Monday, June 29, 2015

Pay attention to the evening sky: Venus and Jupiter together at last


The two brightest planets are gliding closer together in the early evening sky, and their celestial dance culminates with an ultra-close pairing on June 30th.

Anyone who pays even cursory attention to the evening sky has surely noticed that the two brightest planets,Venus and Jupiter, have been drawing closer together in the west in the evening twilight. 

The slow motion convergence of the planets is setting the stage for a dramatic sky sight. The warm-up act came on June 19th and 20th when the planetary duo was joined by a thin and lovely crescent moon. Farther to their upper left,and fainter,was Regulus,the alpha star of Leo.

But now the spectacle is taking an even more dramatic turn -one you can't miss. For eight nights beginning June 27th these two bright planets will be within 2 degrees of each other- close enough to cover both with the thumb of an outstretched hand. In the midst of that weeklong run on June 30th,Venus and Jupiter will appear so close together - just 1/3° apart that they'll look like a tight brilliant double star in the evening sky. - Sky and Telescope


Aquino just gave away our Panatag Shoal to China?

Panatag or Scarborough Shoal is the main meat why the Philippines submitted a 300-year old map to the international tribunal that was intended to bolster the Philippine case against China's claim to that part of the South China Sea. In fact, on Independence Day businessman Mel Velarde presented a copy of that map, known as the Murillo-Velarde map, to the president with similar copies distributed to schools and LGUs.

But then who among us, maybe including Velarde, knew that we already lost the Panatag Shoal in 2012, forever to China because of the "stupid bungling"of President Aquino?

"Congress should probe Aquino, his accomplice Senator Antonio Trillanes 4th and Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario – to determine how they lost Philippine territory, so we won’t make the same mistakes and continue to lose our islands in the Spratlys one by one", says The Manila Times columnist Rigoberto Tiglao. 

Panatag or Scarborough Shoal

HOW DID WE LOSE PANATAG (SCARBOROUGH)?

