggVorbis file formats.

The week before September 11, 2001 I was part of a peace project that met at the World Trade Towers.  A week later I watched.

Those perpetuating the conspiracy myth tend to leave out the other two sites. The plane that came down in Pennsylvania was occupied by the former quarterback of West Chester University. He is the one that yelled “Let’s roll!” (before the passengers tried to take the plane back.) He has become a local hero. There are also witnesses in Washington at the the Pentagon. If you have a doubt, try explaining Cantor Fitzgerald.

bookmark_borderMagnitude and Speed of Sea Level Rise = Global Crisis

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There are a growing number of scientist that have concluded climate change is severe. Recently, Jim Hansen, a professor at Columbia University’s Earth Institute, wrote:

“One conclusion we share in the latter paper is that ice sheet models that guided IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) sea level projections and upcoming United Nations meetings in Paris are far too sluggish compared with the magnitude and speed of sea level changes in the paleoclimate record. An implication is that continued high emissions likely would result in multi-meter sea level rise this century and lock in continued ice sheet disintegration such that building cities or rebuilding cities on coast lines would become foolish.

The bottom line message we as scientists should deliver to the public and to policymakers is that we have a global crisis, an emergency that calls for global cooperation to reduce emissions as rapidly as practical. We conclude and reaffirm in our present paper that the crisis calls for an across-the-board rising carbon fee and international technical cooperation in carbon-free technologies. This urgent science must become part of a global conversation about our changing climate and what all citizens can do to make the world livable for future generations.”

bookmark_borderThe Sixth Mass Extinction Is Here

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Researchers from several universities have released a study that concludes the Earth has entered into its sixth mass extinction. Rob Jordan author of the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment states, “There is no longer any doubt: We are entering a mass extinction that threatens humanity’s existence.”

The onset of the extinction is due to human activity. Paul Ehrlich, the Bing Professor of Population Studies in biology and a senior fellow at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment, calls for “fast action to conserve threatened species, populations and habitat, but warn that the window of opportunity is rapidly closing.”

“The study shows without any significant doubt that we are now entering the sixth great mass extinction event,” Ehrlich said. “There are examples of species all over the world that are essentially the walking dead. We are sawing off the limb that we are sitting on.”

The study shows that “even with extremely conservative estimates, species are disappearing up to about 100 times faster than the normal rate between mass extinctions.”

“If it is allowed to continue, life would take many millions of years to recover, and our species itself would likely disappear early on,” said lead author Gerardo Ceballos of the Universidad Autónoma de México.

“We are now entering the sixth great mass extinction event,” one of the authors of the paper told the BBC.

Gerardo Ceballos, lead author of the research, added: “If it is allowed to continue, life would take many millions of years to recover and our species itself would likely disappear early on”.

The main causes of the mass extinction are:

 

  • Land clearing for farming, logging and settlement
  • Introduction of invasive species
  • Carbon emissions that drive climate change and ocean acidification
  • Toxins that alter and poison ecosystems

 

Extinction Chart
Extinction Chart

bookmark_borderPermafrost

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For a longtime researches at The Membrane Domain have been conducting R&D on the exponential properties of climate change.

The melting of the permafrost has become a good example of the problem. A recent article in Nature Climate Change reports:

Decomposition of organic carbon from thawing permafrost soils and the resulting release of carbon to the atmosphere are considered to represent a potentially critical global-scale feedback on climate change. The accompanying heat production from microbial metabolism of organic material has been recognized as a potential positive-feedback mechanism that would enhance permafrost thawing and the release of carbon. This internal heat production is poorly understood, however, and the strength of this effect remains unclear3. Here, we have quantified the variability of heat production in contrasting organic permafrost soils across Greenland and tested the hypothesis that these soils produce enough heat to reach a tipping point after which internal heat production can accelerate the decomposition processes. Results show that the impact of climate changes on natural organic soils can be accelerated by microbial heat production with crucial implications for the amounts of carbon being decomposed. The same is shown to be true for organic middens5 with the risk of losing unique evidence of early human presence in the Arctic.

bookmark_borderChina And Climate Change

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In a unique statement, the ranking weather official for China has come out publicly about global warming.  The BBC reports:
Climate change could have a “huge impact” on China, reducing crop yields and harming the environment, the country’s top weather scientist has warned, in a rare official admission. Zheng Guogang told Xinhua news agency that climate change could be a “serious threat” to big infrastructure projects.

He said temperature rises in China were already higher than global averages.

China, the world’s biggest polluter, has said its emissions of gases that cause climate change will peak by 2030. However, the country has not set a specific target for cutting emissions of the gases, mainly carbon dioxide.

