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UN-REDD Programme

US plans to give high-speed broadband to every American

Saving the Forest from your Bathroom

National Hispanic Coalition Launches STEM Initiative

Fake NY Post Tells Real Story on Climate Change

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UN-REDD Programme

(un-redd.org) - Deforestation and forest degradation, through agricultural expansion, conversion to pastureland, infrastructure development, destructive logging, fires etc., account for nearly 20% of global greenhouse gas emissions, more than the entire global transportation sector and second only to the energy sector. It is now clear that in order to constrain the impacts of climate change within limits that society will reasonably be able to tolerate, the global average temperatures must be stabilized within two degrees Celsius. This will be practically impossible to achieve without reducing emissions from the forest sector, in addition to other mitigation actions.

REDD - Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries - is an effort to create a financial value for the carbon stored in forests, offering incentives for developing countries to reduce emissions from forested lands and invest in low-carbon paths to sustainable development.

It is predicted that financial flows for greenhouse gas emission reductions from REDD could reach up to US$30 billion a year. This significant North-South flow of funds could reward a meaningful reduction of carbon emissions and could also support new, pro-poor development, help conserve biodiversity and secure vital ecosystem services.

Further, maintaining forest ecosystems can contribute to increased resilience to climate change. To achieve these multiple benefits, REDD will require the full engagement and respect for the rights of Indigenous Peoples and other forest-dependent communities.

To “seal the deal” on climate change, REDD activities in developing countries must complement, not be a substitute for, deep cuts in developed countries’ emissions. The decision to include REDD in a post-Kyoto regime must not jeopardize the commitment of Annex I countries to reduce their own emissions. Both will be critical to successfully address climate change.

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Source: www.un-redd.org

US plans to give high-speed broadband to every American

(BBCnews) US regulators have unveiled the nation’s first plan to give every American super-fast broadband by 2020.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which will now submit the plan to Congress, said broadband was the “greatest infrastructure challenge”. It estimates that one-third of Americans, about 100 million people, are without broadband at home.

The FCC’s goal is to provide speeds of 100 megabits per second (Mbps), compared to an average 4Mbps now. “Broadband for every American is not too ambitious a plan and it is absolutely necessary,” former FCC chairman Reed Hundt told BBC News. “The consequences of not succeeding are heartbreaking. Every nation needs a common medium to gather around and to have the internet as a common medium where a third are left out is unacceptable.”

 WHAT GOVERNMENT WILL DO

• Connect 100 million homes to super-fast broadband with speeds up to 100 megabits per second.
• Allocate spectrum to allow network updates for wireless broadband
• Increase adoption rates to 90% and make sure every child is digitally literate before they leave school
• Encourage greater competition among providers to make prices cheaper and deals easier to understand
• Use digital switch-over fund to bring cheap broadband to rural areas
• Provide one gigabit broadband to schools, hospitals and military installations

The executive summary revealed that access to high-speed internet services had grown dramatically from eight million Americans 20 years ago to nearly 200 million today. Estimates to implement the plan have been put at $350bn (£233bn). How that bill will be split between private investment and tax dollars is not known.

For years the technology industry has pushed for the US government to create a national broadband plan. Ahead of today’s meeting with Congress, a number of hi-tech companies wrote to Mr Genachowski to praise the plan. “Broadband is critical to America’s long-term economic and social well-being. As society increasingly moves online, the costs of digital exclusion grow as well,” said the signatories of the letter, which included Cisco, Sony, Salesforce, Microsoft, Facebook and Intel.

One possible battleground is expected to be over the sale of spectrum that is mostly in the hands of television broadcasters. Mobile carriers like AT&T and Verizon have said they will need more spectrum in future to provide superfast reliable internet connections to every customer.

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Source: www.bbc.com

Author: Maggie Shiels

Saving the Forest from your Bathroom

Did you know? Americans could save more than 400,000 trees if each family bought a roll of recycled toilet paper- just once.

Click here to download the tissue guide to your iPhone or to get a paper version.  The Guide makes it quick and easy to find out which brands of facial tissues, toilet paper, paper towels, and napkins are truly green and which should be avoided.

Greenpeace and countless activists have asked Kimberly-Clark (K-C) to help save the Boreal forest since 2004, when the Kleercut campaign was launched. In a tremendous victory for ancient forests, including the Boreal, the company that makes popular brands like Kleenex, Scott, and Cottonelle has announced a new policy that places it among the industry leaders in sustainability, bringing the Kleercut campaign to a successful completion.

Kimberly-Clark has set a goal of obtaining 100 percent of the wood fiber used in its products – including the flagship brand Kleenex – from environmentally responsible sources. By 2011, Kimberly-Clark will ensure that 40 percent of its North American fiber is either recycled or certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) – a 71 percent increase from 2007 levels, representing over 600,000 tonnes of fiber. Also by 2011, Kimberly-Clark will eliminate any fiber from the North American Boreal Forest that is not FSC-certified.

“The revised standards are proof that when responsible companies and environmental advocates come together, the results can be good for business and good for the planet,” said Scott Paul, Greenpeace USA Forest Campaign Director. “Kimberly-Clark’s efforts are a challenge to its competitors. I hope they pay close attention.”

K-C’s sustainability policy: Not just about protecting the Boreal

The Canadian Boreal Forest is North America’s largest ancient forest, providing habitat for threatened wildlife such as woodland caribou and over 1 billion migratory birds.