Congress should probe Aquino, Trillanes and del Rosario

June 28, 2015 by Rigoberto D.Tiglao
Cleverly, the Chinese wouldn’t boast about it, of course, but because of the stupid bungling of President Aquino, we lost Panatag Shoal (Scarborough Shoal) – forever – to China.
This is the second time we lost territory in the South China/West Philippine Sea. Marcos’ forces on Pugad Island in 1975 lost that territory when they attended their commander’s birthday party on the nearby Parola island, reportedly lured by the prospect of Vietnamese prostitutes stationed there as promised by their Vietnamese friends. They returned the next day to find a Vietnamese full-armed garrison, their cannons aimed at whoever approached the island.
I’m not sure which is worse: Losing territory because sex-starved troops abandoned their posts in 1975, or losing territory in 2012 when China fooled the President and a Senator of the Republic.
Congress should probe Aquino, his accomplice Senator Antonio Trillanes 4th and Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario – to determine how they lost Philippine territory, so we won’t make the same mistakes and continue to lose our islands in the Spratlys one by one.
Losing our territory alone – even if that were solely because of Aquino’s ineptness – is sufficient ground to impeach him, if only we had an independent Congress that had balls.
Justice Antonio Carpio’s ancient maps proving Bajo de Masinloc, the shoal’s other name, belonged to us centuries ago may not be worth their photocopies, even if put in impressive frames and impressively hung on a museum. So far, and ever will be, “occupation is ownership” has been the real law that has governed the territorial disputes all over the globe, and at all times.
In his patriotic crusade, Carpio should, instead, use his prestige to call for an investigation by the Senate or the House of Representatives to determine how this Administration lost Panatag Shoal to the Chinese.
Which is worse: Lonely troops fooled, or a President and a Senator hoodwinked?
Which is worse: Lonely troops fooled, or a President and a Senator hoodwinked?
We don’t have just one objective analyst claiming that we have already lost Panatag but two, and more I think would come out as the surprise of the loss settles down. Already, even a Wikipedia entry on “Scarborough Shoal” matter-of-factly points out: “Since the 2012 Scarborough Shoal standoff, access to the territory has been restricted by the People’s Republic of China.”
The first to reveal in public what most governments already knew about the situation was a November 2014 study by the CNA (Center for Naval Analyses), a research and development center for the Navy and Marine Corps funded by the federal government. I reported on this study entitled “The South China Sea: Assessing US Policy and Options for the Future” in my June 1 column.
In that study, the CNA matter-of-factly pointed out:
“From its perspective, China resolved the sovereignty dispute with the Philippines over Scarborough Shoal in 2012 when it established control over the shoal. Again, it is unlikely to relinquish it. The government of the Philippines is in no position to even begin to contemplate the use of force to recover Scarborough, and the United States is not going to become involved in any attempt to expel the Chinese.”
Wrested control
More recently, it is a June 19, 2015 article in the respected www.thediplomat.com entitled “South China Sea: Satellite Images Show Pace of China’s Subi Reef Reclamation” by one Victor Robert Lee that makes up the second confirmation that under President Aquino’s watch, we lost Scarborough Shoal. The article claimed:
“Chinese Coast Guard ships of the same “3401-class” have recently been used by Beijing to wrest control of the Scarborough Shoal from the Philippines, and to blockade the Second Thomas Shoal (also called Ayungin), where a unit of Filipino marines has been stationed.”
Victor Robert Lee – a pseudonym – has recently gained much credibility with regard to the South China tension because it was under his byline that high-definition, detailed satellite images of China’s frenetic infrastructure activities on islands and atolls it occupies were publicly released. The images could have only been acquired by top-secret US spy satellites.
Both the CNA study and Lee didn’t explain how we lost Panatag Shoal.
Here’s how:
Although China had long been claiming Scarborough Shoal, alleging that it is within its “nine-dash line,” there had never been, before 2012, an attempt from either Chinese or Filipino forces to permanently station troops there. The competing claims were seemingly ignored by vessels from both countries whose fishermen use a lagoon in the area as a refuge from storms. This “peaceful coexistence” of sorts changed suddenly in April 2012.
April 10, 2012: Sailors from a Philippine Navy surveillance ship board eight Chinese fishing vessels anchored in the shoal’s lagoon. They try to arrest the Chinese fishermen for illegal fishing and “harvesting endangered marine species.” However, two Chinese maritime surveillance ships come to their rescue and prevent the arrests in circumstances that are unclear.
April 11: Probably itching to try his warship out, President Aquino orders the frigate BRP Gregorio del Pilar – just “brand new” as the US coast guard had refurbished it and turned it over to our navy in May 2011 – to confront the Chinese at Panatag. “What is important is we take care of our sovereignty. We cannot give [Scarborough Shoal] away and we cannot depend on others but ourselves,” Aquino blustered.
April 12: Three Chinese Maritime Surveillance Ships (CMS), eventually increasing in number to 10, enter the shoal, bringing with them a flotilla of 31 Chinese fishing boats and 50 dinghies.
BRP Gregorio del Pilar – unexpectedly – leaves the area, according to Navy Flag Officer in Command Alexander Pama, “to replenish fuel and food provisions” in its base in La Union. However, a vessel of our Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) and two Coast Guard vessels remained near the entrance to the shoal’s lagoon.
The subsequent events in June, when China tightened its hold on Panatag after the BRP Gregorio del Pilar left (fled?), aren’t clear on who to blame other than Aquino – Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario or Senator Antonio Trillanes 4th, who around that time had been appointed by Aquino as his personal envoy to China to resolve the crisis.
Aide memoire
In his aide memoire on his “Backchannel Talks” made available to me, Trillanes put the blame squarely on del Rosario:
“PNoy directed me to work on the sequential withdrawal of government ships inside the shoal. However, on the morning of June 4, PNoy called me to inform me that our BFAR vessel has already left the shoal but China reneged on the agreement of simultaneous withdrawal of their ships, so two of them [were] still inside the shoal.
“I asked him who agreed with what, since I was just hammering out the details of the sequential withdrawal because the mouth of the shoal was too narrow for a simultaneous withdrawal. The President told me that Sec. del Rosario told him about the agreement reached in Washington.
“This time I asked PNoy: ‘If the agreement was simultaneous withdrawal, why did we leave first?’ PNoy responded to this effect: “Kaya nga sinabihan ko si Albert kung bakit niya pinalabas yung BFAR na hindi ko nalalaman.” (“That’s why I asked Albert [del Rosario] why he ordered the BFAR vessels to leave without my permission.”)
“Around 10 June, PNoy informed me that the (remaining BFAR) vessel was ordered to proceed to Subic to undergo repairs and directed me to ask Beijing to reciprocate. On 15 June, PNoy informed me again that he has ordered the pullout of the 2 remaining PCG (Philippine Coast Guard) ships from the shoal, citing an incoming typhoon as the reason, and directed me to ask Beijing to reciprocate.
It is astonishing, though, how Trillanes would boast that because of his talks with this Chinese contacts, he got them to get their 2 CMS vessels and 14 fishing boats out of the shoal, and to say: “Only 8 CMS (Chinese Maritime Surveillance) vessels remain at this time.”
 
