Category: News

[JURIST] Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva announced Wednesday that he is prepared to negotiate with protesters once they cease their illegal conduct. Government spokesperson Panitan Wattanyagorn stated that the prime minister is willing to speak with protesters regarding an election and amending the constitution once protesters abide by the law. Anti-government protesters, known as red shirts, have been associated with a series on unlawful acts, including blocking a train carrying military vehicles and fortifying their base area with tire barriers and homemade weapons. Their camp, which occupies Bangkok’s business district, has forced businesses to close and suffer financial losses. Unidentified attackers have also caused fire damage after launching rocket-propelled grenades at a fuel depot near an airport. The red shirts claim that Abhisit came to power illegitimately and that he should resign and call for elections.
The protests are currently in their sixth week and have led to an increasingly hostile political climate in Thailand. On Tuesday, Amnesty International (AI) called for an investigation into the deaths of 25 people during recent anti-government protests. Earlier this month, a Thai court issued arrest warrants for at least 17 high-profile protesters, including top red shirt officials. Abhisit hopes that the arrest warrants will encourage the protesters to disperse. Abhisit was forced to declare a state of emergency earlier this month after a Thai court refused to issue an injunction against the protesters. The protesters are supporters of former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was removed from power during a 2006 military coup. Thaksin was convicted in absentia on corruption charges in October 2008. Despite the conviction, the Cambodian government refused to extradite the ousted prime minister to face a two-year prison sentence.

Later this week, Dante’s Inferno players will be able to download Trials of St. Lucia, a DLC pack that adds a second playable character to the game. Those who want a bit of an edge when the

by Julian Ku

This seems like a bad idea for a number of reasons that are too obvious to go into here.

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — Argentine human rights groups are turning the tables on Spain, hoping to open a judicial probe of murders and disappearances committed during the Spanish Civil War and the early years of Gen. Francisco Franco’s dictatorship.

Lawyers representing Argentine relatives of three Spaniards killed during the 1936-39 war will ask the federal courts here Wednesday to open an investigation, and hope to add many more cases in the months to come.

[JURIST] US President Barack Obama said Wednesday that he will take into account a potential nominee’s position on individual liberty, including women’s rights, when nominating a Supreme Court justice. Speaking at a meeting with Senate leaders, Obama acknowledged that abortion has been “a hugely contentious issue in our country for a very long time” and explained how his approach to choosing a nominee will take reproductive rights into account:
I am somebody who believes that women should have the ability to make often very difficult decisions about their own bodies and issues of reproduction. … I will say that I want somebody who is going to be interpreting our Constitution in a way that takes into account individual rights, and that includes women’s rights. And that’s going to be something that’s very important to me, because I think part of what our core … constitutional values promote is the notion that individuals are protected in their privacy and their bodily integrity, and women are not exempt from that.Obama met with Senate leaders from both parties in an effort to pave the way for a smooth confirmation for his eventual nominee. The meeting on Wednesday included Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT), and ranking committee Republican Jeff Sessions (R-AL). Obama said that he plans to announce his nomination by the end of May, and hopes to replicate last year’s “smooth, civil thoughtful” confirmation of Justice Sonia Sotomayor.Earlier this month, Leahy predicted that President Obama will nominate a replacement for retiring Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens in time for hearings to be concluded over the summer. In a letter to Obama explaining is retirement, Stevens said that “it would be in the best interests of the Court to have my successor appointed and confirmed well in advance of the commencement of the Court’s next Term.” There had been much speculation about Stevens’s possible retirement, and leading candidates for his replacement reportedly include Solicitor General Elena Kagan and federal appellate judges Merrick Garland and Diane Wood. Stevens, 89, was nominated to the Supreme Court by President Gerald Ford and was seated in December 1975. Stevens is the court’s oldest and most senior member and has served as the leader of the court’s liberal bloc. His retirement gives Obama his second opportunity to nominate a Supreme Court justice, following last year’s retirement of Justice David Souter and confirmation of Sotomayor.

Summer is right around the corner once again, and with warmer weather comes higher gas prices. It is already $3 a gallon in many places in the U.S., and our demand for gas has already set a record for the month of March. Still, even at $4 a gallon, America pays less per gallon of gas than many European countries. One need only look at our proper cousins across the pond to see some truly terrifying gas prices.

Prices in the United Kingdom recently topped $7.00 a gallon (about $1.90 per liter), not because of lack of supply or the cost per barrel going up… but because of taxes. And frankly, it seems like drivers in the UK are fed up as they plan to protest and block gas stations across the country.

I respect civil disobedience if it gets the point across. It sounds like UK drivers are trying to do just that by foregoing the purchase of petrol on May 1st to protest new gas taxes signed off by Prime Minister Gordon Brown. These new taxes have made it so the government collects $4.42 on every gallon of gas sold. I know that taxes are an effective way of reducing ones carbon output, and that the most dramatic way to get people to change their habits is to hit them in the wallet. But at a time when the global economy is still recovering, and many people are struggling to find employment, $7 a gallon for gas is… well, it is a lot.

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by Agence France-Presse

BRASILIA—Brazil on Tuesday speedily awarded the tender for a controversial hydroelectric dam projected to be the world’s third-largest, despite fierce opposition from environmentalists.

The government pushed ahead with the bidding process to begin construction of the giant Belo Monte dam after beating back a last-minute suspension order with a rushed appeal.

The tender was awarded to Norte Energia, a consortium led by a subsidiary of the state electricity company Electrobras, after a series of court injunctions that had blocked and unblocked the auction process.

