The Race to the Poles

This past Thursday, Canada and Russia tried to work out claims over the Arctic as each country looked to its energy riches and new shipping routes made increasingly possible by the melting Polar ice. 
Along with Canada and Russia, Norway, Denmark, and the United States are all at odds over how to divide up the Arctic seabed. Why? According to the US Geological Survey, the Arctic is thought to hold 90 billion barrels of oil and 30 percent of the world's untapped gas resources.
Every winter, the Arctic ice shelf returns less and less making the seabed more accessible.
In an effort to solidify the idea that the North Pole has been claimed since 2007 (Here: Quest for the Poles), Russia will boost its research efforts next month by launching a drifting research station. Russia must have scientific data of such energy sources, prove that the people of Russia need said energy and submit them to the United Nations in 2013 (matching the claim made by Canada expected for that year.)
The two Arctic nations claim the Lomonosov Ridge, a mountain chain running underneath the Arctic, as an extension of their continental shelf. AP

U.N. Should Have Worded It : N.KOREA'S NOT PERMITTED TO FIRE ANYTHING INTO THE SKY

The World is holding its breath this week as global enemy, North Korea plans to send a satellite into orbit.
Under a 1967 UN international space treaty stating that outer space, "..shall be free for exploration and use by all states without discrimination of any kind."
North Korea says it has the right to put a satellite into orbit under this treaty despite the fact that the U.S. and other countries are suspicious that the planned launch is really a test for long range military missiles.
The suspicion does come from somewhere; the Security Council censured North Korea twice in 2006, first for carrying out a ballistic missile test that July and then for conveniently conducting a nuclear test explosion three months later.
Lee Keun-gwan, an expert on international law at Seoul National University, agreed, "I think it is a matter of great concern for the peace and security of the region. International society is justified in urging North Korea to respect the spirit as well as the letter of the relevant U.N. Security Council resolutions."

Very Many Players..

On Monday, Darfur's most powerful rebel group, the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), had a gunman brawl with some members of the Sudanese troops. So on Tuesday the Sudanese armed forces proceeded with artillery attacks and air strikes on the rebels in two main areas of Darfur.
A city called El-Fasher is one of those main areas. And stationed in El-Fasher is the main base of the United Nation. Main Area - Main base.
"Ground and aerial bombings by the government continued this morning approximately nine kilometres (five miles) from El-Fasher in an attempt to clear the area of armed movements who had advanced towards the outskirts of the city yesterday," stated the people of the African Union peacekeeping Mission in Darfur (UNAMID), who are also located in El-Fasher.
Although no one was killed in these attacks, the same cannot be said about the battle that went down just south of El-Fasher near Muhajaria, which the JEM seized last week from forces loyal to the Sudanese Liberation Army (SLA). The fighting in Muhajaria wounded three civilians and resulted "..in approximately 3,000 people gathering around a UNAMID camp seeking shelter and protection," the statement said.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon strongly condemned the renewed fighting.
The united nations says that up to 300,000 people in Darfur have died and more than 2.2 million have been displaced since the uprising against Sudan's Arab-dominated government started in February 2003.
The conflict has deteriorated with the emergence of a multiplying array of rebel groups and breakaway militias.

Commander-Ship Vs. Pirate-Ship Action

"We have to make it unpleasant to be a pirate," Vice Admiral William Gortney, the commander of the US Fifth Fleet based in Bahrain, said to reporters in Somalia. "That's where we capture them, and try them and hold them accountable for their actions if they are found guilty."
That is the basic setting for the waters around Somali; Commanders after Pirates. The US Navy will begin to move more aggressively to 'arrest' and bring to trial the pirates that are preying on the shipping boats off the coast. Although the pirates have lessened their number of advances due to an increase of pressure from the resistance, they are still averaging 12 to 14 abductions a month.
The reason for the continued attacks, even with 14 countries of naval vessels in the Gulf of Aden, is because pirates are bad-ass and are unaware of what its like to be held captive by their enemy. But the issue of jurisdiction for the capturing of rebels in international waters remains an anchored one. With only a weak transitional government in the unstable Somali, the US and other navies have had no where to take captured pirates. The UN Security Council passed a resolution last month that allows authorized countries to take "all necessary means" to overcome the acts of piracy. Gortney states, "We are going to aggressively go after the pirates that are conducting pirate activities. It's going to be a mixture of surveillance and rapid action."

