Friday, October 03, 2003

The Presence of Co-Operation In a speech this week, Mikhail Gorbachev said:  ... A little more than 40 years ago, President John Kennedy spoke on June 10th 1963. I remember that time very well and later I had a chance to think a lot about what he had to say on that occasion. ... "What kind of peace do I need?" asked John Kennedy. "What kind of peace do we seek? Not a Pax-Americana that we will force on the world by American weapons of war. Not the peace of the brave or the security of the slave. I am talking about genuine peace, the kind of peace that makes life on earth worth living. The kind that enables men and nations to grow and hope and to build a better life for their children not merely peace for Americans but peace for all men and women." And, then he went on to say, "Some people say that it is useless to speak of world peace or world law or world disarmament and that it will be useless until the leaders of the Soviet Union adopt a more enlightened attitude. I hope they do. I believe we can help them do it. But, I also believe that we must reexamine our own attitude as individuals and as a nation. For our attitude is as essential as theirs. Let us not be blind to our differences, but let us also direct attention to our common interest and to the means by which those differences can be resolved. While we proceed to safeguard our national interests let us also safeguard human interests. Genuine peace must be the product of many nations, the sum of many acts. It must be dynamic, not static, changing to meet the challenge of each new generation." Let me say that none of those points that were expressed at that time 40 years ago by the President of the United States has lost its relevance today. Even today, I can sign on to all of those statements.  (10/03/03) Global Warming Good for Russia ? The New Scientist -- This week's Global Warming conference in Moscow seemed like the perfect occasion for President Vladimir Putin to announce that he was putting the protocol before his parliament. But instead he told delegates he had not yet decided whether to propose ratification. Putin pointed out that "an increase of two or three degrees wouldn't be so bad for a northern country like Russia. We could spend less on fur coats, and the grain harvest would go up". ... A failure by Russia to sign up to the Kyoto Protocol would risk unleashing dangerous climatic changes at home, two of Russia's top climate scientists have warned. The caution came during a conference on global warming that ends on Friday. Valentin Meleshko, of the Central Geophysical Observatory, forecast droughts in European Russia, dead pine forests across the taiga, and buckled roads, flooded rivers and broken pipelines in Siberia as permafrost melted. And recent disastrous floods in Yakutia were blamed on global climate change by Alexander Bedritsky, head of Russia's Federal Hydrometeorological Service. The 1997 Kyoto protocol to combat climate change will only come into legal force when countries responsible for more that 55 per cent of rich nation's greenhouse gas emissions have ratified it in their parliaments. Ratifications now cover 44 per cent; Russia would add 17 per cent and hence activate the protocol. ...  Some observers believe that Putin's indecision represents brinkmanship, and that Russia will eventually sign up - at a price. If Russia does not, the Kyoto protocol will be dead, as the US, with 36 per cent of emissions has said it will not sign. (10/03/03) Overpopulation and Overfishing BBC Nature -- Pressure on global fish stocks is bound to intensify as human numbers rise and wealth increases, a report says. ... Entitled Outlook For Fish To 2020: Meeting Global Demand, the report is the work of the International Food Policy Research Institute, based in Washington, DC, and the WorldFish Center of Penang, Malaysia. It sets out to analyse world fisheries in terms of market forces rather than environmental pressures. The authors say catches of wild fish have levelled off since the mid-1980s, and many fish stocks are so heavily exploited that their future is in doubt. But world fish consumption has leapt from 45 million tonnes in 1973 to more than 91 million in 1997. The report says: "Consumption of fish in the developed countries stagnated between 1985 and 1997, mainly because populations remained stable and people there were already eating large quantities of fish. "But at the same time, rapid population growth in the developing world, along with increases in the average amount of fish consumed per person in those countries, led to soaring increases in global fish consumption." The authors used a global model of supply and demand for food and feed commodities. While on present trends most foods are likely to fall in price over the next 20 years, they say, fish prices will probably rise, reflecting a global demand that outruns supply. (10/03/03) 9:18:04 AM

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