Indigenous groups and environmental activists had earlier staged demonstrations decrying the dam as ecologically irresponsible and a threat to the livelihood of 12,000 families, most of them Brazilian Indians living on the banks of the Xingu River that would feed the facility.

“We, the indigenous, demand justice and respect,” read one placard brandished by protesters in front of the National Electric Energy Agency in Brasilia, where the tender process was held.

Around 500 activists with Greenpeace dumped three tons of manure in front of the building. “There are other possible energy sources, such as wind power, biomass, or solar,” a Greenpeace spokesperson said.

Opponents of the construction said they would not be defeated by the awarding of the tender. “We will not be discouraged, we will continue to demonstrate,” said Renata Pinheiro of the Xingu Vivo movement.

They said they planned to occupy some of the 500 square kilometers (193 square miles) of Amazon rainforest land that Greenpeace estimates would be flooded by the dam. The environmental group has said the construction would also divert some 100 kilometers (62 miles) of the Xingu River in an area that is home to between 20,000 to 30,000 families.

The dam has become spectacularly controversial, with even “Avatar” director James Cameron and star Sigourney Weaver wading in recently to give their backing to opponents and drawing parallels with the natives-versus-exploiters storyline of their blockbuster Hollywood movie.

The regional justice ministry in the state of Para tried to stall tenders for the $10-billion-plus Belo Monte project in a ruling, calling the dam “an affront to environmental laws.” It said too many questions remained over how the massive project would affect flora and fauna in the region, and what would become of the families who would have to be relocated.

The government, though, appears determined to push through with the dam, calling it essential to its plan to boost energy production in Brazil, Latin America’s biggest economy, nearly three-fold over the next two decades.

For construction costs of $11.2 billion, Belo Monte is expected to be able to produce 11,000 megawatts, which could supply 20 million homes with power. The dam would be the third-biggest in the world, after China’s Three Gorges facility and Brazil’s Itaipu dam in the south, and has been defended by some in the local population who hope to benefit from the estimated 18,000 direct jobs and 80,000 indirect jobs that the government says the project will create.

Hydro-electric energy accounts for 73 percent of the energy produced by Brazil.

Related Links:

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Each party has a clean-energy plan in U.K. election

U.S. military shrinking its carbon ‘boot print’

Rarely can I pre-order something.  My impatience when it comes to technology products often leads to endless hours in line on launch day, for the simple fact that I can have it in my hand as soon as the cash register closes.

That being said, a shipping glitch in Verizon’s internal systems have resulted in some DROID Incredible pre-orderers getting their devices early.  Though the glitch has since been plugged, one of the lucky customers took his excitement to YouTube to show off his treasure.  Interestingly enough, the box and the phone’s splash screen are both labeled “HTC Incredible,” and not DROID Incredible.  My guess (as is the common consensus between the tech community) is that the DROID name was added late in the game, and will be coming to the next batch of devices.

If you’re on the fence about purchasing the device, be sure to check out Noah’s unboxing and first impressions.  The countdown to the 29th is on!

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Via Engadget

Filed under: Government/Legal, Plants/Manufacturing, GM, Earnings/Financials, UAW/Unions

This morning, General Motors Chairman and CEO Ed Whitacre confirmed that the company has paid back a total of $5.8 billion in federal loans a full five years ahead of schedule. Whitacre attributed the company’s ability to make the payment, with interest, to its new strategy and the success of new models like the Buick Lacrosse and Chevrolet Malibu.

GM received some $50 billion in loans from both the U.S. and Canadian governments, with the majority of those funds converted into company stock. The remainder totaled over $8 billion owed to the U.S. and Canadian governments, all of which has now been paid back less than a year after GM emerged from bankruptcy. The news was announced at a press conference at the company’s Fairfax, Kansas manufacturing facility, which will soon add production of the hot-selling Chevrolet Malibu, and was attended by Kansas Governor Mark Parkinson and other members of government.

As it is, the federal government still owns 60.8 percent of GM, which means that whenever the company issues its IPO, the tax payers could easily get all of their money back.

[Image: Stan Honda/AFP/Getty]

Continue reading Whitacre: Remaining $5.8B in gov’t loans paid back 5 years ahead of schedule

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From Green Right Now Reports

The University of Pennsylvania was the top individual school in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s 2009-2010 College and University Green Power Challenge. The EPA said that Penn, which has won the event for the last four years, beat 53 other universities by purchasing more than 192 million kilowatt hours of green power, or 46 percent of its power purchases.

The Ivy League finished as the overall college conference champion in the challenge, with an annual green power usage of more than 225 million kWh — the equivalent environmental impact of avoiding the annual carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions of nearly 31,000 vehicles. After the Ivy League, the Big Ten Conference followed by the University Athletic Association are in the No. 2 and No. 3 spots, respectively.

Green power electricity generates less pollution than conventional power and produces no net increase in greenhouse gas emissions. The EPA ranks collegiate athletic conferences by the total amount of green power used by their member schools. To be eligible, each school in the conference has to qualify as an EPA Green Power Partner and each conference has to collectively use at least 10 million kWh of green power.

The EPA said 54 universities from 26 athletic conferences competed in this year’s challenge. The challenge’s total annual green power usage of more than 1 billion kWh has the equivalent environmental impact of avoiding the CO2 emissions of nearly 160,000 vehicles.

EPA’s Green Power Partnership encourages organizations to use green power as a way to reduce the environmental impacts associated with traditional fossil fuel-based electricity use. Green power is generated from renewable resources such as solar, wind, geothermal, biomass, biogas, and low-impact hydropower.

The partnership includes a diverse set of organizations including Fortune 500 companies, small and medium businesses, government institutions, as well as a growing number of colleges and universities.

