KAKU ON NEWEST GRAVITY WAVES Posted: 29 Sep 2017 11:53 PM PDT Early last year, scientists made a breakthrough discovery of gravitational waves in the wild, signaling the dawn of a new subfield of astronomy. This week, separate observatories in Washington, Louisiana, and Italy independently detected and collectively confirmed more gravitational waves in the wild — this time from the collision of two black holes about 2 billion light-years from Earth. Gravity waves pick up cosmic events that are invisible or nearly impossible to measure by any other means. By combining observations of a single event using multiple means, it’s now possible to gain a more complete understanding of the source’s properties than ever before. This method is called multi-messenger astronomy. CBS NEWS science and futurist contributor, Dr. Michio Kaku, joins CBSN to break down what this discovery means for the future of astronomy. WATCH NOW!

Strong, Peaceful Communities in the Face of Rising Hunger

This month, five UN agencies released a new report warning that conflicts and protracted violence – exacerbated by climate change – have pushed the number of people living in hunger up from 795 million to 815 million between 2014 and 2016. The report notes that the majority of people living in hunger – 60 percent – live in countries affected by conflict. At The Hunger Project, we feel it’s important to highlight that despite this sobering news, the world has made tremendous progress in ending hunger and malnutrition. In fact, the report notes that “most countries have achieved significant 25-year gains in reducing hunger,” and that the number of malnourished children, as evidenced by stunting (height for age), has decreased from 29.5 percent to 22.9 percent between 2005 and 2016. This shows that many of our efforts are working. We can learn from the interventions that are working to find new ways to build inclusive, peaceful communities where women are empowered. Though The Hunger Project does not work in conflict-affected states, our women-focused and community-led approach is pertinent beyond the 16,000 communities where we work. In Bangladesh, we have seen through a partnership with the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) that our community-led approach builds social cohesion, which can reduce violence in communities. In Mexico, following the devastating earthquakes of September 7 and 19, our staff and partners are advocating for community-led approaches to reconstruction. The findings of the new UN report, while alarming, should not undermine our efforts. We will continue to advocate for women-centered and community-led approaches with partner organizations and governments worldwide: this is how, together, we can achieve the commitments the world has made with the Sustainable Development Goals.

La Via Campesina calls for a Global Week of Action against the WTO and FTAs as the 11th Ministerial Conference draw closer

September 10, The International Day of Action against WTO and FTAs
Today, La Via Campesina is calling upon social movements and civil society organisations of the world to mobilise and organise our resistances against the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and Free Trade Agreements (FTAs), build solidarity alliances and prepare for a worldwide week of action in December, coinciding with the 11th International Ministerial that is scheduled to take place in Argentina.
For the first time since its inception, the World Trade Organization (WTO) is planning to meet in Latin America. From the 10th to the 13th of December, Mauricio Macri’s government will host the WTO’s 11th Ministerial Conference  in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Entrepreneurs, ministers, chancellors, and even presidents will be there. To do what? To demand more “freedom” for their companies, more “ease of doing business” for exploiting workers, peasants, indigenous people, and taking over land and territories. In other words, less “restrictions” on transnational wastage. 
Since its beginnings in 1995 as derivative of General Agreement on Tariff and Trade (GATTs), the World Trade Organization has promoted the most brutal form of capitalism, better known as trade liberalization. At successive Ministerial Conferences, the WTO has set out to globalize the liberalisation of national markets, promising economic prosperity at the cost of sovereignty. In more or less the same terms, by its “liberalization, deregulation and privatization”, which is called Package of Neoliberalism, WTO has encouraged the multiplication of free trade agreements (FTAs) between countries and regional blocs, etc. On this basis and by making use of governments that have been co-opted, the world’s largest transnational corporations (TNCs) are seeking to undermine democracy and all of the institutional instruments for defending the lives, the territories, and the food and agricultural ecosystems of the world’s peoples.
In the previous Ministerial Conference (MC) in Nairobi in 2015, WTO  had made six decisions on agriculture, cotton and issues related to LDCs. The agricultural decisions cover commitment to abolish export subsidies for farm exports, public stockholding for food security purposes, a special safeguard mechanism for developing countries, and measures related to cotton. Decisions were also made regarding preferential treatment for least developed countries (LDCs) in the area of services and the criteria for determining whether exports from LDCs may benefit from trade preferences.
This year, with Macri Inc. in the Casa Rosada (Government House in Argentina), the coup leader Michel Temer in the Palacio del Planalto (the oficial workplace of the president of Brazil), and Brazilian Roberto Azevedo as its Director General, the WTO wants  to return to the subject of agriculture, to put an end to small-scale fishing, and to make progress with multilateral agreements such as the misnamed General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). Notwithstanding the misleading protectionist statements coming from Washington and London, the WTO will meet again to try to impose the interests of capital at the cost of Planet Earth, of the democratic aspirations of the world’s peoples, and of life itself.
During these 20+ years of struggle against the WTO, the world’s peoples have resisted its attempt to globalize everything, including the food and agricultural systems, for the benefit of the TNCs. Our struggles have been the biggest impediment to the advance of the WTO, and there is no doubt that La Via Campesina has played a decisive part. Our resistance to market liberalisation under this neoliberal regime has continued since the Uruguay round conducted within the framework of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). Ever since, La Via Campesina has  mobilised against almost all of the Ministerial Conferences since Seattle (1999) and Cancún (2003) – where our brother Lee Kyung Hae, holding a banner declaring that “The WTO kills peasants”, sacrificed his own life – and up to Bali (2013) and Nairobi (2015).
This year, from the 8th to the 15th of December, a La Via Campesina international delegation will be in Buenos Aires to take an active part in the numerous civil society mobilisations, forums, and discussions. We will be there to identify the WTO as the criminal organisation that it is and to raise the flag of Food Sovereignty. We will call out all the Governments, who after having realised the weakening of WTO, have resorted to Bilateral and Regional Mega Free Trade Agreements, that threaten to annihilate our food systems, just like WTO has done it over the last two decades.
We are calling upon all of our member organisations – in each and every country – to mobilise during this “Week of Action Against the WTO” (from the 8th to the 15th of December); within their  social and political contexts, they should find the right time and form the best alliances in order to denounce the WTO and the numerous bilateral and regional Free Trade Agreements.
We insist that agriculture should not be part of any of the WTO negotiations!

