The Free

Whaling Ailing

JAPAN
Whaling Policy in Choppy Waters
By Suvendrini Kakuchi

TOKYO, Feb 27, 2011 (IPS) – After years of stiff resistance, the Japanese government has announced a temporary halt to its controversial research whaling programme in the Antarctic Ocean, a decision that will finally stir the debate to promote sustainable fishing, say conservationists here.

“We welcome the decision to halt whaling this season as a step towards preserving whales which are an endangered species. The message is that whales have to be protected which is all the more valuable since it comes from a nation that is a leader in the consumption of seafood stocks,” Junichi Sato, expert on whaling at Greenpeace Japan told IPS.

Since 1982, the world has followed global moratorium against commercial whaling by the International Whaling Commission (IWC) but only Japan was allocated an annual quota for scientific whaling that is aimed at determining available stocks.

Greenpeace International spearheads a global campaign against Japanese whaling that has led to bitter clashes and lawsuits against each other.

Several fisheries experts express support for the unprecedented move by the Japanese government, pointing out it is a vital landmark in dealing with the growing consumption of fish in the world that has lead to alarming depletion of stocks.

10 years jail for climate protest

CLIMATE CHANGE
“Act of Conscience” Could Earn 10-Year Prison Term
By Cléo Fatoorehchi

NEW YORK, Mar 24, 2011 (IPS) – A college student who derailed a federal auction of oil and gas leases to protest drilling near national parks in the western U.S. state of Utah, as well as the larger issue of reliance on fossil fuels, has reignited debate over the legitimacy of civil disobedience in addressing profound global problems like climate change.

In December 2008, the twilight of the George W. Bush administration, Tim DeChristopher attended the auction, held by the Bureau of Land Management, and bid 1.8 million dollars on parcels he never intended to actually buy. BLM agents caught on to the ruse fairly quickly, and DeChristopher was detained and then charged with making a false statement to the government and violating the Federal Onshore Oil and Gas Leasing Reform………….

Oil and Trouble | George Monbiot

Oil and Trouble

Posted on March 14, 2011 by George

Why western governments won’t support democracy in Saudi Arabia.

via Oil

Last week, while explaining why protests in the kingdom are unnecessary, the foreign minister, Prince Saud Al-Faisal, charmingly promised to “cut off the fingers of those who try to interfere in our internal matters”(2). In other parts of the world this threat would have been figurative; he probably meant it. If mass protests have not yet materialised in Saudi Arabia, it’s because the monarchy maintains a regime of terror, enforced with the help of torture, mutilation and execution.

Yet our leaders are even more at ease among the dyed beards and man-boobs of the Saudi autocracy than they were in the eccentric court of Colonel Gaddafi. The number of export licences granted by the UK government for arms sales to the kingdom has risen roughly fourfold since 2003(3). The last government was so determined to preserve its special relationship with the Saudi despots that it derailed British justice, by forcing the Serious Fraud Office to drop its inquiry into corruption in the Al Yamamah deals(4).

Why? Future weapons sales doubtless play a role. But there’s an even stronger imperative. A few days ago the French bank Société Générale warned that unrest in Saudi Arabia could push the oil price to $200 a barrel(5).

Abdullah’s kingdom is the world’s last swing producer: the only nation capable of raising cru

and Trouble | George Monbiot.

Palm oil giants in ‘land grab’ t

Palm oil giants target Africa in ‘land grab’ following Indonesia deforestation ban

Tom Levitt

25th March, 2011

Indonesia’s move to bring in a two-year moratorium on new palm oil plantations to protect its remaining rainforests has seen agribusiness giants like Sime Darby switch expansion plans to Cameroon, Ghana and Liberia

via Palm oil giants target Africa in ‘land grab’ following Indonesia deforestation ban – The Ecologist.

Wind Turbines Survive Earthquake

It’d be very difficult to exaggerate the scale of damage caused by the Japanese trifecta disaster of earthquake-tsunami-nuclear power plant crisis, but in the middle of it all there’s one small bright spot: Japan’s wind turbines have survived it all unscathed, with operators being asked to step up operations where possible to help with electricity shortfalls.

via Japan’s Wind Turbines Survive 1,000 Year Earthquake Unscathed : TreeHugger.