My father surprised me the other night when he told me how much he loves the Fiat 500. Strange words from the man who has pretty much lived in a pickup truck for the past two decades. He is in good company though, as the Fiat 500 is one of the best selling cars in Europe. And Fiat is betting the car will sell well here in America too.

As part of its strategic alliance with Chrysler, Fiat is going to start building the 500 in Mexico, and selling them in North America. It will be the first Fiat to be sold in America in decades, and it could one day be offered with four doors… just for us!

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Vuelven las entrevistas a Error500 y lo hacen con Javier García, responsable de lanzamientos de Nokia. La empresa finlandesa se encuentra en un cruce de caminos delicado: líder en ventas a nivel mundial, pero retrocediendo en el sector de los smartphones y perdiendo el favor de los usuarios más avanzados. Resulta interesante contrastar las respuestas de Javier García – al que desde aquí agradezco su tiempo – con la visión que transmitía Javier Montalvo de Nokia en 2008. Sin más, ahí van las respuestas de Javier:

Si cogiéramos el sector móvil en general – no sólo terminales – ¿Qué es lo más positivo de la lectura que hace Nokia del mercado?

Lo más positivo, sin duda, es lo que el sector ha evolucionado en tan poco tiempo. Si hoy, en 2010, echamos la vista atrás cinco o diez años, los terminales que comercializábamos no tenían nada que ver con lo que podemos disfrutar ahora. Se ha cumplido algo que veníamos anunciando desde hace mucho en Nokia, la convergencia en el móvil: un dispositivo que lleva todo el mundo en el bolsillo y que permite realizar multitud de tareas para las que antes necesitábamos un montón de aparatos. Eso es lo más positivo del sector, la revolución ocurrida en los últimos cinco años.

Nokia apostó en su día por la convergencia móvil y hoy se ha hecho realidad para la mayoría de los usuarios. Al final, cosas que nos habían criticado en su momento, como integrar un GPS o una cámara en un teléfono móvil, son utilizadas hoy por el consumidor en su día a día, y es muy positivo comprobar que nuestra visión a largo plazo se ha confirmado como acertada

Ciñéndonos a Nokia, de la situación actual ¿qué destacarías como lo más positivo para vosotros?

Pues justo lo que decía ahora mismo: Nokia apostó en su día por la convergencia móvil y hoy se ha hecho realidad para la mayoría de los usuarios. Al final, cosas que nos habían criticado en su momento, como integrar un GPS o una cámara en un teléfono móvil, son utilizadas hoy por el consumidor en su día a día, y es muy positivo comprobar que nuestra visión a largo plazo se ha confirmado como acertada. Y ahora estamos en una nueva fase en la que el consumidor está demandando incluso más, como el caso de la interacción con el móvil a través de pantallas táctiles, o incluso sistemas operativos cada vez más avanzados. Ahí la competencia es feroz y en Nokia tenemos la obligación de demostrar de nuevo porqué somos el número uno, marcando una vez más el futuro camino para esta industria.

Y esto obviamente no es nada fácil. En alguna ocasión incluso nos hemos anticipado demasiado a lo que el consumidor realmente demandaba. En 2004 sacamos el primer terminal con pantalla táctil (el Nokia 7710 con Symbian S90), pero no era el momento, el consumidor no pedía ese tipo de móviles (en aquella época los terminales de moda eran los de “concha”). Incluso hace dos años, existía una seria duda sobre si la pantalla táctil iba a ser una moda pasajera, como justamente ha ocurrido con los móviles “concha” por ejemplo. Sin embargo, el tiempo ha dado la razón a quienes dijimos hace ya casi seis años que los usuarios tarde o temprano demandarían una pantalla grande para disfrutar al máximo de sus imágenes y vídeos, y que simplificase al máximo la interacción con el terminal. Y por eso, con el nuevo Symbian^3, en Nokia queremos actualizar nuestro sistema operativo para hacerlo más fácil y más interactivo, satisfaciendo la demanda actual del usuario que pide aprovechar al máximo todo el potencial del móvil, con todo tipo de aplicaciones y servicios que realmente le sean útiles.

Ante este panorama, Nokia siempre ha apostado y va a seguir apostando por plataformas abiertas. Queremos que los desarrolladores lo tengan lo más sencillo posible a la hora de programar sus aplicaciones y, para eso, es necesario enfocarse en plataformas abiertas

En el tema de las aplicaciones ¿no es una locura tal fragmentación del mercado, que ahora todo el mundo quiera una tienda de aplicaciones? Para las empresas que desarrollan, el panorama se ha vuelto complejo: hacer una aplicación para Apple, Nokia, RIM, Vodafone, Samsung, Android… económicamente es una inversión de muy dudoso retorno. ¿Quién va a quedar? ¿Tiene sentido todo este mundo de aplicaciones teniendo el navegador e internet?

Ante este panorama, Nokia siempre ha apostado y va a seguir apostando por plataformas abiertas. Queremos que los desarrolladores lo tengan lo más sencillo posible a la hora de programar sus aplicaciones y, para eso, es necesario enfocarse en plataformas abiertas. Apostamos en su momento por Symbian porque era el mejor sistema operativo adaptado para los terminales móviles; pero hace un par de años decidimos comprar la totalidad de esa compañía porque veíamos que su evolución no avanzaba tan rápidamente como queríamos. Y luego dimos un paso mucho más importante: tomamos la decisión de liberarlo al 100% para convertirlo en una verdadera plataforma abierta y acelerar así su evolución según las necesidades de los desarrolladores. Y esto no solamente está enfocado a ayudar al máximo la labor de los programadores a la hora de portar sus aplicaciones, sino que además buscamos simplificar la vida al consumidor que ahora tendrá más opciones a la hora de descargarse sus aplicaciones preferidas gracias a la flexibilidad que ofrecen plataformas que son totalmente abiertas.

