"FRANKLIN LAMB" - Israelis Rush for Second Passports

"Perhaps as many as half of the Jews living in Israel will consider leaving Palestine in the next few years if political and social trends continue."

By FRANKLIN LAMB

http://counterpunch.org/lamb06032011.html

Perhaps historians or cultural anthropologists surveying the course of human events can identify for us a land, in addition to Palestine, where such a large percentage of a recently arrived colonial population prepared to exercise their right to depart, while many more, with actual millennial roots but victims of ethnic cleansing, prepared to exercise their right of Return.

One of the many ironies inherent in the 19th century Zionist colonial enterprise in Palestine is the fact that this increasingly fraying project was billed for most of the 20th century as a haven in the Middle East for “returning” persecuted European Jews.  But today, in the 21st century, it is Europe that is increasingly being viewed by a large number of the illegal occupiers of Palestinian land as the much desired haven for returning Middle Eastern Jews. To paraphrase Jewish journalist Gideon Levy “If our forefathers dreamt of an Israeli passport to escape from Europe, there are many among us who are now dreaming of a second passport to escape toEurope.”

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“Christopher Mims” - What’s the relationship between climate change and Arizona’s forest fires?

Christopher Mims

June 6, 2011

http://www.grist.org/list/2011-06-06-whats-the-relationship-between-climate-change-and-arizonas-fores

A crazy-big forest fire is raging through Arizona, battled by 2,300 firefighters and covering 287 square miles. It's the third largest forest fire in the state's history. But is it a product of climate change?

The short answer is that we have no idea until someone digs in to the specifics of this particular event. But the more important answer comes from a document put out by the Arizona Cooperative Agriculture Extension, which notes that a warmer, drier climate and more extreme swings between the multi-year El Nino / La Nina weather patterns are setting the state up for more wildfires than ever.

The crazy thing is, it's not just hotter, drier conditions (La Nina) that cause more forest fires. The wetter winter weather that comes with an El Nino "condition[s] the landscape for wildfire by providing moisture to grow biomass," i.e. underbrush and more trees. Then, when the weather swings the opposite way, to a La Nina, the dry conditions are conducive to wildfires.

We already know that climate change is going to lead to more extreme weather and wider swings in the El Nino / La Nina cycle. What's intriguing is that the cycling between these extremes is what sets up the conditions for more forest fires.

Another important factor is, of course, forest management. When forests are prevented from burning, or underbrush isn't cleared out, it can lead to more extreme fires.

The report concludes:

"The increasing frequency of extreme fire weather conditions and drought-stressed vegetation could combine to promote enhanced wildfire activity under a changing southwestern U.S. climate."

“Sara Laskow” - Natural gas ‘golden age’ requires government regulation

Sarah Laskow

June 6, 2011

http://www.grist.org/list/2011-06-06-natural-gas-golden-age-requires-government-regulation

Natural gas will provide 25 percent of global energy by 2035, up from 21 percent now, according to a report from the International Energy Agency (IEA), a Paris-based organization that studies and advises on energy issues.

The IEA's report asks if the world is entering a "golden age" of natural gas and answers, more or less, "yes." (Although it seems possible that the organization framed the question that way only to create the perfect acronym for their analysis, which the report calls "The Golden Age of Gas Scenario," or GAS Scenario. Oooh, recursive!)  

Natural gas' share in the energy mix will overtake coal's by 2030, according to the report. The organization sees natural gas as preferable option, carbon-wise, to coal, but the increase won't do nearly enough to decrease carbon emissions, the IEA reports. Fully half of the reductions in carbon-dioxide that the GAS scenario does predict would come from China switching over from coal. Right now, according to the report, China uses as much natural gas as Germany, but by 2035, it could use as much as the entire E.U.

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“Alex Pareene” - Michelle Rhee hires Democrat, continues working with Republicans

Alex Pareene

June 6, 2011

http://www.salon.com/life/education/index.html

Michelle Rhee has a very well-connected and talented new employee: Hari Sevugan, formerly the spokesman for the Democratic National Committee, is now the top flack for Students First, the school reform nonprofit founded and run by the former Washington DC schools chancellor. This, Ben Smith reported over the weekend, will help Rhee remind everyone that she is a Democrat:

But while Sevugan's role includes setting up a rapid response operation and press shop for a group that didn't have a full-fledged communications operation, the move also sends a political signal: Michelle Rhee's push to weaken the hold of teachers unions has won her enemies in the labor movement and among some Democrats, and allies on the Republican right, and Sevugan will aim to clarify her attempt to establish a bipartisan profile, the source said; he has already begun to reach out to some of the group's progressive critics.

Strategic communications operations are what the powerful turn to when they really don't want to stop doing the things that keep getting them bad press. In Rhee's case, one of those things that's making her so unpopular among erstwhile and potential allies is her recent habit of working extensively with Republican politicians. Which, Ben Smith also reports, she is still doing. Rhee joined with former Senator Bill Frist to endorse legislation designed to -- three guesses! -- limit the collective bargaining powers of Tennessee teachers. The bill also bars the teachers union from making campaign contributions or lobbying state legislators. Once only the Kochs and the Gates Foundation have any say in public policy, our children will finally win the future.

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"AP" - Millions displaced by natural disasters last year

Jun 6, 9:40 AM EDT

Associated Press

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/N/NATURAL_DISASTERS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2011-06-06-09-40-35

OSLO, Norway (AP) -- About 42 million people were forced to flee their homes because of natural disasters around the world in 2010, more than double the number during the previous year, experts said Monday.

One reason for the increase in the figure could be climate change, and the international community should be doing more to contain it, the experts said.

The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre said the increase from 17 million displaced people in 2009 was mainly due to the impact of "mega-disasters" such as the massive floods in China and Pakistan and the earthquakes in Chile and Haiti.