How dimwit can one be?
It is that “REMAINING” flotilla of CMS ships on Panatag that wrested sovereignty from us, and our vessels and even fishermen are now shooed away by other Chinese ships patrolling the lagoon’s perimeter. There is no time now that there are no Chinese vessels in and out of the shoal.
In short, we lost Panatag Shoal because Aquino was fooled by the Chinese, made possible by the fact that he bypassed the foreign affairs and defense departments and believed what his personal envoy, Trillanes, told him.
Trillanes, who probably fancied himself as the Filipino Kissinger but who had never had an experience in diplomacy nor in negotiations with a foreign power, believed the Chinese when they told him they would withdraw their ships from Panatag Shoal. And this gullible president believed him.
Laughing at Aquino
Chinese strategists must have rolled on the ground laughing at Aquino. They brilliantly manipulated Trillanes and their US contacts to fool Aquino that they would withdraw their ships from Scarborough if we did. They didn’t.
Trillanes even concocted scenarios for a “simultaneous” withdrawal. But when Aquino ordered our ships out, the Chinese stayed, and their officers and sailors in the ships on Panatag probably waived at them, smiling ear to ear, Goodbye, stupid Filipinos. - Read more on The Manila Times

Also read:

Thursday, June 25, 2015

What US Billionaire Soros fears over South China Sea tensions will come to pass?

“If there is conflict between China and a military ally of the United States, like Japan, then it is not an exaggeration to say that we are on the threshold of a third world war,”- US Billionaire George Soros has told World Bank


Joint Japan-Philippine Flight Over South China Sea Riles China


A Japanese surveillance plane flew over disputed waters in the South China Sea on Tuesday, as part of joint drills with the Philippines. As The Diplomatreported previously, the Philippines is holding separate drills with the United States and Japan this week, with both exercises held near the South China Sea. The Japan-Philippine drill, only the second ever between the two countries, simulated maritime search and rescue operations, part of the drill’s larger focus on humanitarian assistance and disaster relief.
As part of the drill, a Japanese Maritime Self Defense Force (MSDF) P3-C Orion surveillance plane flew past Reed Bank, an area claimed by both China and the Philippines. The Japanese plane carried three Philippine crew members on board as guests, and was accompanied by a Philippine patrol aircraft, Reuters reported.
Philippine Marine Colonel Jonas Lumawag, describing the drill, told reporters, “We practiced search and rescue patterns, which are essential in any humanitarian assistance and disaster response operations.” According toYomiuri Shimbunthe drill involved a mock search for a shipwrecked vessel. However, Yomiuri also noted that the Philippine officers on board were “apparently greatly impressed by the P-3C’s excellent ability to detect submarines” – exactly the capability that makes China most nervous about U.S. P-3 patrols. In the post-drill press conference, Lumawag said that the Philippines is eager to learn from Japanese experience operating such surveillance planes.
Still, the Philippines was quick to note that the drills (both with Japan and with the United States) are not aimed at any specific country. “The Philippines has had these exercises before with our strategic partners. It should not be taken as an affront to any other and is an expression of cooperation and learning from all those involved,” Deputy Presidential Spokesperson Abigail Valte told The Philippine StarA Navy spokesperson agreed, saying, “We are doing this for interoperability” – not to send a message about the maritime disputes.
Still, experts believe the joint drill could be a precursor to Japanese joint patrols over the South China Sea, something the United States has expressed interest in before. “It’s likely we will see Japan doing joint surveillance and reconnaissance in the South China Sea in the coming years… It is going to be with the U.S., Australia, the Philippines, and others,” Narushige Michishita of the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies in Tokyo told the Associated Press.
China, for its part, continues to repeat its basic message to Japan: stay out of the South China Sea. A Xinhuacommentary published before the joint drill actually took place called the exercise “the latest sequel to Tokyo’s meddling in the South China Sea.” The author, Wang Haiqing, noted several reasons for “Tokyo’s recent obsession to meddle in the South China Sea”: seeking to force China to divert resources from the East China Sea (where it has a territorial dispute with Japan) to the South China Sea; hoping to portray China as an aggressive “bully” in order to win more domestic support for the Abe administration’s security and defense reforms; and trying to distract the world from historical issues regarding Japan’s actions in World War II. “Japan, which is not a party to the disputes in South China Sea, should abandon all attempts to stir waves in the area,” Wang concluded.
When asked if China is concerned about the joint Japan-Philippines drills, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang noted that “what the regional countries care most [about] is still the issue of development.” He added, “We hope that relevant sides would not deliberately hype up or even create so-called tension in the region.”

