[Surge?!]: West Point grads vote with their feet: 46% leave after commitment ... up from 10-30% in past 30 years

West Point grads exit service at high rate | War's redeployments thought a major factor | By Bryan Bender, Globe Staff | April 11, 2007

WASHINGTON -- Recent graduates of the US Military Academy at West Point are choosing to leave active duty at the highest rate in more than three decades, a sign to many military specialists that repeated tours in Iraq are prematurely driving out some of the Army's top young officers.

According to statistics compiled by West Point, of the 903 Army officers commissioned upon graduation in 2001, nearly 46 percent left the service last year -- 35 percent at the conclusion of their five years of required service, and another 11 percent over the next six months. And more than 54 percent of the 935 graduates in the class of 2000 had left active duty by this January, the statistics show.

The figures mark the lowest retention rate of graduates after the completion of their mandatory duty since at least 1977, with the exception of members of three classes in the late 1980s who were encouraged to leave as the military downsized following the end of the Cold War.

In most years during the last three decades, the period for which West Point released statistics, the numbers of graduates opting out at the five-year mark were between 10 percent and 30 percent, according to the data. ...

global warming is likely to cause "catastophes" in Asia.

11/04/2007, 11:29:12 |

The chairman of the United Nations intergovernmental panel on climate change, Rajendra Pachauri, has warned that global warming is likely to cause "catastophes" in Asia.

Mr Pachauri says there will be food shortages, water scarcity, heatwaves, floods and migration of millions of people.

He made the comments following the publication of the panel's latest report on the impact of global warming.

The report says Asia will receive less rain, which will impact on crop yields resulting in less food to feed the region's rising population.

At the same time, rising sea levels caused by melting polar ice could submerge low-lying areas of Asia around the coasts of Vietnam, Bangladesh, India and China. ...

Before Kerry got a word in, Gingrich conceded that global warming is real, that humans have contributed and that "we should address it very actively

Kerry and Gingrich Hugging Trees -- and (Almost) Each Other | By Dana Milbank | Wednesday, April 11, 2007; Page A02

Yesterday's global-warming debate between John Kerry and Newt Gingrich was, as the moderator put it, "advertised as a smack-down and a prizefight." But those labels were too modest for Kerry.

"Welcome to our environmental version of the Lincoln-Douglas debates," the former Democratic presidential nominee told the crowd in the Russell Caucus Room. "We flipped a coin, and I picked Lincoln."

But something funny happened on the way to 1858. Gingrich, a former Republican House speaker, refused to play Douglas to Kerry's Lincoln, instead positioning himself as a tree-hugging green.

Before Kerry got a word in, Gingrich conceded that global warming is real, that humans have contributed to it and that "we should address it very actively." Gingrich held up Kerry's new book, "This Moment on Earth," and called it "a very interesting read." He then added a personal note about saving vulnerable species from climate change. "My name, Newt, actually comes from the Danish Knut, and there's been a major crisis in Germany over a polar bear named Knut," he confided. ...

two-pronged approach is needed to minimise the crippling effects of global warming on human society.

Climate change is here now, says major report | 12:58 06 April 2007 | NewScientist.com news service | * Catherine Brahic, Brussels

Climate change is not a future problem but a present one that must be tackled now, concludes the latest chapter of a major climate report.

The report details how different amounts of global warming, ranging from 0°C to 5°C will impact on human society. It also underlines that those who will be most affected are the poor people who are least responsible for increasing levels of greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere. Read the summary for policy makers (PDF).

The summary of the latest publication from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was released in Brussels, Belgium, on Friday. It says a two-pronged approach is needed to minimise the crippling effects of global warming on human society.

Firstly, governments need to put in place measures to adapt human settlements to the immediate and unavoidable impacts of climate change, which are already being witnessed around the world. These impacts include diminished agricultural productivity in some areas, stronger storms, a higher likelihood of drought and heat waves, and the long-term dwindling of water supplies as mountain glaciers melt.

Adaptive measures would include building dikes to protect coastal developments from sea-level rises and sowing genetically modified crops that can grow with less water. But even these measures will be overwhelmed in future if governments do not agree now to minimise human greenhouse gas emissions, warn the report's authors. ...

Earth faces a grim future if global warming isn't slowed, U.N. report says | By Alan Zarembo and Thomas H. Maugh II, Times Staff Writers | 10:56 AM PDT, April 6, 2007

A new global warming report issued today by the United Nations paints a near-apocalyptic vision of the Earth's future if temperatures continue to rise unabated: more than a billion people in desperate need of water, extreme food shortages in Africa and elsewhere, a blighted landscape ravaged by fires and floods, and millions of species sentenced to extinction.

