Good start — as we walked in and registered the staff handed me a recyclable, biodegradable, compostable lanyard.

The theme for this year’s conference - Sustainability in a Reset World

After admiring our lanyards and breakfast we jumped into packed conversation with Pamela Passman of Microsoft. Of course we considered today’s launch of Windows 7.

The discussion centered on the sustainability of Microsoft. Now, most people will admit that the technology business isn’t the least sustainable or “dirtiest” business. But that doesn’t mean that they don’t press a heavy carbon footprint. Passman discussed that companies need software to track their own carbon footprint.Microsoft may have many ideas for other comanies but they need to look in the mirror as well.

She admitted the two most pressing issues that Microsoft needs to improve in so far as reducing their carbon footprint that includes:

1- Traveling (lots of it)

2 – Data centers — The data centers continue to be electric and water intensive.
Microsoft claims to be attempting reduce the footprint of these data centers.

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In 1995, environmentalist Ken Saro-Wiwa was executed by the Nigerian military government, along with eight other Ogoni activists, for protesting against the devastation of the Niger Delta by oil companies, particularly Royal Dutch Shell.

On May 27, 2009, Shell will stand trial for collaboration and complicity in Saro-Wiwa’s murder.  14 years after his execution, Ken Saro-Wiwa’s sons Ken and Owens Wiwa are the plaintiffs in Wiwa v Shell. 

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While my post earlier this week about police spraying water cannons at World Water Forum protesters was intended to point out the irony, the truth is that the situation in Turkey was out of control, with unprovoked police attacks on peaceful protesters.

In addition to water cannons, police in riot gear fired rubber bullets and tear gas into a crowd, arresting 17 Turkish activists and forcing international activists to leave. The group peacefully gathered outside the official forum for the “People’s Forum” formed to oppose the “commercialization of water.”

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The bodies of two well-known social activists were found Guerrero, Mexico showing clear signs of torture.

Raul Lucas and Manuel Ponce were captured on February 13th by three people claiming to be police in Ayutla de los Libres, according to relatives. The men were attending a meeting regarding plans to open several new schools in the area.

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The world’s freshwater is under attack. Privatization, pollution, damming, and drought will change the way we view our freshwater in the coming years.

According to Charity Water, one in six people on the planet do not have access to safe, clean drinking water.

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According to the environmental group Panalipdan-Southern Mindanao Region (SMR), one of their leaders — Fernando “Dodong” Sarmiento — has been brutally murdered.

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A representative of the Survival campaign stopped by the home of Anil Agarwal, billionaire CEO of the UK mining corporation Vedanta Resources, to deliver a complaint to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) that has been filed against his company.

The company plans to mine a sacred mountain in Orissa, India, which could destroy the 800-person Dongria Kondh, one of India’s most isolated tribes. The OECD lays out standards of good corporate behavior on British companies and anyone can file a complaint.

“The only Christmas present the Dongria Kondh want is for Vedanta to abandon its plans,” said Survival’s director Stephen Corry. “They are in no doubt that the mine will destroy them.”

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A federal jury ruled yesterday that Chevron had done nothing wrong a decade ago when it called the Nigerian military to control protesters who had taken control of an oil platform, demanding better treatment and jobs.

In the end, the military killed two protesters. Accounts of the incident vary drastically: Chevron says the protesters were violent, armed, and had taken workers hostage, while the protesters and their lawyers claim they had been entirely peaceful and engaged in civil disobedience.

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Organizers from Global Exchange, Justice in Nigeria Now, and West County Toxics Coalition gathered at a Chevron gas station here in San Francisco on Monday in support for the Nigerian plaintiffs in a human rights trial against the oil company. About 100 anti-Chevron protesters were staged in front of the gas station located at 9th and Howard.

At the federal court building a few blocks away jury selection was beginning for the case, “Bowoto v. Chevron.” The lawsuit results from an incident back in 1998 in which more than a hundred Nigerians occupied a Chevron drilling platform for three days. The protest resulted in Chevron unleashing Nigerian security forces to have them removed which led to three injuries and one death.

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At first glance, human rights and climate change appear to be disconnected but as the world increasingly experiences climatic devastation, the human rights of people, particularly the poor and marginalized, will be adversely affected.

There is no doubt that climate change will have immense human consequences. Looking at climate change through the human rights lens reveals the extent of human suffering that is a product of our treatment of the environment.

