Archive for the 'Issues' Category

Signs of progress and setbacks in addressing climate change at… (kottke.org)

Published by Yuletide on December 25, 2007 in Environment and Politics. 0 Comments Tags: .

Great quote from Big Al.

Signs of progress and setbacks in addressing climate change From Al Gore’s Nobel lecture: (New Yorker via kottke.org)

However, despite a growing number of honorable exceptions, too many of the world’s leaders are still best described in the words Winston Churchill applied to those who ignored Adolf Hitler’s threat: “They go on in strange paradox, decided only to be undecided, resolved to be irresolute, adamant for drift, solid for fluidity, all powerful to be impotent.”

So today, we dumped another 70 million tons of global-warming pollution into the thin shell of atmosphere surrounding our planet, as if it were an open sewer. And tomorrow, we will dump a slightly larger amount, with the cumulative concentrations now trapping more and more heat from the sun.

METAL MAPS

Published by Yuletide on April 19, 2007 in Energy, Environment, Geography and Metal. 0 Comments

I’m working on a mapping project for a cartography class. To map METAL around the world, and investigate its distribution. I’ve already compiled a list of all the countries which have bands listed on http://metal-archives.com (my main source of primary data thus far) and calculated a preliminary METAL RATIO, which is basically population divided by # of metal bands. While far from perfect, it certainly gets things to within an order of magnitude. Also, its clearly skewed by reporting error (internet connectivity is quite high in scandinavia, for instance). But still, the data remains useful.

I’m also putting out a request for anyone who has data I could use in this project. I’ve tried contacting the people at metal-archives.com to no avail, so I just scraped the data by hand. Ideally I’d like an excel spreadsheet (or at least an sql dump) of any kind of relevant music data with geographic relationships (music industry data, album sales, all that is good too). Also interesting would be user demographics for the popular metal forums and sites, though so far the responses have been so lacking on the forums I’ve tried I’m not hopeful anything will come up (at least for now, maybe things will change once I start posting the maps themselves).

random aside:

[posted with ecto]

OH, and as if we didn’t need more reasons to love Norway:
From USA Today: Norway aims to be carbon neutral by 2050

OSLO, April 19 — Norway wants to cut its net greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2050 in the world’s toughest national plan for fighting global warming, Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg said on Thursday.
He said that Norway, the world’s number five oil exporter, wanted other rich nations to set similar “carbon neutral” aims.
“Norway would be the first country in the world to take on such a concrete commitment,” Stoltenberg said in a proposal to his Labour Party that was met by a standing ovation.

I should add some extra bonus points to Norway’s Metal Ratio, no?

Granted, they’re just buying a crapload of carbon credits using money they earned exporting oil and gas… but it’s a start, right?

F’ers in the News

Published by Yuletide on December 13, 2006 in Energy, Environment, FUCKERS!, Issues, News, Politics and Quotes. 0 Comments

Nabil Soleiman, an adviser to the ministry of religious affairs in Syria, said, “If the Holocaust ever occurred, it was a conspiracy against the Arab-Islamic world as today the Middle East is still paying the consequences.

Oh, ok. That makes sense. OH WAIT.

The number of victims at the Auschwitz concentration camp could be about 2,007,” [Australian Frederick] Toben said. ”The railroad to the camp did not have enough capacity to transfer large numbers of Jews.”

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,236014,00.html

___

“Eventually, even the peddlars of climate alarmism will have to concede that the hoopla over manmade catastrophic global warming and the proposed solutions like the costly and ineffective Kyoto Protocol, will prove to be one of the history’s most misguided concerns– joining the 1970’s coming ice age fears, overpopulation and famines scares — to name just a few.”
–Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), Chairman of the Environment & Public Works Committee
http://epw.senate.gov/pressitem.cfm?id=266803&party=rep

Wow. And this guy is actually an elected member of our Congress. WOW.
Fucking assholes.

OH, and the best part? The article that he’s commenting on, is (according to the title referenced by his press release) about how the impact of COWS is worse than CARS! So, like, the cows are doing it then… Without ANY help from us… who–oh yeah–BREED THEM.

