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WHAT'S NEW IN INES? |
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No.28/2000 |
Dateline: September 29, 2000 |
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This is the weekly electronic information service of the International Network of Engineers and Scientists for Global Responsibility
Editor: Tobias Damjanov, e-mail:
INES homepage: http://inesglobal.org
INES International Office
INES Chair: Prof. Armin Tenner
CONTENTS of WNII No. 28/2000
Canada: INES Founding Member Prof. Eric Fawcett passed away
After the last WNII issue had been sent out, I received the following message:
Friends, We must share bad news: Eric Fawcett died of cancer early Saturday morning (the 2nd of September). He died in hospital, where he had spent many days, with constant loving attention from his gathered family (&) Eric stipulated that friends...should refrain from expressing their grief, love or sympathy with flowers, but might, if they wished, choose to send a cheque to the Canadian Friends Service Committee, 60 Lowther Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M5R 1C7. The Service Committee is the Society of Friends' (Quakers') humanitarian relief agency, with worldwide outreach.
Terrell Gardner
If you wish further information, email to:
Although I've never met Eric Fawcett in person, I always did appreciate very much his contributions to WNII and INESnet. With regard to WNII, Eric did not only contribute by sending very informative and interesting information bits; he also helped me quite a lot with his useful criticism concerning the readability and the screen lay-out of WNII.
I will miss him a lot.
Tobias Damjanov, Editor
CIA Activities in Chile
WNII reader Alberto Salazar Martínez from Mexico draws attention to a website operated by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) which is entitled "CIA Activities in Chile": http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/chile/
Among other things, he wrote about this documentary: "Just to mention, while I was reading, a mixture of horror and sadness knowing the simple and methodical way used to support a regime with no human considerations whatsoever. There was not need for an American to do the dirty job since there was always a "national" available who didn't mind doing it. American companies provided million of dlls. to set up political parties and supported a fake "democracy" that promoted its fascist values. Claiming that Salvador Allende was not "actually" assassinated, CIA's concern about abuse of human rights seemed to be only that the America's public opinion didn't notice it..."
USA: Nuclear Age Peace Foundation (NAPF), The Sunflower, No. 41, October 2000 Back issues: http://www.wagingpeace.org/sf/index.html
Events for the year 2000 are now listed at: http://www.wagingpeace.org/calendar/events_current.html
The October issue of The Sunflower covers the following:
Re: Climate Change Conference (WNII 27/00)
In the last WNII issue, an article mentioned Scientists for Global Responsibility (SGR) and Architects & Engineers for Social Responsibility (AESR) lobbying government re: Climate Change Conference. The corresponding Letter is now also available from the WNII editor (rtf attachment).
World Resources 2000-2001: People and Ecosystems http://www.wri.org/wri/wr2000/
On 15 September, the report, World Resources 2000-2001: People and Ecosystems, The Fraying Web of Life, was released by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), UNEP, the World Bank and the World Resources Institute (WRI). Over 175 scientists contributed to this global research effort, which took more than two years to complete.
The report examines coastal, forest, grassland, and freshwater and agricultural ecosystems. It grades their health on the basis of their ability to produce the goods and services that the world currently relies on. These include production of food, provision of pure and sufficient water, storage of atmospheric carbon, maintenance of biodiversity and provision of recreation and tourism opportunities.
The scorecards and the statistics in People and Ecosystems paint a dismal picture of over-fished oceans, over-pumping of water for farming, destruction of coral reefs and forests, even too much tourism. The report identifies human population growth and increasing consumption as the two principal drivers of the decline of the world's ecosystems.
The study recommends that governments and people must view the sustainability of ecosystems as essential to human life. It calls for an ecosystems approach to managing the world's critical resources, which means evaluating decisions on land and resource use in light of how they affect the capacity of ecosystems to produce goods and services.
Lessons drawn from People and Ecosystems suggest four basic tenets of an ecosystem approach:
For the full report, go to the website indicated at the beginning of this article.
Selected CSD 9 information
The Secretariat of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development has released some useful information in preparation to CSD 9 in April next year which will be looking at Atmosphere/Energy; Information for Decision-Making and Participation; International Cooperation for an Enabling Environment; Energy/Transport.
as well as reports from various Commission meetings, Conventions, and other official UN Documents.
NOTE: The three packages mentioned above are available as attachments from the WNII editor. For those interested it is very recommendable to keep these files, as they are very useful archive tools, whenever you wish to check upon a particular agreement, because they include, among others, all the specific web references you could think of. The packages will also soon be available on the Womens caucus website (go to: http://www.csdngo.org/csdngo and click on "women" under "major groups").
Please contact Jasmin Enayati, Project Co-ordinator, United Nations Environment & Development Forum, if you have any further questions:
General web references re: CSD 9 and related items: http://www.uned-uk.org http://www.earthsummit2002.org/wssd http://www.oneworld.org/uned-uk
Foreign Direct Investment and Sustainable Development
As part of UNED (UN Environment and Development) Forum's project "Towards Earth Summit 2002" a briefing paper entitled "Foreign Direct Investment: A Lead Driver for Sustainable Development?" has been recently disseminated through the corresponding listservers. It seeks to provide a background to Foreign Direct Investment in the context of sectoral and cross-cutting issues, identifying those critical areas that will need to be faced in the run up to the Summit. It considers institutional roles and responsibilities and looks at the various forum where these issues may be discussed.
This paper, along with other briefings, will be made available on-line at the Earth Summit 2002 web site: http://www.earthsummit2002.org Also, you can get it as a pdf-file attachment from the WNII editor.
Selected web references
During the past weeks, I found the following websites which might be of interest for you:
UNESCO SecuriPax Forum
UNESCO has just launched a virtual forum called Securipax, Human security : Imagine Prevention, Reconsider Action (in English and French). Go to: http://www.unesco.org/securipax/
This Forum should become a meeting place to exchange ideas and debate about topical issues which we shall present to you in an interactive manner. You can share your opinions on the subject of human security, pose or answer questions, begin or join a discussion or simply describe the action which you would like to see taken to carry out a greater human security for all. You can also send a message to the organizers of this forum.
This website includes, among other things,
A section with links is under construction.
CONFERENCES, MEETINGS, SEMINARS
14th ISODARCO Winter Course: From the Caucasus to the Atlas Mountains: Tensions on the Southern Flank of Europe
No new or changed email or web addresses in this issue. All INES e-mail addresses and homepages are available upon request from:
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