You Know What They Say About A Country With Big Feet...

... they say we produce far more carbon emissions per capita share than anyone else.

Well, that's what a class of MIT students has calculated, anyhow. The class estimated the average carbon emissions of Americans of various lifestyles, from the ultra-rich to middle-class suburbanites to the urban homeless. They found that even the least consumptive lifestyles still produce an average of 8.5 tons of carbon dioxide per year, more than double the world average. The average American obliterates the world average, with 20 tons of CO₂ pumped into the stratosphere. Although part of this excessive carbonation is due to government services such as roads, police,courts, and the military, a large chunk of it is based in our own lifestyle choices: What we eat, how we commute, what we wear, and how we satisfy our retail therapy needs all add to our carbon footprint. We even carbonize when we think we're reducing carbon:

Unlike some other attempts to quantify carbon-emission rates, Gutowski and his students took great care to account for often-overlooked factors, such as the "rebound effect." That's when someone makes a particular choice--for example, buying a hybrid car instead of a gas-guzzler--but then uses the money saved from their reduced gasoline costs to do something else, such as taking a long trip by airplane. The net impact, in such a case, may actually be an overall increase in carbon emissions.

       

EFA Global Action Week: More Like Education For Some, Am I Rite?

Inclusive quality education is the focus of UNESCO's Education For All Global Action Week this year, and participants are no doubt discussing the results of the 2088 Global Monitoring Report. Although there has been considerable progress since the 2000 World Education Forum in Dakar, Senegal, many countries are still lagging behind in their efforts to achieve universal primary education, and are facing a stagnant commitment from the donor community:

Uneven and partial though it may be, progress towards EFA has been considerable since 2000, especially among many of the countries farthest from the goals. Fewer children die before age 5 due to improvements in health services and immunization. Access to pre-primary education, while still out of reach for most children, is expanding. More boys and girls are entering primary school, completing a minimum cycle and making the transition to lower secondary education. Almost two-thirds of countries with data have achieved gender parity at the primary level, though at the secondary level disparities remain pervasive. Gender disparities in learning outcomes have declined. Attention to quality issues – for example, the need for better trained teachers, sufficient learning materials, effective use of instructional time, less absenteeism, better facilities and regular student assessments – is well established.

Despite these overall positive trends, enormous challenges remain, as this chapter illustrates. Many countries lack comprehensive programmes for children under the age of 3, and have done little to increase the number of qualified and trained teachers and caregivers. Access to ECCE among less advantaged children, especially in vulnerable contexts, is very limited, despite the clear benefits. More than 10% of the world’s primary school-age children, some 72 million, are still not enrolled. Regular school attendance and progression, weak learning outcomes and low completion rates remain critical issues in many parts of the developing world, especially in fragile states. Educational disparities within countries, disproportionately affecting children from rural, indigenous, poor and/or slum populations, are widespread. Most countries have yet to achieve the gender parity goal.

       

NGOs Urge Parties in DRC Conflict to Implement Goma Agreement

In a joint statement issued this week, a coalition of 63 international and Congolese human rights and relief NGOs have urged the government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the armed groups battling the government, and the other international players in the conflict to immediately end the violence in the eastern Congo. Although the government and armed groups signed a peace agreement in Kivu three months ago, the killing of civilians, epidemic of rape, and recruitment of child soldiers has failed to cease.

“Hundreds of thousands of victims clung to the hope that the peace deal would end their suffering. Sadly, no meaningful progress has been made on human rights commitments,” said Anneke Van Woudenberg, senior researcher at Human Rights Watch. “We urge for the immediate appointment of a special advisor on human rights to help the parties honor their human rights commitments and to provide a voice for the victims who suffer in silence.”

