Author: Kim Kalliber

“Carbon farming” makes waves at stalled Bonn talks

Civil society organizations warn that if agriculture becomes part of a carbon market, it will spur more land grabbing in Africa. Photo: Patrick Burnett/IPS
Civil society organizations warn that if agriculture becomes part of a carbon market, it will spur more land grabbing in Africa. Photo: Patrick Burnett/IPS

By Stephen Leahy, Inter Press Service, www.climate-connections.org

UXBRIDGE, Canada – U.N. climate talks have largely stalled with the suspension of one of three negotiating tracks at a key mid-year session in Bonn, Germany.

Meanwhile, civil society organisations claim the controversial issue of “carbon farming” has been pushed back onto the agenda after African nations objected to the use of their lands to absorb carbon emissions.

At the Bonn Climate Change Conference this week, Russia insisted on new procedural rules. That blocked all activity in one track of negotiations called the “Subsidiary Body for Implementation” (SBI). The SBI is a technical body that was supposed to discuss finance to help developing countries cope with climate change, as well as proposals for “loss and damage” to compensate countries for damages.

The SBI talks were suspended Wednesday.

“This development is unfortunate,” said Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

Figueres also said the two-week Bonn conference, which ends Friday, had made considerable progress in the two other tracks. A complex new global climate treaty is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2015 with the goal of keeping global warming to less than two degrees C.

“Governments need to look up from their legal and procedural tricks and focus on the planetary emergency that is hitting Africa first and hardest,” said Mithika Mwenda of the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA), an African-wide climate movement with over 300 organisations in 45 countries.

And where there is “progress” at the climate talks it is in the wrong direction, according to civil society.

“We’ve seen many governments in Bonn call for a review of the current failed carbon markets to see what went wrong, why they haven’t actually reduced emissions and why they haven’t raised finance on a significant scale,” said Kate Dooley, a consultant on market mechanisms to the Third World Network.

“If we don’t learn these lessons we’ll be doomed to repeat these environmentally and financially risky schemes, at the cost of real action to reduce emissions,” Dooley said in a statement.

In Bonn, two key African negotiators appear to be pushing the World Bank agenda rather than their national interests, civil society organisations claim. Those negotiators are also working for organisations receiving World Bank funding.

One appears to want African nations’ mitigation actions to be based on agriculture, they said.

The World Bank and the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation and other organisations favour what they call “climate smart” agriculture. This is defined as forms of farming that are sustainable, increase productivity and with a focus on soaking up carbon from the atmosphere.

African environment ministers from 54 nations recently stated they were not obligated to use their lands to mitigate carbon emissions since Africa is not responsible for climate change. They also instructed African negotiators at the Bonn climate talks to focus on helping African agriculture adapt to a changing climate.

“Are these people serving two masters?” asked Mariam Mayet of the Africa Centre for Biosafety, which works to protect farmers’ rights and biodiversity across the continent.

“What is the World Bank’s level of influence over these individuals, and is there a risk that this is impacting on their actions and the outcome here?” Mayet told IPS.

In December 2011, more than 100 African and international civil society organisations sent a joint letter to African ministers asking for “no soil carbon markets in Africa”.

Globally, agriculture is a major source of global warming gases like carbon and methane – directly accounting for 15 percent to 30 percent of global emissions. Changes in agricultural practices such as reducing or eliminating plowing and fertiliser use can greatly reduce emissions.

Agriculture can also be used to absorb or trap carbon in the soil. When a plant grows, it takes CO2 out the atmosphere and releases oxygen. The more of a crop – maize, soy or vegetable – that remains after harvest, the more carbon is returned to the soil.

Civil society organisations warn that if agriculture becomes part of a carbon market, it will spur more land grabbing in Africa, with woodlands being used mainly for carbon sequestration instead of food production.

“There is a profound danger to agriculture here, with real potential for more land grabbing and expansion of monocultures in order to harvest credits,” Helena Paul of EcoNexus, an environmental NGO, previously told IPS.

