The question of "the other war" has been raised more and more this week, obscured as it was not only by Iraq, the prison scandal, and now the national mourning of President Reagan. There is very little reliable news about Afghanistan filtering through to the American public over the mainstream airwaves, or indeed through cable.

Last Monday, Rep. Kucinich, campaigning in New Jersey, told a group of supporters: "We are seeing in Afghanistan the creation of a narco-terrorist state."He noted that poverty is still spreading and deepening, that warlords are consolidating power by brutality and drug-trafficking, and people are being driven to desperation, even as Taliban factions seeks to reclaim its hold on the chaotic country. [Full Story]

BONN CONFERENCE CALLS FOR WORLDWIDE COMMITMENT TO RENEWABLE RESOURCES
31 May 2004

The Renewables 2004 global conference in Bonn, Germany, has resulted in recommendations for more aggressive research and development of renewable energy resources. Citing persistent unrest in oil rich countries, the negative environmental impact of fossil fuels, along with soaring prices and the economic problems associated with any finite resource, the conference noted the benefits to economic and political security of using resources that are local, clean and renewable.

Renewable resources were also put forth as a solution to poverty and marginalization: rural communities have historically been deprived of the resources of urban centers, and as many as 2 billion people worldwide still have no access to electricity. Developing countries are beginning to see the economic and political benefits of renewable resources. [Full Story]

MAINE DEFENDS RIGHT OF CITIZENS TO OPT OUT OF SWEATSHOP PRODUCTS
16 May 2004

The state of Maine has passed an Anti-Sweatshop Purchasing law requiring that all companies selling textiles in Maine follow international human rights-based code of conduct, inform public of location of factories, allowing consumers to choose lawful, ethical manufacturers over less scrupulous ones. The law also provides for rewarding Maine businesses that follow basic standards of humane treatment... [Full Story]

AUSTRALIA TO ABOLISH ABORIGINAL REPRESENTATIVE BODY
1 May 2004

Australia's Prime Minister has announced that his government will seek to abolish the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission, a representative body designed as a form of self government for Australia's indigenous population. The Prime Minister wants to integrate all services into existing government agencies, through a process called "mainstreaming". Aboriginal supporters say that the conditions of health and education for Australia's aboriginal population has worsened since Howard took control of those services away from ATSIC in 1996. [For more: Globalinfo.org]

NEW STUDY FAULTS MEDIA WMD CREDULITY
22 March 2004

A new study conducted by the Center for International and Security Studies at Maryland, entitled "Media Coverage of Weapons of Mass Destruction", finds fault with the deferential nature of mainstream journalism surrounding the Iraq WMD debate, prior to the war. The authors find that political bias was less instrumental than was industry convention, which in some cases appears to have dissuaded active criticism of facts not supported by strong evidence.

With the finding that journalists on the whole failed to adequately check the exercise of executive power, it would appear that the Fourth Estate failed partly because it mimicked the Congress, which took at face value a line of reasoning not supported by facts. That reasoning, as inspectors Blix and Al Baradei have pointed out, insisted that if there was no hard proof of the dismantling and abandonment of WMD, then that absence of proof was in itself concrete proof of the opposite. [Full Story]

THE SIXTH GREAT EXTINCTION: A Status Report
2 March 2004

Almost 440 million years ago, some 85 percent of marine animal species were wiped out in the earth's first known mass extinction. Roughly 367 million years ago, once again many species of fish and 70 percent of marine invertebrates perished in a major extinction event. Then about 245 million years ago, up to 95 percent of all animals—nearly the entire animal kingdom—were lost in what is thought to be the worst extinction in history.

... After each extinction, it took upwards of 10 million years for biological richness to recover. Yet once a species is gone, it is gone forever.

The consensus among biologists is that we now are moving toward another mass extinction that could rival the past big five. This potential sixth great extinction is unique in that it is caused largely by the activities of a single species. [More EPI at EcoVaria.com]

MAINSTREAM MEDIA FAIL IN PUBLIC SERVICE
10 February 2004

The New York Review of Books has published an article criticizing the mainstream American media of failing to deliver professional reporting and accurate information to the public. The Review reports that "the 'intelligence community' was rent by bitter disputes over how Bush officials were using the data on Iraq. Many journalists knew about this, yet few chose to write about it." The article specifies that there was intense dispute over the legitimacy of information provided by defectors, who may have inflated their background and the degree of access they had to WMD programs.