Tuesday, June 23, 2015

U.S.. Japan, Philippines in Navy drills near South China Sea

U.S., Japan Join Philippines in Navy Drills Near South China Sea                      


U.S. Navy Rear Admiral William Merz,attends the opening ceremony of the annual CARAT naval exercise in Palawan, on June 22, 2015. Photographer: Sanjit Das/Bloomberg

The U.S. and Japan are conducting separate military drills with the Philippines near the disputed South China Sea, signaling support for the country as China builds out reclaimed reefs in the waters.
The annual CARAT Philippines joint exercise started Monday off the east coast of Palawan island and will run until June 26, according to U.S. Navy spokesman Arlo Abrahamson. The Philippine and Japanese navies are holding drills around the same island through June 27, Japan’s Maritime Self-Defense Force said last week.
The U.S. has backed Southeast Asian nations including the Philippines as tensions escalate with China over territorial claims in the South China Sea, while Japan is providing patrol vessels to the Philippine coast guard. Closer to home, Philippine President Benigno Aquino has rallied neighbors to more aggressively respond to China’s efforts to enforce its claims to 80 percent of the waters.
“This year’s exercise reflects more than two decades of increasingly complex training ashore, at sea and in the air,” said Abrahamson.
The drill includes a sea phase with the littoral combat ship USS Fort Worth, diving and salvage ship USNS Safeguard and a P-3 Orion surveillance aircraft and at least one Philippine frigate, according to the U.S. Navy. It’s the first time a littoral combat ship has taken part in CARAT Philippines.
Japan’s exercises with the Philippines will take place adjacent to the Spratly Islands, where China has created more than 2,000 acres of land in waters also claimed by the Philippines, Vietnam, Brunei, Taiwan and Malaysia. Japan will send a P-3C anti-submarine, maritime surveillance aircraft and 20 personnel.

Land Construction

Tensions in the area have risen recently with China warning planes and ships away from reefs where it is reclaiming land. The Fort Worth had an encounter last month with a Chinese ship - - it was reportedly followed by a frigate -- and a U.S. surveillance planewas repeatedly warned by radio to divert from its path near the reefs.
“We prefer to look at it as a strategy of regional stability and less of defense,” U.S. Rear Admiral William Merz, commander of Task Force 74, told reporters on Palawan in response to a question about how the drills may boost the Philippines’ ability to defend territory. “We have a lot of history that these types of exercises, working with our allies, tend to lead to a very stable environment in the areas we were.”

‘Necessary’ Needs

China will construct facilities to meet “necessary” military needs and various civilian needs, after it finishes reclamation in the near term, its Foreign Ministry said in a statement this month. The construction doesn’t target any nation and won’t affect navigation or aviation freedom, it said.
Protecting freedom of navigation in the disputed waters resonates in the region because the South China Sea hosts more than $5 trillion of shipping each year and is home to about a 10th of the world’s annual fishing catch.
China criticized drills involving more than 11,000 soldiers from the Philippines, U.S. and Australia near the contested islands in April. The expanded war games were inappropriate and ran counter to efforts to ease tensions, the state-run Global Times said at the time.
About 600 sailors and marines are taking part in the latest exercise, according to the Philippine navy.
“The intent of CARAT is enhancing capabilities, navy-to-navy capabilities, increasing interoperability,” Rear Admiral Leopoldo Alano, commander of the Philippine Fleet, told reporters on Monday on Palawan. “These can be used both in wartime missions or missions other than war.” - Bloomberg