Soils are extraordinarily variable and different climatic regimes affect how they function, said Ólafur Arnalds, a soil scientist at the Agricultural University of Iceland. While soils are a key part of the planet’s carbon cycle, we don’t know enough about soil carbon, Arnalds told IPS at a recent Soil Carbon Sequestration conference in Iceland.

That complexity does not suit carbon markets well and drives up costs of accounting and verification. However, Arnalds does believe that soils and agriculture have an important role in climate change and farmers should be compensated for their efforts.

Toxic waste spill in northern Alberta biggest of recent disasters in North America

An Apache Canada drilling rig in the Ladyfern region of B.C. Photo: Apache Canada
An Apache Canada drilling rig in the Ladyfern region of B.C. Photo: Apache Canada

Nathan Vanderklippe, The Globe and Mail

The substance is the inky black colour of oil, and the treetops are brown. Across a broad expanse of northern Alberta muskeg, the landscape is dead. It has been poisoned by a huge spill of 9.5 million litres of toxic waste from an oil and gas operation in northern Alberta, the third major leak in a region whose residents are now questioning whether enough is being done to maintain aging energy infrastructure.

The spill was first spotted on June 1. But not until Wednesday did Houston-based Apache Corp. release estimates of its size, which exceeds all of the major recent spills in North America. It comes amid heightened sensitivity about pipeline safety, as the industry faces broad public opposition to plans for a series of major new oil export pipelines to the U.S., British Columbia and eastern Canada.

In northern Alberta, not far from the town of Zama City, the leak of so-called “produced water” has affected some 42 hectares, the size of 52 CFL fields, in an area less than 100 kilometres south of the Northwest Territories border.

“Every plant and tree died” in the area touched by the spill, said James Ahnassay, chief of the Dene Tha First Nation, whose members run traplines in an area that has seen oil and gas development since the 1950s.

Apache spokesman Paul Wyke called the spill “salty water,” with “trace amounts” of oil. The Energy Resources Conservation Board, Alberta’s energy regulator, said it contained roughly 200 parts per million of oil, or about 2,000 litres in total. But information compiled by the Dene Tha suggests the toxic substance contains hydrocarbons, high levels of salt, sulphurous compounds, metals and naturally occurring radioactive materials, along with chemical solvents and additives used by the oil industry.

Produced-water leaks are considered easier to clean up than oil spills. But the Dene Tha suspect this is a long-standing spill that may have gone undetected for months, given the widespread damage it has done. Apache and the Alberta government say its duration is under investigation.

The leak follows a pair of other major spills in the region, including 800,000 litres of an oil-water mixture from Pace Oil and Gas Ltd., and nearly 3.5 million litres of oil from a pipeline run by Plains Midstream Canada.

After those accidents, the Dene Tha had asked the Energy Resources Conservation Board, Alberta’s energy regulator, to require installation of pressure and volume monitors, as well as emergency shutoff devices, on aging oil and gas infrastructure. The Apache spill has renewed calls for change.

“We don’t believe that the government is doing enough to ensure upgrades and maintenance of the lines,” Mr. Ahnassay said.

The Apache spill took place in an area rich with wetlands. Though the Dene Tha suspect waterfowl have died, the company said it has seen no wildlife impacts. The spill has not reached the Zama River, although the Alberta government said it has affected tributaries. Water monitoring is ongoing.

Neither Apache nor Alberta initially disclosed the spill, which was only made public after someone reported it to a TV station late last week. The National Energy Board, by comparison, sent out a news release Tuesday after a spill of five to seven barrels of oil at an Imperial Oil Ltd. refinery in Sarnia, Ont.

Bob Curran, a spokesman for the ERCB, defended the late release of information, saying it took 10 days to determine the size of the spill.

“The second we knew the volumes, we put out a news release,” he said. Asked how it could take so long to determine the severity of a large spill, he said Wednesday: “We didn’t know it was over 42 hectares. We found that out last night.”

Environmental groups have long criticized the government for being slow to notify the public when things go wrong with the oil industry, the province’s financial lifeblood. “This latest spill should call into question the provincial government’s decision to hide the pipeline safety report they received last year and the failure to follow through on the public pipeline safety review the Minister of Energy promised last July,” said Greenpeace campaigner Mike Hudema in a statement.

