27Jan

Arizona Gov. Brewer gets book critique from Obama

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Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer points at President Barack Obama after he arrived at Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport, Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012, in Mesa, Ariz. Brewer greeted Obama and what she got was a book critique. Of her book. The two leaders engaged in an intense conversation at the base of Air Force One?s steps. Both could be seen smiling, but speaking at the same time. Asked moments later what the conversation was about, Brewer, a Republican, said: “He was a little disturbed about my book.” Brewer recently published a book, “Scorpions for Breakfast,” something of a memoir that describes her years growing up and defends her signing of Arizona?s controversial law cracking down on illegal immigrants, which Obama opposes. Brewer also handed Obama an envelope with a handwritten invitation for Obama to return to Arizona to meet her for lunch and to join her for a visit to the border. (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari)

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer points at President Barack Obama after he arrived at Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport, Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012, in Mesa, Ariz. Brewer greeted Obama and what she got was a book critique. Of her book. The two leaders engaged in an intense conversation at the base of Air Force One?s steps. Both could be seen smiling, but speaking at the same time. Asked moments later what the conversation was about, Brewer, a Republican, said: “He was a little disturbed about my book.” Brewer recently published a book, “Scorpions for Breakfast,” something of a memoir that describes her years growing up and defends her signing of Arizona?s controversial law cracking down on illegal immigrants, which Obama opposes. Brewer also handed Obama an envelope with a handwritten invitation for Obama to return to Arizona to meet her for lunch and to join her for a visit to the border. (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari)

President Barack Obama arrives at Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport, Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012, in Mesa, Ariz. (AP Photo/Matt York)

President Barack Obama talks with Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer after arriving at Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport, Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012, in Mesa, Ariz. Brewer greeted Obama and what she got was a book critique. Of her book. The two leaders engaged in an intense conversation at the base of Air Force One?s steps. Both could be seen smiling, but speaking at the same time. Asked what the conversation was about, Brewer, a Republican, said: “He was a little disturbed about my book.” Brewer recently published a book, “Scorpions for Breakfast,” something of a memoir that describes her years growing up and defends her signing of Arizona?s controversial law cracking down on illegal immigrants, which Obama opposes. Brewer also handed Obama an envelope with a handwritten invitation for Obama to return to Arizona to meet her for lunch and to join her for a visit to the border. (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari)

President Barack Obama arrives at Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport, Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012, in Mesa, Ariz. (AP Photo/Matt York)

President Barack Obama signs autographs after arriving at Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport, Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012, in Mesa, Ariz. (AP Photo/Matt York)

MESA, Ariz. (AP) ? Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer came to greet President Barack Obama upon his arrival outside Phoenix Wednesday. What she got was a critique. Of her book.

The two leaders could be seen engaged in an intense conversation at the base of Air Force One’s steps. Both could be seen smiling, but speaking at the same time.

Asked moments later what the conversation was about, Brewer, a Republican, said: “He was a little disturbed about my book.”

Brewer recently published a book, “Scorpions for Breakfast,” something of a memoir of her years growing up and defends her signing of Arizona’s controversial law cracking down on illegal immigrants, which Obama opposes.

Obama was objecting to Brewer’s description of a meeting he and Brewer had at the White House, where she described Obama as lecturing her. In an interview in November Brewer described two tense meetings. The first took place before his commencement address at Arizona State University. “He did blow me off at ASU,” she said in the television interview in November.

She also described meeting the president at the White House in 2010 to talk about immigration. “I felt a little bit like I was being lectured to, and I was a little kid in a classroom, if you will, and he was this wise professor and I was this little kid, and this little kid knows what the problem is and I felt minimized to say the least.”

On the tarmac Wednesday, Brewer handed Obama an envelope with a handwritten invitation to return to Arizona to meet her for lunch and to join her for a visit to the border.

“I said to him, you know, I have always respected the office of the president and that the book is what the book is,” she told reporters Wednesday. She said Obama complained that she described him as not treating her cordially.

