Some good news as the Christian holiday approaches: the American Smelting and Refining Company, ASARCO, agreed to a settlement of its pollution liabilities in nineteen states it was announced on December 10th by federal officials. Grupo Mexico, the parent company, is providing $1.79 billion for the bankrupt concern as payment to clean up 80 superfund sites created by the company's mining operations. ASARCO was a venerable name in the mining business, operating for 110 years as a vertically integrated holding company and then as an Arizona based copper mining and refining company. It filed for Chapter 11 reorganization on August 9, 2005. Grupo Mexico purchased the company in bankruptcy proceedings. Two of the more significant superfund sites affected by the settlement are the Tar Creek site in Ottawa County, Oklahoma and the Bunker Hill site in the Coeur d'Alene basin of northern Idaho. The Tar Creek site is highly contaminated by mine tailings deposited in mounds and retention ponds near residential communities and developed areas. Some of the piles are 200 feet high [photo] and contain lead, cadmium and zinc. The Bunker Hill site is on public land used by wildlife and migratory birds as habitat. Land, ground water and surface waters have been contaminated by mining operations. Caring for our planet by restoring damaged land is what Jesus would do.
GM has tapped California as the place for rolling out the Chevy Volt in 2011. GM has even commissioned a catchy jingle to educate consumers about the plug-in EV which plays at auto shows were the Volt is on display. The price will not be inexpensive, $40,000, primarily because the car's lithium ion batteries will cost around $14,000. Besides the price tag a new analysis sponsored by the National Academy of Sciences and the Department of Energy may give pause to consumers willing to commit to a greener type of personal mobility. The report says that because of the higher front end costs to consumers--as much as $18,000 per car-- plug-in electric vehicles (PHEV) will not overtake internal combustion vehicles in the US car market for decades. The report estimates that with consumer acceptance there could be as many as 40 million PHEVs on the roads by 2030, but a more realistic number is 13 million. Even with government subsidies and advancements in battery technology bringing the cost down, PHEVs are not expected to impact carbon emissions until 2030. Gas consumption for extended range PHEVs like the Volt are significantly less than (<) current hybrids (55%). But because they are recharged from the electric grid, emissions from generating stations must be accounted for. If drivers are conscientious about charging their EVs a night when the electrical load is reduced, the current ramshackle electric grid could handle the new consumption.
'Zion Joe' Lieberman has been asking for it for so long, that he ought to hang a sign on his back reading "Kick Me". But the men's club known as the US Senate has it rules by god, and Henry Reid is such a nice guy. Joe vowed to join the Republicans and vote against any health care bill the Democrats want to pass. There are several things the party could do to convince him to vote for reform:
Update: Five Penan communities on the Baram River have sued logging giant Samling for violating their indigenous land rights. They are demanding land titles to 80,000 sq. hectares of rainforest, nullification of four timber licenses plus compensation for damages. In the suit the Penan people will prove their use of the affected forest since before recorded time. They claim the timber operators have wrongfully trespassed on their customary forest with heavy equipment and destroyed a substantial area of forest they use to gather natural products for barter trade as well as fruit trees and crops. A Malaysian government report confirmed allegations by Penan that a number of indigenous girls and women have been sexually molested and raped by logging company employees. For more information on the suit and supporting evidence contact the Bruno Manser Fund in Basel Switzerland. 
espite repeated assurances from the Malaysian government to preserve an area for the Penan, logging companies continue to clear the forest. The Peace Park covers an area of about 629 square miles around the Gunung Murud Kecil mountain range on the border with Indonesia, and between national parks on either side of the border. One of the headmen at the ceremony in Long Ajeng village said, "we wish to live peacefully together with neighboring tribes and as fully recognized Malaysian citizens." The dedication was attended by about 200 Penan. A Swiss citizen who lived with Penan in the 80's to help their struggle to preserve their home, Bruno Manser, disappeared into the forest in May 2000 and is presumed dead. A fund was set up in his honor to help indigenous people in Sarawak protect the forest from total destruction. GREEN KUDOS to the Penan!
