If America knows whats good for her....advice from the little red dot

PRIME Minister Lee Hsien Loong has urged the business community in the United States to put its weight behind the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which he described as "vital" to America's international standing and engagement in the Asia-Pacific.

well there is hope after all

Super News for Sea Lions

The eastern population of Steller sea lions comes off the threatened list

OCTOBER 28, 2013

By Stephanie Kraus with AP reporting

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U.S. FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE/AP

A federal agency says the eastern population of Steller sea lions is recovering.

Steller sea lions have a reason to celebrate today. The eastern population has been taken off the threatened species list. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) decided that the population no longer meets the criteria to be considered endangered. In 30 years, the population has grown by more than 50,000.

The Steller sea lion, also known as the northern sea lion, is the largest member of the Otariid (eared seal) family. The eastern population’s habitat ranges from the coast of Alaska to California. It is the first animal to be delisted by NOAA since the eastern North Pacific gray whale. That creature was taken off the list nearly 20 years ago, NOAA spokeswoman Julie Speegle said.

Experts at NOAA recommended delisting the Steller Sea Lions earlier this year.

"We're delighted to see the recovery of the eastern population of Steller sea lions," Jim Balsiger said in a statement. He is the administrator of NOAA Fisheries' Alaska Region. "We'll be working with the states and other partners to monitor this population to ensure its continued health."

To Protect and Preserve
The delisting of the eastern population does not affect the Steller sea lions’ western population. That group’s habitat ranges from Cape Suckling, Alaska, to Russia. The western population remains on the endangered list.

LUCAS JACKSON—REUTERS

Stellar sea lions relax on a rocky shore near the town of Valdez, Alaska.

NOAA estimated there were about 18,000 sea lions in the eastern population in 1979. The group was listed as threatened in 1990. The decline was blamed on fishermen and other people killing the animals because they were eating fish and considered a “nuisance.” In 2010, the most recent year a count was available, the agency estimated just over 70,000 sea lions.

Although the species is being removed from the list, it will still receive protection under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, Speegle said by phone from her office in Juneau.

When an animal is delisted, the Endangered Species Act requires a monitoring plan that covers five years. NOAA has decided to double that length of time to monitor the sea lions over a 10-year period. "We are just proceeding carefully and cautiously to ensure that this species can be maintained in the recovered status," she said.

saving cheetahs

As fast as a cheetah. Whether it's describing a car, a computer or the best runner in the race, the comparison is made all the time. It's for good reason, too. The cheetah is the speediest runner on Earth.

Quick as the cheetah may be, though, it is far from invincible. The pale-yellow cat with black spots was once a common sight throughout Africa and much of Asia. Just over 100 years ago, there were about 100,000 cheetahs in the world.

But in the the 20th century, that number dropped. Poachers captured cheetahs to sell as pets. Hunters shot them for sport. And people built cities and towns where the cats' habitat used to be. Today, there are only about 10,000 cheetahs left (see Map It Out!).

Laurie Marker, founder of the Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF), has spent nearly 40 years studying the wild cat and coming up with ways to help it. She says it is still possible to save the cheetah. "I do believe we can turn back time," she told TFK. "We now have the tools, and we know what to do."

PETER BLACKWELL—NATUREPL.COM

A cheetah has black "tear marks" that run from the inner corners of its eyes to its mouth.

A Brighter Future for the Cats

In 1977, Marker moved to Namibia, a country in southern Africa where a once-thriving cheetah population was quickly shrinking. Farmers were killing the wild cats. "It's not that the people wanted to kill cheetahs," says Marker. They were trying to protect their farm animals.

Marker had an idea. She knew that for thousands of years, farmers in Turkey had used special dogs, called Anatolian shepherds, to protect their livestock. These guard dogs scare away predators without hurting them. "They bark loudly," says Marker. "They stand their ground."

About 20 years ago, Marker and her team began placing the dogs on Namibian farms. Since then, she says, "we've stopped the killing and doubled the country's cheetah population."

Another major challenge facing cheetahs is habitat destruction. When farmers keep too much livestock in the same place for too long, overgrazing occurs. Without grass to eat, many wild animals—including those that the cheetah preys on—cannot survive. And the cheetah too is left without a meal.

