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Bush set for climate change U-turn
Gaby Hinsliff, Juliette Jowit and Paul Harris, Observer (UK)
Downing Street says that belated US recognition of global warming could lead to a post-Kyoto agreement on curbing emissions
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George Bush is preparing to make a historic shift in his position on global warming when he makes his State of the Union speech later this month, say senior Downing Street officials.
Tony Blair hopes that the new stance by the United States will lead to a breakthrough in international talks on climate change and that the outlines of a successor treaty to the Kyoto agreement, the deal to curb emissions of greenhouse gases which expires in 2012, could now be thrashed out at the G8 summit in June.
The timetable may explain why Blair is so keen to remain in office until after the summit, with a deal on protecting the planet offering an appealing legacy with which to bow out of Number 10.
Bush and Blair held private talks on climate change before Christmas, and there is a feeling that the US President will now agree a cap on emissions in the US, meaning that, for the first time, American industry and consumers would be expected to start conserving energy and curbing pollution.
(14 Jan 2007)
UPDATE: U.S. denies British rumors on Bush climate change.
Venezuela to nationalize ‘absolutely all’ energy sector
Reuters via CNN Money
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Saturday the country’s entire energy sector had to be nationalized, reinforcing his socialist revolution and possibly giving himself more targets for state take-over.
But he said he would permit foreign firms to hold minority stakes in energy deals.
The anti-U.S. leader, in power since 1999, this week announced he would nationalize power utilities and the country’s biggest telecommunications firm, confirming his status as the catalyst of Latin America’s swing to the left.
“We have decided to nationalize the whole Venezuelan energy and electricity sector, all of it, absolutely all,” Chavez said in his annual state of the nation address to parliament, potentially opening up more projects for state acquisition in the No. 4 crude exporter to the United States.
(13 Jan 2007)
Mexico’s Calderon to fight soaring tortilla prices
Reuters
Mexican President Felipe Calderon vowed on Thursday to tackle the soaring price of tortillas, a corn-based foodstuff that is a dietary staple for millions of the country’s poor.
Angry housewives shouted at Calderon at public appearances this week, pleading for him to bring down tortilla prices that have shot up as much as 400 percent in recent months.
…For many poor families, tortillas are the main source of calories. The minimum wage in Mexico is about $4.50 a day.
Tortilla prices have climbed steeply across Mexico in recent weeks, reaching 30 pesos ($2.72) a kilogram (2.2 pounds) in Durango state, according to La Jornada newspaper, up 400 percent from 6 pesos (54 cents) in November.
…Mexico, considered by many archeologists as the birthplace of corn, now imports much of the grain from the United States, where prices rocketed 80 percent to their highest levels in a decade last year because of demand for corn-based ethanol fuel.
(11 Jan 2007)
Contributor Rick Lakin writes: Direct fallout from the increasing pressure on corn prices due to ethanol production. I believe that in the intermediate term, the stability of the Mexican government is in question because of energy issues and now, food.
Scientists Prepare to Move Doomsday Clock Forward
Reuters via Common Dreams
The keepers of the “Doomsday Clock” plan to move its hands forward next Wednesday to reflect what they call worsening nuclear and climate threats to the world.
The symbolic clock, maintained by the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, currently is set at seven minutes to midnight, with midnight marking global catastrophe.
The group did not say in which direction the hands would move. But in a news release previewing an event next Wednesday, they said the change was based on “worsening nuclear, climate threats” to the world.
(13 Jan 2007)