NYRB goes on to say: "US journalists were far too reliant on sources sympathetic to the administration. Those with dissenting views—and there were more than a few—were shut out." [Full Story]

CENTRALIA'S UNDYING FIRES
8 February 2004

Centralia, Pennsylvania, is the heart of a once-productive anthracite mining region. Now, some report, it can no longer be found on some maps. The current Harpers magazine includes an exposé on the 43-year-old coal-fueled fires, burning underneath Centralia's increasingly deserted soil. In 1998, Penweb.org estimated that as many as "450 acres might be burning" underground. Courts ruled against residents who wanted to stay, and properties throughout the town were condemned as being too unsafe to inhabit. As of last May, roughly 20 citizens still remained, but the fires were still spreading.

Science News reports that these fires are not in fact uncommon in coal mining regions and that "There are dozens of coal fires burning out of control in Pennsylvania alone; worldwide, there could be hundreds of thousands."

NEW VOTING MACHINES FAIL TO VERIFY, LACK SECURITY
29 January 2004

Since the 2000 presidential election, and the revelation of flaws in the Florida process, the nation has moved toward new balloting techniques. Today, an article in the New York Times reported that a "Red Team" security test conducted for Maryland's legislature revealed troubling security gaps in the state's new electronic voting system. The test demonstrated a wide range of rudimentary tactics that could be used to taint or even steal an election. Over 100,000 votes were lost in Florida's 2002 elections, "due to a software error". VerifiedVoting.org recommends a Google News search for "electronic voting", to locate a wide range of newspaper reports on the subject. [Full Story]

CURITIBA: THE CITY THAT RUNS ITSELF
18 January 2004

Curitiba, Brazil, is a city with an inner life all its own. The city has learned to prosper within the limits of self-sufficiency, and stands as a model to many. A group of young architects convinced the mayor that the rapidly growing city needed a new, more people-centered urban plan; he held a contest. The best ideas were opened to public debate, the people's comments were added to the plans and handed over to the young architects, who were to design a visionary development plan for Curitiba.

Flooding was resolved by diverting water to lakes in the city's parks. Shopping districts were turned into pedestrian plazas. Street vendors were united in an innovative roving outdoor market, serving the whole city as it moved from place to place. Transportation was revolutionized by creating a unique "spider-web" (part radial, part circular) bus transit system, eliminating the need for costly new subway lines. According to Global Ideas Bank, "Curitiba recycles two-thirds of it garbage", separating it neatly into "organic" and "inorganic". [Full Story]

BIODIVERSITY MATTERS
12 JANUARY 2004

According to Albaeco's editor, Dr. Fredrik Moberg, "Biodiversity will matter even more in the future". The World Conservation Union (IUCN) says island plant and animal species, which represent natural selection's most diverse and unique progeny, are the most endangered in the world. According to Moberg, "On Hawaii, 85 plant species that are found nowhere else are in danger of extinction." Many contend that such insular ecosystems are irrelevant to the health of the world as a whole. But scientists estimate that 100 to 1,000 times as many species are falling into extinction than would without human influence.

The poorest among us "use dozens or even hundreds of species of wild and semi-domesticated plants and animals for food, medicine, fodder, energy, clean water, cash incomes, and insurance", but ecosystem integrity is essential for the wellbeing of all people. Global and local ecosystems support and maintain our economic and cultural life, and indeed their existence permits the formation of the natural world we know as the human habitat, capable of supporting and sustaining human life, in all its complexities. [Read Albaeco's SDU]

HRW REPORT ALLEGES CREEPING HUMAN RIGHTS CONSTRICTION IN US
10 December 2003

The freedom to organize and to assemble for political activity is not only central to the American way of life; it is enshrined in the First Amendment to the US Constitution and is enjoyed by groups across the political spectrum. It was the exploitation of such assembly that allowed American colonists to organize their opposition to the British crown and to establish a free and independent society. Throughout US history, major gains in Constitutionally-protected rights have been achieved by groups that used their privilege under the First Amendment to assemble in order to achieve political goals. Now a new report says that the rights of Unions and other activist groups may be suffering erosion in the same United States that has so long benefited from such civic participation. [For more: CEPR]