A spokesman for Energy Minister Ken Hughes said the province trusts its energy regulator to decide when to release information based “on a process of established science and protocol.”

Apache said in a statement that it has halted the leak and “taken steps to contain the release as the company continues to map, sample and monitor the impacted areas.”

Rep. Hastings calls for pro-energy bill passage in House

www.UPI.com

WASHINGTON, June 13 (UPI) — U.S. Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash., hailed the approval of three bills by the House Natural Resources Committee as vital to ensuring U.S. energy security.

The Offshore Energy and Jobs Act (H.R. 2231) would open up parts of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans to energy exploration.

The National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska Access Act (H.R. 1964) would ensure “timely and efficient” development of the reserve area explored by the federal government from 1944 to 1981.

The Native American Energy Act (H.R. 1548) would eliminate “burdensome and duplicative” regulations on energy development on tribal lands.

Hastings, who chairs the panel, accused the Obama administration of keeping the energy sector away from vital natural resources.

“By doing so, it is blocking the creation of over a million new American jobs and forfeiting hundreds of millions of dollars in much needed revenue,” he said in a statement Wednesday. “These bills will unlock our American energy resources on federal lands and waters.”

The White House has said oil and natural gas production has increased every year since Obama took office in 2009.

The measures passed largely along party lines in the Republican-led committee. Energy blog FuelFix said the Senate, controlled by Democrats, is unlikely to follow suit.

Marysville celebrates Strawberry Festival

Courtesy PhotoThe Marysville Strawberry Festival Royalty and float appeared in the Wenatchee Apple Blossom Festival in May.
Courtesy Photo
The Marysville Strawberry Festival Royalty and float appeared in the Wenatchee Apple Blossom Festival in May.

Kirk Boxleitner, Marysville Globe

MARYSVILLE — Before the Marysville Strawberry Festival’s Royalty and float put in appearances at the Saturday night Grand Parade on June 15, they’ll have already put in at least two months of travel time throughout the state of Washington, as well as a trip up north to Canada.

Darren Doty, co-vice president elect of the Maryfest Board of Directors, also serves as one of the parade float’s two main drivers, along with a supplementary third driver, and he estimated that the float crew will have logged approximately 1,000 miles on the road prior to cruising down State Avenue for the Strawberry Festival Grand Parade.

“We started on April 13 with the Daffodil Festival Parade,” Doty said. “What was unique about that day was that we had to participate in four different parades in one day — in Tacoma, Puyallup, Sumner and Orting — so rather than transporting our float in the trailer, like we do even when we do the West Seattle and Olympia parades on the same day in July, we were escorted as we drove the float down the highway between towns.”

Tacoma is actually the nearest of the festivals that the Royalty and float crew have attended so far this year, with locations such as Sequim, Wenatchee and New Westminster in Canada representing some of the furthest distances they’ve gone afield.

“Of course, we’ll be hitting Arlington and Tulalip later on,” said Doty, who’s learned to negotiate the challenges of navigating a large truck and trailer, and an even larger float once it’s unloaded and assembled, through some towns with some relatively narrow streets. “Even when I find a parking spot for the truck, I have to make sure I’ve got at least 50 feet behind me to get the float out, and even when I’m driving the float down the street for parades, I could still be sharing the road with other moving or parked cars.”

Without a speedometer, or any feasible side- or rear-view mirrors, Doty relies on spotters who walk alongside the float to guide his path, especially when his clearance on either side of the float has been as little as a few inches. An equally taxing aspect of participating in months of parades, that both Doty and Maryfest Board member Carol Kapua deal with, is the amount of prep time required for each of the Saturdays’ festivals.

“Let’s say a parade starts at the typical time of 11 a.m.,” Doty said. “That means we need to get ready at 4:30 a.m. to leave around 6 a.m., so that we can get to our destination in time for the judging between 8:30-9 a.m. From there, it’s a couple of hours of waiting around. We joke that our schedule is ‘Hurry up and wait,’” he laughed. “Even if the parade starts at 11 a.m., though, that still means we probably won’t start until 11:30 a.m., or possibly even noon if we’re slated to go later in the parade. And yet, it’s always fun.”