Russian Navy in Sea of Japan military exercises

Russian Navy vessels are taking part in military exercises in the Sea of Japan, according to Russia’s Eastern Military District press service.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Russian Navy missile boats and minesweepers are taking part in military exercises in the Sea of Japan, Russia’s Eastern Military District press service said Tuesday.
"Minesweepers practiced elements of anti-torpedo defense of a tactical vessel group. During the training, the crews practiced trawling and vessel navigation in areas considered hazardous," the statement said.
The Eastern military district also noted that tactical groups made up of missile boats practiced a number of anti-ship defense tasks, having conducted several practice cruise missile launches.
The vessels' crews also practiced using air defense to counter air raids by a simulated enemy. - Sputnik News

Sunday, June 21, 2015

Volcanoes send off blasts within days of each other

While many other volcanoes within the Ring of Fire are erupting now, the latest to send off blasts from Tuesday to Friday last week in Asia are Indonesia's Mount Sinabung, Philippines' Mount Bulusan, and Japan's Mount Asama. 
Mount Bulusan

Mount Sinabung

Mount Asama

Govt takes precautions as Mt. Bulusan turns lively

The government has stockpiled food supplies in case of evacuations after Mount Bulusan in Sorsogon emitted ash and smoke six times in recent weeks, officials said Sunday.

In addition to the emergency food packs, authorities are closely watching communities near the volcano, said presidential spokesman Herminio Coloma.

The latest emissions came on Friday, with two other eruptions earlier last week.

"The government continues to monitor the behaviour of Mount Bulusan... so we can safeguard the welfare of about 34,000 affected residents in 22 villages and five towns," said Coloma.

The government volcano monitoring institute said that so far, the emissions have been caused by groundwater mixing with hot rocks inside the 1,565-meter (5,134-foot) volcano.

These "phreatic eruptions" have sent ash and smoke into the air, covering the volcano's slopes and nearby towns, said Winchelle Ian Sevilla, the officer heading a team monitoring Bulusan.

He said that as long as people stay out of the four-kilometer "danger zone" around Bulusan, they would not be hurt by any falling rocks. - GMA Network

Wednesday, June 17, 2015

Most dangerous period now for catastrophic earthquakes and volcanic eruptions

We believe the USA and the world, has now entered the most dangerous period for catastrophic earthquakes and volcanic eruptions in over two hundred years. In fact, a new trend of increased number and intensity of earthquakes and volcanoes globally, has already started and is generating serious concern in the geology field.  John L. Casey, Space and Science Research Corporation



Earthquake and Volcano Threat for USA Increases

In a rare letter to Mr. Craig Fugate, the Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the Space and Science Research Corporation (SSRC), has disclosed that we are about to enter a potentially catastrophic period of record earthquakes and volcanic eruptions throughout the United States.
 
The letter was signed by SSRC President, Mr. John Casey, and delivered to FEMA headquarters in Washington, D.C. today. In the letter, Mr. Casey outlines how the ongoing dramatic reduction in the Sun's energy output will not only plunge the world into a decades-long cold epoch, but at the same time bring record geophysical devastation in monster earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. These cold climate periods called "solar hibernations" or "solar minimums," are well known phenomena in the solar physics community. The SSRC has done important pioneering work in the field of solar- climate modeling and has established itself as a leader in climate prediction and the study of these hibernations of the Sun.
 
Citing new research included in the SSRC's semi-annual Global Climate Status Report (GCSR) to come out on Wednesday, the letter to FEMA's Craig Fugate contained an important warning for all major earthquake fault zones and volcanically active areas. The research focuses especially on the increased threat for the New Madrid Seismic Zone (NMSZ) between St. Louis and Memphis.
 
This new threat information is contained in one of several papers in the June 10 edition of the GCSR paper authored by Mr. Casey and Dr. Dong Choi, Director of Research for the International Earthquake and Volcano Prediction Center (IEVPC). The paper shows that the NMSZ is due for another calamitous quake between 2017 and 2038. Dr. Choi and Casey show that for four times in a row since the year 1450, a major quake strikes the NMSZ when the Sun has gone into a hibernation phase. This scientific revelation is what Choi and Casey believes solves the puzzle of when the next major quake will strike the area. Geologists have studied the NMSZ for many years using traditional approaches. Casey and Choi say it is the combined research from the fields of solar physics and geology that provides the best opportunity to date to estimate when the next devastating NMSZ earthquake will strike. Other scientists agree with their opinion.
 