“I said that I was sorry that he felt that way. Anyway, we’re glad he’s here, and we’ll regroup.”

A White House official said Brewer handed Obama a letter and said she was inviting him to meet with her. The official said Obama told her he would be glad to meet with her again. The official said Obama did note that after their last meeting, which the official described as a cordial discussion in the Oval Office, the governor inaccurately described the meeting in her book. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to describe a private conversation between the president and the governor.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-01-25-Obama-Arizona%20Governor/id-25f082208b104d4ab4ce4b8f6ca9c59d

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26Jan

Gingrich reveals income, but not how he earned it (AP)

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WASHINGTON ? Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich beat his main GOP presidential rival, Mitt Romney, to the punch by releasing his most recent tax return. But Gingrich still hasn’t revealed how he earned most of his $3.1 million.

The 2010 tax return made public last week shows that $2.4 million, more than three-fourths of Gingrich’s income, came in payments he regularly received, in addition to his salary, from different businesses he ran before announcing his candidacy for president. Those businesses managed speaking engagements, appearance fees, consulting work, book and video deals and paid positions that Gingrich held in other groups.

Gingrich, who has demanded more transparency from Romney, doesn’t identify where the money came from, including amounts he received from his consulting business.

The Associated Press requested details about Gingrich’s income and the identities of who paid him for his services. The campaign has not decided whether it will release further information about Gingrich’s income, spokesman R.C. Hammond said.

Other GOP presidential candidates, including Romney and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, have provided details of such income. Romney’s financial reports filed last year and his 2010 tax return released this week specify groups that paid him for appearances and how much he received. Santorum, who has yet to release his tax return, lists on a financial report the businesses that paid him as a consultant, payments he received serving on specific boards and activist groups, and money he earned as a FOX News contributor and a newspaper columnist.

The way Gingrich has earned a living in recent years has become an avenue for political attack by Romney. Romney charges that the $1.65 million Gingrich received from the government-backed mortgage company Freddie Mac from 1999 to 2007 was for influence peddling, which Gingrich has denied. Romney also has demanded that Gingrich identify other clients who paid for his services and what he did for them, accusing Gingrich of “potentially wrongful activity.”

“If you’re getting paid by health companies, if your entities are getting paid by health companies that could benefit from a piece of legislation, and you then meet with Republican congressmen and encourage them to support that legislation, you can call it whatever you’d like. I call it influence-peddling,” Romney told Gingrich.

Gingrich has accused Romney of attacking his consulting work out of political desperation, hoping to stifle Gingrich’s rising popularity among GOP voters. Gingrich said he has never been a lobbyist.

But he is battling the perception that he was selling his influence, if not actually lobbying, as he campaigns to win Florida’s GOP presidential primary on Tuesday. Gingrich has said he was exercising his rights as a citizen, not a lobbyist, in 2003 when he publicly advocated changes in Medicare. And he’s argued that he and his group, which received millions from dozens of health-related businesses, made sure not to cross the line into lobbying when he met with congressional members and others to promote the Medicare changes sought by then President George W. Bush.

A liberal-leaning watchdog group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, is urging a federal investigation of Gingrich’s activities.

“Mr. Gingrich’s claim that he simply engaged in `public advocacy’ doesn’t pass the smell test,” said Melanie Sloan, the group’s executive director. “Mr. Gingrich was a lobbyist, and he should not be allowed to play word games with the American people.”

To make its case that Gingrich was lobbying, Sloan’s group cites the Lobbying Disclosure Act, which defines a lobbyist as someone who receives payment for services from a client, makes more than one lobbying contact for the client on an issue and spends at least 20 percent of their time in a three-month period on lobbying activities. A lobbying contact is defined as communication on behalf of a client regarding “the formulation, modification or adoption of federal legislation.”

