Providencia

Only a few days ago, the dutch Princess Máxima visited Brazil and Argentina. She paid a visit to the slum district Estural in Brasilia, the capital of Brazil. There Máxima visited the sewing workshop of the local women's association. This workshop is supported by the Providencia program, which aims to improve family incomes in the poorest parts of Brazil by offering micro credit and commercialisation of products. A noble and necessary cause, which deservedly got media attention.

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999 done. Next!

Did we set this horrible record yet? If so, I missed it... and gladly so. 1000 executions of the death penalty in the USA since 1976. It's discusting. It makes me sick in the stomach to know that so-called civilised countries actually endorse and promote murder by the state. There's an outcry when such a thing happens in a far away country (anyone remember Rwanda?!). Wh it happens in our own backyard, however, we say nothing. And those who do are labeled un-American, socialists, or worse.

If you agree with me that the death penalty should be abolished then check out the Amnesty International website. See for yourself that you're not the only one and help to stop this horrible state crime.

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News tidbits

The news has once again been full of interesting tidbits. I read that Sweden wants to reduce its dependency on oil. They want to be independent of oil in 15 years! But so far they haven't started working on it, they don't even have a plan. They did, however, initiated a commission to look into the matter. Pretty ambitious but let's give them the benefit of the doubt.

On a related note: research, published in Montreal, indicates that the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere is on the highest level of the past 650.000 years! Wow! We've been able to destroy hundreds of species, wiped away vast tracks of (rain) forest, polluted nearly every place on Earth (including the air and water) and now we're working on heating up the globe. Where does it stop?

Well, if it depends on the EU than we're a winning team! The European Commission has published a study that tells us the EU will reach its Kyoto targets on time. The target for reduction of CO2 discharges is 8%, compared to 1990. Th EC estimates the 15 "old" EU members will reach an average of 9.3%, while the whole of the EU will see a reduction of 11%. Some countries are doing a lot better already. Germany has already reached a reduction of 20%.

Technorati Tags : survival EU oil CO2 atmosphere pollution Kyoto Sweden Germany sustainable Shards of Survival