For this singular reason Dr. Choi and Mr. Casey have strongly recommended to FEMA Administrator Fugate that all high risk earthquake fault zones and areas with a history of volcanic eruptions in the USA take immediate precautions to mitigate what they describe as a "period of unparalleled geophysical lethality and destruction."
 
Mr. Casey adds, "The very strong correlation between these solar minimums and the incidence of catastrophic earthquakes worldwide is an impressive display of how interconnected we all are to our natural world and the cycles of the Sun. It would be foolhardy to ignore in particular, the history of major earthquakes in the NMSZ and the fact that at the bottom of every solar hibernation for the past 600 years, that area has seen devastating earthquakes ranging from M6.8 to M8.0. 
 
"While we address the New Madrid risk in this press release and in the June 10, 2016 Global Climate Status Report, the coincidence of major earthquakes with solar minimums is not limited to just that area of the US. That is why our letter to Administrator Fugate was a nationwide alert. The ~M9.0 Cascadia quake and tsunami of 1700 was at the bottom of the coldest solar hibernation period which was called the Maunder Minimum. The Great San Francisco quake of 1906 was at the bottom of another solar low point - the ‘Centennial' Minimum as it is called at the SSRC. This strong association of solar activity and the worst earthquakes and volcanic eruptions could represent the ‘missing link' for geophysical disaster prediction."

 
Dr. Choi (Australia) also supports Casey's opinion by saying, "The extensive research done in this area is clear in its implications. When the solar minimums arrive, the worst recorded earthquakes and volcanic eruptions strike. The last solar minimum for example, saw the largest series of earthquakes in human history in the NMSZ and the largest recorded volcanic eruption at Mt. Tambora in Indonesia. These events occurred within a few years of each other during the coldest period in the Sun's last hibernation in the early 1800's."


Headquartered in Orlando, Florida, the Space and Science Research Corporation (SSRC) is a leading independent US climate research company. It is the foremost institution in the United States dedicated to communicating the need to prepare for the new cold climate epoch. The SSRC has led all climate research companies in alerting the White House, Congress and the maintsream media to the ill-effects of the next climate change predicted by the SSRC and other international scientists to be decades of potentially dangerous cold weather.


The SSRC maintains active communication channels with some of the world's best experts in the field of solar physics and climate research pertaining to the matter of the next climate change. In addition, it has a dedicated list of "Supporting Researchers" and other scientists who contribute to its climate reports and climate research.

John L. Casey
 
Mr. John L. Casey is a former White House space program advisor, consultant to NASA Headquarters, and a senior field engineer on the Space Shuttle program. He is one of America’s most successful climate change researchers and climate prediction experts. Mr. Casey is the leading advocate in the US for a national and international plan to prepare for the next climate change to one of a dangerous cold climate era. This new cold era is caused by a historic decline in the Sun’s energy output, what he calls a “solar hibernation.”
In the spring of 2007, he became the first researcher to announce this dramatic change in the Sun to the White House and the mainstream media. In addition to correctly predicting the hibernation of the Sun, recently confirmed by NASA and other science organizations, he has correctly predicted the end of global warming, and the long term decline in the Earth’s temperatures.

He is the author of the internationally acclaimed climate science books, “Cold Sun” and "Dark Winter," which describe the rationale for understanding why global warming has ended and the effects of the new cold climate era. Mr. Casey is currently President of the climate research company, the Space and Science Research Corporation (SSRC), in Orlando, Florida. Through his years in climate research he has been outspoken in saying that the Sun is the primary driver to climate change. He was named "America's best climate prediction expert," by Watchdogwire.com in March 2013.

Monday, June 15, 2015

Explosive intervention by Pope Francis on Climate Change debate

Explosive intervention by Pope Francis set to transform climate change debate

The most anticipated papal letter for decades will be published in five languages on Thursday. It will call for an end to the ‘tyrannical’ exploitation of nature by mankind. Could it lead to a step-change in the battle against global warming?