Indigenous Groups A Powerful Force Against Climate Change

Indigenous groups are often cited as one of the demographics who will suffer most from the effects of climate change, as growing seasons shift, animal migration patterns change, and shifting weather patterns either flood or desertify their traditional land. There is another side to their story, however, and at the 7th Session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, the UN is focusing on the role indigenous people can play in combatting global climate change. Indigenous peoples can help preserve the ecosystems they rely on, and can draw on traditional technologies or outside-the-box ideas to find strategies for coping with and mitigating the effects of climate change. Some examples from the UN fact sheet include:

• In Bangladesh, villagers are creating floating vegetable gardens to protect their livelihoods from flooding, while in Vietnam, communities are helping to plant dense mangroves along the coast to diffuse tropical-storm waves.
  
• Indigenous peoples in the Central, South American and Caribbean regions are shifting their agricultural activities and their settlements to new locations which are less susceptible to adverse climate conditions. For example, indigenous peoples in Guyana are moving from their savannah homes to forest areas during droughts and have started planting cassava, their main staple crop, on moist floodplains which are normally too wet for other crops.
  
• In North America, some indigenous groups are striving to cope with climate change by focusing on the economic opportunities that it may create. For example, the increased demand for renewable energy using wind and solar power could make tribal lands an important resource for such energy, replacing fossil fuel-derived energy and limiting greenhouse gas emissions.

There are some significant obstacles, however, in that many indigenous cultures lack the social and financial capital to implement large-scale changes, and many may opt for migration rather than preservation as a coping mechanism.

Update: Great interview with participant Casey Camp-Horinek, activist from the the Ponca Nation of Oklahoma, on Democracy Now, 4/24:

We do, on our lands, have ConocoPhillips, we have Continental carbon black, we have a landfill that’s dwarfing our historic cemetery. And all of these things are poisoning our well water. We’re dying of disproportionate rates of cancers that nobody even hears about. There are less than 800 of us that live locally there. Last year, we had one funeral per week, and you can imagine how that affects a small population. Our children are being affected by this. The health of our people, psychologically, sociologically, culturally, is being impacted in virtually every area.

And those of us who are on the frontlines of the fossil fuel regime are reaching out to ask every person that can hear your voices to pay attention to the indigenous knowledges that are going on and to pay attention to what type of fossil fuel use that they participate in and to ask for a moratorium on new drilling and on new extractions, because only—it’s up to us. Do we want to continue on the face of Mother Earth? Or do we choose to become extinct, along with all of our other relatives?

That's Some Ray Bradbury Shit

Firefighters in Cambodia are being accused of demanding bribes in order to put out fires. The practice, which is known anecdotally to be a widespread problem in the country, was recently brought to light by a few fires earlier this month that left almost 500 homes destroyed.

In the fires in Tuk Thla and Phkar Doeum Thkov communes, which have made thousands of people homeless, victims blamed firemen for lack of promptness in putting out those fires and to contain their spread and limit their devastation, especially in Tuk Thla commune. There were allegations that firemen had asked for money before they put out the fire or to douse houses to protect them and prevent the fire from spreading.

In an interview with a radio reporter a male victim in Tuk Thla commune said he “offered US$400 to firemen but they did not douse my house”, and a female victim went berserk lamenting that the firemen “protect the rich and neglect the poor”. A female resident whose house had been saved told another reporter that her uncle knew some firemen and “paid them US$10”.

Olympic Goods a (Fosbury) Flop for Labor Rights

Before you go out and purchase that Beijing 2008 Olympics t-shirt or pin or hat or stuffed whatever the fuck these soul-sucking abominations are, you might stop to think about the workers who produced them. Because the Chinese government sure as hell isn't. In fact, they're actively persecuting labor activists for demanding better conditions and wages. Protestors have been attacked by riot police, while petitionares have been shipped off to "reeducation camps." What's at stake, according to GlobalExchange, is a lot of profit:

The Beijing Olympics are expected to be the most profitable Olympics in the Games' history, according to the International Olympics Committee (IOC). The sale of the official mascot alone is expected to net $300 million in profits. Adidas has reportedly provided the IOC between $80 and $100 million in cash and extras to win sponsorship rights for this year's Games. Nike is the official sponsor of the USA team.