According to a report published recently titled “Climate Change and Human Rights: A Rough Guide, 2008,” climate change is already undermining the realisation of a broad range of internationally protected human rights: rights to health and even life; rights to food, water, shelter and property; rights associated with livelihood and culture; with migration and resettlement; and with personal security in the event of conflict.

To make matters worse, the worst effects of climate change are likely to be felt by those individuals and groups whose rights protections are already precarious.

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Recently it hit back at these critics and got tough by introducing “integrity measures”. These resulted in over 20% of its signatories being classed as inactive or delisted altogether because they hadn’t reported back on progress.

However this doesn’t stop companies Bluewashing themselves by committing to the Compact’s Ten Principles and then do nothing except wrap themselves in the UN’s flag of respectability.

Two of the principles refer to Human Rights, stating that the signatory will uphold internationally agreed human rights standards and make sure they’re not complicit in human rights abuses.

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However, in recent months, Senator Obama has also expressed some mixed feelings about boycotting the Olympics.

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This year was no different, as protesters with HAZ-MAT suits and paper brooms labeled “Clean Up Chevron” greeted shareholders at the company’s front gate Wednesday morning. Inside the meeting, speakers from as far away as Africa told shareholders that Chevron has contaminated part of the Ecuadoran rain forest, subsidized the military regime in Burma and paid Nigerian soldiers who shot and killed protesters at a Chevron oil platform.

According to an article in Thursday’s San Francisco Chronicle, Chevron’s top executives rarely comment on these controversies, relying instead on lawyers and public relations specialists to present the company’s views. But Wednesday’s meeting was different, as there were several coarse exchanges between the activists and Chevron executives.

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The accompanying picture is of a migrant farm worker, much like Olivia Tamayo, who made history last week when she became the first female migrant worker to successfully bring a sexual harrassment suit against her employer to a federal jury. Ms. Tamayo was awarded over one million dollars in 2005 when a district court found Harris Farms guilty of sexual harrassment and descrimination. Last week, a federal court upheld that decision, finding that Harris Farms inappropriately responding after Ms. Tamayo was raped three times by her direct supervisor. Harris’ only action was to move Ms. Tamayo to an empty field that was closer to her rapist’s house.

Following the verdict, an alarming op-ed piece in the Los Angeles Times described Ms. Tamayo’s plight as unique only in the attention it garnered. Sexual harrassment and assault of female farm workers is so prevalent, that a study conducted by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) found that 90% of surveyed female farm workers considered it a “serious problem.”

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The WFP school feeding program has become a touchstone aspect of both the U.N.’s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the G8 action pact of 2002. Between the program’s inception in 1999 and its last data recorded in 2005, the number of children served has grown by 82%, which amounts to 21.7 million schoolchildren in 74 countries.

Now, despite its success and widespread acclaim, the International Herald is reporting that the WFP program will not continue in Cambodia - the first of many predicted shut-downs as rising food costs threaten the profoundly poor.

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Asia

Working the land the natural way: Organic farming in China

It’s been almost four years since the project was launched, and of the nine households who have tried organic farming, only four are still at it. The others decided it just wasn’t worth it. Organic farming requires much more labor, the yield can be half or less of that of conventional farming, and besides, hardly anyone in Chengdu is eating organic. Our stock broker-turned-farmer estimates their customer base to be only 0.01% of Chengdu’s population.

Anlong farmer Gao Shengjian believes there’s a link between the use of pesticides and fertilizers on farms and the growing incidences of various diseases among the rural population.

Source: Crossroads China. Vote for this article in social media: StumbleUpon.

China down to 12 days worth of coal

China only has enough coal for 12 days of consumption, three days less than a month ago, state media reported Wednesday, sounding the alarm bells over the nation’s most important source of energy.

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Let’s put an end to human suffering and racism by treating each other with respect and dignity. UBUNTU: I am because we are. No individualism. Let history be our teacher. When countries and leaders are fighting over natural resources, when they want to overpower another country, this has a huge effect on the ordinary people on the ground. There is a proverb that explains this very well. “When two bulls are fighting, what suffers the most is the grass.”

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“Are you Japanese?” she retorted. And that was that.

It’s the best rebuff I’ve heard to the bevy of Korean men who equate blonde hair with instant gratification. But why did it repel him with such shear efficiency? Or, put another way, what’s so bad about being called Japanese?

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