brief: Time mag covers another story on Climate Change

I'll post a more detailed one later with the articles & all posted here. This is just a brief one.



I subscribe to Time mag which i soo <3..& style="font-style: italic;">CLIMATE CHANGE! yes..their cover story was on climate change; I think it's their eighth time to feature this issue on the cover...this one having to do with what we can do about it..as individuals, lawyers, corporations etc. You can read all the articles on www.time.com or buy the mag on newstands now. It's a weekly mag I reckon so if that's the case then buy it this week or check the website this week.

US's CO2 emissions violate human rights. As we debate GB, Alaskans are aldready facing the consequences.

ps.Inuits are the native americans that live in Alaska..in other words, they're eskimos but it is a derrogatory word for them to be described as.

US CO2 emissions 'violate rights'

Traditional hunting and fishing techniques are at risk from thin ice

A delegation of Inuit has travelled to Washington to argue that the US government's climate change policies violate human rights.

The group has filed a legal petition to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, demanding that the US limits its emission of greenhouse gases.

The Inuit say pollution is contributing to melting ice and thawing permafrost, affecting their way of life.

Temperatures in the Arctic are rising at about twice the global average.

Representatives for Inuit communities living within the Arctic Circle presented evidence to the Commission on Thursday in an attempt to link human-induced climate change to international human rights.

The hearing is the latest stage in the legal process, which began in December 2005 when the petition was filed.

Call for caps

The delegation is being led by Sheila Watt-Cloutier, a former chairwoman of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference, a representative body for Inuit in Alaska, Canada, Greenland and Russia.

Mrs Watt-Cloutier, who has been nominated alongside former US Vice President Al Gore for a Nobel Peace Prize for their work on climate change, was responsible for submitting the petition.

Coastal erosion and thawing permafrost threatens settlements (Image: ANSC)

The document urges the commission to recommend that the "United States adopt mandatory limits to its emissions of greenhouse gases".

It also asks for the US to work within the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change to "prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system".

Mrs Watt-Cloutier, and the petition's 62 other signatories, are calling on the US to work with the Arctic communities to help them adapt to the impact of unavoidable climate change.

The action was brought against the US following the publication of an extensive scientific study of the Arctic region.

The Arctic Climate Impact Assessment involved hundreds of scientists from all over the globe and took four years to compile.

Among its findings, the assessment said that increased concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere would "contribute to additional Arctic warming of about 4-7C (7-13F), about twice the global average, over the next 100 years".

Arctic natives 'left out in cold' Threat to region's way of life

It also projected that shorter and warmer winters would affect sea ice cover, resulting in changes to animal behaviour and Inuit access to food sources.

Addressing the commission, Mrs Watt-Coultier said: "The ice is not only our roads but also our supermarket.

"Deteriorating ice conditions imperil Inuit in many ways," she added. "Ice pans used for hunting at the floe edge are more likely to detach from the land fast ice and take hunters away.

"Many hunters have been killed or seriously injured after falling through ice that was traditionally known to be safe."

'Right to life'

Legal representatives from two US-based organisations, the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) and Earthjustice, are helping the group with the case.

Martin Wagner, Earthjustice's managing attorney, is one of people who gave evidence to the commission.

He said: "The effects of global warming interfere with the realisation of the right to life, physical integrity and security.

"It is destroying lands and ecosystems to which indigenous cultures throughout the hemisphere are tied. In order to survive, [they] are thus forced to assimilate with other cultures in ways and on a schedule that they have not chosen."

If the petition is successful, the commission could refer the US administration to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights for a legal judgement.

Both the commission and the court work within the framework of the American Convention on Human Rights.

However, the US has not ratified the convention, so a ruling in favour of the Inuit would be largely symbolic.

keeping u updated on the latest GB news!! ..this guy is a dolt!

Rush is Mush: Limbaugh Denies Global Warming Impact on Polar Bears

Poor Rush. He's now reduced to calling weathermen liars and people who care about the plight of the polar bear wackos. Next he'll be stealing candy from babies.

Now, if the polar bears are disappearing and you're up there on their turf and you're drilling holes in their turf that they might fall into, and they come along and they don't like this -- and you're trying to protect them and the environment -- let them eat you! It's the least you can do.

Earth to Rush: Elvis is dead. Global warming is real. And you really need to take a vacation - to the Arctic.

While global warming deniers have clearly lost the battle on the scientific front, they have entered a new stage in their attempts to discredit the widely accepted belief among scientists that humans are causing global warming. This new strategy, largely of ad hominem attacks on scientists and other key figures in the environmental movement, is becoming a disturbing trend in the echo-chamber populated by the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Jerry Falwell and Michael Savage. Rather than disputing the content of the message, they have been reduced to childish attacks and outright deception. While this trend is not entirely new, it appears to be more coordinated now than ever before.

Join us on the flipside for the latest nonsense out of Limbaugh's mouth, the facts that prove him wrong and a simple yet effective action you can take right now.

On his widely syndicated radio talk show Thursday, Rush referred to those who accept global warming as fact as, "environmentalist wackos." Sure Rush, the scientific community at large, as well as the Bush administration, are all environmentalist wackos. He then went on to address "some guy" aka John Kostyack of the National Wildlife Federation, as well as the environmental movement as a whole, with the following: "you are all wrong, and whether you know it or not, you are lying to your audiences." In a further attempt to somehow make himself look even more ridiculous than he already does, Rush also claimed that the habitat of polar bears is not shrinking.

Unfortunately for Rush, the facts are on our side:

1) NASA photos and documentation showing a steady decline in polar sea ice since at least the 1970s.

2) The scientific community, as evidenced by the IPCC (pdf), has reached a consensus that it is "very likely" that global warming is caused by human emissions.

3) The National Snow and Ice Data Center: "If current rates of decline in sea ice continue, the summertime Arctic could be completely ice-free well before the end of this century." Click here to see a graph depicting this decline between 1978 and 2005.

You can take action on this now by contacting U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Dale Hall and informing him you are among the majority that supports the proposal to list the polar bear as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. The Fish and Wildlife Service is only taking public comments on this until April 9th so it is essential that you make your voice heard immediately!

Please distribute this message broadly and freely. The best way to counteract the work of global warming deniers is to let the truth spread like wildfire.