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APEC: Joint efforts to reduce disaster risks

Sun, 2011-11-13 04:05 — admin

Sunday, Nov 13, 2011

The public and private sectors signed a joint statement of intent at Apec to strengthen regional disaster risk reduction and resilience, following US Secretary of State's High-Level Policy Dialogue on Disaster Resiliency yesterday.

The Asia-Pacific Disaster Risk Reduction and Resilient Collaboration joint statement, which was signed by nine organisations at the Sheraton Waikiki, intends to use public private partnership as means to help save lives, ensure economic vitality, and enhance human well-being across the region.

The members also urged more organisations from Apec members to get on-board with their effort to reduce disaster risks and increase resilience in the the Asia-Pacific region.

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History Is Made in Australia

Sat, 2011-11-12 16:04 — Kathy Gilbeaux

by Al Gore - huffingtonpost.com - November 8, 2011

      

Former Vice President Al Gore in his home office in Nashville, TN. (Time magazine)

This is a historic moment. Australia's Parliament has put the nation's first carbon price into law. With this vote, the world has turned a pivotal corner in the collective effort to solve the climate crisis. This success is the result of the tireless work of an unprecedented coalition that came together to support the legislation, the leadership of Prime Minister Gillard, and the courage of legislators to take a vote that helps to safeguard the future of all Australians.

I have spent enough time in Australia to know that their spirit of independence as a people cannot be underestimated. As the world's leading coal exporter, there's no doubt that opposition to this legislation was fierce. But through determination and commitment, the voice of the people of Australia has rung out loud and clear.

Today, we celebrate. Tomorrow, we do everything we can to ensure that this legislation is successful.

Cross-posted from Al's Journal.

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"The Arab Spring: A New Era in a Transforming Globe" -- What is the Catalytic Role of Social Media?

Wed, 2011-11-09 07:56 — mdmcdonald

This article by Alon Ben-Meir at NYU's Center for Global Affairs brings to light a globalizing transformation being driven by youth using social media, which he predicts has long-lasting world-changing implications. 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alon-benmeir/the-arab-spring-a-new-era_b_1082577.html

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Social Media in Emergency Response: Transforming the Response Enterprise

Wed, 2011-11-09 06:24 — mdmcdonald

 

2011 Social Media in Emergency Management Camp
By harnessing the collective power of citizens and engaging communities in their own response and recovery, social media have the power to revolutionize emergency management. Yet, many challenges—
including guidelines for use by response agencies, demonstration of value, and characterization of reliability—must be addressed if the potential of social media is to be fully realized in emergency response and relief efforts in the United States. Please join us for this presentation and panel discussion, which will be chaired by Dr. Clarence Wardell of CNA and will feature findings from the report, 2011 Social Media + Emergency Management Camp: Transforming the Response Enterprise.

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The Waterpod

Sat, 2011-11-05 23:01 — Kathy Gilbeaux

          

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Independent, Skeptic-Funded Study Confirms Global Warming is Real

Sun, 2011-10-30 22:10 — Kathy Gilbeaux

dvice.com - October 30, 2011

            

The Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature study has just released a summary of a recently completed global land warming analysis showing "reliable evidence of a rise in average world land temperature by approximately one degree Celsius since the mid-1950s." Yeah, we've heard that before, but this is one study that even skeptics may have to believe.

Here's why the Berkeley Earth Project is different from all previous studies on global warming:

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Does Adaptive Management of Natural Resources Enhance Resilience to Climate Change?

Tue, 2011-10-25 02:12 — admin

Emerging insights from adaptive and community-based resource management suggest that building resilience into both human and ecological systems is an effective way to cope with environmental change characterized by future surprises or unknowable risks. In this paper, originally published in Ecology and Society, authors Emma Tompkins argue that these emerging insights have implications for policies and strategies for responding to climate change. The authors review perspectives on collective action for natural resource management to inform understanding of climate response capacity. They demonstrate the importance of social learning, specifically in relation to the acceptance of strategies that build social and ecological resilience. Societies and communities dependent on natural resources need to enhance their capacity to adapt to the impacts of future climate change, particularly when such impacts could lie outside their experienced coping range. This argument is illustrated by an example of present-day collective action for community-based coastal management in Trinidad and Tobago.

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Dr. C. Everett Koop’s perspective on health care reform

Mon, 2011-10-24 23:13 — JRees

Dr. C. Everett Koop, former U.S. Surgeon General, facilitated health care reform in the United States during the 1990s. Dr. Koop recommends whatever is done in the health care reform process, that the legislative process be designed to succeed in protecting the health care rights of children and aging Americans, if broader reform is not politically or economically feasible. The health care reform process should also be designed to fail safely, if not successful, in order to not endanger other key services that are currently addressing the health needs of all Americans. For example, Dr. Koop recommends that a simple incremental extension of Medicare should be at the center of health care reform and that current free market health care system elements are not damaged in the process of engaging new forms of legislation and regulation.

Below are five of the most important health care reform considerations advanced by Dr. Koop on health care reform, considering the successes and failures of attempts at health care reform in the 1990s and previous rounds of health care reform in the United States and in other countries.

1) Public/Private Partnership

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The Memes of Occupy Everywhere

Mon, 2011-10-24 09:09 — mdmcdonald

 

Occupy George dollar bill

 

Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators are now engaged in the Occupy Everywhere movement in hundreds of cities around the globe.  Many are carrying signs.  Of all the fragments of culture being paraded as slogans, the central meme that has caught fire starting with Occupy Wall Street is the idea of extreme wealth disparities and the lack of opportunities for youth to live within the mainstream economy of their country and live a meaningful life.  

The central message is not about arrests or police violence, it is about resilience, sustainability, and economic well-being in a time of energy descent and economic decline.  It will be interesting to see what emerges as central themes as the Occupy Everywhere movement continues to grow and evolve. What memes will morph and which memes will remain stable.

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Gallup Poll: 37% Support Occupy Wall Street Movement

Mon, 2011-10-24 08:08 — mdmcdonald

A recent poll is showing that very large numbers of Americans support the Occupy Wall Street movement and that this support may be growing.  This story also shows the general difference between OWS protesters and Tea Party protesters.  OWS protesters are tending to blame the private sector.  The Tea Party protesters are tending to look at government as being at the heart of the problem.  As the OWS movement grows many Tea Party protesters are realizing that they too are part of the 99% embraced by the Occupy Everywhere movement. 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/23/occupy-wall-street-poll_n_1027109.html

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