But clearcutting doesn’t just wipe out the biodiversity of a forest – it wipes out an essential carbon storehouse. Canada’s Boreal Forest stores an estimate 186 billion tones of carbon, 27 times the world’s annual fossil fuel emissions — meaning that a victory for the Boreal is also a victory for the climate.
While protecting the North American Boreal Forest has been a focus of the Kleercut campaign, K-C’s policy is about protecting Endangered Forests the world over. Greenpeace would not have agreed to anything less.

Because of K-C’s place in the paper products market, the company’s new policy will send a strong signal to its competitors, Procter & Gamble and Georgia Pacific, that creating a policy that protects ancient forests is a key element of sustainable business.

National Hispanic Coalition Launches STEM Initiative

WASHINGTON, D.C: On September 14th, 2009, the National Association for Hispanic Education (NAHE) hosted an inaugural launch event for its new Hispanic STEM Initiative. There, NAHE formally presented the Hispanic STEM Initiative’s Advisory Committee to leading Hispanic organizations in the nation’s capital. The event will be held at the offices of the Self Reliance Foundation, one of the founding members of the Hispanic STEM Initiative’s Advisory Committee.

The purpose of the Hispanic STEM Initiative is to form strategic collaborations between stakeholder groups and organizations in order to maximize education outcomes for Hispanic students in the STEM fields, such as Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics.

“There has long-existed a wealth of assets in the form of human ingenuity, talent, expertise, and experience among Hispanic groups and organizations,” stated Adam Chavarria, President of NAHE.

“The Hispanic STEM Initiative Advisory Committee will draw on these assets to increase and expand positive educational outcomes for Hispanic students in STEM disciplines,” said Mr. Chavarria.

“At the meeting, the Advisory Committee reviewed the Initiative’s five-year action plan and also expand upon the recommendations it recently submitted to the White House Office of Science and Technology in regards to increasing Hispanic participation in STEM fields,” added Maite Arce, Advisory Committee Member and Sr. Programs and Policy Director for the Self Reliance Foundation.

Mike Acosta, Advisory Committee Member and MAES National President, considers this convening to be “…of urgent importance, given that less than 2% of the scientific stem workforce is Hispanic and almost twenty percent of the country’s youth population is Hispanic.”

“We hope that the Hispanic STEM Initiative will advance efforts to restore America’s economic competitiveness by fulfilling the nation’s need for diverse talent in the STEM fields,” he continued.

The Hispanic STEM Initiative Advisory Committee emerged from a working group of stakeholders that convened at a conference held in April 2007 on the subject of the American Competitiveness Initiative at the University of Texas at El Paso.

The primary role of the Advisory Committee is to provide advice, counsel, and support to the Hispanic STEM Initiative in the course of implementing a five-year action plan that results in positive outcomes for Latino STEM students. The Committee will guide the Hispanic STEM Initiative’s work in its seven focus areas, which include: Families & Children; PreK-20 Partnerships; Professionals in the Classroom; STEM Development; STEM Education & Research; Teacher Education/Preparation; Career and Workforce Development.

Led by the National Association for Hispanic Education, members of the NAHE’s Hispanic STEM Initiative Advisory Committee include: the Self Reliance Foundation, the Society of Mexican American Engineers and Scientists (MAES), the Inter-American Development Bank, the California State University System, El Valor, HENAAC, TODOS: Mathematics for All, the Parent Institute for Quality Education, AHETEMS, and Loyola Marymount University.

Fake NY Post Tells Real Story on Climate Change

Amidst the usual daily bustle of hurried pedestrians and newspaper vendors at Brooklyn’s Atlantic Avenue subway station this morning, it was easy to spot the Yes Men’s latest prank.

At first blush, the newspaper, which was distributed by volunteers across NYC today, did look a lot like the New York Post. Yet any closer examination revealed that it was clearly not your run-of-the-mill Rupert Murdoch-owned tabloid.

With a giant headline proclaiming “We’re Screwed” alongside an image of lighting striking Manhattan’s skyscrapers featured on the cover, the 32-page tabloid was devoted entirely to environmental issues. Check it out online here.

Even the sports section had an environmental bent, with an entire story devoted to enumerating carbon emission cutting opportunities in pro sports (such as NOGASCAR — a hybrid car version of NASCAR).

While a full-page color ad featuring a couple making out on a beach (the kind of image one frequently sees in ads for vacation packages) advertising “sex” reminded readers that that this activity has “no emissions (of the carbon variety)” (The faux travel ad’s slogan: “Why Travel? — You Just Wanted to Get Laid, Right?”)

Outside the Hoyt-Schermerhorn subway stop in downtown Brooklyn, Erica (she declined to give her last name), a young woman who’d picked up a copy of the paper with a friend earlier that morning at Union Square, stopped to talk to my friend and I about her response.

“First of all we were really scared,” she told us. She had been particularly struck by an image of a large tornado featured in the paper.

She said she soon realized “it was fake.” But she added, “It’s very possible … We need to be more environmentally conscious.”

Indeed, as Rory O’Connor points out, the fake paper’s coverage of a city report predicting “massive climate catastrophes” will hit New York City as a result of global warming is all true.

It just takes a fake NY Post to get the real story about climate change out to the city’s tabloid readers.

Source: Alternet.org