United States News
The latest news from and about U.S. issues.Wednesday, December 05, 2007
NAFTA Free Trade Myths Lead to Farm Failure in Mexico.
Americas Program, Dec. 5, 2007 - “The tariff removal ostensibly gives full rein to an open-market trade and investment regime between the United States and Mexico. The idea is that all products now enter into a competitive market that will self-regulate to enhance production, efficiency, investment, and, indirectly, the lives of Mexican producers and consumers. That’s the idea. But what has happened in the Mexican countryside over the past 14 years of NAFTA shows that free trade has been a disaster for small farmers in Mexico.” Read more.
Monday, December 03, 2007
New ‘rigidity of mindset’ hurting cross-border trade between Canada and the U.S.
Canadian Business Online, December 3, 2007 - “Heightened security concerns and ‘escalating protectionist rhetoric’ in the United States is damaging cross-border trade with Canada, International Trade Minister David Emerson says. ‘We see more and more border measures, such as fees for product inspections and new regulatory requirements, and a new rigidity of mindset that is thickening our historically open border’ Emerson said in the prepared text of a speech given at a Miami conference Monday night.” Read more.
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Bali climate summit: a test of the world’s resolve
Christian Science Monitor, November 29, 2007 - “Next week is seen as crunch time in the fight against global warming. Representatives from some 130 nations will gather in Bali, Indonesia, beginning a two-year effort to agree on a new pact to cut greenhouse-gas emissions – one that goes well beyond the goals of the current Kyoto Protocol.” Read more.
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Analysis: Prepping for post-Kyoto talks
UPI, November 20, 2007 - “The success of post-Kyoto Protocol talks this December hinge on determining which countries must commit to limit greenhouse gas emissions and what the nature of those commitments should be, experts say. The Kyoto Protocol, an international treaty that aims at climate-change mitigation, expires in 2012, 13 years after its adoption at a U.N. conference in 1997 and seven years after it officially came into force. On Dec. 3, delegations from around the world will converge on Bali, Indonesia, to develop a framework for upcoming talks on the treaty’s replacement.” Read more.
Friday, November 16, 2007
UN: climate change will have ‘abrupt and irreversible’ consequences.
Times Online, Britain, November 16, 2007 - “A panel of the United Nations’ leading scientists is to warn that climate change could have “abrupt and irreversible” consequences, in a landmark document designed to force action from member states on the issue. [snip] In three previous reports, IPCC experts have agreed that the rise in Earth’s temperature observed in the past few decades is principally the result of human activity, not natural causes, as sceptics have argued.” Read more.
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Report: Climate change ups war risk in many states.
Reuters, November 13, 2007 - “Climate change will put half the world’s countries at risk of conflict or serious political instability, a report said on Tuesday, making the world more unstable unless nations and communities consider problems now. International Alert, a London-based conflict resolution group, identified 46 countries—home to 2.7 billion people—where it said the effects of climate change would create a high risk of violent conflict. It identified another 56 states where there was a risk of political instability.” Read more.
Tuesday, November 06, 2007
NY Times: The Future is Drying Up.
“Scientists sometimes refer to the effect a hotter world will have on this country’s fresh water as the other water problem, because global warming more commonly evokes the specter of rising oceans submerging our great coastal cities. By comparison, the steady decrease in mountain snowpack — the loss of the deep accumulation of high-altitude winter snow that melts each spring to provide the American West with most of its water — seems to be a more modest worry. But not all researchers agree with this ranking of dangers.” Read the entire article.
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Upcoming Symposium: Climate Change and North America’s Water Security
Global climate change is already having an impact on North America. Prolonged droughts and major floods appear to be on the increase. Water—for residential, agricultural, and industrial use—is becoming a much more valuable commodity. Aquifers and freshwater lakes are seeing increased drawdowns without replenishment. Water is becoming a continent-wide problem. Should the North American countries of Canada, Mexico, and the United States develop their own national water policies, or is a common, tri-national, North American water policy a more sensible option? What would a tri-national water policy look like?
The North American Institute (NAMI) is organizing a symposium oriented towards producing a policy document that would help frame the discussion about a North American Water policy. The symposium will bring scientists and policy makers together in order to exchange information and to forge a preliminary statement on water policy in North America. The symposium will be held in Santa Fe over the course of two days (dates and exact venue to be determined), with the first day being devoted to presentations and discussion on global climate change and its impacts on water in North America. The second day would focus on policy responses—unilateral, bi-national, and tri-national—to the changing nature of water resources on the continent. Themes include:
• Global climate change and water: what are the expected impacts?
• Existing national policies, and bi-national agreements and treaties
• Water and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)
• Case studies of particular regions (local and trans-border)
• Forging a continental response to climate change and water
Interested potential participants, partners, and sponsors should contact the North American Institute. Date and venue are yet to be determined. We expect that the symposium will be limited to no more than 20 participants.
The North American Institute (NAMI) is a tri-national, non-profit, post-partisan organization dedicated to fostering greater cooperation between Canada, Mexico, and the United States on issues of common concern. For details, please see our website at http://www.northamericaninstitute.org.
For more information please contact Sharon Kelley at 505-982-3657 or by email at
Monday, August 20, 2007
Op-Ed: The North American Summit: More or Less than It Seems?
Via Focal Point: “A thick layer of confusion surrounds the three leaders of North America – Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, U.S. President George W. Bush, and Mexican President Felipe Calderón – as they meet at Montebello, Quebec on August 20-21. The three countries are exceptionally important to each other, and the annual summit is a recognition of that fact. And yet, by their silence or defensiveness, they have allowed the relationship to be defined by an extremist fringe that fears any cooperative initiative is a slippery slope toward the dissolution of sovereignty.” Read more.
Border Issues Loom over North American Summit
Via Online Newshour: “Although economic cooperation and the war on terror topped the agenda of President Bush’s two-day summit with the leaders of Canada and Mexico, debate over the direction of the U.S. border security policy continues to play a large role in the discussions.” Read more.
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