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POPSEnding death penalty could save US millions More: Dieter says that keeping execution while reducing its costs is not realistic. If less money is spent on appeals, he argues, the risk of executing an innocent person will increase. He said that ultimately, execution does not deter crime as its supporters hope. Capital punishment has been abolished in most western democracies, and after it was eliminated in the US state of New Jersey in 2007, the state saw its murder rate decline. Dieter cites a poll of 500 local police chiefs, which was paid for by the DPIC and released on Tuesday, showing support for ending capital punishment. The survey found that the police chiefs see the death penalty as the least effective tool in deterring crime. They suggest more efficient use of resources -- such as boosting funding for drug and alcohol abuse programs.
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POPSSaudi Arabia Wants Compensation if Global Warming Bill Passes Saudi Arabia, which sits atop the world's largest proven oil reserves, is seeing economic growth slide because of fallout from the global meltdown, but experts still expect the country, flush with cash from oil's earlier price spike last year, to be better able than other nations to cope with the current crisis. Al Sabban accused Western nations of pursuing an agenda against oil producers, under the guise of protecting the planet. “Despite the variability in the region, the current Arab position is mainly focused around protecting the oil trade rather than saving the planet form the adverse impacts of climate change,” said Wael Hmaidan, the executive director of IndyACT.
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POPSThe Crisis of Global Land Use
Meeting these huge new agricultural demands will be one of the greatest challenges of the 21st century. At present, it is completely unclear how (and if) we can do it. If this wasn't enough, we must also address the massive environmental impacts of our current agricultural practices, which new evidence indicates rival the impacts of climate change. Consider the following. Already, we have cleared or converted more than 35 percent of the earth's ice-free land surface for agriculture, whether for croplands, pastures or rangelands. In fact, the area used for agriculture is nearly 60 times larger than the area of all of the world's cities and suburbs. Since the last ice age, nothing has been more disruptive to the planet's ecosystems than agriculture. What will happen to our remaining ecosystems, including tropical rainforests, if we need to double or triple world agricultural production, while simultaneously coping with climate change? Yes, it is an inconvenient truth as the origi
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POPSWH Science Czar John Holdren: Ice Age Will Kill 1 Billion
Holdren and Ehrlich had previously articulated the theory in their 1973 textbook "Human Ecology: Problems and Solutions" in which they argued on page 198 that the main effect of carbon-dioxide-induced global warming "might be to speed up circulation patterns and to bring arctic cold farther south and Antarctic cold farther north." On page 377, the authors returned to their constant theme: The only way to control a foreseen increasing global food crisis was to control population. Noting that a 1967 presidential science advisory commission had concluded that the solution to the "world food problem" likely after 1985 "demands that programs of population control be initiated now." (Emphasis in original text.) Commenting on the conclusions of the 1967 presidential advisory report, the authors wrote, "We emphatically agreed then, and the situation is even more urgent today." A controversial report released earlier this month by the Congressional Budget Office, or CBO,
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POPSThe Science Behind Global Warming Is Settled. Sadly, It's Also Been Incinerated The Dog Ate Global Warming, by Patrick J. Michaels @NRO Imagine if there were no reliable records of global surface temperature. Raucous policy debates such as cap-and-trade would have no scientific basis, Al Gore would at this point be little more than a historical footnote, and President Obama would not be spending this U.N. session talking up a (likely unattainable) international climate deal in Copenhagen in December. Steel yourself for the new reality, because the data needed to verify the gloom-and-doom warming forecasts have disappeared. Or so it seems. Apparently, they were either lost or purged from some discarded computer. Only a very few people know what really happened, and they aren’t talking much. And what little they are saying makes no sense. In the early 1980s, with funding from the U.S. Department of Energy, scientists at the United Kingdom’s University of East Anglia established the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) to produce . .