The devastating effects will strike all regions of the world and all levels of society, but it will be those without the resources to adapt to the coming changes who will suffer the greatest impact, the report said.

"It's the poorest of the poor in the world, and this includes poor people even in prosperous societies, who are going to be the worst hit," said Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which issued the report today in Brussels.

The report is the second issued this year by the group. The first, released in January, characterized global warming as a runaway train that is irreversible but that can be moderated by societal changes.

That report said, with more than 90% confidence, that the warming is caused by humans, and its conclusions were widely accepted because of the years of accumulated scientific data supporting it. ...

ountries that face the least harm — and that are best equipped to deal with the harm they do face — tend to be the richest

The Climate Divide | Reports From Four Fronts in the War on Warming

Over the last few decades, as scientists have intensified their study of the human effects on climate and of the effects of climate change on humans, a common theme has emerged: in both respects, the world is a very unequal place.

In almost every instance, the people most at risk from climate change live in countries that have contributed the least to the atmospheric buildup of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases linked to the recent warming of the planet.

Those most vulnerable countries also tend to be the poorest. And the countries that face the least harm — and that are best equipped to deal with the harm they do face — tend to be the richest. ...
...
Disparities like these have prompted a growing array of officials in developing countries and experts on climate, environmental law and diplomacy to insist that the first world owes the third world a climate debt.

The obligation of the established greenhouse-gas emitters to help those most imperiled by warming derives from the longstanding legal concept that “the polluter pays,” many experts say.

“We have an obligation to help countries prepare for the climate changes that we are largely responsible for,” said Peter H. Gleick, the founder of the Pacific Institute for Studies in Development, Environment and Security in Berkeley, Calif. His institute has been tracking trends like the burst of new desalination plants in wealthy places running short of water.

“If you drive your car into your neighbor’s living room, don’t you owe your neighbor something?” Dr. Gleick said. “On this planet, we’re driving the climate car into our neighbors’ living room, and they don’t have insurance and we do.”
...

Dimas urged the United States to end its "negative attitude" toward negotiations on a new international agreement to reduce greenhouse gases

EU Official Pushes U.S. on Emissions | By CONSTANT BRAND | Updated: 1 hour, 2 minutes ago

BRUSSELS, BELGIUM - A U.N. conference on climate change opened Monday with the EU's top environment official calling on the United States to join efforts to curb global warming.

Scientists and diplomats are meeting in Brussels this week to issue a report on how rising temperatures will affect the earth and whether people can do anything about them.

A draft of the report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a U.N. network of 2,000 scientists, warns that climate change could threaten the lives of hundreds of millions of people in the decades to come.

In the absence of action to curb emissions of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases, the future looks bleak, according to the draft obtained by The Associated Press.

By 2020, between 400 million and 1.7 billion extra people will not get enough water. By 2050, as many as 2 billion people could be without water and about 20 percent to 30 percent of the world's species near extinction.

EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas urged the United States to end its "negative attitude" toward negotiations on a new international agreement to reduce greenhouse gases. ...

report is damning and should once again force Congress to look at how a crucial government agency is being politicized and to the detriment of nation

March 31, 2007 | Redacting the Science of Climate Change

The Government Accountability Project conducted a long investigation into the Bush administration's muzzle of climate scientists. One of my pieces appears in the report and I am happy to finally see Congressional attention regarding this very serious matter.

In October of 2005, an employee of NOAA contacted me with some concerns about the way scientists were being muzzled regarding the weather. In the post-Katrina world, it seems the Bush administration was more concerned about how open meteorologists had been with reporters. That is to say, in the build up to Katrina and even during Katrina, reporters were being provided with far too much real time information and that reflected badly on the administration. The source leaked emails to me showing how the new policy of communicating with reporters would be handled. After I wrote the article, I provided the documents to GAP for their investigation. Their final report is damning and should once again force Congress to look at how a crucial government agency is being politicized and to the detriment of nation.

You can read the full report HERE. Here are the snips regarding my article:

"It was not until late 2005, in the wake of the Hurricane Katrina disaster and the subsequent media frenzy on hurricanes and global warming, that the official media policy was widely publicized to agency scientists.