It said more than 90 percent of the disaster displacements were caused by weather-related hazards such as floods and storms that were probably impacted by global warming, but it couldn't say to what extent.

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"Alister Doyle" - Report: Arctic Warming May Raise Global Sea Levels Five Feet

Published on Tuesday, May 3, 2011 by REUTERS

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/05/03-3

by Alister Doyle

OSLO - Quickening climate change in the Arctic including a thaw of Greenland's ice could raise world sea levels by up to 1.6 meters by 2100, an international report showed on Tuesday.

Such a rise -- above most past scientific estimates -- would add to threats to coasts from Bangladesh to Florida, low-lying Pacific islands and cities from London to Shanghai. It would also, for instance, raise costs of building tsunami barriers in Japan.

"The past six years (until 2010) have been the warmest period ever recorded in the Arctic," according to the Oslo-based Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP), which is backed by the eight-nation Arctic Council.

"In the future, global sea level is projected to rise by 0.9 meters (2ft 11in) to 1.6 meters (5ft 3in) by 2100 and the loss of ice from Arctic glaciers, ice caps and the Greenland ice sheet will make a substantial contribution," it said. The rises were projected from 1990 levels.

"Arctic glaciers, ice caps and the Greenland ice sheet contributed over 40 percent of the global sea level rise of around 3 mm per year observed between 2003 and 2008," it said.

Foreign ministers from Arctic Council nations -- the United States, Russia, Canada, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Norway and Iceland -- are due to meet in Greenland on May 12. Warming in the Arctic is happening at about twice the world average.

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"AP" - Report: Climate Change Worsens Western Water Woes

Published on Tuesday, April 26, 2011 by Associated Press

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/04/26-3

WASHINGTON — Climate change is likely to diminish already scarce water supplies in the Western United States, exacerbating problems for millions of water users in the West, according to a new government report.

A report released Monday by the Interior Department said annual flows in three prominent river basins — the Colorado, Rio Grande and San Joaquin — could decline by as much 8 percent to 14 percent over the next four decades. The three rivers provide water to eight states, from Wyoming to Texas and California, as well as to parts of Mexico.

The declining water supply comes as the West and Southwest, already among the fastest-growing parts of the country, continue to gain population.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar called water the region's "lifeblood" and said small changes in snowpack and rainfall levels could have a major effect on tens of millions of people.

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" Hannah Devlin and Robin Pagnamenta" - Major Cities at Risk from Rising Sea Level Threat

Published on Tuesday, December 1, 2009 by The Times/UK

by Hannah Devlin and Robin Pagnamenta

Sea levels will rise by twice as much as previously predicted as a result of global warming, an important international study has concluded.

The Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) calculated that if temperatures continued to increase at the present rate, by 2100 the sea level would rise by up to 1.4 metres - twice that predicted two years ago.

Such a rise in sea levels would engulf island nations such as the Maldives in the Indian Ocean and Tuvalu in the Pacific, devastate coastal cities such as Calcutta and Dhaka and force London, New York and Shanghai to spend billions on flood defences.

Even if the average global temperature increases by only 2C - the target set for next week's Copenhagen summit - sea levels could still rise by 50cm, double previous forecasts, according to the report.

SCAR, a partnership of 35 of the world's leading climate research institutions, made the prediction in the report Antarctic Climate Change and Climate. It far exceeds the 0.59 metre rise by the end of the century quoted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 2007. This was based on a "business as usual" approach by governments that allowed temperatures to rise by 4 degrees. It will underpin the negotiations in Copenhagen.

SCAR scientists said that the IPCC underestimated grossly how much the melting of the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets would contribute to total sea-level rises.

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"Anne Sweeney" - Listen My Children & You Shall Hear, Palin's Take on Paul Revere

Published on Sunday, June 5, 2011 by CommonDreams.org

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/06/05-6

by Anne Sweeney

"He who warned, uh, the British that they weren't gonna be takin' away our arms, uh, by ringing those bells, and um, makin' sure as he's riding his horse through town to send those warning shots and bells that we were going to be sure and we were going to be free, and we were going to be armed."
-Sarah Palin on Paul Revere
Interviewed by CNN in Boston, June 2nd, 2011

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"Progressive Radio Network Host Mitchell J. Rabin, Monday @ 6pm(est) - A Better World Newsletter

A Better World on Progressive Radio Network

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6pm_EST

Jean Houston - purpose and destinyMonday, 6pm EST, June 6, 2011: Scholar, Philosopher and Author, Dr. Jean Houston, is one of the foremost visionary thinkers and doers of our time and one of the principal founders of the Human Potential Movement. A powerful and dynamic speaker she has served as consultant to several agencies of United Nations including UNICEF and the UNDP. She has worked in over 100 countries training leadership at every level to enhance skills and purpose so as to bring a new mind to bear upon challenging issues.

Jean is offering a free 75-minute downloadable audio seminar entitled 3 Keys to Discovering and Living Your True Purpose now available at http://www.DestinyandYou.com which is going to be a featured part of today's interview. Jean was a guest on A Better World TV which will be aired soon. As one of my favorite human beings, I do hope you join us for today's broadcast.

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Gary YoungTuesday, 10:30pm EST, June 7, 2011: Mitchell's guest this evening is Naturopath and founder, President of Young Living Essential Oils, Gary Young. Gary has earned a world-wide reputation for his fragrant, healing oils which he has produced from plants carefully gathered from around the world. He has re-introduced the role of the olfactory, the power of smell, as well as the vibratory rate of Nature's essences, into the domain of healing and pleasure. In an unusual interview shot during a rare visit by Gary to NYC some time ago, Mitchell & Gary have a delightfully informative talk about oils & healing in Mitchell's Living Room Set. Don't miss it!

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