Dos objeciones: los desarrolladores pueden preferir una plataforma abierta y no tener el riesgo censor como ocurre en la App Store de Apple, pero también van a apostar por aquella con la que van a ganar dinero; además tenemos actores como Adobe que se quieren posicionar con el nuevo java con un runtime es cerrado. Lo abierto puede ser un valor positivo, pero quizás no sea el determinante

Por supuesto, es importante que haya una base de usuarios grande para que el que desarrollador pueda tener un retorno de inversión. Por ejemplo, si un fabricante lanza una plataforma -aunque sea totalmente abierta- pero con muy base instalada de terminales muy baja, es probable que al desarrollador no le compense el coste de portar sus aplicaciones. Pero si apuestas por plataformas en las que la portabilidad de aplicaciones sea sencilla, pero a la vez muy potente y flexible, como por ejemplo Linux Meego o Symbian con Qt, que son las apuestas de Nokia en este sentido, lo que consigues es que tenga más lógica para el programador invertir su tiempo y esfuerzo. Y para las empresas que desarrollan a un nivel más profesional, esto es un factor muy importante puesto que al estar basado en plataformas más generalistas, su abanico de clientes es mayor, y a su vez el consumidor también gana, al tener más oferta.

Y concretando más en nuestro caso, en Nokia apostamos además por la plataforma de desarrollo Qt, que funcionará por igual sobre nuestros dos sistemas operativos abiertos, Meego y Symbian, permitiendo que la creación de aplicaciones sea más rápida y sencilla. Contando además que Qt ofrece una capa independiente del sistema operativo que hay por debajo, permitiendo que la aplicación sea fácilmente portable sobre diferentes tipos de dispositivos. Desarrollando para Qt, el programador no solamente abarcará los móviles Symbian, sino también todos los dispositivos Meego que saldrán en el futuro.

En España, tenemos mucha suerte porque los operadores han cambiado mucho su forma de proceder en los últimos años, orientándose claramente a satisfacer las necesidades móviles de sus clientes. De entrada, están ofreciendo tarifas de datos competitivas que permiten disfrutar de una banda ancha móvil permanente.

Volviendo al tema de las tiendas de aplicaciones. ¿Tiene sentido que un fabricante como Samsung saque su propio sistema y su propia plataforma de aplicaciones? ¿No se puede ser relevante en el sector móvil sin tienda de aplicaciones?

Bueno, Samsung sabrá porqué lo hace. Pero si te parece, podemos extrapolar la pregunta a Nokia: ¿tiene sentido que saquemos Meego en unión con Intel cuando ya teníamos Maemo? ¿Por qué no nos vamos con Androïd? Pues bien, en nuestro caso es muy fácil contestar porque hemos sido siempre muy transparentes en estos temas. Desde el principio de la creación de nuestros móviles, siempre hemos apostado por nuestras propias plataformas abiertas porque no solamente considerábamos que eran las más apropiadas a la tecnología que integrábamos en nuestros terminales, sino que además, cada una (Serie 30, Serie 40, Symbian y Maemo) iba muy enfocada a un cierto tipo de consumidor. Además, en nuestro caso esto tiene más sentido si cabe porque con nuestras propias plataformas tenemos más libertad a la hora de desarrollar los móviles que mejor se adaptan al consumidor. Y te garantizo que para Nokia, líder del mercado, es fundamental que podamos tener esa libertad de satisfacer lo que cualquier consumidor demanda de su dispositivo móvil, y de ahí nuestra apuesta clara por plataformas 100% abiertas que permitan centrarnos también en los servicios y aplicaciones que están siendo demandados por nuestros usuarios.

Pero si te fijas, con nuestra historia y teniendo en cuenta que somos una empresa europea, con mentalidad escandinava muy abierta, Nokia es una compañía Finlandesa, y no es casualidad que Linux haya sido creado también en este país, es difícil que las cosas se hubiesen hecho de otra manera. Pero que otros fabricantes saquen nuevos sistemas operativos y plataformas, ¿tiene sentido? Bueno, al final lo más importante es que el consumidor decidirá. Dentro de unos años, puede haber decidido que la plataforma de “X” es mucho mejor que la de “Y”. Pero al final, el consumidor es quien tiene la respuesta. Pero por nuestro lado, nuestra estrategia siguen siendo clara y consistente: seguir con nuestro Symbian como núcleo central de nuestros terminales inteligentes, apostar por Meego como nueva plataforma para terminales más novedosos, y dejar el sistema operativo Serie 40 para la gama más baja (de hecho, Serie 30 va a ir desapareciendo a lo largo de este año). Y siempre cumpliendo que estas tres plataformas sean completamente abiertas y que se adapten lo mejor posible a lo que nuestros usuarios demandan. Y ahí es donde entrará ahora nuestra nueva versión Symbian^3 para garantizar que incluso los usuarios más exigentes encuentren su terminal Nokia preferido.

También tenemos el rol de las telecos en las tiendas de aplicación móvil, con el que puede haber una fricción clara entre ellas y los fabricantes. Vodafone empuja 360, desde Telefónica también se habla de ello, la alianza que se presentó para crear un sistema interoperable de aplicaciones… ¿Cuál es el equilibrio que puede haber?