Gingrich’s tax return doesn’t show how much money he received as a consultant working through his Gingrich Group and his Center for Health Transformation. The center urges changes to health-related policies and laws, practices and technology but says it “does not provide lobbying services nor directly or indirectly participate in lobbying activities of any kind.” Instead, all of Gingrich’s income is lumped together as $2.4 million in payments from Gingrich Holdings, a sort of parent company managing his interests in other businesses.

The Center for Health Transformation served more than 100 companies in 2010, with some paying as much as $200,000 a year to join Gingrich’s organization. While the center has said it generated $55 million from hundreds of corporate sponsors from 2001 to 2010 with Gingrich leading the effort, it said it won’t release a list of clients due to confidentiality clauses in its contracts.

Last year as he prepared for the presidential run, Gingrich sold his interest in the Gingrich Group and the Center for Health Transformation. He hasn’t said how much he received in the buyout, but his financial disclosure form shows his Gingrich Productions is owed between $5 million and $25 million from the Gingrich Group.

Gingrich’s tax return also doesn’t show how much he received from his Fox News contract as a frequent on-air contributor. That contract was managed by Gingrich Communications, a business that handles his appearances and speaking engagements.

Last fall when Gingrich was first denying ever working as a lobbyist, he told a South Carolina audience that he didn’t need to walk the halls of Congress to make a living because of the bounty he received in speaking fees.

“I’m going to be really direct, OK? I was charging $60,000 a speech. And the number of speeches was going up, not down,” he said.

Gingrich has not identified the groups that paid him for those speeches.

Gingrich also continued to earn money as an author, although it’s not clear how much of his earnings came from payments received by Gingrich Communications from his books.

While the $2.4 million in Gingrich’s business payments are not detailed, the tax return does identify more than $712,000 of other income:

_$252,500 for his salary from Gingrich Holdings;

_$191,827 for his wife’s salary from Gingrich Productions and $5,918 from the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington as a member of the church’s professional choir;

_$76,200 for his congressional pension;

_$72,274 from his share of his daughter’s business;

_$38,637 for dividend and interest payments;

_$33,124 in tax refunds;

_$21,625 in speaking fees paid directly to Gingrich and not his businesses;

_$20,000 for him and his wife for serving on boards of directors. The boards are not identified.

___

Follow Blackledge on Twitter: http://twitter.com/brettblackledge

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120126/ap_on_el_pr/us_gingrich_income

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26Jan

United Technologies 4Q profit up nearly 11 pct (AP)

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HARTFORD, Conn. ? United Technologies Corp. said Wednesday its fourth-quarter profit rose nearly 11 percent, propelled by growth in its aerospace businesses. Total revenue increased 1 percent.

The manufacturer of elevators, jet engines, heating and cooling equipment for buildings and other industrial products is banking on growth in commercial aerospace as Congress and the Obama administration plan to slash military spending.

A $16.4 billion acquisition of aircraft components maker Goodrich Corp. is on track to close by the middle of 2012, while United Technologies’ jet engine division Pratt & Whitney is spending $1.5 billion to buy out Rolls Royce from a joint venture that makes engines for the Airbus A320 plane.

The two deals position United Technologies for future earnings growth, CEO Louis Chenevert said Wednesday. He has said the Goodrich deal could increase company revenue by 10 percent this year, but will not add to profit until 2013.

Much of the company’s existing aerospace business is humming. In the October-December quarter, jet engine maker Pratt & Whitney’s operating profit rose 12 percent, while profit at aerospace parts maker Hamilton Sundstrand jumped 21 percent.

But operating profit at helicopter maker unit Sikorsky Aircraft, a key military supplier, fell 13 percent. Sikorsky announced in September it was trimming its worldwide work force of 18,000 by about 3 percent as U.S. forces exit Iraq and draw down in Afghanistan.

Asked by an analyst to comment on potential asset sales to help fund the Goodrich deal and “some chatter” about the future of Sikorsky, Chief Financial Officer Greg Hayes said United Technologies is not considering jettisoning the helicopter maker.