The Strawberry Festival Royalty take the time prior to the parades to meet with the Royalty from the organizations hosting them as part of those festivals. Depending on how far away they are from Marysville, they could be accompanied by a skeleton crew of a chaperone, a float driver and a couple of crew members to unpack and repack the float at the more distant festivities, or as many as a couple of dozen folks for parades as near as West Seattle, where the Strawberry Festival crew prepares barbecue meals for their cohorts.

“We keep traveling until the first week in October, when we hit Issaquah,” Kapua said. “Of course, our last parade of the year is Merrysville for the Holidays, after which we’ll tear down this year’s float, but by that point, we’ll already have paperwork started for next year’s Strawberry Festival. It really is a year-round process.”

In spite of her own demanding collateral duty of making sure that everyone has meals packed for parade days to suit their dietary requirements, Kapua still expresses enthusiasm for taking part in nearly a full year of festivities.

“For me, it’s being able to look at the little kids’ faces, as they point to the float and dance along with the music,” Kapua said. “They don’t have any inhibitions in how they react.”

Although the Strawberry Festival’s Talent Show already took place on Tuesday, June 11, its Talent Show kicks off at 6:30 p.m. in the Marysville-Pilchuck High School auditorium on Thursday, June 13. Saturday, June 15, sees the Berry Run at Smokey Point Plant Farm at 8:30 a.m., the Rose-Planting Ceremony at Totem Middle School at 10 a.m., the Kiddies Parade on State Avenue at 6 p.m., the Grand Parade on State Avenue at 7:45 p.m. and the fireworks show at Public Works at 10 p.m.

For a complete listing of activities, go to www.maryfest.org.

Heroin use, deaths up increase in state

Donna Gordon Blankenship, Associated Press

SEATTLE — Heroin use and related deaths have increased significantly across Washington over the past decade, especially among people younger than 30, according to a new study released Wednesday.

Young people are finding it cheaper and easier to get heroin than prescription opiates these days. Both kinds of drugs offer a similar high, and a similar addiction danger, said Caleb Banta-Green, author of the report and a researcher at the University of Washington’s Alcohol and Drug Abuse Institute.

The data from Washington mirrors a national trend, but the most up-to-date national research is a few years behind Washington, according to Tom McLellan, CEO of the nonprofit Treatment Research Institute and President Barack Obama’s former deputy drug czar.

A National Institutes of Health study cites national numbers from 2009 that show a national rise in opiate addiction and overdoses. The authors of that study, which was published in February 2013 in the Public Library of Science journal, predicted heroin use would likely increase as a result.

“The state of Washington has by far the best and the most comprehensive and the most up-to-date statistics, way better than the national government,” McLellan said.

Banta-Green found the largest increases in heroin use and abuse in Washington state were outside of metropolitan areas, where drug treatment and awareness are lowest.

Overdose deaths from heroin or related prescription drugs more than doubled in Cowlitz, Snohomish, Grays Harbor, Chelan, Lewis, Mason, Thurston, Benton and Kitsap counties between 2000 and 2011.

“It’s a big change,” Banta-Green said, adding, however, that he’s not surprised by the data.

He attributed part of the increase to new state rules that make it harder to get pharmaceutical opiates because of better prescription tracking.

Washington is ahead of the nation in that trend, Banta-Green said. He expects other states also may see an increase in heroin use after they tighten their prescription rules.

“This is a state manifestation of the broader national picture,” McLellan agreed.

Since 1997, doctors and pharmacists have done a better job nationally of treating pain, but the unfortunate side effect of that medical improvement was the more prescription pain medication was getting in the wrong hands because of theft or resale, he explained.

The diversion of drugs has led to an increase in overdoses, especially among young people, and has also led to more interest in heroin, McLellan said.

Washington is also setting an example for the nation with new pharmacy rules that allow pharmacists to distribute overdose response kits, including a medical antidote to heroin, naloxone, without a prescription from a doctor. So far, only one pharmacy in Washington is participating in the program, but Banta-Green expects that will change.