En España, tenemos mucha suerte porque los operadores han cambiado mucho su forma de proceder en los últimos años, orientándose claramente a satisfacer las necesidades móviles de sus clientes. De entrada, están ofreciendo tarifas de datos competitivas que permiten disfrutar de una banda ancha móvil permanente. Además, están permitiendo que el usuario tenga acceso a todas las aplicaciones de los diferentes proveedores. Por ejemplo, el Nokia N97 mini que hemos lanzado con Vodafone traía su tienda de aplicaciones 360, pero también nuestra propia tienda Ovi, con el fin de que así el usuario pueda elegir. También es el caso de Telefónica que lanzó el Nokia N86 8MP con el servicio “Comes with Music” para que el usuario pudiese descargarse legalmente millones de canciones totalmente gratis. Y como en Nokia apostamos también por servicios basados en plataformas abiertas, como el caso de Ovi, esto nos facilita además la integración en todos los servicios que ofrece el propio operador. Por lo tanto, no podemos hablar de conflicto o fricción, al revés. Y esa tendencia en España está ocurriendo con todos los operadores para gran beneficio de nuestros clientes comunes, que al final, son lo más importante.

Good news for our friends in the United Kingdom — you finally can make your way throughout her majesty’s land using Google Maps Navigation. Which comes in handy when airports shut down thanks to Icelandic volcanoes, right? And even better is that it works with Android 1.6, too. (Thanks, Darren, for the pic, and everyone else who sent this in!)

Update: And the Google Mobile blog makes it official.

Alternative climate summit opens April 20 in Bolivia to address concerns of the world’s poor.

Bolivian villagers, with government encouragement, are proposing an international court to adjudicate claims for compensation from communities whose lives have been affected by climate change, but do not have the money to adapt, the BBC reports. Their announcement comes as the country kicks off the People’s Summit on Climate Change this week.

Approximately 18,000 people will attend the conference in Cochabamba, which addresses social issues that were ignored by world powers during the United Nations climate conference in Copenhagen last December.

Delegates will consolidate ideas from the meeting for submission to the next U.N. climate conference in Mexico in December. Indigenous populations in Bolivia are using this conference to ensure the upcoming talks will include their concerns.

Adaptation to climate change is a pressing issue for the 40 or so Aymara who live in Khapi village in the Bolivian Andes. Two million Aymara inhabit the Andean region, and are scattered across Bolivia, Peru and Chile. In the Khapi village, they depend on the run-off from the Illimani glacier to sustain their agricultural way of life, but scientists predict the glacier will disappear in seven to 10 years.

“We want those countries to compensate us for all the damage they have done to nature,” said Alivio Aruquipa, the group’s leader, to the BBC.

“We don’t know how to calculate the compensation because we are not professionals, we are simply farmers,” Aruquipa added. “But we would like assistance, and then to receive some money and, with that money, to build dykes to store the water, improve the water canals.”

Aruquipa attended the Copenhagen climate summit to raise awareness about the fate of the Khapi community if the Illimani glacier disappears.

“We don’t know where we are going to go. Like the ice, the source of our lives will be disappearing too. Where are we going to go?”

Bolivia’s president Evo Morales would like to see the activists lobby for the creation of an international environmental court of justice, which would hear cases involving compensation for poor people suffering from the effects of climate change.

Specific details about the composition of the court, how it would decide which cases to hear and its position in the international justice system have yet to be determined.

Source: BBC

Cars catch a lot of flak for pollution, but they are not the only source of manmade greenhouse gas emissions by a long shot — cargo ships, airplanes, trains, even cows and industrial farming make the list too. Many of the same technologies that are being tried out to improve auto emissions may also be used on other forms of transportation.

Large cargo boats are amongst the dirtiest polluters and, considering much of the world’s populations lives along the coasts, they can have a mighty detrimental effect on the health of the population. In light of this, the California Air Resource Board (CARB) is soliciting a proposal for a grant for up to $1 million to hybridize current marine vessels.

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No pain is normal to have. Pain is a warning sign telling you something is going on. Take your car, for example; if a red light on your dash starts flashing, you know something needs to be fixed. You wouldn’t just ignore it for the next few weeks or cover up your dash, you would remedy the problem.

Your neck pain is much the same, you don’t want to just cover it up with pain killers, and you don’t want to ignore it, or maybe you can’t ignore it because it hurts too much.

However, this is what a lot of people do. This is what leads to more problems or worse neck pain. If you leave pressure on a nerve, that nerve starts to atrophy or degenerate, and at a certain point that breakdown can become permanent.

One simple fix to relieve neck pain and take pressure off nerves is to use a good neck pillow. Our #1 recommended pillow is arc4life’s Traction Neck Pillow.

Visit Arc4life.com for your online selection of cervical support neck pillows, orthopedic pain relief products and Home traction units. Products for pain relief.

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KNOXVILLE — The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, is among the nation’s most environmentally responsible institutions, according to The Princeton Review, one of the nation’s top education service and evaluation companies.

UT Knoxville is one of only five universities in Tennessee to be included in the company’s newest guidebook, “Guide to 286 Green Colleges,” and is mentioned for its “Make Orange Green” program and other initiatives.

UT Knoxville’s Make Orange Green environmental effort has been recognized across the state and nation as one of the top campus sustainability programs.

“Ensuring our campus is sustainable is a top strategic goal for UT Knoxville,” said Chancellor Jimmy G. Cheek. “Advancing our green initiatives is vital to our campus and the best way to prepare our students for the green economy of the 21st century.”

The Princeton Review noted the student environmental initiative fee, which funds environmental stewardship programs. The fee also funded the purchase of 3,375 blocks of green power for the university, a purchase that was equivalent to removing 732 cars from the road for a year.

UT Knoxville was the first university in the state to institute a student-initiated fee for the purchase of green power.