In the November 13 issue of Science journal, a researcher from the University of Vienna School of Veterinary Medicine, says the world's last wild horse*, Przewalski's (Equus ferus prezewalskii) which has survived for millennia almost unchanged in the Gobi desert, has reached a population level necessary to insure its long term survival. The distinctive ancestral horse was confronting near extinction due to habitat loss and competition from domestic animals, mostly goats and sheep, which are notorious for eating every green thing in their path. The last wild herd was sighted in 1967. Efforts to breed the horse in captivity began in zoos and reserves. China started a breeding program in 1985 and after two decades of effort began breeding large numbers of horses. Two reintroduction projects in Mongolian national parks have brought the species back from the brink. Hustai (Khustain Nuruu) National Park has 171 horses living in the wild and Takhin Tal has about 115 horses. The report in Science concluded that 140 individuals would be enough to constitute a robust starting population to insure long term survival. One conservation measure that seems to be working is paying livestock herders to keep their herds off the reserve ranges. The horse is still critically endangered but has been upgraded from "extinct in the wild" by the Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). 
Forty-four's calculation is simple: deliver enough superficial adjustments to the status quo to make a politically defensible argument that he brought "change" to America, thus ensuring his re-election in 2012 against weak opposition from a rump party. It is the same political parlor game his politically successful predecessors have played, earning him the name of just another number in the long line of White House occupants. This strategy can be deduced from the major policy decisions he has recently made. He allows Wall Street banksters, wielding "financial weapons of mass destruction", to lean on his Secretary of Treasury{11.28.09}, and then reappoints a Federal Reserve Chairman considered by experts to be an architect of the bubble economy. He escalates the war in Afghanistan under the fig leaf of a fuzzy withdrawal timeline full of caveats. He abandons the public option for health insurance in order to make a deal with a few intransigent members of his own party, rather than deliver on his campaign promise. And he pursues a private negotiating strategy at the Copenhagen climate summit intended to settle for an unenforceable political promise instead of a binding legal agreement. How do you spell failure?
Developments in the Levant have not been good news for the American administration as its client state, Israel, continues to push annexation of Arab neighborhoods in East Jerusalem. Last month, Zionists clashed with Palestinians in Sheik Jarrah after a Palestinian family lost its home to a court order for eviction. Three families have been evicted in the predominately Arab neighborhood in the last year. A Jewish settlement association won its legal claim to historic Jewish ownership of the land and has plans to build a large housing complex there. The neighborhood is just north of the Arab Old Quarter. Israel claims sovereignty over all Jerusalem including the eastern sections taken from Jordan in the 1967 war and has maintained a consistent public stance that there will never be "two Jerusalems". The Israeli hard line is encouraged by American fundamentalists who wish to see Jewish control of the Holy City of God, predicted in various Bible passages to occur at the parousia. The United Nations has called the demolitions, evictions and flow of settlers "provocative actions" that "make resuming negotiations and achieving a two-state solution more difficult". Of course stating the obvious does not deter Israel. In 2008 Israel revoked the residency permits of more Palestinians from East Jerusalem than during any other year since the 1967 war. Zionist Avigdor Liberman, the foreign minister in Israel's coalition government, reaffirmed their willingness to continue the absorption of East Jerusalem despite Prime Minister Netanyahu's call for a ten month moratorium on building. Settlers have installed fake foundations in East Jerusalem in an attempt to circumvent the freeze which allows builders to complete construction already in progress. 
Last week's corporate media meme was the drop of .2% in the unemployment rate. The rate drop was caused by people becoming detached from the labor market. "Those not in the labor market" increased by 291,000. Nevertheless the news powered a rise in the dollar index and a sharp drop in gold prices. At 10% the official rate is grim enough, but if you look at U-6 [last line], the broadest official measure of no and under employment, the picture is even worse. U-6 counts people with part-time jobs because of economic reasons, people who want a job but are discouraged, and people whose unemployment benefits have stopped and have fallen off the roles. This statistic is much closer to what it feels like to Joe Sixpac. U-6 is at 17.2% and slated to rise into 2011. Hard times are definitely here.