United Technologies is instead weighing selling divisions it doesn’t consider essential, such as installation businesses in its Fire & Security segment, he said on a conference call. The company had also planned to sell about $4 billion in equity and take on $12 billion in debt to fund the Goodrich deal. United Technologies will in mid-March announce a plan to finance the acquisition that cuts the amount of equity to be issued.

United Technologies said operating profit at the Fire & Security business, which makes fire alarms and security systems, fell nearly 45 percent to $130 million during the quarter. Sterne Agee analyst Peter Arment said selling some of the division’s units could improve the segment overall.

The company’s other construction-related divisions performed better. Air conditioner and heating products maker Carrier’s operating profit jumped 57 percent. Profit rose 8 percent at Otis, the elevator manufacturing division.

The Hartford, Conn., company said Wednesday that total net income in the October-December period was $1.33 billion, or $1.47 per share. That’s up from $1.2 billion, or $1.31 per share, in the same quarter in 2010.

Revenue grew to $14.97 billion from $14.86 billion.

Analysts polled by FactSet were expecting earnings per share of $1.46 and revenue of $15.06 billion.

United Technologies’ costs and expenses were almost unchanged from the prior period.

For all of 2011, net income was $4.98 billion, or $5.49 per share. That’s up 14 percent from 2010. Revenue for 2011 rose 7 percent to $58.19 billion.

The company said that it still expects 2012 profit of $5.80 to $6 per share, with revenue of $59 to $60 billion. Analysts expect earnings of $5.64 per share on revenue of $62.93 billion.

The outlook reflects caution about the European economy, as well as prospects for growth in the U.S. and the global aerospace market, Arment said.

Shares added 30 cents to $78.08 in late morning trading. They had been up 6.4 percent in 2012 and had risen 3.3 percent over the past three months.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/earnings/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120125/ap_on_bi_ge/us_earns_united_technologies

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25Jan

Gingrich: Romney self-deportation plan a fantasy (AP)

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DORAL, Fla. ? Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich on Wednesday ridiculed rival Mitt Romney’s call for self-deportation of illegal immigrants as an “Obama-level fantasy” that would be inhumane to long-established families living in America.

The former House speaker ripped that part of Romney’s immigration policy during a forum Wednesday with the Spanish-language network Univision. The interviewer also asked sharp questions about Gingrich’s marital history.

Gingrich laughed at the idea of self-deportation and said it wouldn’t work.

During a debate earlier this week, Romney said he favors self-deportation over policies that would require the federal government to round up millions of illegal immigrants and send them back to their home countries. Advocates of Romney’s approach argue that illegal immigration can be curbed by denying public benefits to them, forcing them to leave the United States on their own.

“You have to live in a world of Swiss bank accounts and Cayman Island accounts and automatically $20 million income for no work to have some fantasy this far from reality,” Gingrich said, alluding to details in Romney’s income tax returns made public on Tuesday. “For Romney to believe that somebody’s grandmother is going to be so cut off that she is going to self-deport, I mean this is an Obama-level fantasy.”

But Gingrich’s campaign has spoken of the self-deportation policy he ridiculed Wednesday.

Romney’s campaign directed reporters to past comments by Gingrich spokesman R.C. Hammond, who said that only a small percent of illegal immigrants would likely be allowed to stay in the U.S. under Gingrich’s plan. Hammond went on to say that the vast majority of them would likely “self-deport.”

At the forum, Gingrich spoke instead about border control and establishing a guest-worker program to better manage the influx of immigrants. Gingrich said he favors a path to citizenship for illegal immigrant children who serve in the military but not for simply completing college.

As to communist Cuba, not far off Florida’s southern shore, Gingrich said he would be open to using everything up to covert operations to replace stalwart Fidel Castro’s regime. “Hands off Cuba, that’s baloney,” he said. “The people of Cuba deserve freedom.”

Florida is home to many Hispanics of Puerto Rican or Cuban descent and who view immigration policy as a priority. Thirteen percent of the state’s registered voters are Hispanic.

