Category: Environment

Categories
Economics Environment Politics & government

[490] Of Michigan Student Assembly and the Coke resolution

I was at the Michigan Student Assembly Chambers yesterday, hearing the tabling of a resolution against Coke. Before the session started, probably hundreds of emails flew here and there, presenting idea, news and opinion on the resolution. Seriously, I do think the Killer Coke coalition needs a proper forum instead of a mailing list. It is a daunting task to read all of them with some time constraint in place, especially in a mailbox. However, the highlight of all these email storm was the one sent by the MSA president to the protesting coalition.

He wrote and later said in the meeting that he and others in the MSA board want to postpone the tabling of the motion for another seven days. Reason – they claim that they simply are not sufficiently educated on the issue, despite more than a week worth of effort from certain quarters to inform them of the situation.

Some try to resist the postponement. The Killer Coke coalition obviously wanted the resolution to be voted swiftly but the coalition unfortunately stood almost alone on that. After a few somewhat heated discussions, the MSA voted something like 30 ayes to 2 nays on not voting on the resolution in yesterday session. The representatives from the Coke Bottlers that were there are obviously pleased with the adjournment motion.

Immediately after that, a few people were allowed to speak, both from the coalition and from the Michigan Coke. A person from the coalition, a graduate student from the School of Natural Resource and the Environment as I was informed by a colleague, criticized the MSA board for giving an excuse of ignorance for adjourning the motion after she had read a declaration from workers in India.

A few others from the coalition spoke but most of them only echoed the SNRE graduate’s disappointment on MSA postponing the issue to another week. And so, here goes the lobbying again. And I expect, my huge mailbox to be battered some more.

Finally, this coming Thursday, which is tomorrow, somehow, representatives from Starbuck, Nike, Timberland and, drum roll please, Coca Cola are coming to the Michigan Business School for Surviving Scrutiny: Corporations in the Age of Global Business. Imagine the perfect timing of Coke sending in a high level manager to Michigan. Unfortunate for them – definately couldn’t be better for us – that the coalition is organizing a huge protest for them.

Boy, this is exciting. LOL!

p/s – also yesterday, I attended a lecture by Joseph Stiglitz.

He is the person with the tie.He basically talked about the same issues he has written in Globalization and Its Discontent, plus a bit of humor. The auditorium was full and I had to squeze in. More at the Michigan Daily.

pp/s – also, thanks to the Brazilian Maxwell, Ajax 1, Auxerre 0. van der Vaart’s pass was great.

ppp/s – Kyoto. =)

Categories
Economics Environment

[489] Of a day before Kyoto Day

It took almost a decade to ratify the pact that tries something to mitigate the biggest environmental issue of our time. Now, time is at hand. The real fight begins in less than a day.

While the treaty will come into force tomorrow, the facilities for emission trading have been set up. One of them is the Chicago Climate Exchange, the CCX. It is the world’s first greenhouse gases exchange. The existence of this exchange will allow companies to buy and sell quotas set forth by the Kyoto Protocol. The market looks thin to me for the moment but I’m sure as time goes by, it will thicken. In Europe, agreements between firms and countries on quota transfer have already been signed upon. I’m unable to provide a link or two on this as the news came out some weeks ago. Wikipedia, the Oracle of the Internet, however does provide some example.

While the implementation of the Protocol takes place, some already fail to prepare themselves for oncoming treaty. The European Union, possibly the green’s current best of friends, has sued a few of its members for such failure.

The target of the Protocol is anything but easy and that is why some have failed to comply despite ratification. The pact asserts that by the year 2012, the worldwide level of six greenhouse gases needs to be comparable to 1990 level. I simply believe it is almost impossible to reach that goal. The time frame is simply too short for such grand achievement – economy will grow somehow and so will the emission of the gases.

Yet, this constraint imposed by Kyoto may overcome that skepticism. It has been said that the mother of all inventions is necessity (I say laziness is the father of invention). With the expensive protocol in place, there will come a time to find a cheaper way to implement Kyoto. My take on the solution is technology; in particular, energy efficiency. A breakthrough such as the mass production of fuel cell is highly needed for the 1990 target to be possible.

And of course, future participation by China and India is important. The US and Australia on the other hand are possibly lost in their own reality. Concerning the US, a few states, notably of New England and the Pacific, have taken their own initiative to reduce carbon emission despite the diverging stance by the federal government.

Whatever it is, an ode to Kyoto and the Earth Summit at Rio de Janeiro, the place where it all begun. Kyoto might be imperfect but it is bringing us into the right direction, however short that step really is.

Categories
Activism Economics Environment Photography Politics & government

[486] Of kicking Coke off campus

Earlier today, a rally to kick Coke off campus was held at the Diag. The effort has been going on for a few weeks now and it is being organized by a coalition of student groups. The core members of the coalition are Amnesty International, Environmental Justice and SOLE. There are other supporters like the Student Greens and the Indian Student Association but I can’t remember all of them.

Fair use

The members of the campaign are trying to make the University administration to force Coke to act more responsibly on matters concerning the environment and human rights. In Colombia, a number of labor union leaders that were troublesome to the bottling plants administration have been killed by paramilitary and Coke is alleged to have a connection with the murders. Union members have also been forced to quit their union if they want to keep their jobs – the right to free association being taken away forceful.Pertaining to the environment, in India, Coke is draining an aquifer and in effect depriving the poor local residents of precious water supply. Concurrently in India, there is a major movement to force Coke (and Pepsi too) entirely out of India. Here is a old article from BBC concerning Colas and India.