In Namibia, CCF is teaching farmers how to take care of their livestock without harming the land. The organization has worked with more than 3,000 farmers. "Our farmers are very interested," says Marker. "They want that information."

The goal, Marker says, is for people, livestock and wild cheetahs to live in harmony. "That's my vision," she says, "and it's doable."

you go girl!!!

Malala Yousafzai attracted public attention in 2009 when she published a blog telling of her life in Swat, in an area under Taleban control. She then became an activist campaigning for the rights of children and girls.

On 9 October, Malala Yousafzai was shot in the head as she travelled home from school in a bus in Swat, in north-eastern Pakistan. According to media reports, the Taleban have claimed responsibility for the attack during which two other schoolgirls were injured. Malala Yousafzai was transferred to a British hospital on 15 October for prolonged medical treatment. 

The day following the attack, on 10 October, the Director-General of unesco issued a press release denouncing the attempted murder. She wished to express her support for the Pakistani schoolgirl, who became a symbol of the struggle in favour of the right to education

she is in a hospital in the UK 

protecting biodiversity

2010 ended with a ray of hope for species. At the meeting of the Convention on Biological Diversity in the Japanese city of Nagoya, countries from around the world pledged to expand the percentage of the world's land and water under some form of protection to 17% and 10%, respectively, while promising to work again to cut the loss of species. Time will tell whether these goals are met, or whether they will join the long list of broken promises by humanity to its fellow species — but at least it's a start.

so do these talks matter at all

The UN global warming summit in Copenhagen at the end of 2009 was meant to be a climate coronation. It turned out to be a funeral. Thanks in part to the fact that the U.S. was unable to come up with its own climate legislation in time, hopes were already dim for a global deal on carbon at Copenhagen. But once the meeting commenced, things went downhill fast. The conference was a logistical nightmare, with crowds pressing outside the Danish capital's Bella Center, which was filled beyond capacity. There were angry protests in the streets, but stasis inside the conference center, with negotiations dragging on for days with little progress. Developing countries complained that they were being shut out of the talks, even though their citizens would suffer the worst effects of climate change.
Not until President Barack Obama and scores of other world leaders arrived at the end the summit was a last-minute consolation deal clinched — with a vague agreement to keep the global temperature rise to less than 2°C — but one that fell far below the expectations of environmentalists.

How much do these conventions cost? Could the money be better spent on targetted solutions ... not matter how small, it spending money on transportation and food and air-condition and see practically no resluts

solution to a problem

former irish president mary robinson

What is the most valuable lesson you have learned over your career?
That if you want change, it has to happen from within communities, not from the outside. Those from the outside can only support change by being patient and being respectful.



well said!

individuals, not governments, help alleviate world problems

Imagine Solutions Conference in its second year, is modeled after the long-running TED conference, which promotes “ideas worth spreading” to solve issues surrounding global warming, poverty, human rights and sustainability through technology, entertainment and design.

suggestion for poverty reduction

When Uganda cut school fees by $16 per year (60 percent), enrollment nearly doubled, with most of the increase in enrollment being girls. Smith pointed out that research shows that educating girls increases average productivity more than does educating boys. The cost for this proposed solution is $5.4 billion per year.

farmers livelihood continue to be threatened

Agricultural subsidies: beyond cotton, World Trade Organisation members have failed even to agree how to reduce the huge subsidies paid to rich world farmers, whose overproduction continues to threaten the livelihoods of developing world farmers.

doha , another failed attempt at international cooperation?

• Ten years ago, a new World Trade Organisation that put developing country needs at the centre of the international trade negotiation agenda was proposed. 
• The Ministerial Declaration adopted at the start of the Doha Development Round of trade negotiations, on 14 November 2001, was a promising response to the anti-globalisation riots of the 1990s.
• But the WTO membership has failed to deliver the promised pro-development changes.
•  Finding "development" in the Doha Development Round today is like looking for a needle in a haystack. 
• Developing countries have been completely sidelined by the economic and political interests of global powers.

support ecuador!!!

How long will Ecuador be able to hold out?

are you optimistic or pessimistic about the outcome?