While the questions were mostly about Hispanic concerns, moderator Jorge Ramos asked Gingrich whether it was hypocritical for him to criticize then-President Bill Clinton and pursue his impeachment in the 1990s when Gingrich was also being unfaithful to his second wife.

Gingrich snapped at the premise of the question and said it was Clinton’s false testimony under oath that bothered him most.

“The fact is I’ve been through two divorces. I’ve been deposed both times under oath. Both times I told the truth in the deposition,” Gingrich said. “I have never lied under oath. I have never committed perjury.”

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/gop/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120125/ap_on_el_pr/us_campaign_hispanics

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25Jan

Author-commentator Charla Krupp dies in NYC at 58 (AP)

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NEW YORK ? Charla Krupp, a popular author and commentator on fashion and beauty whose best-sellers included “How Not to Look Old” and “How to Never Look Fat Again,” has died at age 58.

Krupp’s husband, Richard Zoglin, said she died Monday of breast cancer at their home in Manhattan.

Krupp made numerous television appearances over the years. According to her publisher, the Hachette Book Group, she was on NBC’s “Today” show more than 100 times and was featured on Oprah Winfrey’s syndicated talk program and on ABC’s “Good Morning America” and “The View.”

As entertainment editor for Glamour magazine, she interviewed Meryl Streep, Madonna and other celebrities. She also wrote for Time magazine, USA Today, Town & Country and many other publications and had a second run at Glamour as beauty editor.

Her husband called her “a pioneering journalist, a champion of women and an amazing life force.”

“She touched millions of women, and I’m sure they share my loss,” Zoglin, a theater critic for Time, said in a statement.

Krupp was born and raised in Wilmette, Ill., and majored in journalism at the University of Illinois.

Hachette announced that the Krupp and Zoglin families had established the Charla Krupp Memorial Fund for Women in Media at the University of Illinois College of Media.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/obits/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120123/ap_en_ot/us_obit_krupp

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15Jan

NASA study shows health, food security benefits from climate change actions

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[ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 12-Jan-2012
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Steve Cole
stephen.e.cole@nasa.gov
202-358-0918
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

A new study led by a NASA scientist highlights 14 key air pollution control measures that, if implemented, could slow the pace of global warming, improve health and boost agricultural production.

The research, led by Drew Shindell of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York City, finds that focusing on these measures could slow mean global warming 0.9 F (0.5C) by 2050, increase global crop yields by up to 135 million metric tons per season and prevent hundreds of thousands of premature deaths each year. While all regions of the world would benefit, countries in Asia and the Middle East would see the biggest health and agricultural gains from emissions reductions.

“We’ve shown that implementing specific practical emissions reductions chosen to maximize climate benefits would also have important ‘win-win’ benefits for human health and agriculture,” said Shindell. The study was published today in the journal Science.

Shindell and an international team considered about 400 control measures based on technologies evaluated by the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in Laxenburg, Austria. The new study focused on 14 measures with the greatest climate benefit. All 14 would curb the release of either black carbon or methane, pollutants that exacerbate climate change and damage human or plant health either directly or by leading to ozone formation.

Black carbon, a product of burning fossil fuels or biomass such as wood or dung, can worsen a number of respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. The small particles also absorb radiation from the sun causing the atmosphere to warm and rainfall patterns to shift. In addition, they darken ice and snow, reducing their reflectivity and hastening global warming.

Methane, a colorless and flammable substance that is a major constituent of natural gas, is both a potent greenhouse gas and an important precursor to ground-level ozone. Ozone, a key component of smog and also a greenhouse gas, damages crops and human health.

While carbon dioxide is the primary driver of global warming over the long term, limiting black carbon and methane are complementary actions that would have a more immediate impact because these two pollutants circulate out of the atmosphere more quickly.

Shindell and his team concluded that these control measures would provide the greatest protection against global warming to Russia, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, countries with large areas of snow or ice cover. Iran, Pakistan and Jordan would experience the most improvement in agricultural production. Southern Asia and the Sahel region of Africa would see the most beneficial changes to precipitation patterns.