An October 4, 2005, email from Dr. Richard Spinrad, assistant administrator of OAR, to senior-level staff, states: “several incidents in the last few days have served as indications that we need to provide our folks with an important reminder regarding our dealings with the press. Please make sure your folks have reviewed the subject policy…. It’s short and it’s clear. A quick review can save lots of problems downstream.” Attached to the email string, and presumably one of the “incidents” referred to by Spinrad, is an earlier email linking to an article that was posted on RawStory.com that day. ...

After Supreme Court rebuttal: Bush gave no indication he would ask the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate emissions of heat-trapping gases

Bush Splits With Congress and States on Emissions | By FELICITY BARRINGER and WILLIAM YARDLEY | Published: April 4, 2007

WASHINGTON, April 3 — A day after the Supreme Court ruled that the federal government had the authority to regulate heat-trapping gases, President Bush said he thought that the measures he had taken so far were sufficient.

But the court’s ruling was being welcomed by Congress and the states, which are already using the decision to speed their own efforts to regulate the gases that contribute to global climate change. As a result, Congress and state legislatures are almost certain to be the arenas for far-reaching and bruising lobbying battles.

Mr. Bush made it clear in remarks on Tuesday that he thought his proposal to increase automobile fuel efficiency was sufficient for the moment; he gave no indication he would ask the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate emissions of heat-trapping gases.

“Whatever we do,” he said, “must be in concert with what happens internationally.” He added, “Unless there is an accord with China, China will produce greenhouse gases that will offset anything we do in a brief period of time.”

But with Congress and the states more determined than ever to act, some of the nation’s largest industries — including automobile manufacturers and the oil companies that make their gasoline, and electric utilities and the coal companies that fire many of their boilers — now face the increasingly certain prospect of expensive controls on emissions of carbon dioxide, the most common heat-trapping gas associated with climate change.

At least 300 bills have been filed in 40 states that address heat-trapping gases and climate change in some form, said Adela Flores-Brennan, a policy analyst with the National Conference of State Legislatures.

In Washington, Congress has already begun a process that would eventually apportion both the responsibility for cuts in emissions that could cost tens of billions of dollars and the benefits and incentives that could mean billions of dollars of new income.

“Obviously, nobody wants to bear a disproportionate share of the burden,” said Representative Edward J. Markey, Democrat of Massachusetts and chairman of the newly created House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming. “It’s now going to be a multidimensional chess game with the planet’s future in the balance.” ...

Bangadesh: facing drought but Its annual carbon emissions only 0.172 tons per capita, compared to 21 tons in the US

Retreating Himalayan icefields threatening drought in Bangladesh | By Justin Huggler, Asia Correspondent | Published: 29 March 2007

Notorious for its annual floods, Bangladesh may seem the last place in the world to worry about a drying up of the rivers that flow from the Himalayas. But the country is as much at risk from drought as it is from flooding. Already farmers who used to grow rice have turned to farming prawns because the water in their fields has turned so salty nothing will grow there.

Bangladesh is the front line of global warming, with rivers drying up, and increasingly common freak weather conditions that include out-of-season tornadoes and tides that have stopped changing. The entire country is one huge delta, formed by the Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna rivers. Flooding may seem to be Bangladesh's greatest enemy, but in fact the rivers are its lifeline. They are the main source of fresh water for a country where agriculture represents 21 per cent of the economy. And environmentalists fear that if the Himalayan glaciers melt, the rivers' flow will reduce drastically. ...
...
Bangladesh has good reason to feel aggrieved at global warming. Its annual carbon emissions only 0.172 tons per capita, compared to 21 tons in the US.

If the rivers dry up, it would leave Bangladesh completely at the mercy of the rains.

Coastal Mega-Cities in for a Bumpy Ride: 10 percent of the world's population

CLIMATE CHANGE: | Coastal Mega-Cities in for a Bumpy Ride | Srabani Roy

NEW YORK, Mar 28 (IPS) - About 643 million people, or one-tenth of the world's population, who live in low lying coastal areas are at great risk of oceans-related impacts of climate change, according to a global research study to be released next month.

The study, by researchers at Columbia University's Centre for International Earth Sciences Information Network and the London-based International Institute for Environment and Development, is the first of its kind. The researchers identified populations, particularly urban populations, at greatest risk from rising sea levels and more intense storms due to climate change.

"Of the more than 180 countries with populations in the low-elevation coastal zone, 130 of them -- about 70 percent -- have their largest urban area extending into that zone," said Bridget Andersen, a research associate at CIESIN, in a statement.

