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Monday 17th June 2013 the G8 summit of world leaders meets in...

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 09:02:31 +0100

Monday 17th June 2013 the G8 summit of world leaders meets in Northern Ireland.

EU and US agree to launch negotiations on a trans-Atlantic trade deal worth £10bn to UK.
Source: twitter.com

The breakdown of power at the G8 summit. (CNBC)

Why trade?

Trade is key to economic growth and job creation. But in late 2008, global trade saw its steepest fall since the Great Depression. More than four years on trade has still not fully recovered; trade growth fell to 2% in 2012 - well below the 20-year average of over 5% per year.

The European Union is currently negotiating free trade agreements with G8 partners, including Canada and Japan. The EU and US are on track to start negotiations shortly.

Together, they make up around a third of all global trade. An EU-US trade deal could add over £100 billion to EU GDP and over £80 billion to US GDP.

The rest of the world would benefit too, with potential gains of £85 billion worldwide. Overall, this trade agenda could create over two million jobs across the European Union.

Other G8 countries are negotiating ambitious trade agreements. For example, the United States is leading efforts on free trade with the Trans Pacific Partnership, which also includes Canada. Japan is scheduled to participate shortly.

If G8 countries complete all of their current and proposed trade deals it could boost the income of the whole world by more than $1,000 billion.

Learn more ›
Source: gov.uk

G8NotWelcome

People dressed as the leaders of the G8 countries take part in a photocall to raise awareness about the global hunger crisis in front of the Belfast City Hall, Northern Ireland, ahead of the G8 Summit.

The leaders they are dressed as are (L-R) U.S. President Barack Obama, Italy’s Prime Minister Enrico Letta, Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Britain’s Prime Minister David Cameron, France’s President Francois Hollande, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

The IF campaign’s ‘G8 heads’ have made their most dramatic appearance yet, sailing into Lough Erne on a flotilla of longships bearing the message ‘End Tax Dodging’. A very visible reminder to the world leaders meeting nearby that we need them to take decisive action during their two-day summit.

Keep up with the latest developments on our IF@G8 live blog:http://enoughfoodif.org/g8/blog

Obama: Northern Ireland peace will be tested

From USA Today 17 June 2013 -

Obama: Northern Ireland peace will be tested. President Barack Obama

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I am thinking about G8

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US President Obama arrives for G8 Summit in Northern Ireland

US President Barack Obama and his family arrive at 38(Irish)Brigade Flying Station, Aldergrove in Northern Ireland for the G8 Summit being held at the Lough Erne in Co. Fermanagh. The President was met by Lord Leiutenant Joan Christie, Minister of State for Northern Ireland Mike Penning, Arlene Foster MLA and Michelle O’Neill MLA.

Learn more at www.gov.uk/g8

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G8 Summit Live

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 08:59:43 +0100

G8 Summit Live:

ukinusa:

Click through to watch live video from the UK’s G8 Summit 2013 in Lough Erne, Northern Ireland.

BBC News - As it happened: President Barack Obama in Northern Ireland

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 08:53:11 +0100

BBC News - As it happened: President Barack Obama in Northern Ireland

LIVE: IF at the G8 World leaders meeting in Northern Ireland...

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 08:51:53 +0100

LIVE: IF at the G8

World leaders meeting in Northern Ireland have the power to tackle tax dodging and land grabs and help stop the silent scandal of hunger. We’ll keep you up to date with the latest developments.

Follow the IF@G8 live blog

allthingsobama: President Obama’s Belfast Waterfront Hall...

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 08:50:53 +0100

allthingsobama:

President Obama’s Belfast Waterfront Hall Speech

The Guardian | G8 summit: Politics live blog

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 08:48:29 +0100

The Guardian | G8 summit: Politics live blog:

Amnesty International is being allowed through the gates of the
summit to deliver a letter to Vladimir Putin. As Henry McDonald reports, the group will tell the Russian president to release the punk-protest band
Pussy Riot, two of whose members are still in jail. A number of Amnesty activists will wear balaclavas similar to the ones the band don when they go on stage.

reuters: Photo gallery: inside the G8 Summit We just take the...

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 08:41:03 +0100

reuters:

Photo gallery: inside the G8 Summit

We just take the pictures.

reuters: U.S. President Barack Obama sparred with Russia’s...

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 08:40:15 +0100

reuters:

U.S. President Barack Obama sparred with Russia’s Vladimir Putin over how to end the war in Syria during an icy encounter at a G8 summit where divisions over the conflict eclipsed the rest of the agenda.

Putin said Moscow and Washington had differing views over Syria but agreed the bloodshed must stop and that the warring parties should be brought to the negotiating table. Both leaders looked tense and uncomfortable, with Putin staring mostly at the floor.