The south Asian countries of India, Bangladesh and Nepal would see the biggest reductions in premature deaths. The study estimates that globally between 700,000 and 4.7 million premature deaths could be prevented each year.

Black carbon and methane have many sources. Reducing emissions would require that societies make multiple infrastructure upgrades. For methane, the key strategies the scientists considered were capturing gas escaping from coal mines and oil and natural gas facilities, as well as reducing leakage from long-distance pipelines, preventing emissions from city landfills, updating wastewater treatment plants, aerating rice paddies more, and limiting emissions from manure on farms.

For black carbon, the strategies analyzed include installing filters in diesel vehicles, keeping high-emitting vehicles off the road, upgrading cooking stoves and boilers to cleaner burning types, installing more efficient kilns for brick production, upgrading coke ovens and banning agricultural burning.

The scientists used computer models developed at GISS and the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology in Hamburg, Germany, to model the impact of emissions reductions. The models showed widespread benefits from the methane reduction because it is evenly distributed throughout the atmosphere. Black carbon falls out of the atmosphere after a few days so the benefits are stronger in certain regions, especially ones with large amounts of snow and ice.

“Protecting public health and food supplies may take precedence over avoiding climate change in most countries, but knowing that these measures also mitigate climate change may help motivate policies to put them into practice,” Shindell said. The new study builds on a United Nations Environment Program/World Meteorological Organization report, also led by Shindell, published last year.

“The scientific case for fast action on these so-called ‘short-lived climate forcers’ has been steadily built over more than a decade, and this study provides further focused and compelling analysis of the likely benefits at the national and regional level,” said United Nations Environment Program Executive Director Achim Steiner.

###



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?


AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 12-Jan-2012
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Steve Cole
stephen.e.cole@nasa.gov
202-358-0918
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

A new study led by a NASA scientist highlights 14 key air pollution control measures that, if implemented, could slow the pace of global warming, improve health and boost agricultural production.

The research, led by Drew Shindell of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York City, finds that focusing on these measures could slow mean global warming 0.9 F (0.5C) by 2050, increase global crop yields by up to 135 million metric tons per season and prevent hundreds of thousands of premature deaths each year. While all regions of the world would benefit, countries in Asia and the Middle East would see the biggest health and agricultural gains from emissions reductions.

“We’ve shown that implementing specific practical emissions reductions chosen to maximize climate benefits would also have important ‘win-win’ benefits for human health and agriculture,” said Shindell. The study was published today in the journal Science.

Shindell and an international team considered about 400 control measures based on technologies evaluated by the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in Laxenburg, Austria. The new study focused on 14 measures with the greatest climate benefit. All 14 would curb the release of either black carbon or methane, pollutants that exacerbate climate change and damage human or plant health either directly or by leading to ozone formation.

Black carbon, a product of burning fossil fuels or biomass such as wood or dung, can worsen a number of respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. The small particles also absorb radiation from the sun causing the atmosphere to warm and rainfall patterns to shift. In addition, they darken ice and snow, reducing their reflectivity and hastening global warming.

Methane, a colorless and flammable substance that is a major constituent of natural gas, is both a potent greenhouse gas and an important precursor to ground-level ozone. Ozone, a key component of smog and also a greenhouse gas, damages crops and human health.

While carbon dioxide is the primary driver of global warming over the long term, limiting black carbon and methane are complementary actions that would have a more immediate impact because these two pollutants circulate out of the atmosphere more quickly.

Shindell and his team concluded that these control measures would provide the greatest protection against global warming to Russia, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, countries with large areas of snow or ice cover. Iran, Pakistan and Jordan would experience the most improvement in agricultural production. Southern Asia and the Sahel region of Africa would see the most beneficial changes to precipitation patterns.

The south Asian countries of India, Bangladesh and Nepal would see the biggest reductions in premature deaths. The study estimates that globally between 700,000 and 4.7 million premature deaths could be prevented each year.

