| Striper Wars Eye of the Whale The Man who Knew Too Much
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TWO FILMS
I'd like to urge everyone to watch these two short documentary-style films, both around 15 minutes in length. "One of These Mornings" was created by Valery Lyman, a remarkable young film-maker whom I've known since she was a child. The subject is Election Day 2008, when Barack Obama became president of the United States. Valery had asked many friends and acquaintances, including myself, to call her that momentous day and leave messages about how we felt after voting. I think you'll find her combination of images with the voices-of-the-people inspiring. More than a year later, it brought tears to my eyes several times. Click on this link: One of These Mornings.
The other film is an interview with a longtime close friend of mine, Ross Gelbspan, an award-winning journalist who has written two books on climate change ("The Heat Is On" and "Boiling Point.") Ross has been sounding the alarm about the planetary crisis for more fifteen years, and this film with him speaks directly to what we must do to prepare for a very uncertain future. I think you'll find it compelling, sobering, and timely viewing - something we all need to think about, especially in terms of what our children and grandchildren will be facing. Click on this link: The Heat Is Online.
- Dick Russell 1/29/10
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 | The following interview with Homero Aridjis, Mexico's ambassador to UNESCO and an internationally-acclaimed poet/novelist and environmental leader, is about closing down Mexico's UNESCO office in Paris.
[This is a rough translation. The original Spanish is below. An improved English translation should follow soon.]
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Cultural loss
The Permanent Representation of Mexico to UNESCO in Paris, will conclude its work.
Directed today by Homero Aridjis, the office was created as a liaison on issues of education, culture and science.
Closure of the Embassy to UNESCO 'is a blow to culture'
Reforma Cultural Supplement • Sunday January 24, 2010
This affects the country's image, especially at a time
of chronic daily spread of violence, says Aridjis
REFORMA / Staff
"The closure of the offices of Mexico to UNESCO in Paris is a regrettable event, a blow to Mexican culture and its international leadership role that the country should play in Latin America, Europe, Asia and Africa," says the poet Homero Aridjis.
In an interview via email, Aridjis, Mexico's Ambassador to UNESCO, analyzes the impact of this decision.
Although the decision was announced days ago as part of the federal government's austerity, Aridjis says that until now they have not received notification.
What is your opinion on the closure of representation?
When criticized, the Foreign Ministry says it will close the offices of Mexico to UNESCO, but concentrate the respective roles "in the person of the Mexican ambassador to the French Republic". He argues that only half of the 182 member states (in fact, there are 193) of UNESCO have permanent and exclusive representative "as was the case with Mexico." I agree with Porfirio Munoz Ledo legislature when it favors entirely the autonomy of the Mexico office at UNESCO, because it is an organ of great importance, because it requires attention, time and hierarchy.
When Harry Belevan-McBride, bilateral ambassador of Peru in France, learned the news of the beheading of the Mexican delegation to UNESCO, he phoned me to say he was alarmed Mexico was out of its cultural leadership abroad, and our Country the holder of the most vast and varied cultures of the Americas. He urged me to recommend to the Mexican authorities that they not make the same mistake as Peru to remove its ambassador to UNESCO to make the representation of bilateral hands, saying that it is impossible (according to his own experience) to effectively address UNESCO issues.
The measure is regrettable, is a blow to Mexican culture, our international image, the leadership role our country should play in Latin America, Europe, Asia, and even in Africa. When you know the representatives of Member States accredited to UNESCO, some look at me shocked, and asked: "What's wrong with Mexico?". The same Irina Bokova, the new general director, asked me that question. I wonder what the position of the Senate is...
complete article here
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TESTIMONY OF DICK RUSSELL
Author, Striper Wars H796, An Act relative to the conservation of Atlantic striped bass
Massachusetts Joint Committee on Environment, Natural Resources & Agriculture January 14, 2010
I thank you for allowing me to testify today on what I believe is an urgent conservation measure, vital to preserving for our children and grand-children the most magnificent fish that swims our near-shore waters. I am an environmental journalist and the author of six books, including one called Striper Wars, about the fish that is the subject of this hearing. And today I hope to offer some historical perspective, along with the reasons why H796 needs to be passed during the current legislative session.
Striped bass have been called the aquatic equivalent of the American bald eagle. Without Native Americans having taught the Pilgrims about how to take striped bass, they would not have survived their first difficult winters in the Plymouth Colony. Protection of striped bass was the reason for America’s very first conservation law, in 1639, when the Massachusetts Bay Colony general court ruled they were too valuable to be ground up and used for fertilizer. The first fishery management measures, in 1776, were also drawn up on the striper’s behalf...
complete article here
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And read Dick Russell's Conference speech, "At the Brink of Disaster..."
