Article published in Amauta with permission from the author

(Photo: Whiskeygonebad/ flickr)

by Harvey Wasserman

As Vermont seethes with radioactive contamination and the Democratic Party crumbles, Barack Obama has plunged into the atomic abyss.

In the face of fierce green opposition and withering scorn from both liberal and conservative budget hawks, Obama has done what George W. Bush could not—pledge billions of taxpayer dollars for a relapse of the 20th Century’s most expensive technological failure.

Obama has announced some $8.3 billion in loan guarantees for two new reactors planned for Georgia. Their Westinghouse AP-1000 designs have been rejected by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission as being unable to withstand natural cataclysms like hurricanes, tornadoes and earthquakes. Read the full story

(Foto: Pratap Chatterjee/ CorpWatch)

Fuente: IPS

por Pratap Chatterjee

WASHINGTON, feb (IPS) – Una central de energía a combustible diésel casi finalizada en las afueras de la capital de Afganistán es la prueba de que la Agencia Estadounidense para el Desarrollo Internacional (USAID) y sus contratistas no aprendieron de los errores cometidos en Iraq.

La central, que les costará a los contribuyentes estadounidenses casi el triple que otros proyectos similares, probablemente nunca se use, según conclusiones recabadas de investigaciones independientes sobre la reconstrucción del sector eléctrico de Afganistán y de entrevistas realizadas por IPS a funcionarios de gobierno y contratistas de ese país. Read the full story

Article published in Amauta with permission from the author

by Harvey Wasserman

Amidst utter chaos in the atomic reactor industry, Team Obama is poised to vastly expand a bitterly contested loan guarantee program that may cost far more than expected, both financially and politically.

The long-stalled, much-hyped “Renaissance” in atomic power has failed to find private financing. New construction projects are opposed for financial reasons by fiscal conservatives such as the Heritage Foundation and National Taxpayers Union, and by a national grassroots safe energy campaign that has already beaten such loan guarantees three times. Read the full story

(Illustration: Dominca News Graphic)

Source: TomDispatch

by Michael T. Klare
January 5, 2010

As the second decade of the twenty-first century begins, we find ourselves at one of those relatively rare moments in history when major power shifts become visible to all.  If the first decade of the century witnessed profound changes, the world of 2009 nonetheless looked at least somewhat like the world of 1999 in certain fundamental respects:  the United States remained the world’s paramount military power, the dollar remained the world’s dominant currency, and NATO remained its foremost military alliance, to name just three.

By the end of the second decade of this century, however, our world is likely to have a genuinely different look to it.  Momentous shifts in global power relations and a changing of the imperial guard, just now becoming apparent, will be far more pronounced by 2020 as new actors, new trends, new concerns, and new institutions dominate the global space.  Nonetheless, all of this is the norm of history, no matter how dramatic it may seem to us. Read the full story

(by Jared Rodriguez truthout, adapted from crazzie97 NASA)

Source: The Nation

The following is excerpted from James Hansen’s “Storms of My Grandchildren,” the climate scientist’s new book about what is needed to stop global warming.

by James Hansen
December 30, 2009

We have finally arrived at the main story: what we need to do to solve the climate problem, and how we can save a future for our grandchildren.

People need to make basic changes in the way the live. Countries need to cooperate. Matters as seemingly intractable as population must be addressed. And the required changes must be economically efficient. Such a pathway exists and is achievable. Read the full story

Fuente: IPS

por Mario Osava

RÍO DE JANEIRO, 28 dic (IPS) – La euforia económica despertada por Brasil suena de forma más elocuente en el exterior.

“Brasil despega”, tituló la edición de la revista británica The Economist del 12 de noviembre. Luego, tanto el diario español El País como el francés Le Monde eligieron al presidente Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva como “el personaje del año”.

Además, Río de Janeiro fue la ciudad elegida para organizar los Juegos Olímpicos de 2016, dos años después de que este país sea sede de la Copa Mundial de Fútbol. Read the full story

Fuente: International Action Center
Traducción: Germán Leyens, Rebelión

por Sara Flounders
18 de diciembre, 2009

Al evaluar la conferencia de las Naciones Unidas sobre el cambio climático en Copenhague – con más de 15.000 participantes de 192 países, y más de 100 jefes de Estado, así como 100.000 manifestantes en las calles – es importante preguntar: ¿Cómo es posible que el peor contaminador de dióxido de carbono y otras emisiones tóxicas en el planeta no sea objeto de ninguna discusión en la conferencia o de propuestas de restricciones?

En todo caso, el Pentágono es el mayor utilizador institucional de productos de petróleo y de energía. Y, no obstante, el Pentágono tiene una exención general en todos los acuerdos climáticos internacionales. Read the full story

Indigenous Activists March on US Embassy in Copenhagen Urging Obama to “Stop the US Energy Industry’s War on Native Peoples and Lands”

Source: Democracy Now!

December 10, 2009

Shortly before President Obama received his Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, a coalition of North American indigenous groups marched to the US embassy in Copenhagen calling on Obama to stop what they described as the war on native peoples and lands waged by the US energy industry. Speakers at the protest included Faith Gemmill from Arctic Village, Alaska and Clayton Thomas-Muller of the Canadian-based Indigenous Tar Sands Campaign.

Illustration by Daniel Hertzberg (New York Times)

Source: New York Times

by James Hansen
December 6, 2009

AT the international climate talks in Copenhagen, President Obama is expected to announce that the United States wants to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to about 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020 and 83 percent by 2050. But at the heart of his plan is cap and trade, a market-based approach that has been widely praised but does little to slow global warming or reduce our dependence on fossil fuels. It merely allows polluters and Wall Street traders to fleece the public out of billions of dollars.

Supporters of cap and trade point to the 1990 Clean Air Act amendments that capped sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions from coal-burning power plants — the main pollutants in acid rain — at levels below what they were in 1980. This legislation allowed power plants that reduced emissions to levels below the cap to sell the credit for these excess reductions to other utilities whose emissions were too high, thus giving plant owners a financial incentive to cut back their pollution. Sulfur emissions have been reduced by 43 percent in the two decades since. Great success? Hardly. Read the full story

Fuente: Linksunten Indymedia

por Colectivo “pequeñas hermanas”
6 de octubre, 2009

El pasado 6 de Octubre, dos años después del Fraude que decidió la aprobación del Tratado de Libre Comercio con EEUU, se realizó una Caminata Popular por la Dignidad en la Zona Sur de Costa Rica. Más de 150 activistas marcharon desde la entrada del Territorio de Térraba,  hasta el centro del cantón de Buenos Aires. Paso a paso se fue recorriendo el camino de 13 kilómetros. Distintas comunidades en todo lo ancho, largo y profundo del sur enfrentan luchas contra la expansión piñera, la construcción del  “P.H. Diquís”, la construcción del aeropuerto internacional en el territorio de Finca 9, los planes de construir marinas e implantar granjas industriales de atún en el Golfo Dulce y a favor de la ley de la Autonomia Indígena. Read the full story