Finally! :)

Polar bear added to U.S. threatened species list

WASHINGTON

The Interior Department has decided to protect the polar bear as a threatened species because of the decline in Arctic sea ice from global warming, officials said Wednesday.Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne scheduled a news conference to announce the action. It comes a day before a court-imposed deadline on deciding whether the bear should be put under the protection of the federal Endangered Species Act.

The department, in deciding to list the bear as threatened, will cite studies by its own scientists that the decline of Arctic sea ice off Alaska and Canada could result in two-thirds of the polar bears disappearing by mid-century, said federal officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because the decision had not been announced.

Interior Department spokesman Shane Wolfe declined to comment ahead of the formal announcement.

This is the first time that the Endangered Species Act has been used to protect a species threatened by the impacts of global warming. There has been concern within the business community that such action could have far-reaching impact and could be used to regulate carbon dioxide.

But the decision includes provisions that specifically are aimed at protecting power plants and other energy-related entities, said an official who was familiar with the decision.

Kempthorne proposed 15 months ago to investigate whether the polar bear should be declared threatened under the Endangered Species Act.

That triggered a year of studies into the threats facing the bear and its survival prospects at a time when scientists predict a continuing warming and loss of Arctic sea ice. The Arctic sea ice serves as a primary habitat for the bear and is critical to its survival, scientists say.

“The science is absolutely clear that polar bear needs protection under the Endangered Species Act,” said Andrew Wetzler, director of the endangered species program at the Natural Resources Defense Council.

A decision had been expected by early January, but the Interior Department said it needed more time to work out many of the details, prompting criticism from members of Congress and environmentalists. Environmentalists filed a lawsuit aimed at forcing a decision and a federal court on April 29 set a May 15 deadline for a decision.

Over 100 pets rescued from Chile volcano zone

Santiago, Chile May 14, 2008

National and International pressure
finally forced the government to take action

Military and police personnel rescued more than 100 pets from the Chilean town of Chaiten, which was evacuated and sealed off due to the eruption of the volcano that bears the same name, officials said.

“We’re happy, we were able to go ahead with the rescue of the pets, dogs and cats, that we were able to recover,” Environment Minister Ana Lya Uriarte said.

The rescue team, which was led by Uriarte on Tuesday, included soldiers, airmen, Carabineros militarized police officers and five veterinarians.

Three trucks took the dogs and cats to Villa Santa Lucia, a town near Chaiten, where a temporary animal shelter will be set up.

Uriarte said the animals came up to the rescuers “as if asking to be taken away,” making the operation “tremendously tender.”

Chaiten Mayor Jose Miguel Fritis said the operation was a “splendid” effort and the pets had not been rescued earlier because “in situations like this, you have to be very cautious in the steps you take.”

Interior Minister Edmundo Perez Yoma, meanwhile, said the Chaiten volcano’s eruption could last days, weeks or months, adding that the government would provide assistance to families affected by the natural disaster.

“We will work hand in hand with every family, we will do it case by case and will compensate them for what they end up losing in material terms, they don’t need to worry,” the interior minister said.

In recent days, animal rights activists and residents of Chaiten, located 1,250 kilometers (776 miles) south of Santiago, had demanded that a rescue operation be mounted for pets, who were left behind when the government ordered the town evacuated.

Over the weekend, an animal rights group said it wanted to enter Chaiten to rescue the hundreds of pets left behind.

Alejandra Cassino, a spokeswoman for the Coalition for the Ethical Treatment of Urban Animals, said that due to the government’s lack of action, animal rights activists were willing to rescue the estimated 450 dogs and 350 cats abandoned in Chaiten.

The group, which staged a protest on Saturday in Santiago, went public with its offer shortly after President Michelle Bachelet warned evacuees that Chaiten would be wiped out in six minutes if the volcano erupted.

Before officials established a 50-kilometer (31-mile) security perimeter around the town, pets were cared for by a group of veterinarians brought in by the air force who stayed until last Wednesday.

Cassino said the National Emergency Office offered animal rights activists permission to enter the town for four or five hours, a period of time that she labeled “ridiculous.”

“It’s nothing. We are not dealing with people with whom you can talk, but with animals that have to be found, that can bite you and scratch you. We need 48 or more hours of work to have a positive outcome,” Cassino said.

The animal rights activist said many evacuees had handed over the keys to their houses so their pets could be rescued.

Officials, however, waited until Tuesday to authorize a rescue operation for pets because of the volcano’s unstable situation.

The government’s policy toward the estimated 51,000 head of livestock in Palena province has been in sharp contrast to that for household pets.

Unlike household pets, cattle have been given feed and some herds were moved to Aysen, a region located south of the volcano zone, but officials still fear that many of the animals will die of starvation.

