The geopolitical consequences of climate change

Sunday, July 5, 2009 - VENICE -- Europe will be wrangled for the next six months by a lanky, no-nonsense Swede named Carl Bildt. His country chairs this semester's cascade of European Union summits, procedural debates and other gabfests. As Sweden's foreign minister, it is Bildt's job to make sense of it all -- a task akin to herding not cats but eels.

Well, he asked for it, didn't he? When he was Sweden's prime minister in the 1990s, the conservative politician relentlessly overhauled his country's socialist economic policies and neutralist orientation to push it into the European Union. Now Sweden is stuck picking up the pieces of a deepening European economic crisis, paralyzed national governments and a constitutional stalemate.
But it was Bildt's description of the strategic consequences of climate change that galvanized my attention when he spoke here to the Council for the United States and Italy. The rapid melting of the Arctic ice sheet at the North Pole will bring "revolutionary new transport possibilities between the Atlantic and the Pacific," he told the gathering, expanding that thought for me later in an interview. More >>>

Planned shredding of nuclear papers "illegal"

Switzerland -June 30, 2009 A parliamentary control delegation has rejected plans by the cabinet to destroy sensitive documents related to an international nuclear smuggling ring.

The committee called on the government to seek an acceptable solution with justice authorities for about 100 pages of evidence linked to an investigation of three Swiss engineers suspected of smuggling nuclear weapons technology.

"There is no international obligation to destroy the documents," said Hansruedi Stadler, a Christian Democratic senator, on Tuesday.

The committee said the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) agreed that Switzerland was capable of safely storing the file, which contains more than 1,000 pages including documents on bomb designs, until a court rules on the case of Urs Tinner, his brother Marco and their father Friedrich. More >>>

Former US President Jimmy Carter's Addressin Gaza

Gaza: Bombs, Missiles, Tanks And Bulldozers

Transcript of former US President Jimmy Carter's Address to the United Nations Relief Works Agency's Human Rights Graduation in Gaza, June 16, 2009.

By Jimmy Carter

June 19, 2009 "Information Clearing House" -- June 16, 2009 -- Director of UNRWA operations John Ging, thank you for inviting me to Gaza. Distinguished guests, children of Gaza, I am grateful for your warm reception.

I first visited Gaza 36 years ago and returned during the 1980s and later for the very successful Palestinian elections. Although under occupation, this community was relatively peaceful and prosperous. Now, the aftermath of bombs, missiles, tanks, bulldozers and the continuing economic siege have brought death, destruction, pain, and suffering to the people here. Tragically, the international community largely ignores the cries for help, while the citizens of Gaza are being treated more like animals than human beings. More >>>

Non-proliferation 'going in circles'

19 June 2009 - Trying to maintain a global freeze on nuclear weapons technology has been tough for Mohamed ElBaradei, the outgoing head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), although he has hopes for progress on disarmament in the near future.

ElBaradei made an intervention on non-proliferation during the IAEA board of governors meeting in Vienna on 17 June. He said that much that was under discussion was the same as three years ago: "We have been going around in circles on some of the issues we are facing." More >>>

Disarmament lessons from the Chemical Weapons Convention

BY MIKHAIL GORBACHEV AND ROGELIO PFIRTER

The recent joint declaration by U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to negotiate a new treaty reducing their countries' nuclear stockpiles as a first step toward "a nuclear-weapon-free world" has spurred hopes for renewed progress in global disarmament after a decade of gridlock.

An excellent example of how nations can work together effectively within a multilateral framework to eliminate weapons of mass destruction is the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC).

The convention is unique in the sphere of disarmament and nonproliferation--an international treaty that abolishes an entire class of weapons of mass destruction under a stringent regime of inspections to verify compliance. Since its entry into force in April 1997, the convention has attracted 188 States Parties representing 98 percent of the world's population and chemical industries, the fastest rate of accession for any arms control treaty in history. More >>>

Washington, Israel and the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty

Jun 15, 2009 - Eyebrows were raised in Jerusalem when, last month, US Assistant Secretary of State Rose Gottemoeller declared that "universal adherence to the NPT [the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty] itself, including by India, Israel, Pakistan and North Korea... remains a fundamental objective of the United States."

Washington's chief nuclear arms negotiator may have been reiterating official US policy, but what set off alarm bells among Israeli policymakers is the possibility that her comments might represent a shift in the long-standing US practice of avoiding any real pressure on Israel to sign and ratify the NPT. MORE >>>

Abrupt Global Warming Could Shift Monsoon Patterns, Hurt Agriculture

June 11 2009 - At times in the distant past, an abrupt change in climate has been associated with a shift of seasonal monsoons to the south, a new study concludes, causing more rain to fall over the oceans than in the Earth's tropical regions, and leading to a dramatic drop in global vegetation growth.

If similar changes were to happen to the Earth's climate today as a result of global warming – as scientists believe is possible - this might lead to drier tropics, more wildfires and declines in agricultural production in some of the world's most heavily populated regions. The findings were based on oxygen isotopes in air from ice cores, and supported by previously published data from ancient stalagmites found in caves. More >>>