John Vidal,The Guardian

Pope Francis on a visit to the Philippines in January. Photograph: Johannes Eisele/AFP/Getty Images

Pope Francis will call for an ethical and economic revolution to prevent catastrophic climate change and growing inequality in a letter to the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics on Thursday.
In an unprecedented encyclical on the subject of the environment, the pontiff is expected to argue that humanity’s exploitation of the planet’s resources has crossed the Earth’s natural boundaries, and that the world faces ruin without a revolution in hearts and minds. The much-anticipated message, which will be sent to the world’s 5,000 Catholic bishops, will be published online in five languages on Thursday and is expected to be the most radical statement yet from the outspoken pontiff.
However, it is certain to anger sections of Republican opinion in America by endorsing the warnings of climate scientists and admonishing rich elites, say cardinals and scientists who have advised the Vatican.
The Ghanaian cardinal, Peter Turkson, president of the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace and a close ally of the pope, will launch the encyclical. He has said it will address the root causes of poverty and the threats facing nature, or “creation”.
In a recent speech widely regarded as a curtain-raiser to the encyclical, Turkson said: “Much of the world remains in poverty, despite abundant resources, while a privileged global elite controls the bulk of the world’s wealth and consumes the bulk of its resources.”
The Argentinian pontiff is expected to repeat calls for a change in attitudes to poverty and nature. “An economic system centred on the god of money needs to plunder nature to sustain the frenetic rhythm of consumption that is inherent to it,” he told a meeting of social movements last year. “I think a question that we are not asking ourselves is: isn’t humanity committing suicide with this indiscriminate and tyrannical use of nature? Safeguard creation because, if we destroy it, it will destroy us. Never forget this.”
The encyclical will go much further than strictly environmental concerns, say Vatican insiders. “Pope Francis has repeatedly stated that the environment is not only an economic or political issue, but is an anthropological and ethical matter,” said another of the pope’s advisers, Archbishop Pedro Barreto Jimeno of Peru.
“It will address the issue of inequality in the distribution of resources and topics such as the wasting of food and the irresponsible exploitation of nature and the consequences for people’s life and health,” Barreto Jimeno told the Catholic News Service.
He was echoed by Cardinal Oscar Rodríguez Maradiaga of Honduras, who coordinates the Vatican’s inner council of cardinals and is thought to reflect the pope’s political thinking . “The ideology surrounding environmental issues is too tied to a capitalism that doesn’t want to stop ruining the environment because they don’t want to give up their profits,” Rodríguez Maradiaga said.
The rare encyclical, called “Laudato Sii”, or “Praised Be”, has been timed to have maximum public impact ahead of the pope’s meeting with Barack Obama and his address to the US Congress and the UN general assembly in September.
It is also intended to improve the prospect of a strong new UN global agreement to cut climate emissions. By adding a moral dimension to the well-rehearsed scientific arguments, Francis hopes to raise the ambition of countries above their own self-interest to secure a strong deal in a crucial climate summit in Paris in November.
“Pope Francis is personally committed to this [climate] issue like no other pope before him. The encyclical will have a major impact. It will speak to the moral imperative of addressing climate change in a timely fashion in order to protect the most vulnerable,” said Christiana Figueres, the UN’s climate chief, in Bonn this week for negotiations. - Read full story on  The Guardian

Pre-emptive attacks on the Pope's stance on Climate Change

Angry US Republicans tell Pope Francis to ‘stick with his job and we’ll stick with ours’

The US right will launch pre-emptive attacks on the pope’s stance on climate change

Suzanne Goldenberg, US environment correspondent

Catholic and long-shot Republican nomination hopeful Rick Santorum.
Photograph: Chris Keane/Reuters

