CounterCurrents: Climate Change Challenges: Support The Environment Or The U.S. Military?, EU: If Nations Are Serious, Climate Pledges Must Be 'Binding' Not Voluntary

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In Solidarity
Binu Mathew
Editor
www.countercurrents.org


Climate Change Challenges: Support The Environment Or The U.S. Military?
By Kathy Kelly

http://www.countercurrents.org/kelly021214.htm

Having lived through the 1991 Desert Storm bombing and the 2003 Shock and Awe bombing in Iraq, I tread carefully when speaking about any danger greater than war that children in our world might face. I won't forget children in Baghdadi hospitals whose bodies I have seen, wounded and maimed, after bombing campaigns ordered by U.S. leaders. I think also of children in Lebanon and Gaza and Afghanistan, children I've sat with in cities under heavy bombardments while their frightened parents tried to distract and calm them. Even so, it seems the greatest danger – the greatest violence – that any of us face is contained in our attacks on our environment. Today's children and generations to follow them face nightmares of scarcity, disease, mass displacement, social chaos, and war, due to our patterns of consumption and pollution. Ironically, one of the institutions in U.S. society which comprehends the disasters that loom is the U.S. military


EU: If Nations Are Serious, Climate Pledges Must Be 'Binding' Not Voluntary
By Jon Queally

http://www.countercurrents.org/queally021214.htm

As climate delegations from around the world leaders continue to meet for UN-sponsored climate talks in Lima, Peru this week, the head of the European Union's negotiating team on Tuesday said that if a final deal is to have the necessary strength to actually compel dramatic reductions in greenhouse gas emissions over the next thirty years, it must have binding targets and enforceable mechanisms


A Countries' Economic Power Does Not Predict Its' Conservation Performance
By Marianne de Nazareth

http://www.countercurrents.org/nazareth021214.htm

For those of us who have been writing about species loss for years, this new study conducted by conservation scientists from the Centre d'Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive (CEFE), the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), and BirdLife International comes as no shocking revelation that a countries economic power does not reflect its conservation of species. However, the study interestingly provides the first assessment of the performance of individual nations and regions in meeting their responsibilities for global biodiversity


“Motivated By Greed With A Complete Disregard For Food Safety And Biodiversity.”
Why Food Sovereignty Should Not Be Handed To GMO Biotech Corporations
By Colin Todhunter

http://www.countercurrents.org/todhunter021214.htm

After a four - year legislative battle, the European parliament has granted member states the ability to decide for themselves whether or not they want to allow crops of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) on their soil. Writing in The Parliament Magazine, Member of the European Parliament Marc Tarabella notes that the wishes of several pro-GMO lobbies, led by several multinationals and Britain, did not prevail. A legal basis was obtained for allowing member states to ban the implementation of GMO crops and an extension of the list of motives for this. The goal to avoid contamination of traditional crops by GMO crops was also strengthened


Ailing Masses, Trailing Health Services And Healing Godmen of India
By Kandathil Sebastian

http://www.countercurrents.org/sebastian021214.htm

There is a wide gap in accessing the health care services between various population groups in India. This is partly due to the failure of the health services system in meeting the expectations of the ailing masses in the backdrop of rapidly rising health care costs with no visible improvement in quality of health care services. This systemic failure has led to a widespread feeling of helplessness particularly among the rural masses of India while they deal with their health problems. They look for solutions from entities which are beyond the conventional providers such as quacks, sorcerers and godmen. This essay examines the roots and nuances of this complex health seeking behavior of the ailing masses, the trailing health Services and the healing Godmen in India


Execution Of Surinder Koli Would Be A Travesty Of Justice
By Concerned Citizens

http://www.countercurrents.org/cc021214.htm

As women who have been engaged in the struggles for women’s rights and justice, we appeal to the President of India to commute Koli's death sentence or at least to stay his execution till the completion of the other cases involving other Nithari victims in which he is an accused


25 Years Ago: The U.S. Invades Panama
By Mickey Z.

http://www.countercurrents.org/mickeyz021214.htm

Estimates range from 500 to 4,000 dead Panamanian civilians killed during the invasion and the fighting afterwards. Bush the Elder was later asked if getting Noriega was worth all those deaths. As if to confirm the unspoken tenet that some lives count more than others, the president replied: “Every human life is precious, and yet I have to answer, yes, it has been worth it.”