“Our positions do not fully coincide, but we are united by the common intention to end the violence, to stop the number of victims increasing in Syria, to resolve the problems by peaceful means, including the Geneva talks,” Putin said.

“We agreed to push the process of peace talks and encourage the parties to sit down at the negotiation table, organize the talks in Geneva.”

Obama tried to lighten the mood by discussing judo but Putin, a black belt in the martial art, replied the U.S. president was simply trying to get him to relax.

Photo: REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

nbcnews: Obama and Putin cite differences on Syria but say they...

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 08:38:36 +0100

nbcnews:

Obama and Putin cite differences on Syria but say they want violence to end

(Photo: Kevin Lamarque / Reuters)

President Obama and Russian president Vladimir Putin, on opposite sides of a civil war, used delicate language about wanting to stop the bloodshed in Syria.

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The Deadliest Countries for Journalists

Tue, 11 Jun 2013 19:00:13 +0100

The Deadliest Countries for Journalists:

Via

rollingstone: Some of EDM’s biggest names have gathered to...

Tue, 11 Jun 2013 17:29:49 +0100

rollingstone:

Some of EDM’s biggest names have gathered to remix Bob Marley and the Wailers’ classic 1984 album Legend in a new release, Legend: Remixed. Out June 25th, Legend: Remixed features reworkings of 15 of the album’s original 16 cuts, all of which you can now check out in this exclusive album stream.

Tiny aerosol particles, big global impacts

Tue, 11 Jun 2013 16:56:54 +0100

Tiny aerosol particles, big global impacts:

As interest in Earth’s changing climate heats up, a tiny dark particle is stepping into the limelight: black carbon. Commonly known as soot, black carbon enters the air when fossil fuels and biofuels, such as coal, wood, and diesel are burned. Black carbon, a short-lived particle, is in perpetual motion across the globe. / Courtesy NASA, the Image of the Day Gallery

Laura Nielsen for Frontier Scientists

Laura Nielsen for Frontier Scientists Tiny particles suspended in the air, present in the air we breathe and in the highest reaches of the atmosphere, are called aerosols. And those aerosols, though relatively short-lived, have a huge impact on global climate change. In fact, much of the atmospheric warming observed since 1976 in the Arctic, and elsewhere, can be attributed to aerosols.

Minuscule dark sooty aerosol particles called black carbon absorb solar radiation. While carbon dioxide lingers in the air for roughly 100 years, airborne particles like black carbon may have a lifespan of only days or weeks before they drift back to ground or are carried down by precipitation. Still, their impact is evident. According to black carbon specialist Tami Bond of the University of Illinois, in one-to-two weeks, one pound of black carbon absorbs 650 times as much energy as one pound of carbon dioxide gas will absorb over the span of 100 years. That makes black carbon a short-lived climate forcer.

While black carbon is often human-created, the majority of aerosols which enter the atmosphere have natural causes. Wildfires create smoke, while volcanic eruptions spew forth gasses and sulfate particles. Drought promotes dust clouds, and desert sandstorms fling sand and mineral dust into the atmosphere. Even the ocean is a source of aerosols, since spray from waves sends salt particles into the air. Yet it’s beneficial to focus on the anthropogenic (human-caused) aerosols injected into the atmosphere, because they are not part of natural cycles. If we can understand our role in creating them and how they impact our planet’s climate, then we can change our behavior to better our environment.

Fossil fuel combustion is one anthropogenic creator of polluting particulate matter. Biomass burning to clear land or dispose of agricultural waste is another. Dust is sent aloft by overgrazing, deforestation, and excessive irrigation. Smog and other air pollution hazes the air over major cities. All of these aerosols travel swiftly through the atmosphere, and can influence places far from where they were released.

An artist’s illustration shows how aerosol particles can serve as the seeds of cloud droplets. / Courtesy NASA

While carbon dioxide is the largest man-made contributor to global warming, the second largest contributor is black carbon. Black carbon is essentially minuscule soot, tiny dark particles suspended aloft in the atmosphere. It is created by engines burning fossil fuels like diesel, stoves burning biofuels like wood or dung, power plants burning coal, and certain industrial processes. This tiny demon has a a strong warming influence on the atmosphere. It also promotes and worsens human respiratory and cardiovascular diseases.