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POPSObama Meeting with The Daliai Lama Is Delayed more @ clip source For the first time since 1991, the Tibetan spiritual leader will visit Washington this week and not meet with the president. Since 1991, he has been here 10 times. Most times the meetings have been "drop-in" visits at the White House. The last time he was here, in 2007, however, George W. Bush became the first sitting president to meet with him publicly, at a ceremony at the Capitol in which he awarded the Dalai Lama the Congressional Gold Medal, Congress's highest civilian award.
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POPSTaking a Stand Article was interesting. However, it switched gears a bit in the last half where the author hits on the other issues like UN Protocol and complaints from leader(s) about the UN Charter vs what is really taking place within.
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POPSIn Whom Do You Place Your Trust? Principles grounded in thousands of years of human experience versus soaring, yet utterly empty, rhetoric. Timeless genius versus power-hungry political hacks. Our choice is clear. We choose liberty.
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POPSPolitcs, Profits, Protection US penalizes Chinese tires, infuriating Beijing President Barack Obama's decision to impose trade penalties on Chinese tires has infuriated Beijing at a time when the U.S. badly needs Chinese help on climate change, nuclear standoffs with Iran and North Korea and the global economy. For the Chinese government, the tire dispute threatens an economic relationship crucial to China's economic growth. There was speculation before the decision that new tariffs could produce public pressure on Beijing to retaliate, potentially leading to a trade war. http://bit.ly/Chinese_trade_war
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POPSThe Bernanke Bailout Boondoggle Announced this week is the number of re-financing on sub-prime loans and foreclosure should have been on everyone's mind. However, no one cares, as long as the stock market continues to climb higher. Giving those who have lost 50% of their 401k money, hoping for a rebound. Riddle me this? What has lost 55% and gained 45%, and still down 45% from the high? If you know the answer, you are well on your way to understanding the truth! The stock market is a game, if you don't know how to play by their rules, you will lose!
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POPSWill he jump? While some passers-by like 23-year-old Verena Kircher found the piece "alarming," others like Caroline van Kelst thought it was beautiful. "It is crystal clear that this is not a suicide," she said. "He has definitely got something about him which is majestic, not desperate."
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POPSwhy we should...(shouldn't) go to space it started: the creation of a cosmic diaspora is just one argument for putting humans in space- a bad one. But, now, as human-made climate change has thrust us into the role of stewards of the global biosphere, new reasons, good ones, have emerged. Indeed, keeping our space ambitions relatively local--within our own solar system- can help us find solutions for the climate crisis.
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POPSAnguish Across the Globe as Obama Rolls Back Am. Influence FTA: "President Obama's administration has tacitly energized radically anti-American and tyrannical regimes to do their worst. We are watching the rollback of thirty years of American influence across the world -- and millions around the world are worse off for it." Add to this the current climate against the missile defense system in Eastern Europe to placate Russia and the undermining of our traditional support of Israel.
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POPSThe planet's future: Climate change 'will cause civilisation to collapse' But the authors suggest the threats could also provide the potential for a positive future for all. "The good news is that the global financial crisis and climate change planning may be helping humanity to move from its often selfish, self-centred adolescence to a more globally responsible adulthood... Many perceive the current economic disaster as an opportunity to invest in the next generation of greener technologies, to rethink economic and development assumptions, and to put the world on course for a better future." More at source.
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POPSThe Food Crisis Will Be Back More than 1 billion people, or every one in six, are starving, according to a report issued by the U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) on June 19. The number of the hungry increased worldwide by about 100 million in 2008 alone, a hike of 11 percent. "The silent hunger crisis...poses a serious risk for world peace and security," said FAO Director General Jacques Diouf. http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-07/07/content_11668272.htm Global warming, top soil degradation, and water mis-appropriation can all be linked to the decreases in production that in turn lead to food inflation. One Stanford study stated that rice and corn harvest has decreased 20-40% as global temperatures continue to rise. Lester Brown states that for every degree C the earth warms above normal, production yields decrease by 10%. http://www.examiner.com/x-9508-Honolulu-Environmental-News-Examiner~y2009m7d7-Environmental-factors-to-blame-for-rising-food-crisis
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