FIGHT POVERTY TO DEFEAT TERROR
2 December 2003

Poverty, among other socially degenerative phenomena, has been cited as one of the leading sources of inspiration to terrorist recruits. The alienation and degradation associated with ongoing or endemic poverty enhances the feelings of rage and desperation which occur among marginalized groups. African heads of state united earlier this year in specifying the need to fight the hopelessness brought on by poverty and its sysiphean effects. Algeria was cited as an example, where 120,000 people have died in unrest, amid crime and political and fundamentalist terror. African leaders hope to court greater business ties with Europe, and some have suggested that enhancing ties around the Mediterranean could lead to better prospects for security throughout the region. Many in Europe remain skeptical, and some have said such ties would only put Europeans more at risk from extremists. [For more: 24news]

The UN reports that the war on terror, as it has been prosecuted, may actually be hampering the war on poverty. Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo warns that combatting poverty worldwide is a major component in any effective campaign against the spread of global terrorism. [For more: Washington Times]

LANGUAGES ENDANGERED WORLDWIDE
29 November 2003

As many as half of all known languages may die out during the next century. That figure is already staggering, but paired with the estimate of 6,800 believed to be spoken today, it represents a looming cultural catastrophe. In a world where languages with less than 10 million speakers are considered to be "minor" or "obscure" languages by many people, the world's native and regional languages are threatened. Language is a vital human endeavor, and in many ways the root of the human experience and our shared condition. The loss of more localized languages leaves populations of people with no direct cultural context within which to identify themselves and their experience. In such a climate of community breakdown, the larger cultural fabric also suffers this loss of overall coherence, along with the loss of language-specific concepts, philosophies and solutions. [Full Story]

HUMANITY'S CLOSEST RELATIVES ON THE BRINK OF EXTINCTION
26 November 2003

The United Nations Environment Programme has issued a press release stating that the world community urgently needs to devote $25 million to rescue "the world’s remaining gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos and orangutans" from extinction. The report specifies that $25 million is "the bare minimum" required to pursue this campaign of preservation of those species most closely related to human beings (homo sapiens sapiens). UNEP adds that "Every one of the great ape species is at high risk of extinction" and urges a devotion of moral and financial initiatives to preserving this link to our own evolutionary past, and by doing so to preserve and enhance our own humanity. [Full press release]

HUNGER ON THE RISE WORLDWIDE
25 November 2003

In its report, The State of Food Insecurity in the World, 2003, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the UN, says that global malnourishment has risen since the mid-1990s, after decreasing in the first half of the last decade. 842 million are now undernourished, with threat of famine spreading in many countries. Failure to plan and implement sustainable water-use policies has helped create an agricultural deficit in many countries.

The problem is truly global in nature. Even the US (USDA), which experienced economic boom in the late 1990s has seen an increase in household "food insecurity". According to the FAO: "Regionally, only Latin America and the Caribbean had a decline in the number of hungry since the mid-1990s." [FAO News Brief]

LATIN AMERICA STRUGGLING BEHIND THE VEIL
23 November 2003

The Center for Economic and Policy Research has published a study of economic trends in Latin America during the time of liberalized trade policy. Their research determined that growth has been hampered by liberalized trade policies which favor wealthy nations.

The study stems from concerns that slow growth in the first yeras of this century may mirror trends from the 1980's, known to analysts of Latin American economics as "the lost decade". Overall Latin American economic growth in the 1980's languished at -0.3%, marking a decline in propserity and in GDP. [Full Story]

COAL POLLUTION UNDER WRAPS
GOVERNMENT REGULATORS MAY HAVE BEEN MANIPULATED TO KEEP EVIDENCE OF MASS POLLUTION HIDDEN
13 November 2003

Salon.com is reporting that a coal slurry spill in Inez, Kentucky has been hidden from public view by the government's investigative process. The report suggests the Environmental Protection Agency was used as a filter for the investigative process, to ensure key facts would not come to light. [Full Story]

NGOs MOVE AGAINST CLUSTER BOMBS
13 November 2003

Cluster bombs are controversial munitions, designed to explode outward from a central point, creating multiple explosions and dispersing shrapnel over a wide area. Many believe the technology itself effectively increases the risk of any bombing campaign to civilians and should therefore be banned. The aim of this campaign is to fully realize the basic human rights inherent in the Geneva Conventions and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, including the right of civilians not to be targeted by military attacks, directly or peripherally.

