Perspectives on Social Issues
(January 2007)

Colombia's Outstanding, Kyoto-Approved Bus System
"In July 2006, the bus rapid transit (BRT) system of Bogota, Colombia, became the first mass transport project to be approved under the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism. Under the deal, the city's TransMilenio bus system will sell credits it earns from eliminating nearly 250,000 tons of carbon-dioxide equivalent a year to the Dutch government, which is seeking to offset a share of the Netherlands' greenhouse gas emissions. The bus system will achieve the emissions reductions through more-efficient passenger transport and the displacement of private vehicle use. Between December 2000 and May 2001, the TransMilenio accounted for an estimated 40 percent decline in certain Bogota air pollutants, according to the World Bank.

Bus rapid transit combines the efficiency and user-friendliness of light rail with the economy and flexibility of road vehicles. Using high-speed buses that travel in dedicated lanes, BRT systems incorporate efficient passenger boarding methods, adaptable route structures, comfortable stations, and technology that updates riders on bus locations arid timing, according to the Washington, D.C.-based Breakthrough Technologies Institute. The best systems also take full advantage of the peripheral opportunities that BRT provides, such as boosting local economies and encouraging high-density development near the bus routes..."

“Bus Rapid Transit Systems Coming of Age,” Eye on Earth, WorldWatch, Jan/Feb 2007.

Cargill's Illegal Soy Production Destroying Amazon Rainforest
"Greenpeace was in Brazil to blockade the illegal Cargill port, preventing exports of soy from leaving the facility for several hours. [Greenpeace] activists unfurled a banner reading, ‘Flora Cargill - Cargill Get Out’ on the conveyor belts at Cargill's facility, but angry Cargill employees nearby blasted the sign down with high-powered hoses. Cargill may not be a household name, but companies that buy the illegal soy are household names. Kentucky Fried Chicken has been linked to the scandal -- serving up Amazon destruction and selling it in hundreds of restaurants throughout Europe.

Few people realize that soy is now a leading cause of rainforest destruction in the Brazilian Amazon. In total, an estimated 12,000 square miles of what was once rainforest has already been destroyed, mostly illegally, to grow soybeans. Corporations like Cargill must stop seeing the Amazon as a place to expand their soy businesses and recognize it as the world's greatest rainforest in need of urgent protection, not exploitation."

"The Colonel's Secret Recipe Unveiled," Greenpeace Update, Fall 2006.

Using Prison as a Solution to Poverty
"Talk about a cry for help: Timothy J. Bowers robbed a Columbus, Ohio, bank of $80, handed the money over to a security guard, and waited for the police to come and arrest him. In court on October 11, [2006] he pleaded guilty and told the judge that he would like a three-year sentence -- just enough time to get him to the age of eligibility for full Social Security benefits. The judge graciously obliged, demonstrating compassionate conservatism at its warmhearted best.

There's nothing new about using prison as a solution to poverty. More than two million Americans are currently incarcerated, the great majority of them from the lowest income brackets. In fact, incarceration is expanding as the welfare state shrinks: While the U.S. offers two million prison beds, it provides public housing to only 1.3 million households, and that number is dropping rapidly. We are fast reaching the point, if we have not passed it already, where the largest public housing program in America will be our penitentiary system. If Bowers's choice was rational, the same cannot be said of our social policies. The cost of incarcerating an elderly inmate is about $69,000 a year. A compassionate -- or merely rational -- state would give Bowers a stipend to live on and save its prison beds for actual bad guys."

“Pension or Penitentiary" by Barbara Ehrenreich, Flip Side, The Progressive, Dec 2006.

Future Peace Requires Justice Today
"'Building peace for tomorrow requires doing justice today,' a top Vatican official told the U.N. General Assembly on Sept. 27 [2006]. Archbishop Giovanni Lajolo of Italy, president of the Governor’s Office for Vatican City State, addressed issues ranging from development and human rights to religious freedom and dialogue in his speech on the final day of the assembly’s annual opening debate.

The archbishop, who was the Vatican’s foreign minister before he took up a new post on Sept. 15, warned that 'failures to correct fundamental inequalities in the world economic system are fast becoming lost opportunities to advance a moral alternative to war.' He praised the Millennium Development Goals adopted by key world leaders but warned that 'implementation has been lacking.' He said, 'The present lack of progress in the fields of development aid and trade reform threatens everyone’s security and well-being,' and added, 'The surest way to prevent war is to address its causes.'"

“Vatican at U.N.: Peace Tomorrow Requires Justice Today," Signs of the Times, America, Oct 16, 2006.

A World Without Fish Predicted Due to Overfishing and Climate Change
"Fishermen on the high seas have plenty of worries, not the least of which are boat-tossing storms, territorial squabbles and even pirates. Now Boris Worm, a marine biologist at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada, has added another. After studying, among other things, global catch data over more than 50 years, he and a team of 13 researchers in four countries have come to a stunning conclusion. By the middle of this century, fishermen will have almost nothing left to catch. 'None of us regular working folk are going to be able to afford seafood,' says Stephen Palumbi, a Stanford University marine biologist and co-author of the study published in Science. 'It's going to be too rare and too expensive.'

...So what's a fish eater to do? 'Vote with your wallet,' says Michael Sutton, who runs the Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch program in California. Since 1999, the aquarium has handed out pocket guides listing sustainably harvested seafood. The Marine Stewardship Council has partnered with corporations to similarly certify wild and farm-raised seafood. Some 370 products in more than two dozen countries bear the British group's 'Fish Forever' label of approval. Wal-Mart and Red Lobster, among others, have made commitments to sell sustainably harvested seafood. But that's just a spit in the ocean unless consumers in Japan, India, China and Europe join the chorus for change."

“Oceans of Nothing” by Unmesh Kher, Kathleen Kingsbury, and Kristina Dell, Science, TIME, Nov 13, 2006.