Category: Archive

Scientists support Gore’s movie

admin /29 July, 2006

Erisk Net

Climate scientists in America have rejected criticism by Robert C. Balling Jr., a professor of climatology at Arizona State University, of the global warming movie An Inconvenient Truth produced by former Vice-President Al Gore.

Doubts about melting glaciers: On an industry-backed website, Tech Central Station, Balling posted a purported fact-check of the film titled "Inconvenient Truths Indeed," claiming the movie was "not the most accurate depiction of the state of global warming science," casting doubts on its claims about melting glaciers and intensifying hurricanes.

Dismissive reaction of criticism: Balling’s critique inspired this dismissive reaction from Eric Steig, an isotope geochemist at the University of Washington: "Some people believe the earth is flat, too." Steig e-mailed his reaction from Greenland, where he is conducting field research on the ice.

 

US study shows GM fails promise

admin /29 July, 2006

By Steve Connor, Science Editor

http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article1199339.ece

One of the major arguments in favour of growing GM crops has been undermined by a study showing that the benefits are short-lived because farmers quickly resort to spraying their fields with harmful pesticides.

Supporters of genetically modified crops claim the technique saves money and provides environmental benefits because farmers need to spray their fields fewer times with chemicals.

However, a detailed survey of 481 cotton growers in China found that, although they did use fewer pesticides in the first few years of adopting GM plants, after seven years they had to use just as much pesticide as they did with conventional crops.

The study found that after three years, the GM farmers had cut pesticide use by 70 per cent and were earning over a third more than conventional farmers.

But, by 2004, the GM cotton farmers were using just as much pesticide as their conventional counterparts and were spending far more because GM cotton seed is three times the price of conventional cotton seed.

Lebanon and global oil

admin /29 July, 2006

by Michel Chossudovsky

Is there a relationship between the bombing of Lebanon and the inauguration of the World’s largest strategic pipeline, which will channel more than a million barrels of oil a day to Western markets?  

Virtually unnoticed, the inauguration of the Ceyhan-Tblisi-Baku (BTC) oil pipeline, which links the Caspian sea to the Eastern Mediterranean, took place on the 13th of July, at the very outset of the Israeli sponsored bombings of Lebanon.

One day before the Israeli air strikes, the main partners and shareholders of the BTC pipeline project, including several heads of State and oil company executives were in attendance at the port of Ceyhan. They were then rushed off for an inauguration reception in Istanbul, hosted  by Turkey’s President Ahmet Necdet Sezer in the plush surroundings of the Çýraðan Palace.

Also in attendance was British Petroleum’s (BP) CEO, Lord Browne together with senior government officials from Britain, the US and Israel. BP leads the BTC pipeline consortium. Other major Western shareholders include Chevron, Conoco-Phillips, France’s Total and Italy’s ENI. (see Annex) 

Israel’s Minister of Energy and Infrastructure Binyamin Ben-Eliezer was present at the venue together with a delegation of top Israeli oil officials.

Israel’s new Middle East

admin /29 July, 2006

By Tanya Reinhart **
http://www.redress.btinternet.co.uk/treinhart17.htm

Beirut is burning, hundreds of Lebanese die, hundreds of thousands lose all they ever owned and become refugees, and all the world is doing is rescuing the "foreign passport" residents of what was just two weeks ago "the Paris of the Middle East". Lebanon must die now, because "Israel has the right to defend itself", so goes the US mantra, used to block any international attempt to impose a cease fire.

Israel, backed by the US, portrays its war on Lebanon as a war of self defence. It is easy to sell this message to mainstream media, because the residents of the north of Israel are also in shelters, bombarded and endangered. Israel’s claim that no country would let such an attack on its residents go unanswered finds many sympathetic ears. But let us reconstruct exactly how it all started.

Qld Gov reneges promise to protect pristine rivers

admin /27 July, 2006

The Queensland Government has been forced to wind back an election promise to protect 18 pristine rivers from development, reported The Australian (25/7/2006, p.2).

Cabinet agrees to apply controls on rivers: A month after a moratorium was imposed on the wild rivers legislation, cabinet has agreed to apply modified controls to the Gregory, Settlement, Fraser, Hinchinbrook and Straiten rivers as well as Morning Inlet, which lie in the lower Gull region and south of Cairns. The moratorium will continue to apply to 12 other rivers on Cape York Peninsula while negotiations continue between cattlemen, traditional owners, miners and conservationists.

Two-kilometre buffer zones set for rivers: Two-kilometre buffer zones will be established along the newly protected river systems to keep development at bay.

Premier Beattie says mining exploration must continue: Premier Peter Beattie said it was important that mining exploration in the northwest mining province – the lower Gulf – continue because of its economic importance. But any exploration in the newly declared “high preservation areas” would be limited to low-impact activities.

Halt to mining activity within 100m of a watercourse: In the streambeds and on the river banks, only limited handsampling would be allowed. Mr Beattie said tributaries would now fall into a secondary category, with mining activity not permitted within 100m of the watercourse.

The Australian, 25/7/2006, p. 2

Source: Erisk Net  

US climate scientists reject criticism of Gore’s movie

admin /27 July, 2006

Climate scientists in America have rejected criticism by Robert C. Balling Jr., a professor of climatology at Arizona State University, of the global warming movie An Inconvenient Truth produced by former Vice-President Al Gore. Doubts about melting glaciers: On an industry-backed website, Tech Central Station, Balling posted a purported fact-check of the film titled "Inconvenient Continue Reading →