Articles by Emily Gertz

Inuit fight climate change with human-rights claim against U.S.

Sheila Watt-Cloutier. Photo: ICC. When Sheila Watt-Cloutier was growing up in Kuujjuaq, an Inuit village in far northern Quebec, summer days never got hot enough for shorts and T-shirts. Only the very brave ventured into the frigid local river for a swim. But now, she says, there are many warm days, and “the whole community […]

John G. Roberts’ enviro record not so green, but also not provoking a lot of protest

John G. Roberts (left) and President Bush. Photo: The White House/Eric Draper. Not only are the far-right Family Research Council and the biz-friendly U.S. Chamber of Commerce raving about President Bush’s nominee for the Supreme Court, but plenty of liberals have glowing words for John G. Roberts Jr. too. Georgetown law professor Richard Lazarus, a […]

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.