Pro-human rights advocates, as well as those in favor of such disarmament campaigns, suggest that the abolition of munitions which are likely to cause harm to civilians and to civilian centers can help to reduce the impetus to terrorist activities. In the same vein, an alternative security argument suggests that securing human rights and reducing the degree of violence inherent in all foreign policy can improve security at all levels. [Full Story]

HUMAN RIGHTS ADVOCATES JOIN FORMER PRESIDENT CARTER IN CRITICIZING SECURITY EXCESSES
12 November 2003

The Carter Center conference addressed concerns around the world that basic freedoms and human rights are being abridged, both in developed democracies and under undemocratic regimes, as laws are rewritten to accomodate the war on terrorism.

Ashley Barr, the Carter Center's senior program associate for human rights, said "Governments in all regions of the world are increasingly taking measures designed to criminalize those who challenge repressive policies." Instead of targetting actual terrorists, who will likely avoid public exploits which would require civil liberties, in order to stay out of view, new counter-terrorism laws, many passed hastily and under great political pressure, have had the effect of stifling debate and undermining the worldwide cause of human rights.

SENATE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE SHUTS DOWN
Does the nation now lack sufficient intelligence oversight?
10 November 2003

The US Senate committee charged with overseeing the methods of gathering and the use of intelligence has been shut down. The committee investigation into the processing of intelligence leading up to the Iraq war began to produce calls for broadening the investigation into possible misuse or misrepresentation of intelligence by high-ranking officials.

Claiming that the quality of his investigation would be jeopardized if the White House were alleged to have manipulated intelligence, Roberts agreed with Frist and shut down the committee. Democrats contend that the quality of the investigation was already compromised by a Republican refusal to investigate the White House and its use of intelligence. [Full story]

EPA TURNS OFF ENFORCEMENT
6 November 2003

The New York Times today featured a front page account of new rules changes at the Environmental Protection Agency. The rules changes, in line with current administration energy policies, will effectively end investigations into Clean Air Act violations at 50 power plants across the United States. The reported rules change would allow energy producers and refineries to upgrade their plants, even where it increases harmful emissions, without installing any pollution controls at all. The Times also reports that a "career E.P.A. enforcement lawyer" said the move was unprecedented and characterized the process as a decision "not… to enforce the law at all." [Full Story]

The state of Florida, faced with an education crisis, decided to support an effort to reduce class-size across the state. The difficult choice to be made by elected officials requires increased funding for the public school system. Instead of facing the complicated issue of budgeting and taxes, Florida's lawmakers and governor have decided to make the last year of high school optional. Their plan allows high school juniors to actually choose to graduate a year early. Now critics are asking whether this unprecedented step will do anything other than undermine the education system. [For more: ABC Action News]

ELDERLY NUNS CONVICTED IN DENVER FOR ANTI-WAR CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE
8 April 2003

Their actions constitute politically-motivated vandalism. The three nuns cut through a fence and with their own blood painted crosses on a 110-ton concrete missile silo dome. [For more: Common Dreams]

AIR POLLUTION FATALITIES EXCEED TRAFFIC FATALITIES BY 3 TO 1
17 September 2002

The Earth Policy Institute reports that air pollution is a greater risk from traffic congestion than highway crashes. According to their report:

The World Health Organization reports that 3 million people now die each year from the effects of air pollution. This is three times the 1 million who die each year in automobile accidents. (EPI)

The significance of this information had not waned over time; in the wake of the rolling back of the environmental regulatory structure in Washington, the problem only becomes more serious. Energy policies and standards for fuel efficiency also contribute to the likelihood that pollution from automotive transportation will get worse before it gets better. [Full original EPI report]