It’s Game Time, Obama: Apocalypse Now? Tuvalu: Country’s Fate In Hands of U.S. Senate

December 13th, 2009 - by: danny

Cherie writes: From the deadliest conflict since World War II, Danny has written an insightful Congo CommuniquÃƒÂ© today. After reading it and watching the videos to add, I thought of his book title, “The More You Watch, The Less You Know;” precisely how I feel producing the blog today.

Our Dissector is working in one of the most isolated and seemingly dangerous places on earth. The conflict has been dubbed “Africa’s Forgotten War.” In finding graphics and video to accompany his piece, I learned that 45,000 people are killed every month or 1500 per day, half of them children.

• RawStory.com: US business interests suspected in ‘fabricated’ climate scandal

Business interests and US partisan politics are behind the furor over leaked emails that have whipped up a controversy at the Copenhagen climate talks, Canadian experts say. The global talks to hammer out a deal on curbing greenhouse gas emissions are being derailed by public attention on the so-called “Climategate,” scientist Andrew Weaver and author James Hoggan told AFP.

But more importantly, he said, the success of the treaty being hammered out in Copenhagen in talks until December 18 will depend on the United States, where political opposition to climate change is “driven by an extremist view.”

“A lot of this is just about politics in the US, and this undermines political will in the US,” Hoggan told AFP. READ MORE

• Apocalypse now? MNN.com: The 15 Most Toxic Places To Live

As the world’s population balloons to almost 7 billion, it’s become more and more difficult to find anywhere on Earth unaffected by man-made pollution and development, and far too often it takes things going really wrong before people take action to keep our planet clean. So here’s a list that might help to motivate.

Pictured: Earth’s orbit. Believe it or not, even space contains copious amounts of pollution. An estimated 4 million pounds of space debris – nuts, bolts, metal and carbon, even whole spacecraft – currently orbit the Earth, threatening satellites, communication and even the lives of our astronauts. READ MORE

• ThinkPorgress.org | Tuvalu representative: The fate of my country rests in the hands of the U.S. Senate.

Yesterday, Ian Fry, the Tuvalu delegate to the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, made an impassioned plea for legally binding agreements to be made by world leaders to save his nation and other low-lying island states. The tiny Pacific island nation of Tuvalu and other small island states have proposed a new treaty to protect these nations. Fry noted:

“It appears that we are waiting for some senators in the U.S. Congress to conclude before we can consider this issue properly. It is an irony of the modern world that the fate of the world is being determined by some senators in the U.S. Congress.” Watch it:

The New York Times explains the “obstacles” that the Senate poses for Obama. The Tuvaluan delegate suggested that President Obama earn his “rightly or wrongly”-awarded Nobel Peace Prize by addressing climate change, “the greatest threat to humanity.” READ MORE

When announced, HuffPost’s Ultimate 10 Game Changers, there was a memorable quote referenced that the Clark Kent of environmental superheros, Ken Cook uses, which sums my mood:

“I often tell people that at Environmental Working Group we are swayed by facts, not emotion. And the facts really piss us off.”

What with Afghanistan, Iraq, a secret war in Pakistan, the economic news at home, Copenhagen, etc., etc., it all seems overwhelming and connected — oil, one way or another, plays a part in all of it.

There are so many news items to address and cover and given the horror of Congo, the deadliest conflict since World War II. Every month, 45,000 people are killed, nearly half being children, primarily over conflict minerals and our insatiable need for bigger, better, faster, technology. And technology is a huge part of polluting our environment, creating even less sustainability with no social justice. Only 10% of cell phones are recycled.

“If you can’t repair, refurbish or reuse your used electronic device, the next best option is to recycle it! Take the e-waste quiz and learn if you could be doing more to help conserve our resources.”

But there is some good news and step in the right direction for Africa reports FastCompany.com:

• Major Trading Network Bans Zimbabwe Diamonds for Murder, Corruption

Just as Fast Company published a special report about the murders and corruption in Zimbabwe’s Marange Diamond Fields, the world’s largest electronic diamond-trading network banned all mined diamonds from the region, citing severe human right violations.

“People were getting killed in the fields,” says Rapaport Group Chairman Martin Rapaport, whose RapNet touts more than 4,100 members in 80 countries and lists at least $4 billion worth of diamonds. “We had to do something.” READ MORE

• ItsGettingHotInHere.org: COP15 Week 1 Recap: Survival is On the Table

• The Sixth Extinction: Every 20 Minutes, We Lose Another Species

• Copenhagen Clampdown? We Can’t Be Green Without Free Speech

• Climate Security: “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy”?

• Matt Taibbi Successfully Exposes The Disintegration And Crackup Of The Left

• Obama Program To Modify Mortgages Failing

• Unemployment, 2004 to Present — The Country is Bleeding

Mr. President, it is time for you to deliver the “Hope” and “Change” we the people voted for in 2008. How can you ignore one half of your heritage? Did we learr nothing from Clinton;s failure to act with Rwanda? Africa has been plundered long enough.

And, as your employer, we DEMAND “green” jobs to end our deadly dependence on foreign oil — now! Put people back to work manufacturing solar, wind, geothermal, etc. components so that you can earn your Nobel Peace Prize and let us, as well as the world, hear you say, per Tomgram:

“This Administration Ended, Rather Than Extended, Two Wars.”

The News Dissector