Category: RT Newswire

USE ME! Essentially, this is a catch all for everything. This is probably the ONLY category where things that are not directly related to Rising Tide affiliates/allies should go. For example if a coal company goes out of business (and we didn’t directly cause it) it should probably only go here.

Insurers: 2008 2nd Worst Year for Weather-Related Disasters

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Insurers: 2008 2nd Worst year for Weather-Related Disasters

POZNAN – Weather-related disasters and earthquakes are likely to make 2008 the second most costly year for insurers after 2005, when Hurricane Katrina struck the United States, a leading insurer said on Wednesday.

Losses in 2008 are around $160 billion so far, Thomas Loster, chair of Munich Re Foundation, told Reuters on the sidelines of December 1-12 climate talks in Poznan, Poland.

He said it was likely to have been surpassed only by 2005, when Katrina contributed to losses of $220 billion.

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UPDATE: Navajo & Hopi Protest OSM in DENVER!!

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Navajo and Hopi tell Office of Surface Mining in Denver "NO!" to coal mining

Navajo and Hopi tell Office of Surface Mining in Denver

THANKS to everyone who helped us make our point to the Office of Surface Mining yesterday! OSM disconnected their phone line because so many people flooded them with calls!

This is just the begining of this battle, we are more determined than ever to not allow our homelands to be turned into “minor” decisions for coal interests! I hope you will continue to stand in solidarity with Indigenous Peoples and the “front line” communities that are taking a stand against these major entities!

Please help us get this update out and again thank you!!

-Enei

Enei Begaye
Co-Director, Black Mesa Water Coalition
PO Box 613 Flagstaff, AZ 86002-613
phone: (928) 213-5909
fax #: (928) 213-5905
www.blackmesawatercoalition.org

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Climate Forum Poland: Spotlight on Congo Forests

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Business Daily Africa (Nairobi, Kenya)
December 10, 2008

Climate change forum turns spotlight on Congo
by John Mbaria

<http://www.bdafrica.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=11682&Itemid=5822>

As discussions at the ongoing conference on climate change enters the second week
in Poznan, Poland, there is widespread realisation that Africa has one of the most
significant keys to the mitigation against the gravest consequences of the crisis
and should be adequately compensated to keep it intact.

The multi-million square kilometre Congo Basin Forests hold the key. But the world
is yet to agree on how to preserve this second largest of the world’s last major
carbon sinks.

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Forest Service Whiffs on Chance to Solve Two Critical Problems

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Forest Service Whiffs on Chance to Solve Two Critical Problems
Agency offers no remedy for wildlife and watersheds from oversized and decaying road
system

WASHINGTON-December 9. The U.S. Forest Service today chose to ignore its regulations
and pass on opportunities to address two of the most serious threats facing our
national forests-the impact of off-road vehicles (ORVs) and of our over-sized and
decaying forest roads system. Issuing new management guidelines today, the agency
provided direction on how land managers can elude existing safeguards rather than
comply with them.

“We could not be more disappointed with today’s announcement,” said Vera Smith, the
director of the recreation planning program for The Wilderness Society. “The
conservation community has worked diligently with the Forest Service over the past
three years to make this process a success for everyone.”

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