An investigation by Play Fair found that Chinese workers who labor for Olympic licensees are subjected to egregious labor rights abuses. The investigative report, entitled "No Medal for the Olympics on labor rights", found that factories of Olympic licensees were employing child workers, forcing workers to regularly work 12 hour shifts with few days off, and paying them well below the legal minimum wage.

We're Number Five! We're Number Five!

The United States has finished a disappointing fifth place in Amnesty International's Death Sentences and Executions in 2007 report on capital punishment around the world. Winning the gold medal was China with an estimated 470 executions. Iran captured the silver medal with at least 317 people executed, and Saudi Arabia took the bronze medal with 143 death sentences. The United States, with 42 executions, finished a distant fifth behind Pakistan's total of 135. The top five judicial killers represented 88% of all world death penalty cases. Among these cases were some rather egregious examples of abuse of the rule of law:

Far Kiani, father of two, was stoned to death for adultery in Iran in July.

A 75 year-old North Korean factory manager was shot by firing squad in October for failing to declare his family background, investing his own money in the factory, appointing his children as its managers and making international phone calls.

Mustafa Ibrahim, an Egyptian national, was beheaded in Saudi Arabia in November for the practice of sorcery.

Michael Richard was executed in Texas, USA, on 25 September after a state courthouse refused to stay open an extra 15 minutes to allow the filing of an appeal based on the constitutionality of lethal injections. Richard's attorneys had been unable to file the appeal on time because of computer problems; problems they had already brought to the court's attention. The US Supreme Court then refused to stop the execution.

Food Paradigm Shift Needed Now, Say Scientists

A new report from the International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development predicts that drastic changes will be needed in the world's food production and distribution system if we want to feed the world's 850 million malnourished, prepare for future population growth, and prevent conflict over natural resources. Already the world is experiencing a global food crisis, with riots breaking out around the world as the price of oil and diversion to biofuels drives up global commodity prices.

The problem is far more than a market correction - it has to do with the entire globalized system of industrial agriculture, which is a primary contributor to soil degradation, desertification, climate change, and loss of biodiversity. Thankfully, the IAASTD has some recommendations:

Successfully meeting development and sustainability goals and responding to new priorities and changing circumstances would require a fundamental shift in AKST [Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology], including science, technology, policies, institutions, capacity development and investment. Such a shift would recognize and give increased importance to the multifunctionality of agriculture, accounting for the complexity of agricultural systems within diverse social and ecological contexts. It would require new institutional and organizational arrangements to promote an integrated approach to the development and deployment of AKST. It would also recognize farming communities, farm households, and farmers as producers and managers of ecosystems. This shift may call for changing the incentive systems for all actors along the value chain to internalize as many externalities as possible. In terms of development and sustainability goals, these policies and institutional changes should be directed primarily at those who have been served least by previous AKST approaches, i.e., resource-poor farmers, women and ethnic minorities. Such development would depend also on the extent to which small-scale farmers can find gainful off-farm employment and help fuel general economic growth. Large and middle-size farmers continue to be important and high pay-off targets of AKST, especially in the area of sustainable land use and food systems.

Debt Relief for Impoverished Countries May Become Reality

A measure expected to pass the U.S. House of Representatives this week aims to provide debt cancellation for some of the world's poorest countries, according to an article in OneWorld today. In addition to cancelling foreign country debt, the measure would also prhibit imposing harmful economic conditions on countries as a condition of debt cancellation, and would help restrict profiteering by vulture funds. If passed, this could significantly help some countries struggling to approach the 2015 Millennium Development Goals.

The proposed legislation calls for "greater responsibility" in lending and borrowing in the future. Supporters of the bill say current lending practices are hampering development initiatives in many countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

The legislation calls on the U.S. Treasury Department to negotiate at the IMF and World Bank for an agreement for debt cancellation for up to 24 additional poor countries that need financial help to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) set by world leaders in 2000.