Leading figures on the American right are launching a series of pre-emptive attacks on the pope before this week’s encyclical, hoping to prevent a mass conversion of the climate change deniers who have powered the corps of the conservative movement for more than a decade.
The prospect that the pope, from his perch at the pinnacle of the Catholic church, will exhort humanity to act on climate change as a moral imperative is a direct threat to a core belief of US conservatives. And conservatives – anxious to hang on to their flock – are lashing out.
“The pope ought to stay with his job, and we’ll stay with ours,” James Inhofe, the granddaddy of climate change deniers in the US Congress and chairman of the Senate environment and public works committee, said last week, after picking up an award at a climate sceptics’ conference.
Rick Santorum, a devout Catholic and a long-shot contender for the Republican nomination, told a Philadelphia radio station: “The church has gotten it wrong a few times on science, and I think we probably are better off leaving science to the scientists and focusing on what we’re good at, which is theology and morality.”
A majority of Republicans in Congress deny the existence of climate change and oppose regulations to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Among the ultra-conservative Tea Party set, climate change scepticism reaches epidemic proportions, about 80% of those on the far right, according to the Pew research centre. Only one of the nearly 20 Republicans running for president will acknowledge the danger of climate change, another long-shot contender, Lindsey Graham.
The fossil fuel industry, including the American Petroleum Institute lobby group and Peabody Coal, has cast fossil fuels as a route out of poverty in the developing world. Ultra-conservative and climate change denial thinktanks, such as the Heartland Institute, which has been funded by the oil industry, have argued that climate change was the cure for drought and famine in Ethiopia in the 1980s.
“In the US for the past 10 years we have allowed climate change to become an ideological political issue instead of being the moral issue that it is,” said the Rev Mitchell Hescox, leader of the Evangelical Environmental Network. “The idea that climate change is a liberal issue has just permeated the thought of those in the conservative movement, and those in the denier campaign have taken advantage of that to continue to drive home the message that climate change is not a moral issue,” added Hescox, who identifies himself as a conservative.
But it gets much harder to dismiss climate change as a fringe concern of liberals such as Al Gore, and environmental regulations as a sneaky first step to sweeping regulations and a government takeover of private lives, once the pope becomes involved.
“If I were a Catholic climate denier, I would be worried about the pope,” said Patrick Regan, who teaches the politics of climate change at Notre Dame University. “And if I had a vested interest in not changing climate policy, the pope would be a threat to my political stance.”
In the case of climate change, conservatives face multiple threats to the world view.
This week, the pope will cast climate change as the moral cause of our times. Over the summer, Barack Obama will finalise new rules cutting carbon pollution from power plants. In September, the pope will be back to stir up talk of climate change again, in the first ever speech by a pope to Congress – just at a time when hard-core conservatives had hoped to be voting on long-shot legislation to block the power plant rules or cut climate aid to developing countries.

Sunday, June 14, 2015

Or. Mindoro and Batangas anti-mining protests: They learn from us, we learn from them



Mindoreños protest the Aquino administration's granting of clearance to resume the mining operations of Norwegian firm Intex. Photos courtesy of Inquirer.net




ORIENTAL MINDORO

Earlier on the CBCP-National Secretariat for Social Action joined Alyansa Tigil Mina and Alyansa Laban sa Mina in voicing anger over Intex ECC's reinstatement seen "as a symbol of the Office of the President and the undeniable betrayal of the Mindorenos' welfare and trust".

"We will not let this betrayal extinguish our fire of passion to protect our lands and mountains against corporate greed, pursued in collusion with our own government," CBCP NASSA executive director Fr. Edu Gariguez said on the CBCP news site.


“Mindoreños are one in opposing mining in the province, as this will destroy our fragile ecosystem. The people of Mindoro do not deserve this kind of betrayal from the government, the very same that should be upholding and protecting our rights and our environment,” he added.


In November 2009, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources temporarily revoked Intex’s ECC due to questions over how the firm got the certificate.


"Intex’s ECC reinstatement is a symbol of the Office of the President and the (DENR)’s undeniable betrayal of the Mindoreños welfare and trust,” he said.


ATM coordinator Jaybee Garganera said the act was "invalid and contrary to the position of the local government as well as of the affected communities.”


Also, he said Malacañang and DENR must “feel ashamed” for putting corporate business interest above the best interest of Mindoreños and the environment. 



BATANGAS



Over in Lobo, Batangas more than four hundred participants walked out from a public hearing on mining projects facilitated by the Environmental Management Bureau in Punta Malabrigo, Lobo..
Fr. Dakila Ramos of the Archdiocesan Ministry for Environment (AMEN), said they walked out because of the lack of transparency of the government agency and the mining company.
The hearing set to discuss the environmental impact assessment (EIA) reports for two large-scale mining projects in Lobo, Batangas was declared a sham by the people.
Lipa Archbishop Ramon Arguelles who led the walk-out said: “Any public hearing needs full transparency, how could we have transparency in this hearing if we the stakeholders are not given the copy Environmental Impact Statement prepared by the mining company. We only have the executive summary that has no details of their EIA. This public hearing should be declared void”.

MARINDUQUE


The same lack of transparency and failure to provide critical information to the people in matters that will directly impact their lives and the environment, in addition to deliberate deception applied by the powers that shouldn't be have apparently also hounded the cases up to the present time involving Marcopper and Barrick Gold after the worst environmental accident that transpired in Marinduque in 1996.