Over the last year there has been a noticable shift in the public’s response to the issue of global warming.

Seattle mayor Greg Nickels started a nationwide movement declaring that his city would meet the Kyoto treaty emissions targets. Since then 131 city mayors representing 29 million citizens in 35 different states have vowed to implement the Kyoto protocol in their own towns. What is more, many of the cities are led by Republicans and some come from the most conservative parts of the country, such as the town of Hurst in deepest Texas. The latest addition to the club is New York, which has been signed up by its Republican mayor, Michael Bloomberg.

Even more surprising is the movement coming out of evangelical churches. The revolt against administration policies has even spread right into the heart of the Republican party’s own base, its powerful evangelical Christian wing. Earlier this year 1,000 church leaders and other clergy signed a powerful statement dubbed ‘Creation Care’calling on the White House to act on environmental issues, including global warming.

There was no mandate, no majority, or no “values” message in this past election for the President or the Congress to roll back and oppose programmes that care for God’s creation,’ the statement said.

The huge religious lobbying group, the National Association of Evangelicals, which represents about 30 million Christians, has also adopted a resolution that defined caring for a sustainable environment as a part of every Christian’s duty.

Even a number of large US companies have turned from opposing plans to control carbon emissions to embracing them. In part this reflects a hard-headed business attitude. Jeff Immelt, boss of General Electric, recently committed the firm to a set of green goals going far beyond any current government regulations. He even attacked America’s ‘do-nothing’ policy on climate change. Many American firms with partners in Europe, which has signed up to Kyoto, are already bound by its rules when they do business there. They are also wary of being held responsible for future liabilities if they do not act now.

Chuck Hagel R-Nebraska, who is positioning himself as one of the leading contenders for the Presidential election in 2008, delivered a speech to the Brookings Institution in February announcing plans to introduce three separate bills aimed at curbing carbon emissions. Then, stunning many commentators, he damned the current White House policy on the issue. ‘We have been out of the game for four years. That is dangerous. It’s irresponsible and we need to address it,’ he said.

These pronouncements must be taken with a grain of salt–there’s a big difference from positioning and producing, but none of these groups would be talking the way they are if public opinion wasn’t moving.

Bill Jacobs, the Chair of the Montgomery Green Democrats Caucus will be speaking at our next July 9th meeting at 6pm. His speech will be entitled “Fresh Blood: Important Work For Greens”. (I haven’t added this to the meetings webpage, but I will be real soon now.)

Do we have questions for him?

Discuss.

WADI FOQUIN — Many foreigners I meet believe that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is on the path to being resolved. They are familiar with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ recent upbeat visit to the White House and Israel’s planned withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.

But the realities that Palestinians experience in West Bank villages like mine contradict hopes for peace and instead signal a deepening of Israel’s occupation.

The Israeli army recently delivered a seizure order to Wadi Foquin and three neighboring villages about 12 miles southwest of Bethlehem for 189 acres of our land. The army justifies this seizure as necessary to prevent terrorist attacks and to build a security wall. The order has left our small village in crisis, its very existence threatened.

Wadi Foquin lost 80 percent of its original land when Israel was established in 1948. Later, the creation of the Israeli settlement of Betar Illit consumed about 175 acres of village land. The army now wants to seize our remaining property. …

Israel is imprisoning Palestinians in countless unconnected ghettos, turning the Palestinian territories into a series of open-air prisons. We must stop the wall. It is a monster, rapidly swallowing Palestine’s body and endangering its very existence. The world must act immediately before this damaged body becomes a lifeless corpse.

Israel plans to double Jordan Valley settlers

Israel’s agriculture ministry has drawn up plans to double the number of Jewish settlers living in the sparsely-populated Jordan Valley area of the West Bank, a spokesperson for the ministry said on Friday.

“The plan which has already won approval from within different ministries will increase the number of residents in 21 settlements by 50 percent in a year and then by a further 50 percent in the following year,” spokesperson Benjamin Rom said. …

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who held talks with Sharon in Jerusalem last weekend, has consistently warned Israel against creating “facts on the ground.”

Sort of speaks for itself.

According to this Associated Press article, the Bush II Administration is pressuring the Sharon Government to be somewhat decent to the Palestinians. Hard to believe, but there you have it….

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/26/AR2005062600406.html

According to the American Civil Liberties Union and Human Rights Watch at least seventy people — the vast majority of them Muslim — have been detained under highly suspicious circumstances.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/26/AR2005062600352.html

According to this article — which appeared in Saturday’s Washington Post — everyone will benefit from this development. The cynical part of me want to say sarcastically “Yeah, right!”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/24/AR2005062401487.html?nav=most_emailed

This article appearing on page #A5 of the Washington Post describes the shenanigans that Jack Abramoff’s pals engaged in *after* they were caught in the act!
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/25/AR2005062500983.html

–Nathan