Drink Up.. While You Can

World Water Day is this Saturday, the 22nd, and the United Nations calls out a warning just in time for the big day:
By 2025, fully a third of the planet's growing population could find itself scavenging for safe drinking water.
Oh jeeze. And the people who are effected? The people living in third world countries. In fact there are already a person dying every 20 seconds as a result from unsanitary drinking water. And the result of death does not seem to be the only crisis projected to come from it.
"In the coming decades, water scarcity may be a watchword that prompts action ranging from wholesale population migration to war, unless new ways to supply clean water are found," comment a team of researchers in a review of water purification technology published Thursday in the British journal Nature.
While new projects, technology, governments and heroes of the world try to avert this emergency, a new catastrophe has appeared in the horizon: Global Warming. Rising sea levels are already forcing salt water into aquifers beneath megadeltas that are home to tens of millions, and changing weather patterns are set to intensify droughts in large swathes of Africa, southern Europe and Asia, according to UN's Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC).
Become a hero yourself and give the gift of life this Easter season. Check out Charity: Water where 100% of the donations goes to water and sanitation's projects.

Satellite Images of Earth: In High Definition

Earth’s land cover has been charted from space before, but this map, which will be made available to the public upon its completion in July, has a resolution 10 times sharper than any of its predecessors.
Scientists hope to use the new GlobCover project by ESA, in partnership with the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, to manage ecosystems, model climate change impacts, and monitor land-cover trends.
"The GlobCover system is a great step forward in our capacities to automatically produce new global land cover products with a finer resolution and a more detailed thematic content than ever achieved in the past," Frédéric Achard of the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC) said.
Head over to the ESA Portal site to check it out.

We Agree With Ourselves

The United States is set to hold its own climate change conference despite the fact that the world has already done so. The meetings scheduled for January 30th and, my birthday Wh00t!, January 31st are focusing on figuring out a safe way to use nuclear power and burn coal at the same time trapping the greenhouse gas emissions to prevent them from entering our atmosphere.. as well as a few other issues.
As my president tries to figure out how that could be done, the world criticizes the U.S. for undermining the U.N.
"And that underscores the importance of the Major Economies process, the aim of which is to focus on a few key areas from the Bali road map where the major economies can make a detailed contribution to be brought into the UN negotiations." said Jim Connaughton, chairman of the White House's Council on Environmental Quality.
More on this issue Friday.

What The United States Doesn't Understand

The UN Climate Change Conference concluded last week after a 13th unscheduled day of talks and set the bar for participating countries to cut their greenhouse gas emissions for what is now called 'Kyoto II'. But the United States still remains the only major industrialised nation to reject the Kyoto treaty and will not comply to mention figures as it feels developing countries, like China, needs to make tougher emission commitments.
The senior US negotiator, Paula Dobriansky, said she had heard "many strong statements from many major developing country leaders on a greater role in helping to address urgently this global problem." But "doesn't seem it's going to be reflected in our outcome here in the declaration."
Dobriansky was loudly booed by other negotiators, and a US environmental activist representing New Guinea said to thrilling applauds:
"If you're not willing to lead, please get out of the way."
Fighting climate change will require commitments not only from developing countries but also from larger developed nations.
As a citizen of the United States, I feel that I am not in an agreement with my government over this issue. The United States is taking a back seat to a global initiative to halt a crisis that will eventually affect billions of people, especially those in third world countries all because we fear that China is not setting a high enough goal for itself.. See that's how much America believes in you, World. Aim higher then you believe you can achieve, if not we will not join any of your clubs.

To fully understand the concept of my photo above go to MySpace.com/TheChardonairs and listen to the song Captain America!