‘Emphasise climate security’
Mr Zheng, the head of China’s meteorological administration, said warming temperatures exposed his country to a growing “risk of climate change and climate disasters”. He said temperature rises in China had already been higher than the global average for the past century.

These are rare admissions from a Chinese official, BBC Asia analyst Michael Bristow says. China’s leaders have acknowledged the damage from global warming but they usually do not lay out the full scale of the problems.

 

 

bookmark_borderTop Myths Busted

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by Daniel Brouse

1. GMO Foods Are Bad
2. Sandy Hook Was a Drill
3. 9/11 Was a Government Conspiracy
4. Contrails Contain Chemicals (Chemtrails)
5. [Request your myth to be busted.]

1. GMO Foods Are Bad
Humans have been genetically modifying foods for thousands of years. There is no evidence that eating GMO food is more harmful. Recently, GMO plants have been improved significantly and have been purposely modified for increased health benefits. Purple carrots that contain anthocyanins are an example. If you have any concerns about GMO’s, instead of spreading rumors… grow your own food!

2. Sandy Hook Was a Drill
In the aftermath of the Sandy Hill shootings, there was initial oversight by the State Police. This caused some confusion in the mass media with information that was being provided by the local police and the federal agencies. That is not to say that there have not been live action drills in the USA. In 1999, the military lowered armed troops from Blackhawk helicopters into the city of Camden with live ammo. Another example is the coordinated dismantling of Occupy Philly and Occupy Oakland by Homeland Security. The point being — it was obvious to everyone when it was a drill. The eye-witnesses in Sandy Hook make it evident this was not staged by the military.

3. 9/11 Was a Government Conspiracy
The 9/11 conspiracy crowd tends to focus on how buildings in New York collapsed. As far as scientists can tell, they collapsed in ways consistent with the unique event. Those perpetuating the conspiracy myth tend to leave out the other two sites. The plane that came down in Pennsylvania was occupied by the former quarterback of West Chester University. He is the one that yelled “Let’s roll!” before the passengers tried to take the plane back. He has become a local hero. There are also witnesses in Washington at the the Pentagon. If you have a doubt, try explaining Cantor Fitzgerald.

4. Contrails Contain Chemicals (Chemtrails)
The clouds that are formed from air passing through jet engines and being super-cooled are called contrails. They contain only H2O from the atmosphere. That is not to say that chemicals don’t come out of planes. They do. It is known as exhaust and usually can’t be seen with the naked eye. The exhaust comes out of a different part of the plane and is completely separate from the contrails; however, the exhaust from jets is a significant problem and is scheduled to be the first worldwide tax:

International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) — The aviation sector will attempt to negotiate by 2016 a market-based mechanism (taxes, tradeable permits or carbon offsets) to tackle emissions from flying.

bookmark_borderSanta Claus Is Real

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Did you know that Santa Claus is based on a real person from Turkey? Saint Nicholas of Myra was a Greek Christian bishop of Myra (now known as Turkey.) Around 500 AD, Nicholas became known for his saintly acts. One story has him giving gifts to those in need. A poor family did not have enough money for a dowry so that their daughter would not have to become a prostitute. Nicholas went to their house intending to sneak gold in through their window; however, the windows had bars. In what would become a Christmas tradition, Nicholas threw the gold down the chimney. It happened to land in the girl’s stocking which had been hung to dry.

bookmark_border3D Printer Makes Wrench in Space

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OUTER SPACE — What happens if you are on the Space Station and you need a wrench? Just have NASA e-mail it up and print it on the 3D printer.

It is the first time that hardware was e-mailed to space.

Mike Chen, founder of Made In Space (the company behind the 3-D printer) said, “We had overheard ISS Commander Barry Wilmore mention over the radio that he needed one, so we designed one in CAD and sent it up to him faster than a rocket ever could have.”

“The socket wrench we just manufactured is the first object we designed on the ground and sent digitally to space, on the fly.

“It also marks the end of our first experiment — a sequence of 21 prints that together make up the first tools and objects ever manufactured off the surface of the Earth.”

bookmark_borderTorture = Enhanced Interrogation Techniques

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The United States’ Senate Intelligence Committee released a 6,000 page report detailing how the CIA tortured prisoners at Bagram, Guantanamo Bay, and Abu Ghraib. A 480 page summary gives a troubling overview. The BBC reports:

  • Were the interrogation methods – torture if you like – more extensive and more brutal than previously admitted? It looks like the conclusion is “Yes”
  • Did these interrogation techniques deliver life-saving intelligence to the US? That answer appears to be “No”
  • Were CIA officials at the time honest with the White House about the program? Again, “No”

Dianne Feinstein, who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee, referred to “Enhanced Interrogation Techniques” as torture.