We say once again:

NO TO WTO!

NO TO FREE TRADE AGREEMENTS!

FOR THE FOOD SOVEREIGNTY OF OUR PEOPLES!

GLOBALIZE THE STRUGGLE!

GLOBALIZE HOPE!

You can email the details of your solidarity actions to
lvcweb@viacampesina.org
or tag us on our official Facebook or Twitter pages
facebook.com/viacampesinaOfficial
Twitter: @via_campesina / @via_campesinaES / @viacampesinaFR

September 24th, 2017
Another beautiful sunny morning at Pennington Marsh and I decided to walk my normal circuit in reverse, first out past Fishtail and to Keyhaven and back past Butts and Jetty Lagoon and finally past Pennington Lagoon and Shoveler Pools. I had much of the morning to spare after dropping Tobias off so my birding was very leisurely.
There were very large numbers of hirundine passing west overhead with many hundreds of birds, I estimated 750 House Martin, 150 Swallow and 75 Sand Martin but this was a fraction of the birds and numbers may have been 2-3x this easily. I was disapointed at how few waders there were on Fishtail but three Spoonbill showed very well as they fished actively in the lagoon.
After the recent numbers of Baird’s Sandpiper and Semipalmated Sandpiper that have been in the country I spent some time grilling the waders and searching the shallows at Keyhaven Lagoon but other than 25 Grey Plover, one Spotted Redshank, one Knot and 12 Dunlin there was little to be seen.
There were increased numbers of wildfowl with 12 Wigeon and 25 Teal on the lagoon. In the dead gorse at the back of the lagoon I was pleased to see three juvenile Whinchat. On past Butts Lagoon three Bearded Reedling showed well, a male, female and a juvenile bird.
The spit off Butts Lagoon had a good gathering of waders with 75 Grey Plover, 150 Dunlin and four Knot while 17 Sandwich Tern loafed on the mud nearby.
Walking out to Jetty Lagoon the female Red-breasted Merganser was still present but an unfamiliar wader call grabbed my attention and as I got onto the bird I was convinced I had something decent but then I realised I had heard the call before but just in a slightly different habitat and I soon realised the bird was a Purple Sandpiper – still, a patch tick so not to be sniffed at.
After picking Tobias up from school I had to drop him at Brockworth near to Cheltenham for a sleep-over with his cousins for the weekend. I then headed to Chipping Sodbury Common where a juvenile Woodchat Shrike has been present since 9th September.
Parking on the edge of the common and walking to the area of bramble scrub that the bird frequents it was not long before I located the bird and over the next 1.5 hours I had some great views as the bird fed on cranefly and on one occasion took a Sericomyia silentis (hoverfly) which it swallowed whole – it barely touched the sides.
Also here were six Whinchat, three Wheatear and four Yellow Wagtail. At 17:15 it was time to head for home.