UPDATE: It is now being reported that the United States has joined in the global emissions pledge to now take part in the negotiations. The two main debatable questions to be answered are how to reduce gas emissions for developed/developing nations and what sort of commitment poor and emerging economies should take on in the future.
Yesterday, I was very upset with my country (if you couldn't tell with that last bit of sarcasm) and now I am very proud. We decided to quit dragging our feet and step up to join the world in solving our crisis.
Other commitments for change include sending the necessary technology to aid the rising economies to grow, to deal with the severe issue of deforestation (which is responsible for one-fifth of the world's greenhouse gases) and to create a U.N. fund to help poor countries adapt to the effects of climate change, such as droughts and flooding.

Are UN for the Climate Change Conference?

The United Nations is scheduled to hold their annual Climate Change Conference in Bali today. This conference is focusing on devising a plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions after the present Kyoto Protocol objectives expire in 2012.
The two week seminar will also discuss how to help fund poor countries manage with warmer weather since they are the regions that will be mostly effected with climate change.
"..The near-term vulnerabilities are not concentrated in lower Manhattan and London, but in flood-prone areas of Bangladesh and drought-prone parts of sub-Saharan Africa," said lead author Kevin Watkins of the UN Development Programme's annual Human Development Report.
However, there lies one difficulty that may set the conference back from developing a Kyoto II plan.
US President George Bush favors voluntary rather than mandatory emission goals. While the European Union is for the latter stating that the 27-nation bloc has already committed itself to cut emissions 20% by 2020. The disagreement between the economically-dominating countries is said to keep the conference from focusing on its main objectives.
Rachmat Witoelar, the Indonesian environment minister was named president of the conference, states, "Climate protection must form an integral part of sustainable economic development, and it is critical that we act and we act now."
I am hoping that the conflict surrounding this issue about whether or not there should be a fixed global emissions standard, (that I am all for), does not prevent this conference from coming up with a basic plan to aid the countries most affected by climate change.
I guess we'll all know by the end of the week. Source.

Today Everyone Has AIDS

Today, December 1st., is World AIDS Day. A day that should be spent recognizing the epidemic that AIDS is all around this world and how much more funding is needed to combat it.
"We have made tangible and remarkable progress on all these fronts. But we must do more," United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said in a message for World AIDS Day.
Check out how AIDS awareness is supported in our backyards:

In Albania, candles were lit in the shape of the AIDS ribbon after an AIDS awareness march:

According to the UN, there is currently an eight-billion-dollar shortfall in resources to fight AIDS.

Cuban physicians give out free medical advice on how to avoid transmitting AIDS:

US President George W. Bush marked the day by repeating his call on US lawmakers to double support for anti-AIDS programs to 30 billion dollars over five years.

A Bosnian activist paints a billboard promoting AIDS awareness in Sarajevo:

In Australia, campaigners warned that smugness after earlier success in fighting AIDS, risked giving rise to a new wave of infections.

Indian nursing students hold a candle to mark World AIDS Day in Amritsar:

Indonesia, which the UN says has Asia's fastest growing HIV epidemic, marked the day with the launch of its first national campaign to promote the use of condoms.
Rome was also handing out condoms.
And in Stockholm, bishops of the Protestant Church of Sweden called on religious leaders around the world to promote the use of them.

Chinese President Hu Jintao shakes hands with a female HIV carrier when visiting a local center for disease control and prevention in Chaoyang District in Beijing:

Elsewhere in China, UNAIDS and the China Red Cross Foundation have organised a "Great AIDS Walk" on the Great Wall for Sunday to raise awareness.

AIDS campaigners march in Abidjan:
There are now 33.2 million people living with HIV worldwide while one in three people with HIV are undiagnosed. Today not only demonstrated that everyone is well aware of the global crisis of AIDS but that we are all ready and willing to work together to overcome it. To read more about World AIDS Day and to see what you can do help fight AIDS any day of the year visit WorldAIDSDay.org. Source.

Indonesia Realizes Its in Need of Some Regulations

With a deforestation rate of nearly 1.5 million acres of primary forests a year (Source), Indonesia holds a serious threat to our worlds ever growing issue with climate change.
But Indonesia is now suffering the consequences of their destruction. Hasty deforestation of their forests, that include swamps, have made the country one of the worst emitters of greenhouse gases in the world. Deforestation has also been blamed for the series of floods and sudden landslides that have struck the nation in recent years.
And Indonesia is ready to do something about it.

Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has ordered the leaders of provinces and districts to be more judicious in issuing forestry concessions.
Media Indonesia quoted Yudhoyono: "The heads of provinces, districts and mayors should no longer irresponsibly issue permits." Yudhoyono has also ordered the province leaders to tighten monitoring and supervision of existing concessions and take action against violators.
All of this action comes as Indonesia prepares to host a UN climate change conference where countires will work for an agreement of the Kyoto Protocol in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Source.

The Force Is Weak Without A Millennium Falcon

Without the aid of more helicopters, the UN-African Union peacekeeping mission to Darfur may fail, a top U.N. official has said. The 26,000 members of security, named The Force, are setting to bring stability to the region after over 4 years of continuous conflict. The Force though remains flightless as the deployment date draws near.
Jean-Marie Guehenno, head of the UN peacekeeping department, told reporters The Force needed six attack helicopters and 18 transport helicopters in order to make the mission a success.
That, unfortunately, is not the only commitment problem the peacekeeping mission has. The Sudanese government has yet to authorise the actual make-up of The Force members.
They want The Force to consist mainly of African troops and continues to be upset that peacekeepers from Thailand, Nepal and Norway have been added to The Force.
BBC Africa editor David Bamford says, "..it seems Western countries have been slow in providing the equipment because they lack confidence in the control structure of the joint force.." Source.

Minus 10 Points For Turning It In Late

After 2 years of nagging demands, the U.N. Nuclear Agency finally got their hands on Iran's blueprints today. These prints contained information on how to mold uranium metal into the shape of warheads. Iran continues to state that it was given the papers, without asking for them, during its black market purchases of nuclear equipment decades ago.. Yeah OK.. Iran's decision to hand over the documents was seen as a compromise to head off any new U.N. sanctions. So I'll be posting more promising Iranian news in about 2 years. Source.

A Global Warning

UN chief Ban Ki-moon flew to Antarctica on Friday on a fact-finding mission for climate change, becoming the first UN leader to make an official visit to the frozen continent. Ki-moon was taken to Antarctica to get a first-hand look on how global warming is affecting its glaciers.
"This trip, you may call it an Eco-trip, but I'm not here as a choice," he told reporters. "I'm here as a messenger of all the warnings on climate change. I'm here to observe the impact of the global warming phenomena, to see for myself and to learn all I can about what's happening in Antarctica and actually around the world."
Ban Ki-moon also hopes that his tour of the continent will draw politicians to notice the melting glacier dilemma and in turn motivate them to take action. Source.

The Quest for The Poles

The North Pole is dealing with more conflict and drama then the Spederline custody battle.

.First and last time time I will drop that name, promise.

It seems that the World is beginning a race to stake claims at the North Pole's natural resources since the United States' maritime strategy, A Cooperative Strategy for 21st Century Seapower, was proposed on October 17th.
So far Canada is planning on constructing a deep-water seaport and a military training center. Along with, the mapping of the seabed, patrolling the high latitudes by warplanes and combat aircraft and increasing the number of rangers at their northern bases. Denmark and Sweden joined hands to send the Swedish Arctic-class icebreaker, Oden, to the area north of Greenland on an expedition named LOMROG (Lomonosov Ridge off Greenland), the ridge over which the Arctic countries are fighting. And the U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker, Healy, led Germany's Polarstern and French Tara Schooner to the northern latitudes.

Looks like WW3 will be held in the frigid north and the United Kingdom won't be involved.
As mostly everyone else looks north, the British look to the south to the world's least explored continent, Antarctica. They are planning on claiming 386,000 sq miles of seabed where vast oil, gas and other mineral resources lay out of technical reach.
But what drove these countries to abruptly begin the quest for the poles? For that answer we look to Russia. Russia's expedition, in August, to plant a flag under the North Pole brought a new importance to the debate over the The 1959 Antarctic treaty. A treaty that up until now froze all territorial claims and the 1991 protocol to it prohibited the production of mineral resources in the Antarctic.

So far, every country has been acting within the guidelines of international law. But some of them now seem ready to rewrite it. Source.