The impact of sunlight-absorbing black carbon on climate is complex. Functionally, the tiny dark particles absorb solar radiation and hold heat near the Earth. An old diesel truck traveling 60 miles would emit about one ounce of black carbon. One ounce absorbs as much sunlight as does an entire dark tennis court, says Bond. When black carbon falls on snow or ice it reduces the ice’s albedo, or reflectiveness. Instead of bouncing the sun’s rays back into space the darker ice absorbs solar radiation, heats, and melts. Enough black carbon deposited on a glacier’s surface speeds glacial melting. Yet the aerosol particles can also promote cloud formation or change cloud reflectivity. Clouds are amazingly versatile and have either a cooling or warming effect. To add to the complexity, sources which emit black carbon often emit other particles; sometimes those co-emitted polluting particles have a cooling effect.

Shanghai, China at sunset, as seen from the observation deck of the Jin Mao tower. The sun has not actually dropped below the horizon yet, rather it has reached the smog line. / Attribution: Siucup (Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License)

Take a look at other polluting aerosols. Fossil fuel combustion (burning coal and oil) produces sulfates. Those sulfates scatter solar rays, and thus have a cooling effect. Yet in North America and Europe we have successfully cut down on the amount of anthropogenic sulfates in the air by heightening emission standards. Fewer sulfates means a lessened cooling effect, and so the impact of solar-ray absorbing black carbon is felt more strongly. Methane matters too. Methane is a greenhouse gas more potent than carbon dioxide. It’s a major component of natural gas, and humans boost its release through mining activities, creating decomposing garbage, and manure. It also escapes when ancient matter decays below frozen lakes or in thawing permafrost, and it’s escaping into the atmosphere in increasing amounts as temperatures in the Arctic warm. When it reaches the tropics, where ozone sits near ground level, atmospheric methane is an important precursor to ground-level ozone. Ozone itself is a greenhouse gas, but it also creates smog, threatens human health, and damages crops.

Polluting aerosols promote temperature increases. *”Aerosols, particularly black carbon, can alter reflectivity by depositing a layer of dark residue on ice and other bright surfaces. In the Arctic especially, aerosols from wildfires and industrial pollution are likely hastening the melting of ice.” In the Arctic, we see their effects in the diminishing summer ice cover, which creates a positive feedback loop of warming Arctic temperatures and can be linked to more severe weather events in much of the Northern Hemisphere.

Climate scientist Drew Shindell of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies suggests implementing 14 techniques to reduce the emission of black carbon and methane. Shindell states: **”We’ve shown that implementing specific practical emissions reductions chosen to maximize climate benefits would also have important ‘win-win’ benefits for human health and agriculture.” His study, which utilizes models run on supercomputers, indicates that implementing those 14 attainable emission control strategies could slow average global warming 0.9 ºF by 2050, increase global agricultural yields, and save hundreds of thousands of lives every year. Continuing to add black carbon and methane to the atmosphere will exacerbate climate change, while enacting the proposed control strategies could half the temperature increase we face in the next 40 years.

High-resolution global atmospheric model portrait of global aerosols run on the Discover supercomputer at the NASA Center for Climate Simulation at Goddard Space Flight Center, provides a unique tool to study the role of weather in Earth’s climate system. Dust (red) is lifted from the surface, sea salt (blue) swirls inside cyclones, smoke (green) rises from fires, and sulfate particles (white) stream from volcanoes and fossil fuel emissions. /Courtesy NASA, the Image of the Day Gallery

We already know how to reduce harmful man-made emissions. Controlling diesel emissions with particle filters, using cleaner-burning stoves and boilers, reducing or banning the burning of agricultural waste, and upgrading industrial brick kilns and coke ovens will all cut down amounts of black carbon in the atmosphere. Meanwhile, methane emissions can be reduced if leaks are fixed along long-distance pipelines, and wastewater treatment plants are updated. Methane from coal mines, oil works, and natural gas facilities can be captured, as well as that escaping from city landfills and farm manure. Steps like these, attainable and realistic, reduce climate impact by anthropogenic emissions, improve human health and living conditions, and boost crop yields.

Those steps alone will not be enough to stem the forward march of human-caused global climate change. We still need to take action to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Carbon dioxide lingers in the atmosphere for a century, driving temperatures up. On the other hand, pollutants like black carbon and ozone-creating methane inflict powerful changes swiftly, then circulate out of the atmosphere in a matter of weeks. Taking steps to control these pollutants now can measurably slow global warming in the short term. According to Shindell, ***”We will have very little leverage over climate in the next couple of decades if we’re just looking at carbon dioxide. If we want to try to stop the Arctic summer sea ice from melting completely over the next few decades, we’re much better off looking at aerosols and ozone.” And we can do it now. Right now. Shindell says: ****”I found it remarkable that for incomplete combustion, which gives you black carbon, a group of just nine measures was able to pull down the emissions by about 70 to 80 percent. And all of the technologies already exist. There’s no technological barrier whatsoever to reducing black carbon.”

