GreenWatch

By B. McPherson Around the world, the ordinary people are starting to realize the huge potential for environmental damage that our addiction to fossil fuels has created. A group in Ireland under the banner of Shell to Sea is using peaceful civil disobedience to protest the Royal Dutch Shell natural gas pipeline route. They have three stated aims in this regard: to ensure the safety of the people and environment, to renegotiate the terms of royalties for the offshore gas deposits, and to address what they claim are human rights abuses. The protesters have been interfering in the movement of materials used to build the pipeline. Two of the latest actions involved occupying a quarry that was supplying stone for the project and a woman locked herself to a tree cutting piece of machinery in an attempt to prevent cutting through a local forest. “Protests last Thursday led to a stand-off at a local quarry where the owner ultimately used a high-powered water hose in an ...

By B. McPherson The UN Conference on Climate Change being held in Durban South Africa has only opened but already the prospect of a united front to combat changes that humanity is making in the Earth’s climate look dim. Canada has made it clear that the Kyoto Protocol is dead in the water. That agreement that Canada’s representatives signed, obligated the signatories to reduce greenhouse gases by a little over 5% from their 1990 levels. The Kyoto Protocol left loopholes such as trading emission credits and ignored greenhouse emissions from the shipping and aviation industries. The U.S. did not sign on to the Kyoto agreement at all, stating that it was inherently unfair as no similar obligations would be placed on the rapidly emerging economies of China(PRC) and India.  It now appears that Japan and Russia will not renew their commitment to Kyoto in 2012 either.  Those countries that are feeling the brunt of climate change, whether it is a natural cycle or anthropomorphic,...