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* Notice this: They only rescued about 200 animals, and there could be 500 of them.
Horses and cattle still remain in Chaiten, without food or water …..
Please send a letter to the president of Chile to let her know that there are still animals to rescue: http://www.gobiernodechile.cl/viewEscribelePresidenta.aspx

or help in anyway you can!…
Thanks!

Photo: “Hey, I’m in Chaiten I’m dying. Government of Chile I’ll be your karma”

Exposé that could end whaling

May 15, 2008

Stolen whale meat scandal rocks Japan

Finally, we can tell the story some of us have been sitting on for months now: the whale meat embezzlement greenpeace uncovered in Japan, in which stolen cuts of prime whale bacon are smuggled away from the “scientific research” vessels and sold for oodles of yen — one of greenpeace’s informers heard a crew member claim he built a house on his illegal proceeds.

05/15/2008 THE ASAHI SHIMBUN Greenpeace Japan said Thursday it will seek a criminal investigation against 12 crew members of a research whaling ship over allegations they embezzled a ton of meat from whales caught in the Antarctic Ocean.

The group says the crew members aboard the research vessel Nisshin Maru sent cardboard boxes believed to have contained whale meat to their homes.

At a news conference Thursday in Tokyo, Greenpeace Japan members displayed whale meat they said had been intercepted on route to the home of a crew member. The box contained 23.5 kilograms of coveted whale meat used in bacon.

The estimated value of the meat is between 110,000 yen and 350,000 yen ($1,048 and $3,334), according to Greenpeace Japan.

This goes to the heart of the legality of the whaling programme. The ICR (Institute for Cetacean Research, which runs the scientific whaling programme) is constantly claiming that they are *compelled* to sell the “byproduct of their scientific research” by the International Treaty on the Conservation of Whales — they don’t really *want* to sell it, no no no it’s not a commercial activity, there’s a *law* see? Well guys, you made your bed, now sleep in it. If it’s the law, then turning a blind eye to your own crew members skimming the best cuts off the top and distributing them to cronies and restaurants for kudos and profit is, literally, a criminal offense.

On top of that, the commercial sales are supposed to be “deferring the cost of the research programme” which costs the Japanese taxpayer US$ 4.7 million every year. So you can imagine there’s some unhappy Japanese taxpayers reading the paper this morning. And watching the news as well — every Japanese TV station was at our press conference a few hours ago, and the story has run already four or five times, even before prime news time.

So what do the whalers have to say about this? When we asked before the revelations, on the 8th of May, this is what the Japanese Fisheries Agency, the government agency responsible for whaling said:

8 May 2008 11:58 Investigator: After the price (of the whale meat) will be decided on in June, will all whale meat be sold at this price? Mr. Naruko: Yes, United price will be set according to each part of the meat. Meat will go to the wholesalers with this price.

Investigator: Which means there will be no sales before June?

Mr. Naruko: Yes, without a price, there’s no way to sell.
Investigator: I heard from somewhere that the sailors used to bring back some whale meat as private souvenirs during the industrial whaling period. This does not happen these days under the research whaling, right?

Mr. Naruko: Of course not. Since the distribution (of whale meat) is very limited.
Investigator: Since the whale meat is considered as “official,” right?

Mr. Naruko: Yes.

Kyodo Senpaku, the company that runs the whaling ships, today also claimed it doesn’t happen. Then changed their mind and said there was perhaps “some suspicion.”

And the ICR, which runs the scientific programme, said souvenirs, just souvenirs:

“It has been a longstanding practice since we were whaling as a commercial activity,” he said. “We treat it as comparable to making whale meat a source of our meals (during the voyage). It should not be a problem.” Another ICR official said each of about 250 crew members of a research whaling fleet receives several kilograms of whale meat for free as a token.

However, Greenpeace Japan noted that if the 47 boxes sent from the Nisshin Maru contained whale meat, the total would have exceeded 1 ton.

In fact, our informers mentioned the souvenirs, and said the smuggled whale bacon was on top of that — kilograms of stuff they sneak into their cabins, salt and put in cardboard. We even talked to a woman who sells the special salt in the port town where the whales depart from: she says she can’t keep enough of it in stock when the whaling crew are making their preparations to leave — they buy her out, and the town runs out of cardboard. The salt is only for the whale bacon, the finest cuts, and doesn’t get used for the souvenir meat.

One crew member sent boxes weighing 200 to 300 kilograms, according to the crew member. Another former crew member said he sent 20 kg of whale meat to his home and ate it with his family. (IHT/Asahi: May 15,2008)

Now, if that lucky crew member who took home 200-300 kilos sold it at premium prices, he made a tidy profit of 25,000 – 38,000 USD off of a non-commercial, scientific whale hunt expedition. Who says crime –er, I mean science — doesn’t pay?

Two Diet members have now put official questions in to the Japanese Parliament and there will be an open seminar on Monday with the Diet members, media, and embassy officials, to look into the scandal further.