"Furthermore, the world's largest cities -- those with more than five million residents -- have on average one-fifth of their population and one-sixth of their land area within this coastal zone."

The study, which will be published in the peer-reviewed journal Environment and Urbanisation, assesses the risks to populations and urban settlements along coastal areas that are less than 10 metres above sea level, referred to as the low-elevation coastal zone, or LECZ. Although globally this zone accounts for only two percent of the world's land area, it contains 10 percent of the world's population and 13 percent of the world's urban population, the study found.

The 10 countries with the largest number of people living in this vulnerable, low-elevation zone, include in descending order: China, India, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Indonesia, Japan, Egypt, the United States, Thailand and the Philippines. ...

European Union accused the United States and Australia on Monday of hampering international efforts to tackle climate change

EU Slams United States, Australia on Climate Change | BELGIUM: April 3, 2007

BRUSSELS - The European Union accused the United States and Australia on Monday of hampering international efforts to tackle climate change.

"We expect ... the United States to cooperate closer and not to continue having a negative attitude in international negotiations," Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas told delegates at a United Nations-sponsored meeting to review a report on the regional effects of rising global temperatures.

"It is absolutely necessary that they move because otherwise other countries, especially the developing countries, do not have any reason to move," he said.

Efforts to launch negotiations to extend the UN Kyoto Protocol on climate change beyond 2012 have floundered as nations resist committing to targets for cutting greenhouse gases.

The 27-nation EU agreed last month to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by at least 20 percent by 2020 compared to 1990 levels, challenging industrialised and developing countries to go further with a 30 percent cut which the EU would then match.

But so far other nations have not responded to that call, a fact which Dimas blamed largely on US reluctance to cap its own emissions.

President George W. Bush pulled Washington out of Kyoto in 2001, saying it would harm the US economy and unfairly excluded developing nations from emissions targets. ...

[US] once again become a deeply unequal society: Republican response: combination of distraction and disenfranchisement

Sunday, April 01, 2007 | PAUL KRUGMAN: Distract and Disenfranchise

I have a theory about the Bush administration abuses of power that are now, finally, coming to light. Ultimately, I believe, they were driven by rising income inequality.

Let me explain.

In 1980, when Ronald Reagan won the White House, conservative ideas appealed to many, even most, Americans. At the time, we were truly a middle-class nation. To white voters, at least, the vast inequalities and social injustices of the past, which were what originally gave liberalism its appeal, seemed like ancient history. It was easy, in that nation, to convince many voters that Big Government was their enemy, that they were being taxed to provide social programs for other people.

Since then, however, we have once again become a deeply unequal society. Median income has risen only 17 percent since 1980, while the income of the richest 0.1 percent of the population has quadrupled. The gap between the rich and the middle class is as wide now as it was in the 1920s, when the political coalition that would eventually become the New Deal was taking shape.

And voters realize that society has changed. ...
...
The Republican Party’s adherence to an outdated ideology leaves it with big problems. It can’t offer domestic policies that respond to the public’s real needs. So how can it win elections?

The answer, for a while, was a combination of distraction and disenfranchisement.
...
But distraction can only go so far. So the other tool was disenfranchisement: finding ways to keep poor people, who tend to vote for the party that might actually do something about inequality, out of the voting booth.

Remember that disenfranchisement in the form of the 2000 Florida “felon purge,” which struck many legitimate voters from the rolls, put Mr. Bush in the White House in the first place. And disenfranchisement seems to be what much of the politicization of the Justice Department was about.

Several of the fired U.S. attorneys were under pressure to pursue allegations of voter fraud — a phrase that has become almost synonymous with “voting while black.” Former staff members of the Justice Department’s civil rights division say that they were repeatedly overruled when they objected to Republican actions, ranging from Georgia’s voter ID law to Tom DeLay’s Texas redistricting, that they believed would effectively disenfranchise African-American voters. ...

It allows Americans to enjoy ever-rising living standards over their lives and helps them pay some big expenses, like their children’s college tuition

One Safety Net Is Disappearing. What Will Follow? | By DAVID LEONHARDT | Published: April 4, 2007

Over the years, American companies have built a pretty extensive social safety net for their workers. The clearest examples of it are pensions and health insurance, which became popular during the wage freeze of World War II, when employers were looking for creative ways to give raises. Today, the United States is the only major country in the world where the private sector plays such a big role in caring for the old and the sick.