Of course, I’m sure he has nothing to say about the fucking POLAR BEARS (Note: link from the WSJ, no less)

Inspired by this note from the kind folks over at SNG:

Looks like we have a few skeptics on our hands: SENATOR INHOFE ANNOUNCES PUBLIC RELEASE OF “SKEPTIC’S GUIDE TO DEBUNKING GLOBAL WARMING”

Oklahoma senator James Inhofe is Chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee–he just published a booklet called “Hot and Cold Media Spin Cycle: A Challenge To Journalists Who Cover Global Warming.” It’s in color and substantiated with lots of pretty charts and graphics and quotes from real, live scientists! Almost as good a read as State of Fear!

Get it while it’s hot: http://epw.senate.gov/fact.cfm?party=rep&id=266711

Global Warming Goes to Court

Published by Yuletide on November 29, 2006 in Environment, FUCKERS!, Law and Politics. 0 Comments

“The Bush administration has been on a six-year campaign to expand its powers, often beyond what the Constitution allows. So it is odd to hear it claim that it lacks the power to slow global warming by limiting the emission of harmful gases. But that is just what it will argue to the Supreme Court tomorrow, in what may be the most important…?

read more | digg story

Genocide Studies News: Nov 17-24 2006

Published by Yuletide on November 26, 2006 in Issues, Law and Politics. 1 Comment Tags: .

The latest installment from the Genocide Studies listserv run by Adam Jones. To subscribe, send an email to genocide_studies-subscribe@topica.com
Continue reading ‘Genocide Studies News: Nov 17-24 2006′

Climate Change Protesting Heats Up!

Published by Yuletide on October 25, 2006 in Environment, Law, Politics and Uncategorized. 0 Comments

8 a.m. Monday, Oct. 23

Protesters Occupy Ledge Above Federal Agency
To Demand Action on Global Warming

Standoff with Police Occurs at NOAA Headquarters in Silver Spring, MD; Protesters Block Main Entrance, Denounce Bush Climate Policies

Continue reading ‘Climate Change Protesting Heats Up!’

Global Sludge Ends in Tragedy for Ivory Coast - New York Times

Published by Yuletide on October 4, 2006 in Environment, FUCKERS!, Geography and Human Interest. 0 Comments

Global Sludge Ends in Tragedy for Ivory Coast - New York Times:

How that slick, a highly toxic cocktail of petrochemical waste and caustic soda, ended up in Mr. Oudrawogol’s backyard in a suburb north of Abidjan is a dark tale of globalization. It came from a Greek-owned tanker flying a Panamanian flag and leased by the London branch of a Swiss trading corporation whose fiscal headquarters are in the Netherlands. Safe disposal in Europe would have cost about $300,000, or perhaps twice that, counting the cost of delays. But because of decisions and actions made not only here but also in Europe, it was dumped on the doorstep of some of the world’s poorest people.
…
French, Dutch and British toxic-waste experts and oil traders said it can be easily ascertained that Ivory Coast has no facilities capable of handling high-level toxic waste…
…
So far eight people have died, dozens have been hospitalized and 85,000 have sought medical attention, paralyzing the fragile health care system in a country divided and impoverished by civil war, and the crisis has forced a government shakeup.
…
“The whole procedure was illegal, first allowing the waste in, then pumping it back on board and letting the ship leave without any licenses,” said Eco Matser, a chemist and expert in toxic waste at Greenpeace.

Enough to make me sick.

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Schwarzenegger sells his Hummers, pals around with NYC Mayor Bloomberg

Published by Yuletide on September 23, 2006 in Environment and Politics. 0 Comments

Schwarzenegger sells his Hummers, pals around with NYC Mayor Bloomberg:

Had your doubts that California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) was walking his green talk? Oh, he’s walking all right — the guv has sold his eight Hummers. It was Schwarzenegger who originally convinced then-manufacturer AM General to make a version of the hulking vehicles for the civilian market, and in …

(Via Daily Grist.)

[speechless]

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