The Princeton Review also recognized the campus’ 2007 sustainable building policy that makes the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) rating system the standard for all new construction and renovation projects exceeding $5 million. Two new buildings, the Min Kao Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Building and the Student Health Center, currently are being built to LEED standards.

UT Knoxville also was noted for being a 2009 recipient of the Energy Efficiency Leadership Award at the first annual Summit for Campus Sustainability, a conference organized by the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy to discuss insights on campus sustainability.

In another step toward increasing campus sustainability, UT Knoxville recently adopted a Climate Action Plan as part of being a signatory to the American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment. The commitment lays the groundwork for the nation’s higher education community to take a leadership role in mitigating human influence on climate in day-to-day operations, curriculum and research. The plan is available online.

Last summer, The Princeton Review gave UT Knoxville a “green rating” of 85 in its 2010 edition of “The Best 371 Colleges.” Of 697 schools that received green ratings in 2009, only the 286 institutions that scored in the 80th or higher percentile are featured in the new “Guide to 286 Green Colleges.”

The Princeton Review’s green rating is a numerical score from 60 to 99 that provides a measure of a school’s performance as an environmentally aware institution as well as its efforts to provide and continually develop an environmentally beneficial student experience.

Developed by The Princeton Review in partnership with the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), the “Guide to 286 Green Colleges” is the first, free, comprehensive guidebook focused solely on institutions of higher education that have demonstrated an above-average commitment to sustainability in terms of campus infrastructure, activities and initiatives.

The guidebook, including criteria and methodology for the green rating, can be downloaded at http://www.usgbc.org/campus.

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C O N T A C T :

Kristi Hintz (865-974-3993, [email protected])

From Green Right Now Reports

The Arbor Day Foundation will be honoring 17 individuals, organizations and corporations for their tree planting, nature education and conservation efforts.

The winners will receive their awards at Arbor Day’s annual banquet May 1 at the Lied Lodge & Conference Center at the Arbor Day Farm outside Lincoln, Nebraska.

The foundation pays tribute to the friends of trees every year, since 1972, to highlight the need to conserve and restore the nation’s urban and wild forests.

“The winners honored this year are doing their part to inspire the next generation of tree planters and conservationists across the United States,” said John Rosenow, chief executive and founder of the Arbor Day Foundation, in a statement. “The work done with their hands and with their hearts will have a significant impact on the world today and for years to come.”

The top award this year will go to David Nowak, project leader with the U.S. Forest Service’s Northern Research Station. Nowak will receive the J. Sterling Morton Award, named for the founder of Arbor Day, for his work saving urban forests.

Nowak led a team of researchers that helped show the benefits of urban forests, and by the early 1990s, he was the first and only person who had scientifically sampled and assessed the urban forests of Chicago and Oakland, Calif.

His work helped city leaders in both places to appreciate the value of trees and led to the quantify the benefits of urban forests. By the early 1990s, he was the first person to statistically sample and assess the urban forests of Chicago and Oakland, Calif. Because of his work, city understood the value of trees. The project led to the development of i-Tree, a collaborative program that helps communities measure the environmental services provided by trees, which evolved into an “i-Tree tool,” according to Arbor Day.

Nowak’s i-Tree tool is now being used by thousands of communities worldwide.

Nowak was among the scientists of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change who were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize alongside Al Gore, Jr. in 2007.

The other 2010 award winners include several individuals and organizations and three corporations. Arbor Day’s list of honorees:

• Education at Big K of Macon, Ga., will be awarded The Good Steward Award, which recognizes landowners who practice sustainability on private lands from which others can learn. Education at Big K is owned by former Atlanta Braves baseball players Ryan Klesko and John Smoltz, and the tree farm is making a positive impact by teaching conservation and environmental stewardship to urban audiences of central Georgia. Klesko and Smoltz began purchasing land in 1998 with the goal to create a tree farm. Since 2002, they have used their farm to educate people about the need for trees and conservation.

• Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper and the Mile High Million Tree Initiative will receive the Public Awareness of Trees Award for bringing attention to the importance of planting trees. The City of Denver and Mayor Hickenlooper created the initiative to triple the metro area’s tree canopy to 18 percent by 2025, and the Denver Greenprint Council worked with many groups to spread the word. The Mile High Million group took advantage of local resources to inform the citizens of Denver about the need to plant trees. More than 1,000 delegates and dignitaries from the Democratic National Convention volunteered at 30 community-project sites around Denver. The delegation included Michelle Obama and former president Jimmy Carter. The group also worked with the NBA’s Denver Nuggets and Major League Baseball’s Colorado Rockies to draw attention to the initiative.

• Dave Mooter of Kennard, Neb., will receive the Frederick Law Olmsted Award for his lifelong commitment to tree planting and conservation in Nebraska. Mooter spent 25 years working at the Nebraska Forest Service to create healthier and more extensive community forests throughout the state. He worked to establish a tree-planting partnership with the State Department of Roads, which adds planting trees as part of highway renovation plans. This program was highly successful and replicated by communities across the U.S. He also played a key role in helping to recruit more than 100 communities in the state to earn Tree City USA recognition, which ranks Nebraska in the top 15 nationally.

• David Bragdon of Portland, Ore., will receive the Excellence in Urban Forest Leadership Award for his leadership in advancing sustainable community forestry. As president of the Metro Council, the elected regional government for three counties and 25 cities in the Portland area, Bragdon helped develop a major network of trails, parks and natural spaces. The project, called The Interwine, encourages recreation, connection to nature, and active transportation such as walking, running and cycling. Since he started his tenure as president of the Metro Council in 2002, Bragdon has protected more than 10,000 acres of natural spaces.

