Category: RT Newswire

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 8, 2008 12:13 PM
CONTACT: MADRE
Diana Duarte, Media Coordinator
(212) 627-0444; media@madre.org

Haiti Slammed by Four Severe Storms; Women’s Organization Launches Emergency
Response With Local Groups

NEW YORK – September 8 – With the impact of Hurricane Ike over the weekend, Haiti
has been hit by four severe storms in less than four weeks. The most recent heavy
flooding has killed another 50 people, pushing the death toll over the past month
above 600 people.

In the town of Gonaives-much of which is now under water-200,000 people have been
stranded without food or drinking water for as many as four days. In total, nearly
one million people, including 300,000 children, have been affected by these storms.

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Published on Monday, September 8, 2008 by McClatchy Newspapers

Haiti Reeling, Cities Cut Off, As 4 Storms Deliver Devastation
by Jacqueline Charles

CABARET, Haiti – Frantz Samedi had searched for his 5-year-old for two hours,
trudging through heaps of storm debris and muddy water, calling her name, “Tamasha,
Tamasha!”

A Haitian observes a flooded street in Saint Marc City. Hurricane Ike raged across
Cuba with torrential rain and winds as Haiti struggled with a growing humanitarian
crisis after four hurricanes in four weeks. (AFP/Yuri Cortez)When he finally found
her, she seemed to be peacefully asleep, her body resting on the wet, mud-laden
concrete slab next to 11 other children, ages 1 to 8. The graying man pressed his way
through the crowd of survivors, carrying a pot of water. He knelt beside the lifeless body,
gently washing the mud off his little girl with a sponge. ”I can’t leave her in this
condition,” Samedi said, sobbing. ”I should have died in her place.” Tamasha and
the other children were torn from their families when Ike swept through this poor
oceanside town early Sunday. The tragedy here was but a microscopic glimpse of
widespread devastation across the country.

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OK-read this through to the end…it starts out sounding REALLY
sketchy-but don’t be put off until U finish it: the truth of the matter
lies in the last 2 paragraphs.

Duh…the Tribes have always known this. So do the churches, the
militarists, the factory/plantation owners-in short, the pigs….& that’s
why this power gets taken from wimmin in the 1st place.

ASW

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http://www.time.com/time <http://www.time.com/time>

Monday, May. 12, 2008

What Condoms Have to Do with Climate Change
By Bryan Walsh

As the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Gen. Michael Hayden
should have some insight on the biggest threats facing the U.S. But when
Hayden recently described what he saw as the most troublesome trend over
the next several decades, it wasn’t terrorism or climate change. It was
overpopulation in the poorest parts of the world. “By mid-century, the
best estimates point to a world population of more than 9 billion,” Hayden
said in a speech at Kansas State University. “Most of that growth will
occur in countries least able to sustain it.” The sheer increase in
population, Hayden argued, could fuel instability and extremism, not to
mention worsening climate change and making food and fuel all the more
scarce. Population is the essential multiplier for any number of human
ills.

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During the course of the Autumn and Winter of 2007-08, RTNA worked extensively with Native Forest Network-Gulf of Maine (NFN) and other groups in Maine to stop Plum Creek Timber and Real Estate’s proposed massive development of the Moosehead Lake Region in northern Maine’s North Woods. Part of the Great North Woods of eastern North America-this particular region is the largest undeveloped wildland in the U.S. east of the Mississippi River; this region is home to such species such as the Canada lynx, black bear, wolves, moose, loon, and many other native species. This region has also for many generations supported a traditional local economy that included subsistence hunting; fishing, primitive recreation, and eco-tourism. Plum Creek plans to impose luxury vacation resorts, golf courses, gated communities, marinas, and more-along with significant introduction and expansion of roads and other invasive infrastructure.

With all the growing fervor over human-induced global warming-and the attendant discussions of alternative fuels, greenhouse-gas reductions, fuel-efficiency, and “green technology”-there is curiously little discussion regarding one of the most fundamental underpinnings of climate stability: ecosystem health and integrity, and attendant human land-use patterns. When there is such discussion-it usually takes us to far-off (albeit equally critical) bio-regions such as Amazonia or the Siberian taiga. There is virtually no discussion whatsoever regarding land-use policies in the U.S.-despite the rapidly-growing body of scientific evidence (not to mention the centuries’ worth of warnings from the Indigenous Peoples of these and other lands worldwide) that indicates the importance of ecosystem protection, preservation, and restoration in the fight against climate change.

In Deecember, 2008, RTNA representatives testified to Maine’s Land Use Regulatory Commission (LURC), specifically elucidating the critical connections between ecosystem health and integrity on the one hand and climate stability on the other. This was part of a series of public hearings that also included economic as well as other ecological concerns regarding this project-and included many individuals and organizations.

LURC’s recent decision has just come forth as of July, 2008, and-much to the dismay of many (including RTNA)-it is highly favorable toward PC’s egregious, profit-driven development plans for the Moosehead Lake Region.

What follows are detailed comments submitted by both Native Forest Network-Gulf of Maine (NFN) as well as Forest Ecology Network (FEN) and RESTORE: The Maine North Woods (RESTORE)-the two groups RTNA worked with extensively-regarding LURC’s unfortunate decision.

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