“What we are seeing and the pharmacy work is leading the country, for good and bad,” he said.

Banta-Green used three sources of data for his study: police drug evidence testing, treatment statistics and county death certificates. Here’s what he found:

— The number of pieces of police evidence that tested positive for heroin totaled 842 in 2007 and increased statewide to 2,251 in 2012.

— Drug treatment admissions for heroin increased statewide from 2,647 in 2002 to 7,500 in 2012. The majority of 18- to-29-year-olds seeking drug treatment for the first time in 2012 were being treated for heroin use.

— The number of accidental deaths statewide involving heroin and prescribed opiates doubled from an average of 310 a year between 2000 and 2002 and 607 a year from 2009 to 2011. In King County, almost three-quarters of drug-caused deaths involved heroin or a prescription opiate between 1997 and 2012.

Banta-Green believes the pharmacy program and a relatively new 911 overdose Good Samaritan law, along with increased awareness, could turn at least the overdose statistics around.

Washington passed the Samaritan law three years ago to encourage people to seek professional help when someone is overdosing. The law gives the person calling for medical help immunity from prosecution for drug possession charges.

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Online:

Report on opiates: http://bit.ly/1a4rr0w

Stop Overdose: http://www.stopoverdose.org

HUD Grants $563M To Support Affordable Housing in Native Communities

Indian Country Today Media Network

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) today awarded $563 million to 353 American Indian and Alaskan Native entities that represent 539 tribes across the U.S.  The funds, made available through HUD’s Indian Housing Block Grant  Program, are distributed annually to eligible Indian tribes or their tribally designated housing entities for a broad range of affordable housing activities.

“Hardworking American families in tribal communities should be able to live in communities where they have a fair shot to reach their potential,” HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan said in a press release. “The resources provided today will give these tribal communities the tools to maintain quality housing, prevent overcrowding, improve public safety and provide other basic building blocks of security and success.”

Indian Housing Block Grant funds primarily benefit hardworking families living on reservations or in other Native American communities, who don’t have the financial resources to maintain good homes, schools, or other key contributors to economic security. The amount of each grant is based on a formula that considers local needs and housing units under management by the tribe or designated entity.

Indian communities can use the funding for a variety of housing activities, including building affordable housing; providing assistance to existing housing that was developed under the Indian Housing Program authorized by the U.S. Housing Act of 1937; or other activities that create new approaches to provide more affordable housing for Native Americans. The funding is also used to offer housing services to eligible families and individuals; and establish crime prevention and safety measures. The block grant approach to housing was established by the Native American Housing Assistance and Self Determination Act of 1996.

Read more at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2013/06/12/hud-grants-563m-support-affordable-housing-native-communities-149866

NMAI’s Meet Native America Series Launches June 13

Indian Country Today Media Network

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian will launch its extensive blog site entitled Meet Native America on Thursday, June 13.

The site will feature content to improve working relationships in Indian country as well as educational mechanisms both for Natives and non-Natives about the living indigenous culture of the Western Hemisphere.

The blog site will look to continue NMAI’s strong reputation of reaching out to its Native constituency by engaging tribal people in a respectful and mutual relationship. The site will be used as a national forum for individuals from Indian country to share their personal stories of what is relevant and current in order to reveal diversity, originality and far-sighted objectives in Indian country.  It will serve as a counterpart to national narratives that have largely ignored or misinterpreted Native people and issues.

Dennis Zotigh, NMAI’s museum cultural specialist, will be in charge of the site and has compiled a list of tribal leaders along with a list of interesting individuals to interview. Zotigh will post interviews with tribal leaders who are in office first, before approaching interesting individuals – elders first, in respect to age and health considerations.

Zotigh currently has 35 tribal leaders on his list, along with more than 100 interesting individuals.

Zotigh hopes to inspire readers to consider deeper ways of thinking through the words of Native thinkers.

The first post appearing on Thursday before noon is an interview with Navajo Nation president Ben Shelly. Indian Country Today Media Network.

 

Read more at https://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2013/06/12/nmais-meet-native-america-series-launches-june-13-149875