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More SCOTUS rumor

Rehnquist to announce retirement later today?

Update [2005-7-8 16:57:47 by Dave Roberts]: And still more juicy speculation: The White House may be holding Rehnquist's resignation letter over the weekend, allowing the focus to stay on terrorism. Deliciously dastardly!

G8 to warming planet: We’ll change. We promise.

As expected, U.S. obstructionism has led to a G8 communique on global warming that's long on aspirational phrases and short on solid commitments to changing our carbon-loading ways. Among other watered-down statements, the leaders of the developed world promise to:

... raise awareness of climate change and our other multiple challenges, and the means of dealing with them ... work with developing countries on building capacity to help them improve their resilience and integrate adaptation goals into sustainable development strategies ... make available the information which business and consumers need to make better use of energy and reduce emissions ...

Says the Beeb, "President George W. Bush has been reluctant to accept the position of the 'scientific consensus' on global warming."

What's with the scare quotes, BBC? National science academies from 11 nations agree: Global warming is real.

As for President's Bush's "reluctance to accept," let's call that what it is: An expedient political position that rewards his and Dick Cheney's supporters in the energy industry.

G8 aid to Africa update

Prime Minister Tony Blair just read off the G8's statement on aid to Africa. The BBC reports that they've -- we've, if you're a citizen of a G8 nation -- committed an extra $50 billion in anti-poverty aid.

This is below the United Nations' target of an immediate 0.7% of GDP, although the G8 have pledged to reach 0.56% by 2010, and 0.7% by 2015.

As Simon Jeffrey notes on The Guardian's G8 Newsblog:

It was not -- as campaigners wanted -- a deal to make poverty history. Gordon Brown, a politician who has supported the campaign more this weekend, said this week that, as far as campaigners are concerned, "what [the government] can achieve is perhaps not good enough". As leaks and drafts of the communique on aid, trade and debt filtered out of Gleneagles this morning, NGOs said it was less than they wanted -- especially on trade, and scheduling increases in aid to 2010 instead of immediately.

Debt relief for an additional nine African nations appears to be on the table as well, added to to the 18 already forgiven. African leaders had been hoping for debt writeoffs for all African nations.

The G8 are also promising a new peacekeeping force for Africa, as long as there is an answering commitment by African leaders to democracy, good governance, and rule of law.

G8 climate communiques are out

Full text of the G8 climate communiques are now available here and here.

CNOOC and Unocal

Some great comments from Billmon on CNOOC's bid to buy Unocal.

It's completely insane (or utterly craven, or both) to obsess over the $18.5 billion purchase of a second-tier oil company, when China is buying up roughly that same amount in U.S. Treasury and agency securities every quarter. China's stockpile of Treasuries ($235 billion at the end of April) already equals almost 12% of all U.S. debt in foreign hands, and is growing nearly twice as fast as the global total. And that's using the Treasury's own figures, which probably undercount. Add in securities held through third parties, such as offshore banks, and China could easily be holding close to $300 billion in America's national debt -- second only to Japan. And unlike Japan, nearly all of China's Treasury holdings are in the hands of the Chinese government.

If the dipsticks in Congress really had national security threats on their minds, they'd probably be worrying about that one -- not the risk that ownership of Unocal might allow China to tamper with the U.S. oil supply in time of war. If that nightmarish scenario ever were to unfold, the problem of seizing and securing Unocal's energy-producing assets would be trivial compared to the havoc that war would create in the global financial markets and the U.S. economy.

It’s gettin’ hot in herre, so take off all your robes…

Rumor has it Rehnquist and Stevens may be stepping down tomorrow.

Please, just wake me when it's over.

Sustainablogging around the clock

I have been remiss in not posting about this earlier:

On July 11-12, one of the leading lights of the eco-blogosphere, Jeff McIntire-Strasburg of Sustainablog, will be celebrating his blog's two-year anniversary by "Blogging 'Round the Clock." Yes, that means what you think it means: Jeff will be posting continuously for 24 hours. (Those familiar with the quantity and range of Sustainablog's content might already assume he never sleeps, but apparently he occasionally does.)

In addition to Jeff's own writing, he'll be publishing guest posts from other eco-bloggers, including yours truly and folks from Worldchanging and Greenbiz.

But this is not just to celebrate a blog. Jeff is asking readers to sign up and donate -- on a per-post basis -- to the Missouri Botanical Garden's Earthways Center, an outreach and education center in St. Louis that gets people fired up about sustainability.

Sign up to give Jeff $.50, $.25, or even just a dime a post. It's for a good cause, and a good blog.

Terror: Good or bad?

I believe the attacks in London today are horrific -- for the loss of life, obviously, but also because they distract attention from global warming and poverty in Africa, which are, in my humble opinion, much worse problems in the grand scheme of things.

A Fox News anchor agrees with me that the focus has shifted, but thinks, for that very reason, that the attacks are a good thing.

G8 climate fast

A group of activists is parked outside the White House, in the midst of a three-day fast meant to urge President Bush to join the rest of the G8 countries in committing to efforts to battle global warming. You can read more about the fast, and find out how to get involved, here.

We asked Billy Parish, coordinator of Energy Action, and Monica Brown, organizer for the Road to Detroit, to send us word of how it's going. Their dispatch is below.

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While President Bush is in Scotland stalling yet another international agreement on global warming, dozens of us from all over the country have gathered directly across from the White House to partake in a three-day fast to stop the madness. Our crowd of youth, environmental, and religious leaders is stranded on a small solar-powered platform along with any and all baggage, chairs, and banners, lest we provoke the fury of metro police, the SWAT team, or national park enthusiasts.

While doing backbends to comply with D.C. demonstration regulations -- keeping tents away from the "drip-line" of nearby saplings and chopping off the ".orgs" from all our signs -- we also happen to be giving up food in an effort to prevent the starvation and death of millions: the inevitable result of droughts and floods caused by global warming.

Studying eco-design

Looking to study eco-friendly design? Treehugger has a list of place where you can do it.