Year: 2008

Resource: Filmmaker Rebecca Sommer-Climate Change, Indigenous Peoples, the UN, & REDD

  By Uncategorized

Rebecca Sommer is a German artist, journalist, photographer, documentary
filmmaker, and human rights activist. She is the representative for the
Indigenous Department USA of the Society for Threatened Peoples [2], an
international NGO in special consultative status to the United Nations
(ECOSOC), and in participatory status with the Council of Europe. She
founded Earth Peoples [3], a global circle of indigenous peoples working
together to promote the natural and human rights of indigenous peoples.

Rebecca Sommer earns her living as an artist, with works in beauty,
fashion, print and film, and has worked as the editor-at-large for
magazines such as Scene, Madison, and Spirit while living in Germany,
India, Great Britain, Brazil, South Africa and the USA.

For a listing of her current & past film documentaries:

http://www.rebeccasommer.org/press.html

————————————————————————————–

Drought, Beetles, Disease Killing Western Forests…Watch Out For Big Timber Scams!

  By

“Forest thinning”? Maybe…but better leave big timber outfits out of it-or else.

ASW

——————————————–
“… tree mortality is likely to rise …”

“Forests are in deep trouble,” said Ron Neilson, a Forest Service
bioclimatologist and a professor at Oregon State University.

“Tom Coleman, the Forest Service entomologist who announced the
discovery of the oak borer in August …”The very worst-case scenario
is that we see a massive die-off of our hardwood forest. . . .”

“The same dynamic is at play everywhere on the planet,” Neilson said.

“In Central California, forests have been scourged by a disease
called sudden oak death since the mid-1990s. British Columbia has
been hammered by red band needle blight. Forestry experts say heavy
summer rains promoted the spread of both infections.

“In Alaska, the deaths of millions of yellow cedars are linked to
earlier snowmelt, which exposes shallow roots to spring freezes.”
————————————–

San Diego Union-Tribune
October 25, 2008

Drought, beetles killing forests
More than 10,000 oaks in S.D. County affected
By Mike Lee
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

Bugs and diseases are killing trees at an alarming rate across the
West, from the spruce forests of Alaska to the oak woodlands near the
San Diego-Tijuana border.

Several scientists said the growing threat appears linked to global
warming. That means tree mortality is likely to rise in places as the
continent warms, potentially altering landscapes in ways that
increase erosion, fan wildfires and diminish the biodiversity of
Western forests.

Continue reading

Indigenous People From Panama Travel to Washington, D.C. to Condemn Carbon Market

  By

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Indigenous People from Panama travel to Washington to condemn the carbon market

“The Clean Development Mechanism could be used to finance the
destruction of our homelands,” say representatives of the Naso and Ngobe people.

A group of Naso and Ngobe Indigenous Peoples from Western Panama will arrive today
in Washington, D. C. to take part in a hearing at the Inter-American Human Rights
Commission (IAHRC) on Tuesday October 28. The indigenous representatives will give
evidence of the discrimination, abuse, and displacement that they have been
suffering from Empresas Publicas de Medellin (Colombia), AES Corporation (United
States), and the Government of Panama, who are together constructing four
hydroelectric dams on the land of the Indigenous Peoples in the La Amistad Biosphere
Reserve.

Continue reading

Climate Change, Mental Health, and Policy

  By

SCIENCE
VOL 322 24 OCTOBER 2008

Risk Communication on Climate:
Mental Models and Mass Balance

Public confusion about the urgency of reductions in greenhouse
gas emissions results from a basic misconception.
John D. Sterman

Excerpts:

“Nearly two-thirds of the participants asserted that atmospheric GHGs  can stabilize
even though emissions continuously exceed removal–analogous to arguing a bathtub
continuously filled faster than it drains will never overflow. Most believe that
stopping the growth of emissions stops the growth of GHG concentrations. The
erroneous belief that stabilizing emissions would quickly stabilize the climate
supports wait-and-see policies but violates basic laws of physics.”

” …climate scientists should partner with psychologists,
sociologists, and other social scientists to communicate the science  in ways that
foster hope and action rather than denial and despair.  Doing so does not require
scientists to abandon rigor or objectivity.  People of good faith can debate the
costs and benefits of policies to  mitigate the risks of climate change, but policy
should not be based  on mental models that violate fundamental physical principles.”

———————————————————————