Discussion of All Things Political

SULAIMANIYA, Iraq / BRUSSELS, March 15, 2011 (IPS) - On a dusty street in the north-eastern Iraqi city of Sulaimaniya one recent day, an elderly man sold heaps of tomatoes, fruits and other fresh produce from a makeshift trolley.

But the vendor lamented that the fruits and vegetables no longer come from the once-prolific valleys of Iraq's self-governing Kurdish region, nor fertile regions further south.

Most of his goods are trucked in from Turkey and Iran, Massoud explains, handing over a bag of oranges to a visitor. "We had wars, we had Saddam, and now we have no rain," said Massoud, who did not want to share his real name with the customer.

Although the brief wet season is just beginning, much of northern Iraq has endured several years of drought, compounding water problems that stem from climate change, migration, a growing population and declining water flows in the country's most important rivers -- the Tigris and Euphrates.

Faced with a potentially catastrophic shortage of fresh water, Iraq and the other nations that share the Tigris and Euphrates, emanating in eastern Turkey, must strengthen efforts to protect the waterways, according to a new report. Such cooperation, like the rains, has been in short supply.MORE

America’s last living labor reporter for a major newspaper, Steven Greenhouse, gathered a bunch of quotes from labor leaders, eager to turn this moment into a movement. And importantly, they’re working on converting anger and protest into traditional organizing:

At the A.F.L.-C.I.O.’s winter meeting in Washington last week, labor leaders were laying plans to enlist some of the thousands of union members who have protested in Madison; Indianapolis; Columbus, Ohio; and elsewhere to work in the campaign by the Communications Workers of America to unionize 20,000 T-Mobile workers.
Similarly, union leaders want to harness some of this activism as well as the newfound cooperation between private sector and public sector unions to get hundreds of organizers to help unionize 45,000 airport security employees.
And the Service Employees International Union is seeking to channel the spirit and energy of Wisconsin into its immense new campaign in 15 cities, including Chicago, Detroit and Houston, to unionize tens of thousands of low-wage private sector workers as well as to get them to fight foreclosures and budget cuts. Mary Kay Henry, the S.E.I.U.’s president, said she hoped the protests in Wisconsin and Ohio would give a particular lift to her union’s efforts in Milwaukee and Cleveland.

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BAMAKO, Sep 15 (IPS) - Cars and motorcycles are stuck because of the heavy rains that have drenched Mali’s capital for the past few days. It is late afternoon and the water, mud and damaged fruit from nearby stalls make the journey for those heading home to celebrate Ramadan even more treacherous.

These sudden floods are a direct consequence of climate change that is causing extreme changes of weather with shorter and more abrupt rainy seasons alternating with drought and desertification. "Since the beginning of the 1970s, Mali has experienced a 20 percent decrease in rainfall and a 50 percent decrease in the rate of flow of the largest rivers," describes Sidi Konate.

He is an engineer who works at the technical permanent secretariat (TPS) of the ministry of environment, which is in charge of implementing the United Nations’ Framework Convention on Climate Change. The Kyoto Protocol forms part of this convention.

Konate was participating in a panel organised this past weekend by the Media 21 Global Journalism Network in Bamako. The network is a Geneva-based initiative that a team of journalists launched to improve the media coverage of key issues such as climate change.

In order to help developing countries adapt to a phenomenon they have not contributed to but which they suffer the consequences of, the Kyoto Protocol foresees a transfer by Northern countries of environmentally friendly technologies to help poor countries develop and industrialise but still pollute less.

"But up to now we have not received anything!" exclaims Konate. "Technology is not something you can transfer -- mainly because of intellectual property rights. You have to copy it, like the Chinese! The convention has not found any satisfying mechanism and the Copenhagen conference will not find it either." MORE