• Jim Schmitt of Gering, Neb., will receive the Forest Lands Leadership Award for advancing sustainable forestry efforts on public forest land. Schmitt has been providing a hands-on education experience for 1,200 young people each year since 1989 that highlights the importance of planting trees at Fort Robinson State Park in northwest Nebraska. He serves as chairman of the Fort Robinson Tree Plant, a project of the Boy Scouts of America’s Long Peaks Council. Each year, scouts gather to plant 15,000 trees at the park, learn about proper planting techniques and learn lessons in soil and water conservation and forestry. The project also worked with the staff at Fort Robinson State Park to create a natural trail and clean debris at the Spring Creek area. Scouts from Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming, Kansas, South Dakota and Minnesota have participated in the Tree Plant project, planting more than 400,000 trees on this important piece of public land.

• Casey Trees of Washington, D.C., and Green City Partnerships Program of the Seattle area will receive the Award for Excellence in Volunteer Management for their outstanding efforts to engage volunteers in tree-planting initiatives. Thousands of young trees are thriving throughout the District of Columbia thanks in large part to the hard work of volunteers from Casey Trees. Casey Trees, a nonprofit organization dedicated to restoring the tree canopy in Washington, D.C., set a goal to increase the city’s tree canopy to 40 percent coverage by 2035. Since 2001, Casey Trees has trained 700 Citizen Foresters to become volunteer leaders and educators. These foresters are required to learn how to plant, care for and identify trees, and tell others how trees benefit a community. They, in turn, teach other volunteers in the community the basics of tree planting and care. Last year, more than 1,600 adults and 600 young children participated in 54 tree-planting events. The Cascade Land Conservancy’s Green City Partnerships Program is raising a volunteer army in the Seattle area numbering in the thousands to help plant trees in public parks and natural areas. Conservation organizations from Seattle, Tacoma, Kirkland, Redmond, and Kent, Wash., make up the Green City Partnerships Program. Created to reverse a trend of decreasing tree canopy, the Green City Partnerships Program last year alone provided opportunities for more than 10,000 volunteers to participate first-hand in urban forestry restoration events. These volunteers donated a combined 87,000 hours of manpower in 2009. Since the program’s inception in 2004, the program has engaged nearly 20,000 people in the area.

• Steve Koehn of Annapolis, Md., will receive the Champion of Trees Award for advancing public forestry policy. Koehn played a vital leadership role in the passage of the Maryland Sustainable Forestry Act of 2009. This historic act recognizes that an important way to clean Maryland’s vast Chesapeake Bay ecosystem is through healthy forests. This law could change the way many states view watershed restoration. It also encourages Maryland landowners to protect their forested areas and practice sound sustainable forestry and stewardship. Koehn has been a longtime champion of trees, with 26 years of experience in forest resource management. He has served as Maryland’s Department of Natural Resources Forest Service Director for nine years.

• Robert Sympson of Lynbrook, N.Y., will receive the Lawrence Enersen Award, which honors those who have had a positive impact on the environment through a lifelong commitment to tree planting and conservation at a community level. Since Sympson retired as a teacher in 1991, he has dedicated his life to environmental projects in the villages of East Rockaway and Lynbrook, N.Y. He helped create a tree board in East Rockaway, and as a result the village has been a Tree City USA community for 12 years. He also helped launch a shade tree planting partnership in the village, where homeowners put up matching funds and youth groups plant trees on the private property. Sympson also helped Lynbrook develop a community garden, and worked with the community’s school district to plan a community walking trail and arboretum at Lynbrook South Middle School. He also played a key role in the establishment of the New York State Urban and Community Forestry Council and the Nassau County Forest Management Plan.

• Mary Kay, Inc., of Dallas will receive the Rachel Carson Award for its dedication to teach young children the importance of nature. A year ago, Mary Kay found a way to strengthen its support of victims of domestic violence and its commitment to environmental sustainability. As a result, Mary Kay helped children of domestic violence make meaningful connections to the natural world by building Nature Explore Outdoor Classrooms at shelters for victims across the U.S. So far, the company has built Nature Explore Outdoor Classrooms in Chicago, Atlanta and Hackensack, N.J., and two more will be built in 2010 in Dallas and Los Angeles. These Classrooms are providing an opportunity for children to make a deep connection to the natural world in a peaceful environment.

• The Tree Commission Academy of Columbus, Ohio, will receive the Education Award for creating a conservation program that will have a long-lasting positive impact on communities. The commission is empowering people throughout the state to strengthen the forest in individual communities. Started under the leadership of the Ohio Urban Forestry Program staff, the Tree Commission Academy is training citizen volunteers who serve on local tree commissions to manage and care for their trees more effectively. Classes cover topics such as urban forestry, arboriculture, municipal government and human relations. Each student completes 50 hours of class time to graduate from the academy. Since it opened, nearly 200 students representing more than 70 Ohio communities have participated in the academy.

• Perkins County Conservation District of Bison, S.D., will receive the Excellence in Partnership Award for collaborative work to advance forestry efforts. The Northwest Area Cottonwood Re-Establishment Program, led by the Perkins County Conservation District, seeks to restore native cottonwood trees to private and public lands in the Grand, Moreau and Cheyenne watersheds in northwest South Dakota. This project is a partnership between six conservation districts, several state agencies, the U.S. Forest Service, South Dakota State University and numerous private landowners. As a result of their collaboration, more than 9,000 cottonwood trees on 65 acres of both public and private lands have been planted. These trees will grow to filter pollutants from adjacent agricultural lands, provide habitat and food for wildlife, reduce soil erosion and restore the beauty of the natural area.