A WeChat article published September 15 has sparked a fierce internet debate after highlighting the enormous plastic waste from single-use plastics provided with online food orders. An article in Southern Weekly depicts two sides: one saying food delivery, which uses between 730 million to 2.92 billion containers annually, is an environmental threat, another that the sector is being unfairly villainised. However, following a lawsuit against food delivery companies for wasteful practices, many now allow customers to select “no utensils” when ordering. Delivery platform Ele.me even gives customers points for going utensil-free.

One of the problems is that paper pulp alternatives often cost double and cannot handle hot items like soups as well as plastics. Such alternatives may not be more environmentally friendly either, as utensils made from mixing plastics with organic-matter-based materials can actually use more plastics than an ultralight polypropylene foam utensil. Recycling the containers was also found to be problematic. The price of used plastics has plummeted by 40% in recent years to 3,000 yuan/tonne, which is the break-even price for the recycling industry. And the oily containers are difficult to process.

Ele.me responded to the debate by convening a meeting to set environmental standards for the food delivery industry on September 19.

A phone survey of almost 4,000 people in 35 Chinese cities has revealed some attitudes to environmental protection have worsened. The number of people unwilling to bring their own shopping bag rose 12.9% in 2013 to 18.5% this year, while the number of people supporting garbage classification slightly dropped. 57% of people said they were satisfied with government performance on the environment, a drop of 3% on the 2015 level. However, 71.1% of people had increased confidence in central government's ability to solve environmental pollution problems. As for particular issues, 62% of people surveyed think water quality is relatively safe or very safe and 56% think food products are relatively or very safe. The study was conducted by Shanghai Communications University and reported in The Beijing News.

A new system to be introduced next March will label products based on their water efficiency and usage, reported ChinaNews. Companies will self-report data, which will be confirmed through inspections. The labels will help consumers understand which products are most efficient and incentivise companies to develop better products. China already has a strong track record on product efficiency labelling. It was introduced 12 years ago to cover five major areas and 35 product types, such as household appliances. The system has saved 440 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity. Initial estimates show that the new water labelling scheme will lead to annual savings of six billion cubic metres of water, the equivalent of 12 billion yuan of water fees.

For the ninth year in a row, China has been crowned the top country for skyscraper construction judged on overall floorspace, reported ChinaNews. At the end of 2016, China had built 485 skyscrapers over 200 metres high. In 2016 alone, China built 84 of the 128 skyscrapers globally. The article quoted experts who praised the use of skyscrapers to manage China’s urban population density but warned against wasteful skyscraper construction.

Pierre-Yves GUEDEZ Regional Technical Advisor, REDD+ United Nations Development Programme Panama Regional Hub skype “pierre-yves.guedez” Tel: + 507 302 4594 www.latinamerica.undp.org www.undp.org Follow us:

I am pleased to announce that Timmons Roberts and I have a new journal article in Global Environmental Change on the transition to neoliberal international climate governance. We argue that the contemporary UNFCCC has adopted neoliberal reforms which leaves crucial gaps in mitigation, transparency, equity and representation. Here is the citation, followed by a link for free access to the article and abstract (until November 3): 


David Ciplet, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies
Co-Director of the Just Transition Collaborative
www.colorado.edu/jtc
University of Colorado--Boulder
Office phone: 303.735.4533
http://www.colorado.edu/envs/david-ciplet

david.ciplet@colorado.edu


Book: Power in a Warming World: The New Global Politics of Climate Change and the Remaking of Environmental Inequality, available through MIT Press at: https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/power-warming-world

www.efi.int

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The social impacts of REDD on indigenous peoples and local communities who are dependent on forests has been controversial since REDD was included in the Bali Road Map at COP 13 in 2007. But over the past ten years, debate over whether REDD projects are desirable has been, to some extent at least, marginalised by a focus on how to manage the risks of REDD, and how to promote benefits through REDD.