The Japanese people have been ripped off and lied to for too long. It’s time for the politicians to step in and kill the permits for killing whales. Write this letter. Send it to your friends. Time to say game over. The jig’s up. Everybody out of the pool. You’re nicked, mate.

Cannabis laws

Cannabis laws to be strengthened

Cannabis is to be reclassified as a class B drug, Jacqui Smith has said.
The home secretary said she wanted to reverse Tony Blair’s
2004 downgrading of the drug because of “uncertainty” over its impact on mental health.
The move from class C means the maximum prison sentence for possessing cannabis rises from two years to five years.
Her statement to MPs came despite the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs’ review – commissioned by Gordon Brown – saying it should stay class C.

‘Psychotic illness’

Since cannabis was downgraded there has been widespread concern about the increased prevalence of stronger “skunk” varieties.

Ms Smith said this now accounted for 80% of the cannabis seized on the streets and the drug was nearly three times stronger than in 1995.

She added that the government’s change of heart – which is subject to parliamentary approval – was part of a “relentless drive”.

Ms Smith, who has admitted smoking cannabis while she was a student, told MPs: “There is a compelling case for us to act now, rather than risk the future health of young people.
“Where there is a clear and serious problem, but doubt about the potential harm that will be caused, we must err on the side of caution and protect the public.

“I make no apology for that – I am not prepared to ‘wait and see’.”
In its report, Cannabis: Classification And Public Health, the advisory council described cannabis as a “significant public health issue”.

But it said it should still remain a class C drug, as the risks were not as serious as those of class B substances, such as amphetamines and barbiturates.

The report said the evidence suggested a “probable, but weak, causal link between psychotic illness, including schizophrenia, and cannabis use”.

However, in the population as a whole, it played only a “modest role” in the development of these conditions.

Council chairman Sir Michael Rawlings told BBC Radio 4’s World at One: “The strength of things like skunk hasn’t really changed very much over the last few years but it’s now more widely used… The question of potency is a very complex area.”

Campaign

The advisory council did not look at the message conveyed to the public or the impact on policing, which it is not legally obliged to do.

Sir Michael added: “The government may want to take other matters into account. That’s their right. They are the government.”

In its report the council called for a campaign to reduce the use of cannabis, particularly focusing on young people.

Penalties for drug offences

It also voiced concern over the prevalence of domestic cannabis farms supplying the market and the involvement of organised criminal networks.

Ms Smith said she accepted the vast majority of the council’s recommendations, but not the classification of the drug.

And Gordon Brown said at prime minister’s questions that he believed making cannabis a class B drug was supported by the public and the police.

Last month he said he wanted to “send a message” to young people that using the substance was “unacceptable”.

Class C includes substances such as tranquilisers, some painkillers, GHB (so-called “liquid ecstasy”) and ketamine. Possession of class C drugs is treated largely as a non-arrestable offence.

Chief Constable Tim Hollis, a leader on drugs for the Association of Chief Police Officers, said he and his colleagues from other police forces would not want to take an uniform approach on the issue.

He said: “Our forces will want to retain discretion on how we deal with the problem because they will want to relate it to local circumstances.”

Secret filming of cannabis on sale in Camden

Shadow home secretary David Davis said that the government’s reversal of its earlier decision showed the downgrading of cannabis had been a mistake and accused ministers of “dithering”.

Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Chris Huhne said that, as its advice had been disregarded, ministers should disband the advisory council of experts and replace it with an advisory council of “tabloid newspaper editors”.

Labour MP Chris Mullin, who was chairman of the Commons home affairs select committee when it recommended that cannabis was downgraded to class C, said: “The government should follow the advice of the experts rather than that of the tabloids.”

But Marjorie Wallace, chief executive of the mental health charity SANE, welcomed Ms Smith’s decision, adding: “We believe there are too many casualties to await the results of further education and research.”

However, Martin Barnes, chief executive of DrugScope, said: “There is no evidence that reclassifying cannabis to Class B will reduce levels of use, levels of harm or the availability of the drug.”

PENALTIES FOR DRUG DEALING AND POSSESSION

Drug class	Type of drug	Possession	Dealing
Class A	Ecstasy, LSD, heroin, cocaine, crack, magic mushrooms, amphetamines (if prepared for injection).	Up to seven years in prison or an unlimited fine or both.	Up to life in prison or an unlimited fine or both.
Class B	Amphetamines, Methylphenidate (Ritalin), Pholcodine.	Up to five years in prison or an unlimited fine or both.	Up to 14 years in prison or an unlimited fine or both.
Class C	Cannabis, tranquilisers, some painkillers, Gamma hydroxybutyrate (GHB), Ketamine.	Up to two years in prison or an unlimited fine or both.	Up to 14 years in prison or an unlimited fine or both
Source: Home Offfice