This compound chart shows the state of play in the world markets. The Fed policy of deflating the US dollar (US$ Index) to inflate a new economic bubble in commodities is having the intended effect. The stock market is up (DJ Industrials Index) as are the commodities markets (DJ Commodities Index) led by a parabolic bull market in gold (spot price over $1200). Short term rates (3month T bill) are headed to zero, thereby encouraging dollar carry trading. But if you measure the stock market gains in hard money (gold) instead of devalued dollars, the rally is an illusion since one Dow share is worth only 8.8 ounces of gold or 12% less than 3 months ago.
Polar bear males are known to kill new cubs in the spring to bring the sows back into estrous. Infanticide is a method of natural selection shared with other large predatory land mammals such as lions. But polar bears living in the Hudson Bay region of Canada may have resorted to cannibalism because sea ice is hardening later each year preventing them from hunting their usual prey--seals. Eight cases of apparent cannibalism by males have been reported to conservation organizations. A retired scientist who studied the Churchill, Canada population for thirty years says that the number of reported cases is large. The bears of Hudson Bay were forced to wait on shore for four months without food until freeze up. The Bay used to freeze in November, now in early December it is still not solid enough for bears to hunt. In 2004 four bears drowned attempting to hunt on unstable ice.
m. Vietnam's Ministry of Agriculture & Rural Development told workshop attendees that at the end of the war in 1975, an estimated 2,000 Asian elephants still roamed the forests. Now, that number has dropped to 80. There may have been a million elephants living across Asia as late as 1900 [map]. Predictably, deforestation and poaching are the main reasons given by the Ministry for the precipitous drop in population. The Vietnam War took a huge toll on Vietnam's forests which were bombed and defoliated with Agent Orange. Undoubtedly elephants were among the victims of the US campaign against an enemy that used the forests as a stronghold. Human population increases and economic development after the war have also been responsible for rapid loss of elephant habitat. There have been news reports of enraged elephants attacking villagers as their terr
itories shrink. The few elephants remaining in the wild are grouped in the Central Highlands and southern Dong Nai Province. Estimates of illegal wildlife products passing through Vietnam are around 4,000 tons a year, and Vietnamese ivory prices could be the highest in the world with reports of tusks selling for up $1500 a kilogram. Smaller cut pieces are sold for as much as $1863 according to TRAFFIC, an international conservation group that monitors the trade. Selling ivory was outlawed in Vietnam in 1992, but a loophole allows traders to sell the stock in their possession prior to the ban, making law enforcement difficult.
In other words, the decision to acquire a controlling interest in one of the world’s most complex and most troubled corporations was done with almost no independent consideration of the terms of the transaction or the impact that those terms might have on the future of AIG.
Irrespective of their stated intent, however, there is no question that the effect of FRBNY’s decisions —indeed, the very design of the federal assistance to AIG —was that tens of billions of dollars of Government money was funneled inexorably and directly to AIG’s counterparties...Federal Reserve officials provided AIG’s counterparties with tens of billions of dollars they likely would have not otherwise received had AIG gone into bankruptcy.
The sheikdom that would be New York of the desert announced on Wednesday that it was suspending debts payments by its largest corporate entity, Dubai World, for six months. Market observers have known for months that Dubai was in trouble because it is a city state built not on sand, but debt. World markets reacted predictably on the news today with stocks slumping and credit default swaps soaring. Nearly $50bn in debt is due in the next three years and the sheiks do not have the money. Standard & Poor's said the suspension could be considered a default, and downgraded a host of Dubai government entities. Dubai could be headed the way of Iceland. Meanwhile gold soared to a new high of $1195.13 after Sri Lanka's central bank said it would purchase IMF gold for sale.
