Pugh ‘to kayak to North Pole’

British explorer Lewis Pugh has spoken about his aim to paddle a kayak from Norway to the North Pole.

He is attempting the feat as part of his campaign to draw attention to the disappearing ice in the Arctic.

Water everywhere, and not a drop to grow

Limited availability of fresh water is often overlooked as a cause of food scarcity and environmental decline, according to Colin Chartres. Governments should be ramping up efforts to make sure we have enough to grow crops as well as enough to drink, he argues.

Mango seller in Dhaka
Essentially, every calorie of food requires a litre of water to produce it

This year, the world and, in particular, developing countries and the poor have been hit by both food and energy crises.

As a consequence, prices for many staple foods have risen by up to 100%.

When we examine the causes of the food crisis, there are many contributing factors: a growing population, changes in trade patterns, urbanisation, dietary habits, biofuel production, climate change and regional droughts.

Sea-Ice Melt Imperils Walruses, and Economy Based on Them

Hubert Kokuluk squints with his one good eye to examine the tiny polar bear he has just carved from a fragment of walrus tusk. He isn’t happy with the yellowish hue, but good ivory is hard to come by these days, since quickly melting sea ice has made it extremely difficult for his Inupiaq Eskimo community to carry out the traditional annual spring walrus hun

Though walruses are federally protected, Alaska Natives have subsistence rights to hunt them and rely on the meat, skin, intestines and tusks — for food, clothing and boat coverings, and to carve the ivory jewelry and souvenirs that are a signficant source of income.

Over the past few decades, Kokuluk and the other residents of King Island, a steep rocky knoll poking out of the Bering Sea, have left the island for a more hospitable existence in Nome. They return to the waters of King Island each spring to hunt walruses, which are moving north as the sea ice they depend on melts and recedes.

But in the past few years their economic circumstances have worsened. A warming climate melts the sea ice more rapidly, thinning the walrus herds and forcing native hunters to travel greater distances to track their prey.

World Bank helps to destroy indigenous rights in Cambodia

Ethnicity and Local Governance Cambodia (ELGC), a research project that analyzes state-minority relations in Cambodia, has published a report on the World Bank’s involvement and complicity in the destruction of Indigenous Peoples rights in Cambodia.

Titled, “Money Now, Compliance Later: Worldbank-Support to Decentralization in Cambodia and Indigenous Peoples,” the detailed report reveals a series of “blunders” involving the Worldbank-support Rural Investment and Local Governance Project (RILGP) in Cambodia.

One such blunder is the RILGP policy toward the negative impacts of development and the projects that have been requested by indigenous peoples.

“[A] Screening Study in 2002 included an assessment of the types of projects and activities most urgently needed by indigenous peoples,” the ELGC report explains. “42 indigenous discussion groups were asked to list the top 5 indigenous priority needs. Here is the result of the Bank-commissioned assessment (number in brackets indicates number of discussion groups who ranked the particular need among the top 5 priorities):

1. Health related projects (40 out of 42)
2. Education-related projects (30 of 42 groups)
3. Road infrastructure (16 of 42 groups)
4. Wells (’very common request’)
5. Water storage and irrigation (’common request’)
6. Agricultural extension projects (’common’)
7. Livestock projects (’very common’) (Screening Study: pp.136).

US Military Keeping Secrets About Female Soldiers’ ‘Suicides’?

Since I posted on April 28 the article “Is There an Army Cover Up of the Rape and Murder of Women Soldiers,” the deaths of two more U.S. Army women in Iraq and Afghanistan have been listed as suicides-the Sept. 28, 2007, death of 30-year-old Spc. Ciara Durkin and the Feb. 22, 2008, death of 25-year-old Spc. Keisha Morgan. Both “suicides” are disputed by the families of the women.

Since April 2008, five more U.S. military women have died in Iraq-three in noncombat-related incidents. Ninety-nine U.S., six British and one Ukrainian military women and 13 U.S. female civilians have been killed in Iraq, Kuwait and Bahrain, as well as probably hundreds of thousands of Iraqi women and girls. Of the 99 U.S. military women, 64 were in the Army active component, nine in the Army National Guard, seven in the Army Reserve, seven in the Marine Corps, nine in the Navy and three in the Air Force. According to the Department of Defense, 41 of the 99 U.S. military women who have been killed in Iraq died in “noncombat-related incidents.” Of the 99 U.S. military women killed in the Iraq theater, 41 were women of color (21 African-Americans, 16 Latinas, three of Asian-Pacific descent and one Native American-data compiled from the Web site www.nooniefortin.com).

Nuclear power can’t live up to proponents’ hype

While nuclear industry lobbyists and their political backers are pushing for new nuclear power plants, is a nuclear resurgence really upon us? Wall Street and the public remain skeptical due to spiraling costs, the continued lack of a solution to the nuclear waste problem and a spectacular boom in the solar and wind industries.

County’s double-checking feds’ work on Yucca

The Clark County Commission occasionally approves contracts for tens of thousands of dollars to do work relating to Yucca Mountain.

These contracts are for environmental analysts, scientists and lawyers hired to look over the shoulder of the federal government as it plods forward with its plan to turn the mountain 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas into the nation’s nuclear waste dump.

The federal government’s goal is to move about 154 million pounds of highly radioactive spent nuclear fuel rods from 126 sites across the country to Yucca, an effort that has been stalled by lawsuits and Congressional action.

Pelosi slammed in L.A. on failure to impeach Bush*

She was in Los Angeles to discuss her recently published book “Know Your Power: A Message to America’s Daughters.” Instead, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi got slammed by protesters screaming that she has been derelict in her duties for not authorizing impeachment hearings against George W. Bush.

The venue: more than 300 people paid $30 each Monday night at the American Jewish University (formerly known as the University of Judaism). The format: a 75-minute interview by the Rabbi Robert Wexler (not to be confused with the Palm Beach, Fla., congressman of the same name). The questions: tough but respectful. Wexler asked Pelosi about a recent Rasmussen Poll that showed a 9% approval rating for Congress.

Houmas Ordered to Evacuate; Gustav ‘Extremely Dangerous’

Residents of two Louisiana parishes, home to the largest number of Houma Indians in the state, were ordered to evacuate their homes and businesses Saturday as Hurricane Gustav gathered strength in the Gulf of Mexico and became an “extremely dangerous” storm.

Principal Chief Brenda Dardar Robichaux of the United Houma Nation met with LaFourche Parish (county) authorities and said a mandatory evacuation order was issued Friday for local residents amid concern that nearby floodgates could overflow in hurricane-force conditions.

Officials posted an evacuation schedule on the LaFourche Parish Web site on Friday. A mandatory evacuation order in Terrebonne Parish went into effect Saturday afternoon, The Courier newspaper of Houma, La., reported. Most of the 36,000 members of the Houma Nation live in LaFourche and adjacent Terrebonne Parish.

“It’s organized chaos here, and we’re all concerned,” Robichaux said in a telephone interview from LaFourche Parish, where she lives.

Robichaux said many members of the state’s largest tribe are still recovering from the devastation of hurricanes Katrina and Rita three years ago.

Investigators Are Looking at Governor About Firing

n unveiling Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska as Senator John McCain’s running mate, the campaign is portraying her as a champion of ethics reform for taking on members of her own party whom she saw as beholden to special interests.

But just a few weeks ago she became the subject of a state ethics investigation.

This month, a bipartisan panel of state legislators appointed an independent investigator to look into whether Ms. Palin had fired a top law enforcement official in her administration because he had failed to dismiss a state trooper who was involved in a divorce with Ms. Palin’s sister.