But the corporate version of the welfare state is not just about retirement and health care. Another, much less obvious, piece of it is the steadily increasing pay that most workers receive over the course of their careers. All else equal, a typical worker in his early 60s makes about 50 percent more than a worker in his early 30s.

This arrangement produces some enormous benefits for society. It allows Americans to enjoy ever-rising living standards over their lives and helps them pay some big expenses, like their children’s college tuition and their parents’ elder care, that start to hit in middle age.

In strictly economic terms, however, paying people based on their age is a bit skewed. Sixty-year-olds are indeed more productive than 30-year-olds, studies have shown, but not 50 percent more productive. Experience isn’t quite as valuable as we might like to believe. In effect, most companies are underpaying their younger workers and overpaying their older ones. ...

fight against AIDS is being undermined by the requirement that most US funding to address sexual transmission of the HIV virus go to abstinence ...

New Legislation Answers Institute Of Medicine's Concerns About President Bush's HIV Prevention Strategy | Main Category: HIV / AIDS News | Article Date: 01 Apr 2007 - 0:00 PDT

A new report released today by the Institute of Medicine (IOM), shows that the fight against AIDS is being undermined by the requirement that most US funding to address sexual transmission of the HIV virus go to abstinence-until-marriage programs. The report states that the requirement greatly limits the ability of countries to respond to local needs.

To fix this dangerous flaw in the US approach to global AIDS, a bill was introduced this week in Congress that would lift the funding restriction. The PATHWAY Act, introduced by Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) and Rep. Chris Shays (R- CT), would eliminate the abstinence-until-marriage funding requirement, fulfilling a primary recommendation of the IOM report. The bill would also require a comprehensive strategy for responding to the particular vulnerabilities to HIV of women and girls. This vulnerability was also highlighted in the IOM report, which stated that the US global AIDS program must increase its emphasis on interventions that address this population.

"This is a must-pass bill for the new Congress," said Dr. Paul Zeitz, Executive Director of the Global AIDS Alliance. "We have to ensure that US AIDS policy is grounded in scientific evidence, and is doing what we know works. The Institute of Medicine's report showed that this funding requirement is undermining the success of the whole AIDS program. That's why this bill is so critically important."

The HIV virus is primarily spread through sexual activity. The US approach in this area is thus crucial to success in the fight against the pandemic. While most US funding to address AIDS is financing treatment, a significant portion is going towards sexual prevention programs. The funding requirement results in two-thirds of the budget for sexual prevention going towards abstinence-until-marriage programs, even though these programs have not been shown to be effective.

In addition, the funding requirement does not reflect the reality that women and girls are increasingly infected with HIV, and yet frequently do not have full control of their sexual choices. The IOM report demonstrates that, if the US government is to meet its HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment targets, women and girls must be given more support in AIDS programs and countries must have greater flexibility in designing programs to meet their needs. ...

Los Angeles suffers longest dry spell in 130 years ... 2.47 inches of rain vs. 13.94 normal

Los Angeles suffers longest dry spell in 130 years | Sun Apr 1, 6:45 PM ET

LOS ANGELES (AFP) - Los Angeles is going through its longest dry spell in at least 130 years, the National Weather Service said Sunday, fueling fears of rampant wildfires which have plagued the US west coast in recent years.

"The rain season is currently the driest to date in downtown Los Angeles since records began in 1877," the weather service said in a statement.

It said the southern California city had received just 2.47 inches (6.27 centimeters) of rain since July 1, 2006, far from the normal precipitation of 13.94 inches (35.4 centimeters) in the same period.

"If downtown Los Angeles receives less than 1.95 inches of rain from now through June 30th this will become the driest rain season ever," it said.

The record-holder is the 2001-2002 season which saw just 4.42 inches (11.22 centimeters) of rain. ...

Global Warming: Some scientists are calling this degree-by-degree projection a "highway to extinction."

Climate draft charts extinctions | By SETH BORENSTEIN, AP Science Writer Sat Mar 31, 5:59 PM ET

WASHINGTON - A key element of the second major report on climate change being released Friday in Belgium is a chart that maps out the effects of global warming, most of them bad, with every degree of temperature rise.

There's one bright spot: A minimal heat rise means more food production in northern regions of the world.

However, the number of species going extinct rises with the heat, as does the number of people who may starve, or face water shortages, or floods, according to the projections in the draft report obtained by The Associated Press

Some scientists are calling this degree-by-degree projection a "highway to extinction." ...