"Climate Is Changing: Stories, Facts and People"A report on the 2009 Greenaccord Conference
by Dick Russell
December 6, 2009
 VITERBO, ITALY – “To do nothing is fatal.” That was the stark message of one speaker at the VII International Media Forum on the Protection of Nature, held during the last week of November in advance of world leaders gathering in Copenhagen to seek an agreement on curbing greenhouse gas emissions. The figures on how rapidly the earth’s climate is changing were more alarming than ever before. At the same time, new ideas on how to achieve a much-needed societal transition were not only thought-provoking but often inspiring.
Of the three conferences sponsored by Greenaccord that I have attended (see 2005), annually bringing together environmental journalists from around the world, this one carried a sense of intense urgency through all five days. Ten “climate witnesses,” coming from the Himalayas, India, Africa, and other regions, offered testimony that left no doubt about the devastating impacts already being felt. The lingering question was whether action to shift away from carbon-based fuels can happen quickly enough to avoid a chaotic, anarchic planetary future – one that could see as many as two billion climate refugees as sea levels rise, glaciers melt away, flooding and droughts accelerate.
The last time the polar regions of earth were significantly warmer than today for an extended period was 125,000 years ago. Should we not curb emissions fast enough and see a rise of six degrees Centigrade over the course of the 21st-century, as a group of scientists recently projected, this would be a temperature rise not seen for about 100 million years. A hundred million years….
complete article here
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At the Brink of Disaster, Finding Each Other
A talk given by Dick Russell, at the VII International Media Forum on the Protection of Nature, November 29, 2009, in Viterbo, Italy
(with acknowledgment to my friend Ross Gelbspan for allowing me to utilize his writings on the climate crisis: see www.heatisonline.org)
Recently I attended another conference, this one on “green building,” in the southwestern United States. More than 27,000 people came from all around the country, a very impressive gathering. And it was here that I learned about a little town in the heartland of America called Greensburg, Kansas. Probably you’ve never heard of it. I hadn’t. But it is an amazing example of people coming together to make a difference, following a natural disaster that devastated their community.
Like so many other places in rural America, Greensburg was struggling. The kids were leaving after high school, and the population of 1,400 was increasingly elderly.
Then, on May 4, 2007, everything changed. Storms are becoming more powerful as the climate heats up, and that night a 17-mile-wide tornado with winds exceeding 200 miles an hour damaged or destroyed more than 90 percent of Greensburg’s structures, including all the public buildings. Eleven of its citizens were killed. The rest had to disperse, as there was no place for them to live...
complete speech here
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Green Building: An idea whose time has (finally) come
by Dick Russell
November 18, 2009
 Anyone attending the Greenbuild 2009 conference and expo at the Phoenix Convention Center (Nov. 11-13) couldn’t help but come away impressed. First, there was the attendance – more than 27,000 people from all across the country, each paying to attend a variety of educational sessions, listen to numerous experts, and view sustainable products at close to 2,000 exhibits. To see a large room packed with General Contractors, eager for tips on how to “green” their job-sites and achieve LEED sustainable certification, was nothing short of inspiring. (A program established in 1998 by the U.S. Green Building Council, LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.)
In order to stand a chance against the ever-increasing threat of climate change, we’ve got to move fast – and changing the way our offices, homes, and apartment complexes are built is the most immediate thing to be done. Greater energy efficiency alone could quickly reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions (GHGs) by 40 percent. For the first time, legislation pending in Congress would establish a national building code, instead of state-by-state. The House version of the bill mandates that building codes need to be 30 percent better than 2004 by 2010, and 50 percent better by 2016. The Senate bill, at the moment at least, is stronger than the House’s. We’re going to need to retrofit every single one of more than 100 million homes and 65 billion square feet of commercial buildings over the next 20 years.
I learned of these things at a session titled: “Has the Change We Need Come to Main Street? How Green Building is Faring in the New Policy Environment.” A new federal Clean Energy Development Administration (CEDA) will contribute financing for retrofits. There will also be tax incentives and builder credits for homes built 50 percent stronger than existing code. The Department of Energy is expanding standards on appliances, and looking for the first time at energy consumption of our TV sets. “Smart grid” projects are moving forward, automation that for example will automatically dim your lights 40% at a given time, and let you know it’s a good time to unplug your computer and run off battery for awhile. HCFC refrigerants in chillers, air conditioning, and piping in grocery stores must be phased out (although it’s not yet known what will replace them).
Have you heard what’s happening to the Empire State Building, which dates back to the 1920s? It’s getting a major overhaul that will reduce its energy use by 38 percent. All 6,500 windows are being rebuilt for efficiency, some 50 a day at a factory on the fifth floor. That means no transportation is involved, and the same glass is being used. The retrofit is expected to save $4.4 million a year in operating costs...
complete article here
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