At the moment, the coalition is trying to get the Michigan Student Assembly to pass a resolution to condemn Coke. The first reading was read yesterday during the MSA weekly meeting and the motion will be up for voting next week. As I understand, heavy lobbying is happening within MSA. Despite the lobbying, I don’t see how the motion won’t go through since most of the board members seem to be from the left side of the political spectrum. With possible support from MSA, it is hoped that the University administration will be pressured to at least renegotiate its contract with Coke. A copy of the resolution can be found here.

While this is going on here in Michigan, other campuses are running the same campaign too. This is actually part of a nationwide protest against Coke. Some of them have managed to convince their schools to quit Coke.

Finally, next week, a few speakers, one of them is from Colombia, will be speaking on how bad the situation is in Colombia.

And now, some photos.

Environmental Justice people made that bottle-link and I helped them with it. It’s 125 feet long and we spent almost two hours trying to get it done. We didn’t buy any of them of course. Buying them to make the link rather defeats the purpose of boycotting Coke.

And this is somebody with the campaign poster. I don’t know him but he is probably from Amnesty.

And this probably somebody from the Michigan Daily, taking a shot at the bottle-link. We at EJ are hoping it gets into the front page tomorrow.

The aftermath. It’s going to be recycled of course.

And an explanation why the bottle-link is 125 feet.

More info on the issue is at Killer Coke.p/s – I’ve learnt that the Daily editorial endorses our effort. w00t! The piece could be read at the Michigan Daily. There is also some hope that the New York Times catches this…

pp/s – today in World of Warcraft, I helped a few others, about 10 players, defending Astranaar, a town in the game, from Orcs’ raids. It feels great to kick orcs’ ass.

Categories
Economics Environment Politics & government

[482] Of State of the Union 2005

Are you folks ready for our annual laugh?

I hope Bush has finally learnt his past mistakes, or else. Five more minutes and oh, I can’t wait to listen to him.

p/s – alright. I take that back. It was good, at least to me and especially how he brought the social security issue to the table. I understand how the social system is flawed but I’m not sure privatization is the right solution. Regardless of that, I prefer one, instead of letting somebody else or the government to finance one’s own future. The current system put the unnecessary burden on the wrong generation.

The environment though, received scant attention. Bush wants to encourage hydrogen fuel – something that he said in his last address. I’m not sure if he is actually trying anything at all though.

He also mentioned about cutting down spending while making tax cut permanent. Heh! Reagan wanted that too. I don’t think cutting down both taxes and spending simultaneously is easy, if impossible is not the right choice of word. It is easier said than done, still.

pp/s – Low Culture is having some fun on Bush. More should be coming, considering how the authors love Bush. I’ve been reading the blog for a couple weeks now and I like it. It’s now under blogroll.

Categories
Environment Liberty Politics & government Pop culture Sci-fi

[479] Of Iraqi National Assembly election

Very soon, in less than 24 hours, the Iraqis will be able to decide the future of their country. Finally for the first time in an episode of a tediously long drama, they will be able to participate in a countrywide democratic process.

Earlier, I had actually thought that this election would elect the head of the state and other high state functions, similar to the November US presidential election. I was wrong.

Instead, the individuals elected into the Iraqi National Assembly will discuss and draft a new permanent constitution for Iraq. Later, the constitution will be voted by the Iraqis in a referendum. Moreover, the National Assembly will act as a transitional government, replacing the interim government. Once a version of the constitution is voted and agreed upon, the transitional government will be dissolved, making way for a permanent government. According to Wikipedia, the referendum must be held by October this year.

Wonderful isn’t it? It sounds so soon whereas the occupation seems to occupy reality ages ago.

In retrospect, I believed the war was unjustified. I still believe the war is unjustified. The Bush administration had blatantly lied in the face of public scrutiny and then went ahead to drive its war vehicle despite the red light could clearly be seen from even the back seat. In spite of that, one can’t push away the notion that Iraq, in some dimensions — for instance, pertaining to democracy and the environment — is improving.

Furthermore, what’s done is done and there is no need to lament too much about the past. The only acceptable conduct now is to make it the best out of the worst. This progress in Iraq is something that we all should be smiling for. Never mind which side you and I, they and us stand on the issue.

Meanwhile, the resistance movement has pledged to disrupt the upcoming election. It is unfortunate but comprehensible. It is imperative nevertheless for Iraqi to vote and not cave in to the threat. Submission to fear will lead to a slower resolution. The Coalition troops (really, the US and the UK. Alright, alright. And Tonga and Solomon Islands and…) have the obligation to remove the fear and they have imposed a curfew in order to prevent attack from occurring, or perhaps, more realistically, limits aggression.

Saddest part of this desert opera is not the threat of disruption by the resisting forces. Rather, minus the unlawful invasion itself, it is the decision of major Sunni groups to boycott the election. It is but a fool who would disfranchise himself from his own future. This will be the Iraqi Sunni greatest undoing.

We could only hope for the groups to change heart though I’m skeptical that would happen. I am, however, optimistic for Sunday. Indeed, we all should hope this event will go through without too much unnecessary cost.

p/s – ehem.

More on starwars.com. (via)
pp/s – the 2005 Environmental Sustainability Index is finally out. Read entry [495] and [496] for context. Malaysia got the 38th rung, moving 30 places from its initial position in the 2002 index. Malaysia also is the most environmental sustainable in ASEAN though issues like Bakun, Broga and Tioman tend to make me skeptical of the report by a tiny bit.According to the report, there are five variables and one of them is Social and Institutional Capability. This variable fit exactly of what I talked about in the two entries of mine. They however went further by including other variables and the inclusion of four other variables will certainly explain the variability (the R-square for those of you who are familiar with econometrics) much better.