Riot police clash with protesters in Turkey NBC News: Hundreds...

Tue, 11 Jun 2013 16:28:08 +0100

Riot police clash with protesters in Turkey

NBC News: Hundreds of riot police clashed with protesters in Istanbul’s Taksim Square on Tuesday, as protests against the government of Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan intensified.

The latest violence began Tuesday morning when police moved past barriers erected by the protesters and into the square to scatter a small number of people who have been camped there to protest against a planned redevelopment of the square.

Follow continuing coverage of the events in Turkey on BreakingNews.com

Top photo: Turkish riot police fire water cannons and tear gas during a protest at Taksim Square in Istanbul on June 11, 2013. (Yannis Behrakis / Reuters)

Middle photo: A protester throws a gasoline bomb at riot police in Taksim Square on June 11. (Murad Sezer / Reuters)

Bottom photo: A protester uses a makeshift shield against a water cannon during clashes in Taksim Square on June 11. (Kostas Tsironis / AP)

vicemag: Journalist Tim Pool is streaming live from Istanbul...

Tue, 11 Jun 2013 16:26:45 +0100

vicemag:

Journalist Tim Pool is streaming live from Istanbul today where antigovernment protests have been ongoing since last Friday. What began as a campaign against the city’s plans to construct a mall in a public park has escalated into a massive display of anger over the ruling party’s neo-Islamist social agenda and religiously driven laws. Riot police have moved in with brutal force, using tear gas on tens of thousands of protestors. It is the largest civil uprising in the history of Turkey.

Watch the livestream

A child from the Munduruku tribe rests in the auditorium of the...

Tue, 11 Jun 2013 16:11:41 +0100

A child from the Munduruku tribe rests in the auditorium of the Brazil’s Indian affairs bureau (FUNAI) headquarters while Munduruku Indians occupy the building in Brasilia on June 10, 2013. The Indians from the Amazon Basin are demonstrating against violations of indigenous rights and calling for the suspension of the construction of the Belo Monte hydroelectric plant on the Xingu, Teles Pires and Tapajos rivers.

[Credit : Lunae Parracho/Reuters]

Sustainable Treehouse Community in Costa Rican Jungle

Sun, 09 Jun 2013 20:06:36 +0100

Sustainable Treehouse Community in Costa Rican Jungle

Photo

Sun, 09 Jun 2013 19:23:34 +0100

scholar's library by GLUCK+ is a sanctuary in the forest

Sat, 08 Jun 2013 15:01:35 +0100

scholar’s library by GLUCK+ is a sanctuary in the forest

Jun 08, 2013

‘scholar’s library’ by GLUCK + is a sanctuary in the forest

a simple structure of platonic proportions delineates this tranquil retreat, ‘scholar’s library’, designed by new york firm GLUCK+, is located in the catskill mountains near the firm’s tower house. the small getaway is organized by two programs. the first floor library literally and figuratively supports the second floor study and research space. at the ground plane the volume is solid, completely enclosed to protect precious books. extruded above this mass, a floating plane creates a void for the upper level. these two elements are connected by four delicate columns from which the roof is cantilevered. enclosing the cubic volume, sliding glass doors act as a continuous strip of operable windows. stacking in two corners of the library, they completely open the space to its sylvan environment. nestled into the forest, the scholar is surrounded by a living backdrop of seasonal changes.

‘scholar’s library’ is camouflaged under the forest canopy

(left): with the windows open, the upper level dissolves into the landscape (right): the materials emulate the natural environment

the design provides the scholar with ample light and air and extensive views of the natural surroundings

the study’s walls change color and appearance seasonally

(left): the ground floor library stacks are enclosed by a solid volume, which (right): opens to the study space and extensive views of the forested environment

images courtesy of GLUCK+

sliding glass doors (left): enclose the volume (right): or open the study space by stacking at the corners

site plan locates scholar's library in the vicinity of tower house
image courtesy of GLUCK+

ground floor plan
image courtesy of GLUCK+

upper floor plan
image courtesy of GLUCK+

section
image courtesy of GLUCK+

project info:

project: scholar’s library
location: upstate NY
area: 800 square feet
year: 2003

project team:
architecture and construction by gluck+: peter l. gluck, david mabbott, frederik rissom

consultants:
structural engineer: robert silman associates p.c.
mechanical engineer:

a la plage, a la piscine: aerial beach photographs by gray malin

Sat, 08 Jun 2013 14:28:20 +0100

a la plage, a la piscine: aerial beach bum photographs by gray malin

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Altaic shaman (1927), Russian Museum of Ethnography

Thu, 06 Jun 2013 11:16:41 +0100

Altaic shaman (1927), Russian Museum of Ethnography