V to the Tenth - FEMAldehyde and Violence Against Women in America's Failed State

Today's Democracy Now highlights the tenth anniversary of V-Day, the global movement to combat sexual violence against women and children, which is being commemorated with a two-day celebration in New Orleans, Louisiana. The Vagina Monologues' author Eve Ensler discussed the significance of the location in an earlier interview:

AMY GOODMAN: And what is the special burden you feel the women of New Orleans bear?

EVE ENSLER: Well, I think if we can look at all the pieces of it, we kind of look at the whole story of what needs to change for women everywhere. But there’s the burden of racism. There’s the economic inequalities. There’s the burden of a failed education system there, so where are children going to school? And where are they—it has just been designated the murder capital of America. So we’re talking about one of the highest—the highest violence rate in America. We’re talking about communities where taxi drivers wouldn’t even bring me to go—I don’t have a car—because they were too scared to go into the community, and people are living there.

You know, we’re talking about—I think women particularly are on the frontlines, because they are dealing with children, they’re dealing with husbands who have no work, they are dealing with how to put food on the table, they are dealing with all the kind of nurturing, moving-the-community-forward aspects. And everybody’s traumatized. We’re talking about a seriously traumatized population. So you’ve got trauma.

UN OCHA Head: Looming 'Perfect Storm' of Food Insecurity

Sir John Holmes, Under-Secretary General of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, delivered a stern warning at the Dubai International Humanitarian Aid & Development Conference yesterday. Sir Holmes warns of the increasing threats to food security posed by climate change, rising fuel prices, and rising commodity prices:

In my view, the global demand for humanitarian assistance, which is already considerable, is likely to grow in the coming decade, and to see a major increase in our lifetimes. The biggest single cause, for my money, will be climate change, and the increased incidence and severity of extreme weather events associated with it.

Indeed, we are beginning to feel the effects: last winter, large swathes of Central Asia were devastated by the most severe weather for nearly three decades. Cyclone Gonu, which hit the Gulf coast last June, was one of the most severe cyclones ever to hit this part of the world. What we are witnessing is not an aberration, but rather a 'curtain raiser' on the future. These events are not abnormal; they're what I call the 'new normal'. The number of recorded disasters has doubled from approximately 200 to over 400 per year over the past two decades. Nine of out every ten disasters are now climate related. Last year, my office at the U.N. issued an unprecedented 15 funding appeals for sudden natural disasters, five more than the previous annual record. 14 of them were climate-related.

Compounding the challenges of climate change, in what some have labeled the 'perfect storm,' are the recent dramatic trends in soaring food and fuel prices, which are poised to have a major impact on hunger and poverty across the world and are having an immediate impact on the cost of humanitarian operations. Since mid-2007, food prices have risen an estimated 40% as a confluence of factors have increased demand. These factors include rapid global population growth, ever greater numbers of people eating resource-intensive foods such as meat and milk, bio-fuel production, shortage of reserves, and increasing oil prices. Current food price trends are likely to increase sharply both the incidence and depth of food insecurity; and as many households will spend more on food to the detriment of other household needs, price rises will also result in lower school attendance rates, poorer health care and asset depletion. The security implications should also not be underestimated as food riots are already being reported across the globe.

The Perverse and Often Baffling Link Between Climate Change and Volcanoes

Volcanic activity has long been considered one of the contributors to global climate change, with both positive and negative forcings on the climate. A new study published in the April 2008 issue of New Scientist proposes that the relationship may be reciporcal.

Scientists studying the Vatnajökull icecap in Iceland, which straddles the Mid-Atlantic Ridge separating the North American and Eurasian plates, have theorized that the melting of this ice has relieved pressure on the crust below. This, they say, has resulted in an increase in magma formation over the past century, which could lead to more frequent volcanic eruptions in Iceland, and elsewhere:

"We think that during the Gjàlp eruption, magma reached the surface at an unusual location, mid-way between two volcanoes, because of these stress changes," says Pagli.

McGuire thinks the Vatnajökull study is based on "perfectly reasonable" physics. However, he says that climate change presents an even more explosive threat. "It's not just unloading the crust that triggers volcanic activity but loading as well."