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado has released a state by state report showing progress toward renewable energy development in the United States. Renewable resources supplied only 8.5% of total electricity generation in 2007 with a 70% share of that amount attributable to hydroelectric generation. By 2007 24 states were generating at least one gigawatt of renewable electricity from non-hydro sources. California generates the most non-hydro renewable energy. Washington generates the most renewable energy if hydro is included. The greatest growth has been in the wind sector, and because of the abundant wind energy on the Great Plains, South Dakota leads in overall growth of non-hydro renewable energy generation. The pie chart shows that most of America's energy comes from the burning of coal. Clearly, much more clean development needs to occur if proposed carbon emission limits are to be met. Biomass, or the generation of power from waste materials, is expanding and offers an opportunity for further growth in regions without significant hydro, wind or geothermal sources as in the western United States. States which offer net metering to electricity customers and have a renewable energy portfolio mandate showed greater growth in renewable energy generation than states without these policies. The report contains numerous analytical charts and an extensive appendix listing clean energy resources.
When the thousand years are over, Satan will be released from his prison...and muster the troops of Gog and Magog...[He] surrounded the beloved city where God's people were encamped...Then I saw new heaven and a new earth. I also saw a new Jerusalem, the holy city, coming down out of heaven from God. Revelations 20*The allegorical passages of Revelation have proven fertile ground for persons having a doctrinal commitment to literalness. The problem becomes more than a theological discussion of angels on pinheads, however, when persons such as Mrs. Palin attempt to effect political policy in conformity with their peculiar weltanshauung. One television mavin recently released from federal prison felt compelled to call Mrs. Palin "confused" and "dangerous", while hard line Israeli leaders considered her comments on illegal settlements "clear and well-intentioned". Proving once again that it all depends on whose ox is at the altar being slaughtered.
Millions of our citizens do not now have a full measure of opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health. Millions do not now have the protection or security against the economic effects of sickness. The time has arrived for action to help them attain that opportunity and that protection...In the past, the benefits of modern medical science have not been enjoyed by our citizens with any degree of equality. Nor are they today. Nor will they be in the future--unless government is bold enough to do something about it...We should resolve that the health of this Nation is a national concern; that financial barriers in the way of attaining health shall be removed; that the health of all its citizens deserves the help of all the Nation.The words written over sixty years ago, unfortunately for many Americans, are still true today. But at long last redressing the social inequity to which Senator Kennedy dedicated his public life may be upon us.
Climate activists shaking their heads over the unevent that will take place in Copenhagen next month, may take some solace in the unprecedented agreement reached by Norway and former British colony Guyana. Guyana has an intact rain forest larger than England and in return for preserving it, Norway will invest $250 million in the country to development a low carbon economy. Both countries intend the agreement to set an example for other north-south partnerships to save tropical forests worldwide. President Bharrat Jagdeo offered the UK a similar deal in 2007, but the debt ridden British government failed to make any headway on the proposal. The President credited the British newspaper, The Independent [image], with bringing his nation's forest to
the forefront of conservation efforts. Small and relatively undeveloped, countries like Guyana lack the financial means to place large tracts of land off limits to development. But it is these remaining tracts of undisturbed forest than mean the difference between an Earth like something from the dystopian film "Blade Runner" or an idyllic Eden hosting technologically advanced and sustainable human cultures*. Under the agreement with Norway, Guyana will halt deforestation and increase efforts to limit greenhouse gas emissions from forest activities. Tropical deforestation accounts for one-fifth of all carbon emission--more than all of the transport sector including aviation. GREEN KUDOS are in order for Norway and Guyana!
Want to know why our biggest trading partner and creditor can produce so many consumer products cheaply, flooding our market to the point of endangering the health of our own economy? Beside cheap labor, industrial production in China enjoys the freedom to dump and pollute where and when it likes. These graphic photos by a Chinese freelance photographer are examples of what economists hygienically refer to as "uncompensated externalities" which make extremely low costs of production possible. The Chinese waste their land because Americans buy their stuff in container ship loads. Think about Earth that the next time you head to Wal-Mart to do your Christmas shopping.
No, not the 1954 film melodrama* starring the irrepressible Elizabeth Taylor, but the actual migration corridors used by generations of intelligent and sensitive elephants. An Indian high court ruled in favor of elephants over land developers, prohibiting construction blocking their routes on the Segur Plateau and around Mudumalai tiger reserve. According to wildlife officials only four corridors will be secured by the interim ruling among the 88 passages listed as critical by the Wildlife Trust of India. Conservationists have been working to purchase private land across India to connect protected areas for the pachyderm residents of India.