• Sheila Flint and the Strathcona County Recreation Department of Sherwood Park, Alberta, will receive the Celebration Award, which honors Arbor Day celebrations that best represent the spirit of the tree-planters’ holiday. More than 1,000 first-grade students participated in Strathcona’s Arbor Day celebration in 2009 thanks to the work of Flint, the urban forester and horticulturalist for the county. Students enjoyed a day filled with planting trees, inspired learning and fun events as they discovered the benefits of trees. The day-long celebration also includes a nature walk, a storytelling session geared to connect students with nature, “Nature-cise” activities that teach students how to play and be active outdoors, making tree cookies and a tree-planting demonstration. Each student receives a free seedling and learns how to plant and care for their new tree.

• Laurence Wiseman of Potomac, Md., will receive the Legacy Award for his lifetime work on conservation issues as president of the American Forest Foundation. Through Wiseman’s leadership, the American Forest Foundation set the bar for excellence in forest conservation, wildlife and watershed protection and environmental education. The Foundation’s Project Learning Tree is a highly respected and widely used environmental education program throughout the country. More than 25,000 educators attend workshops every year to discover new ways to help young people think critically about environmental issues. The Foundation also began the American Tree Farm System, which is the largest internationally recognized certification system for small forests. Today, Wiseman continues to support conservation issues as chairman of the U.S. Forest Service’s National Urban and Community Forestry Advisory Council.

• The Progressive Group of Insurance Companies and T-Mobile USA will receive the 2010 Promise to the Earth Award, which recognizes sustained commitment and leadership by a corporation that partners with the Arbor Day Foundation on special projects. Progressive has teamed up with the Arbor Day Foundation since 2007 to plant trees in our nation’s forests. To raise awareness of its paperless program, Progressive offered to plant a tree for every customer who opted to receive policy information electronically. Progressive contributed $1 to the Foundation to plant a tree in the customer’s honor. The results were tremendous, with 1.5 million customers making the switch resulting in 1.5 million trees being planted in forests that were in urgent need of replanting. While Progressive’s tree planting campaign has wrapped up, it continues to offer discounts where available to customers who choose to go paperless. In addition, Progressive celebrated its 70th anniversary by planting 70 trees in each of the six cities that serve as home to one of the company’s call centers. Progressive employees took part in the tree-planting events, which were held in city parks. In 2009, T-Mobile raised its commitment to the Earth to a new level by planting more than 1 million trees through a partnership with the Arbor Day Foundation. Through the company’s “T-Mobile Plant-A-Tree Project, T-Mobile has encouraged customers to switch to electronic statements. For each customer who made the switch, T-Mobile made a donation to the Foundation to plant a tree. During the last year, T-Mobile funded more than 1 million trees, which were distributed to residents in areas that were devastated by Hurricane Katrina and planted in Tiger Bay and John M. Bethea State Forests in Florida, Hiawatha National Forest in Michigan and the San Bernardino National Forest in California.

Past winners of Arbor Day Awards include Wangari Maathai, who also won a Nobel Peace Prize; Chicago Mayor Richard Daley; Stewart Udall, former U.S. Secretary of the Interior; veteran journalist Bill Kurtis; Enterprise Rent-A-Car; and the Walt Disney Company.

Wade Roush wrote:

One of Xconomy’s unique strengths is our network of Xconomists, leaders in the worlds of innovation and entrepreneurship who have accepted our invitation to act as occasional guest bloggers, story sources, and informal editorial advisers. We’re proud to count 61 Xconomists in Boston (our original home base), 50 in Seattle, 42 in San Diego, and 16 so far in Detroit

In April and May, to celebrate the opening of our newest bureau in Detroit, we’re tapping the entire network to asks Xconomists the same question: “What are five things that entrepreneurs and innovators in Michigan can do to reinvigorate their regional economy?” We’re rounding up some great answers, and we’ve started to publish them here on the Xconomy Detroit home page.

On Tuesday, the official opening day for the site, we ran essays by Kyoto Prize-winning Harvard researcher George Whitesides, one of the founders of biotech giant Genzyme, and Randal Charlton, executive director of Detroit’s leading technology incubator, TechTown. Today, we featured pieces from Nobel Prize-winning MIT biologist Phillip Sharp, a co-founder of Biogen and other biotechnology companies, and former GM executive Bob Purcell, now an automotive and energy consultant. We’ve got a couple dozen more essays in the hopper, and we plan to publish one or two every weekday until we run out.

The content of the essays is as varied as the backgrounds of the people writing them, but I think it’s fair to say that most of them hit on a few common themes, such as the need for entrepreneurs, investors, academic researchers, and state policymakers to work together to clear away old obstacles to economic experimentation and grease the wheels of innovation. Many in Michigan are trying to do just that, but our hope is that our posts will surface some new ideas, increase attention on the issue, and help galvanize more action.

As Xconomy works alongside other media outlets such as Time Inc. to focus attention on Detroit and the vital, instructive stories about the struggle to reinvent the region’s economy, we hope, too, that our “Five Things” campaign will underscore the fact that innovators around the country care about Detroit’s future and are watching with great interest and concern. Just as we’ve seen in our other cities, we think that it’s enormously helpful to analyze one region’s challenges by bringing in fresh perspectives from other regions. (Indeed, that was one of the effects we were always trusting would emerge as we gradually built up the Xconomy network.)

We’re extremely interested in your own thoughts about how Detroit can get its economy working again, and in your reactions to the Xconomist essays. Please write to us at [email protected], and/or leave your comments on the individual articles. We’ll highlight your contributions in future posts. Many thanks to all our friends in Detroit for the warm welcome you’ve extended to Xconomy!

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