Genebra sedia reunião sobre ciclos climáticos extremos

Começa nesta segunda-feira em Genebra , na Suiça a 3ª Conferência Mundial sobre o Clima. Com o objetivo de estabelecer mecanismos que permitam aos governos uma melhor administração de ciclos climáticos extremos.
A reunião também vai debater formas de ajudar as populações a se adaptarem às mudanças climáticas.
Riscos Climáticos
O Secretário-Geral da ONU, Ban Ki-moon, irá fazer o discurso inaugural do segmento de alto nível da conferência na próxima quinta-feira.
O evento é patrocinado pela Organização Meteorológica Mundial, OMM, e tem o apoio de 150 países, incluindo o Brasil. Cerca de 1,5 mil especialistas e representantes de governos participarão do encontro.
A pauta da conferência inclui debates sobre riscos climáticos, incluindo secas, cheias e ondas extremas de calor e frio, e como estes fatores influenciam na produção de alimentos, energia e preservação de recursos naturais.
Epidemias
A OMM destaca que também serão analisados os efeitos do clima na propagação de certas epidemias que afetam a vida de pessoas e animais domésticos.
A 3ª Conferência Mundial sobre o Clima, que tem a participação confirmada de 20 presidentes e mais de 80 ministros, será encerrada no dia 4 de setembro.ONU

Iraq/Iran/Kuwait: never-ending uncertainty for those seeking missing relatives

The families of hundreds of thousands of people who went missing in past wars in the Gulf region need continued support in their quest to find out what happened to their loved ones, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said today. Marking the International Day of the Disappeared on 30 August, the ICRC said families in Iraq longed to obtain news of those who vanished in the armed conflict that broke out in 2003 and in other armed violence over recent decades, while families in Iraq, Iran and Kuwait still hoped to discover what happened to their fathers, brothers and sons who went missing during the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war and the 1990-1991 Gulf War.

"This never-ending uncertainty is a source of immense anguish for families in all three countries," said Beatrice Mégévand, the ICRC's head of operations for the Middle East and North Africa. "They want to know and they have a right to know what happened to their missing relatives, even if it means having it confirmed that they are dead."

In an effort to determine what befell people missing in connection with recent conflicts in the region, the ICRC has been providing support for the authorities and for forensic experts, especially in Iraq and Iran. Where necessary, the ICRC has provided training, supplied equipment and repaired facilities. In addition, it has facilitated the exchange of information relating to missing persons between the countries concerned.

"It's a blessing that I saw my son and buried him," said Sabria, an Iraqi mother who retrieved the mortal remains of her son, who went missing during the Iran-Iraq war, in November 2008. "Now he is in a cemetery and I will be buried beside him."

The ICRC calls on the authorities concerned to do everything in their power, in accordance with international humanitarian law, to clarify what happened to those who went missing in armed conflict and to provide the families with any information they obtain.

Bloomberg Campaign Is Juggernaut of Detail

To her friends and neighbors on 156th Street in Queens, she is Camille Casey. To Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s re-election campaign, she is voter No. 301213652, assigned a black and white bar code like those stamped on cereal boxes and soup cans.

With the click of a supermarket-style scanner, her profile emerges. She is a registered Democrat. She is worried about rising subway fares. And she is a guaranteed vote for the mayor (making her a “1” on the campaign’s five-point scale of Bloomberg allegiance).

As New Yorkers go about their lives this election season, the Bloomberg campaign is busy condensing and cataloging them into tiny data points, allowing consultants to study them much as Fortune 500 companies analyze their customers.

It is one of the many ways in which Mr. Bloomberg is using his vast fortune to try to engineer chance out of the typically unpredictable election process.
Even as he sits comfortably ahead of lesser-known rivals, the mayor is assembling the most expensive and, interviews suggest, most meticulous campaign in New York City’s history, with a tab of $37 million so far, all of it from Mr. Bloomberg’s pocket.
That money has paid for 15 political field offices, 80 staff members and about 10,000 television ad spots, and helped amass a volunteer army of 5,000.
But most of all, it has underwritten an obsessive, even comical attention to detail, an unheard-of luxury for most campaigns scrimping by on donations.
To spice up dull campaign work, aides to the mayor recently hired a disc jockey to play background music as volunteers called voters, at a cost of $300. “People loved it,” said Larry Scott Blackmon, a campaign staff member who helped dream up the idea.
When aides decided to organize a party for young black professionals at a nightclub in Times Square, it took eight weeks of planning. Never mind that entry was free, or that shrimp and wine were plentiful — incentive enough for most partygoers. The campaign set up a 31-member host committee. It held weekly conference calls to plot strategy. And it called potential guests — repeatedly — to remind them to attend, lest the turnout disappoint.
In the end, 1,000 people showed up.
Want to quickly endorse the mayor? Forget about it. The campaign asks potential endorsers to sit for videotapings; hand over their organization’s mailing list; send letters to their neighbors; and write an opinion piece for newspapers praising Mr. Bloomberg.
“The campaign’s whole philosophy is leave no stone unturned,” said Karen Persichilli Keogh, a political consultant overseeing its outreach to women.
The campaign is indistinguishable from its candidate, a former bond trader whose faith in cutting-edge technology and number-crunching earned him billions as founder of the media giant Bloomberg L.P.
His field team is so persistent that, when volunteers call to solicit voters’ support, some report that they have already been called by the campaign — three times.
After a volunteer shift at the campaign office in Queens the other day, Mike Abbate, 72, was relaxing at home when his phone rang: It was a fellow volunteer, asking if the mayor could count on his vote. “Let me stop you right there,” Mr. Abbate told the caller. “I already work for him.”
The mayor’s success in luring thousands of volunteers to a re-election campaign with record-shattering resources and a big lead can seem puzzling, and there is none of the ragtag romanticism that defines insurgent efforts. But volunteers, including retired city workers, unemployed professionals and high school students trying to burnish their résumés, seem delighted — and a little awestruck — to be part of such an efficient operation.
“I like the professionalism of it,” said Mary Malone Mills, a hospital office manager from Brooklyn. Lennox Bayne, 69, a retiree, conceded that the campaign might look like overkill, but said it had opened his eyes to professional politics and kept him “plenty busy.”
The campaign has found ways to make the experience interesting. Volunteers are briefed by senior campaign officials, and get early glimpses of TV ads. There are internal competitions, for the most volunteer hours or referrals to friends. (The prize: lunch with the mayor.)(TNYT)