The corrupt Japanese whaling program operates under a cover of "scientific research" in order to fit within an exception to the international whaling moratorium imposed in 1986. However, the program is not self-sustaining and requires a government subsidy of about $780 million to the Overseas Fisheries Cooperation Fund to keep the discredited Institute for Cetacean Research going. A spending review committee has recommended that the subsidy be eliminated. The final decision on funding rests with the Cabinet Office. Greenpeace, which was instrumental in achieving the moratorium, has determined that whale meat from "research" vessels is being sold by crew members for personal profit. Two Greenpeace activists, Toru Suzuki and Junichi Sato, are awaiting trial for their undercover work in exposing the corruption of the whaling program. They are charged with theft and trespass. Whaling is on the agenda of items to be discussed by President Obama with Prime Minister Hatoyama during his state visit.
The palm oil industry is rapidly denuding Southeast Asia, destroying the rainforest and replacing it with unsustainable monoculture plantations to produce a commodity used in cooking, foodstuffs and as a fuel. When the rainforest is torn down, the homes of endangered orangutans are also wiped out. That is bad enough, but the torture and abuse of orphaned orangutan infants uncovered on Borneo is truly sickening. Workers killed two mothers to eat them. Two of the infants [photo, International Animal Rescue] was found by conservationists beaten, emaciated and dehydrated. Helen was hog tied to a pole. Another younger infant apparently escaped the workers, but less than a year old, the orangutan undoubtedly died of starvation in the forest. Thankfully the rescued infants are recovering from their ordeal. Helen's wounds are responding well to antibiotics, and learning that not all homo sapiens are predators. They are the lucky ones because countless more primates are dying in captivity from similar torture and neglect. International Animal Rescue has signed an agreement with the Indonesian Forestry Department to set up a permanent rescue center in West Kalimantan where there is none at present. The group is also working on a proposal for research into suitable sites where orangutans can be released into protected areas of remaining forest.A whole range of reasons. Firstly, the financial problems in the U.S. will get worse. Millions of citizens there have lost their savings. Prices and unemployment are on the rise. General Motors and Ford are on the verge of collapse, and this means that whole cities will be left without work. Governors are already insistently demanding money from the federal center. Dissatisfaction is growing, and at the moment it is only being held back by the elections and the hope that Obama can work miracles. But by spring, it will be clear that there are no miracles."The veterans of the Grand Army must be turing in their graves upon hearing this agitprop. Of course the Civil War is the great subject of revisionist history in Texas. There the tea baggers sponsored Panarin to speak at the Houston Hilton. The fringe right media have also cited Panarin's opinions from the Drudge Report to Chuck Baldwin, a perennial also ran of the Conservative Party. The small detail that Panarin puts the locus of Hispanic unrest in the southeast rather than in the northern portion of Mexico annexed by the United States after the Mexican War ought to tell you something about the quality of his analysis.
US Person is truly disgusted with Washington politicans bashing the principled opposition to the Vietnam War by an entire generation of young Americans. Forty-four did it again on this Veterans Day, addressing the people gathered at Arlington National Cemetery for the traditional wreath laying at the Tomb of the Unknown. Denigrating millions of Americans who stood up to their government to end a war that was immoral and unjustified has itself become tradition:
The government of Nepal has expanded the Bardia National Park by 900 sq.kms. (347.5 sq.m.) specifically for tiger habitat. The first ever national census showed 121 adult tigers living in four protected areas of Nepal. WWF urged the government to increase habitat and anti-poaching efforts. It will also establish a National Tiger Conservation Authority and a Wildlife Crime Control Commission. Government sees the success of tiger conservation tied to the livelihoods of local communities. WWF believes that Nepal can be successful in doubling the number of endangered tigers and sees Nepal's commitment to tiger survival as an important example for other countries in tiger range where remnant populations are hanging in the balance. GREEN KUDOS to Nepal for helping one of nature's most magnificent animals survive.
