Photo Essay: Sea Change

Julia Whitty and Robert Knoth Reportage by Getty Images September/October 2007 Issue

Get used to it: real estate falling into the sea. And not just beach houses and seaside time-shares. Think towns and cities. These images of Shishmaref village on Alaska's remote west coast reveal the tip of a terrain melting so fast it will carry whole cultures away with it—rich and poor, polluters and nonpolluters, all vulnerable to the great leveler, the ocean. You think South Pacific island nations and remote Arctic outposts will be the only victims? Wrong. Because no matter what we do on the carbon emissions front in the coming decades, the world ocean is forecast to warm and rise for the next millennium or more. Pictures like these will soon be commonplace

In Shishmaref, calamity has already arrived. The village of 600 Inupiaq lies on the fragile barrier island of Sarichef, where sea ice forms later each year, exposing the land to autumn storms that carve away 50 feet or more of shoreline a season. Two houses have slipped into the sea; 18 others have been moved back from the encroaching ocean; others buckle from the melting permafrost. Ten million dollars has been spent on seawalls, to no avail. Residents have concluded permanent resettlement is their only option. But considering America has yet to seriously tackle New Orleans' sea-level problems, no one on this distant edge of the Chukchi Sea imagines the $180 million needed to relocate Shishmaref will be easy to come by. And Shishmaref is not alone. A 2004 Government Accountability Office report found that of Alaska's 213 Native villages, 184 are battling floods and erosion, while another assessment foresees that in the coming decades, Alaska will require $6.1 billion to repair global warming's domino effect of fallen bridges, burst sewer pipes, and disintegrating roads. Worldwide, the situation is more dire, more expensive: Oxfam suggests the United States owes $22 billion, or 44 percent—our polluting share—of the $50 billion needed each year for poor nations to adapt to climate change.

 

 

 

 

 

Pelosi: Bush "must come to Congress" before attacking Iran

David Edwards and Greg Wasserstrom
Published: Sunday October 14, 2007

In an interview on ABC's This Week, Speaker Pelosi tells George Stephanopoulos that President Bush must get the approval of Congress before proceeding with an attack on Iran.

Just this week, the Senate passed a non-binding resolution designating Iran's Republican Guard as a terrorist organization in a move many observers fear will give President Bush the authority he needs to attack Iran. Pelosi disagrees, and doesn't plan on bringing up such a measure in the house.

"We don't believe that any of the authority the President has would allow him to go in without an act of Congress," she said, adding that the War Powers Act of the 1970s gives any president the power to retaliate against a country that has attacked the US. "But short of that," Pelosi said, "he must come to the Congress."

When asked about the Senate vote, Pelosi noted that it is unprecendented to declare a piece of another country's military a terrorist organization. She said, "Whatever Iran's impact is on our troops in Iraq should be dealt with in Iraq."

Reuters has the full story

NEW YORK (AP) — The dollar hit a new low against the seemingly unstoppable euro Friday as the 13-nation currency broke through $1.41. The currency of the 13 euro nations, which have more than 317 million residents and account for more than 15 percent of global gross domestic product, surged as high as $1.4119 before falling back to $1.4083 by late afternoon, above the $1.4076 it bought in New York on Thursday.

The U.S. dollar fell further against the Canadian dollar after reaching parity for the first time since 1976 on Thursday. One Canadian dollar bought $1.0068 in U.S. currency at its highest point Friday before edging down to 99.95 U.S. cents in late New York trading, barely beating 99.93 U.S. cents late Thursday.

The American currency weakened sharply this week on the back of a decision by the U.S. Federal Reserve to cut its benchmark rate by a bigger-than-expected half point to 4.75 percent. The central bank was responding to market turbulence in the U.S. and elsewhere in the fallout from the subprime mortgage crisis. (Read full story)

"The United States has set a new precedent in its reliance on private contractors to perform dangerous military duties in Iraq, reports the Washington Post in its Monday edition.

Writes the Congressional Research Service in a recent report: "Iraq appears to be the first case where the U.S. government has used private contractors extensively for protecting persons and property in potentially hostile or hostile situations where host country security forces are absent or deficient."

Of these contractors said to perform "functions once carried by the U.S. military," recently gauged at 127,000, less than 20 percent were Americans.The entire article can be read HERE.

Karl Rove will resign from his position in the Bush Administration and return to Texas Aug. 31, according to an interview published Monday with Paul Gigot, editorial page editor for The Wall Street Journal.When asked by Gigot whether he's leaving "to avoid Congressional scrutiny?" he said, "I know they'll say that. But I'm not going to stay or leave based on whether it pleases the mob." Mr. Rove, who has held a senior post in the White House since President Bush took office in January 2001, told Mr. Gigot he first floated the idea of leaving a year ago. But he delayed his departure as, first, Democrats took Congress, and then as the White House tackled debates on immigration and Iraq, he said. He said he decided to leave after White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten told senior aides that if they stayed past Labor Day they would be obliged to remain through the end of the president's term in January 2009.

Meshers OUT!!!