Many discussions about REDD have focused on issues such as “participation”, “land tenure”, “safeguards”, and “free, prior, and informed consent”. An article published last year in the Journal of Human Rights and the Environment asks whether these strategies have succeeded in addressing and managing the social impacts of REDD.
Written by Julia Dehm, a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Rapoport Center for Human Rights and Justice, University of Texas, the article is titled, “Indigenous peoples and REDD+ safeguards: rights as resistance or as disciplinary inclusion in the green economy?” It is well worth reading.

Globalised authority over forests

The article gives a history of REDD, and follows the discussions about social risks and possible benefits of REDD at the UNFCCC, the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, and in NGO discussions. It provides an analysis of REDD safeguards, looks at how the more radical potential of land tenure and free, prior, and informed consent have been neutralised in REDD implementation, and asks questions about the inclusion of REDD in international carbon markets.
Dehm writes,

My analysis pays attention to the way in which new forms of globalized authority over forest areas in the global South are being articulated through both exclusivist and inclusive REDD+ models. In fact, if REDD+ is understood as reconfiguring authority over forested land in the global South through the establishment of new forms of property in carbon as well as the through new contractual arrangements for the sale and purchase of ecosystem services, this reconfiguration of authority might actually be facilitated by these measures. The analysis in this article therefore pays attention to the adverse impacts REDD+ may have on forest communities through processes of expulsion and exclusion but also in how REDD+ could potentially facilitate a greater disciplinary inclusion of forest peoples into the new so-called ‘green economy’.

Critiques of REDD offsets

Dehm summarises the critiques of including REDD as a carbon offset mechanism as follows:

• ‘green’ carbon offsets are fundamentally different from ‘brown’ carbon, leading to problems of commensurability for essentially different metabolic interactions;
• ensuring the ‘permanence’ of forest carbon sequestration is impossible given persistent risks of forest fires, climate-induced ecosystem impacts and illegal logging;
• the counterfactual assumptions that ‘additionality’ is based upon are problematic (and as Larry Lohmann points out, describing additionality as “problematic” is an understatement!);
• preventing ‘leakage’ is impossible if carbon mitigation does not have universal coverage and no demand-side measures are taken;
• REDD fails to address the key drivers of deforestation, including agribusiness, pulp and paper plantations, palm oil development and mining, and that REDD+ fails to provide the structural incentives to address extensive unsustainable forest and land use;
• carbon markets, and particularly the use of offsets, operate as a ‘dangerous distraction’ from urgently necessary structural changes in energy production use and distribution, thereby facilitating ‘carbon lock-in’.

Politically expedient safeguards

Dehm notes that safeguards are politically expedient for project developers and REDD proponents, as a means to manage social risks in order to ensure the feasibility of the REDD project itself. Rights of local communities have to recognised and respected for REDD projects to “work”.
Dehm writes,

[Safeguard] policies are also key sites of intersection between REDD+ and other World Bank ‘developmental’ interventions such as ‘good governance’ promotion and land tenure formalization that have long and contentious histories. The promotion of safeguards has therefore in many ways also operated to expand the sphere of authorized intervention by international financial institutions (IFIs) and other bilateral and multilateral bodies into the lives of those who live in and around forested areas.

The Eliasch Report, for example, states that ensuring procedural rights means that REDD is “more likely to succeed and benefit the poor”. Dehm highlights a 2011 report about FPIC and REDD, published by RECOFTC. The report emphasises that forest-dependent communities are “essential to the success of REDD+”, and that FPIC can help implementing REDD projects:

Communities approached respectfully by REDD+ project proponents, including the offer to fully involve them in project design, and the proponent’s agreement to respect their right to FPIC, are likely to be open to becoming involved.

Dehm found a similar approach to land tenure from REDD proponents. The Stern Review states that “defining property rights to forestland … and determining the rights and responsibilities of landowners, communities and loggers, is key to effective forest management”.
Anthropologist Tania Murray Li describes REDD as an intervention “to fix indigenous people on to the land, and limit them to specific land uses”.
Dehm concludes that,

the problem of the social in REDD+ is better understood as ‘fixing people in place’ and transforming forest peoples into environmental service providers of the ‘green economy’. Such intensive integration in the globalized ‘green economy’ carries with it significant risks, especially given massive price fluctuation in international carbon markets, and the fact that through REDD+ former livelihood activities or subsistence practices become prohibited.