He and his team are looking into the effects that rising sea-levels – also a consequence of melting ice caps – will have on volcanoes. "We are going to see a massive increase in volcanic activity globally," he told New Scientist. "If we look back at previous warm periods, that is what happened."

Financial Liberalization a Qualified Failure in Africa?

A newstudy from the International Poverty Centre finds that the anticipated outcomes of financial liberalization in Sub-Saharan Africa - an increase in the savings rate, an increase in the rate of investment, and increased growth, did not take place in the countries that adopted these policies in the 1980s and 1990s. In fact, as economists such as Joseph Stiglitz predicted, potential gains were largely wiped out by negative externalities, unequal access to information, and other factors.

The conclusion prompted by this investigation is that financial liberalization has changed the dynamics within the financial system in most countries, but it has not transformed the institutional setting for resource mobilization sufficiently to produce an indigenous growth dynamic. There are signs that the financial sector expanded relative to the size of the economy but neither savings nor investment has demonstrated clear upward trends. Also, growth has been modest and barely sufficient to maintain per capita output expansion.

Overall, these results tend to be most supportive of Gerschenkron’s position with regard to financial sector development. He argued that the financial sector of less-developed countries was not capable of accumulating and distributing the resources necessary for rapid economic growth. This feat, he argued, would require ‘special institutional arrangements’. In the absence of such arrangements, he maintains that the changes to the financial sector regime would have only marginal effects on the broader real economy.

New Old Name!

After several months of using the name Toasterhead's Jihadosphere, I have decided to stop using a title provided by a conservatroll. It was a good idea, and I perhaps naively thought I could educate the ignorant as to the correct meaning of the Arabic term "jihad," which has nothing to do with violence or terrorism. Unfortunately, there is no cure for ignorance, particularly among those who prefer to stay ignorant and bigoted.

The focus of this blog will not change, nor will my daily struggle against the afflictions of humanity. I'll just stick to the English translation of the term.

For now.

Study: IPCC Climate Models Accurate

A new study being published today in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society finds that the current generation of climate models, used in the 2007 IPCC Fourth Assessment Report, are indeed accurate and reliable predictors of climate conditions. University of Utah authors Thomas Reichler and Junsu Kim compared models with actual climate changes and found the models to accurately simulate present-day conditions:

Using a composite measure of model performance, we objectively determined the ability of three generations of models to simulate present-day mean climate. Current models are certainly not perfect, but we found that they are much more realistic than their predecessors. This is mostly related to the enormous progress in model development that took place over the last decade, which is partly due to more sophisticated model parameterizations, but also to the general increase in computational resources, which allows for more thorough model testing and higher model resolution. Most of the current models not only perform better, they are also no longer flux corrected. Both – improved performance and more physical formulation – suggest that an increasing level of confidence can be placed in model based predictions of climate.

Regime Change in Zimbabwe? Maybe!

According to news reports from Harare, Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) candidate Morgan Tsvangirai has won Zimbabwe's presidential election. Whether President-for-Life Robert Mugabe will step down gracefully is another question, however, as state-run media appears to be preparing the country for a runoff. The victory was quite decisive indeed, however:

At a news conference in Harare Tuesday afternoon, MDC secretary-general Tendai Biti said the MDC’s figures, which came directly from polling stations, showed that Tsvangirai won 50.3 percent of Saturday’s vote and President Robert Mugabe 43.8 percent.
...
Biti said the number of votes cast was 2,382,243. Tsvangirai won 1,171,079 votes, Mugabe 1,043,349 and independent challenger Simba Makoni 167,815, or seven percent of the total.

Cash 2.0: Mobile Money and Tele-Remittances

The World Bank Private Sector Development blog has an article today on the growing use of mobile phones as banking services. The story was prompted by Western Union's new remittance-by-phone plan being marketed to immigrants in the United States, though the technology has been in use for several years in the developing world. The key to the success of the venture, however, may be in having a regulatory environment that allows branchless banking to flourish.