• Ivonne A-Baki, the secretary of state for Ecuador, worked the corridors in Rio to drum up support for protecting a 1 million–hectare patch of unspoiled rainforest. 
• Yasuni Natonal Park, where the equator meets the Andes, is famed for its fabulous variety of plants and animals. 
• It also sits on 846 million barrels of oil, fully a fifth of Ecuador’s proven reserves, worth an estimated $7.2 billion, a treasure trove for a poor country.
•  But instead of cashing in that wealth, Ecuador declared the Yasuni off-limits to drilling and wants the world to pitch in.
• “By leaving the oil in the ground, we avoid releasing 400 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere,” says Baki.
•  “That’s about as much as France or Brazil emit in a year.” 
• In exchange for leaving the area intact, Ecuador is looking to raise $3.6 billion from international donors to help protect the park.
•  Though Rio+20 failed to pass the vaunted $30 billion green fund, it was the perfect venue to tout the project.
  

“Sometimes in a big meeting like this, the good intentions stay on paper,” she said. “But we were in Rio to raise awareness. We have to understand that climate change is going to be a lot more expensive for the world than the current economic crisis.”

note - what do the words in bold tell us? 

international cooperation ...well we will try again next time

The Rio+20 Conference Went From Good Intentions to the To-Do List From Hell

•  It was supposed to be a meeting for leaders of 192 nations to create a global road map to reverse climate change

  • but the outcome was conspicuously short on goals, timetables, and action. Mac Margolis reports. 

    why

    1 our problems are many and serious

    With marine life in peril, global carbon emissions reaching a record 32 billion tons last year, and emerging market powerhouses led by China adding to the fumes,  we need to do something...
    2 Part of the problem was the gymnastics of striking a balance among 192 nations, ranging from juggernauts to poorhouses.

    3  No new targets were set for slashing gases such as carbon dioxide and methane that scientists warn are overheating the atmosphere. 

    4 When developing nations proposed creating a $30 billion fund to back green jobs and environmentally sustainable initiatives, the richest countries played deaf, distracted perhaps by the euro-zone crisis.

     

    this is inevitable since countries are focussed on progress

    this is sad and unfortunate and worrying for our future

    perhaps regional groups, with fewer members, might be more successful? ASEAN...think again...will ASEAN countries sacrifice growth? 

DISPUTED ISLANDS

• Dozens of Taiwanese boats sailed to disputed East China Sea islands in a brief protest, as top Japanese and Chinese diplomats met in Beijing to ease tensions.

• The islands, called Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China, are controlled by Japan but claimed by China and Taiwan.

• Tension in the region has been high since Japan's purchase of the islands from their private Japanese owner.

• Taiwanese vessels, including coastguard ships, have now left the area. 

MAG: WHY ARE THEY FIGHTING FOR ISLANDS WHEN THEY HAVE SO MUCH MORE LAND THAN US?
CECELIA:THE ISLANDS HAVE DIFFERENT NAMES? WHY NOT JUST PARTITION IT?
AND WHY NOT GO TO THE INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE....LIKE SINGAPORE AND MALAYSIA DID
THOMAS: IT'S NOT ABOUT THE SPACE; THIS IS A MATTER OF PRIDE/ONE-UPMANSHIP...TERRITORIAL IMPERATIVE KNOWS NO BOUNDS...

can we even imagine the pain this teen must have gone through?

THE disfigured Afghan teenager whose photo was featured on a Time magazine cover has arrived in California, where a foundation has arranged for reconstructive surgery.

The Grossman Burn Foundation in Los Angeles said on Friday that 18-year-old Bibi Aisha arrived on Thursday and is staying with a host family.

Ms Aisha says her nose was cut off as punishment for running away from her violent husband

Activists and human rights workers say they are glad that Ms Aisha is getting treatment but thousands of other women are victims of domestic violence in Afghanistan

ASEAN

there are lots of ways for Asean to have a very active future. But every organisation must keep moving forward.
To the degree that there are problems like Burma - if those problems are not eventually resolved with Burma moving closer to the general values there in the Asean Charter - then you are really going to have problems.

THE Asean Charter aspires to the rule of law, human rights, the development of pluralistic political systems, integration into the international community. Burma is out of step. Badly out of step.
Now the question is, given the slight opening that Cyclone Nargis has provided, is there a way to move Burma to a political track that would finally make something of what is right now a kind of mockery - its road map to democracy, which is going nowhere?
And would it be possible for regional states and neighbours to press the regime to release Ms Aung San Suu Kyi, to allow real opposition, get on a path?