Black carbon and methane have many sources. Reducing emissions would require that societies make multiple infrastructure upgrades. For methane, the key strategies the scientists considered were capturing gas escaping from coal mines and oil and natural gas facilities, as well as reducing leakage from long-distance pipelines, preventing emissions from city landfills, updating wastewater treatment plants, aerating rice paddies more, and limiting emissions from manure on farms.

For black carbon, the strategies analyzed include installing filters in diesel vehicles, keeping high-emitting vehicles off the road, upgrading cooking stoves and boilers to cleaner burning types, installing more efficient kilns for brick production, upgrading coke ovens and banning agricultural burning.

The scientists used computer models developed at GISS and the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology in Hamburg, Germany, to model the impact of emissions reductions. The models showed widespread benefits from the methane reduction because it is evenly distributed throughout the atmosphere. Black carbon falls out of the atmosphere after a few days so the benefits are stronger in certain regions, especially ones with large amounts of snow and ice.

“Protecting public health and food supplies may take precedence over avoiding climate change in most countries, but knowing that these measures also mitigate climate change may help motivate policies to put them into practice,” Shindell said. The new study builds on a United Nations Environment Program/World Meteorological Organization report, also led by Shindell, published last year.

“The scientific case for fast action on these so-called ‘short-lived climate forcers’ has been steadily built over more than a decade, and this study provides further focused and compelling analysis of the likely benefits at the national and regional level,” said United Nations Environment Program Executive Director Achim Steiner.

###



[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share Share ]

?


AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.


Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-01/nsfc-nss011212.php

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21Dec

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Thanks to video games

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20Dec

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By Owen Gleiberman
Owen Gleiberman on new comedy about bird-watchers co-starring Jack Black and Owen Wilson

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10Dec

‘The Atlantic’ Remembers Its Civil War Stories

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Enlarge Alexander Gardner/National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution Alexander Gardner photographed President Abraham Lincoln in Washington, D.C., on the eve of his second inauguration. It was the last portrait taken of Lincoln before his assassination in April 1865 and it appears on the cover of The Atlantic’s commemorative Civil War issue.

Alexander Gardner/National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution Alexander Gardner photographed President Abraham Lincoln in Washington, D.C., on the eve of his second inauguration. It was the last portrait taken of Lincoln before his assassination in April 1865 and it appears on the cover of The Atlantic’s commemorative Civil War issue.

Today it is widely understood that slavery is a stain on American history — indelible and regrettable. But on the 150th anniversary of the beginning of the Civil War, a new issue of The Atlantic magazine reaches back to a time when this matter wasn’t yet settled, and monumental questions were still up in the air: Would slavery continue? Would America remain united? The magazine was founded by a group of prominent writers, including Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. They were some of the country’s early intellectuals and they used their Boston-based journal to challenge the institution of slavery. The commemorative issue includes some of the same articles Atlantic readers mulled over as battles raged in Chickamauga, Ga., and Appomattox, Va. Louisa May Alcott addresses the grim reality of life inside a Union hospital. Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. writes about the desperate search for his son, future Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., who had been shot through the neck. The magazine also paints a grim and vivid picture of life in Washington, D.C., where stately federal buildings were transformed into makeshift infirmaries. One of those buildings is a massive marble-columned structure that over the years has housed the U.S. Department of the Interior and the U.S. Patent Office. Today it houses the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery, but during the early years of the Civil War it served as a hospital and a morgue. On a recent visit to the museum, I met with photography curator Frank Goodyear, museum historian David Ward and James Bennet, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic. In the mid-1800s, The Atlantic didn’t carry photos, so for its commemorative issue, the magazine teamed up with the Smithsonian to provide historic photos alongside its early articles.

Together, Goodyear, Ward, Bennet and I walked down a hallway to what’s essentially the museum’s antebellum room, where we found ourselves surrounded by famous Civil War-era faces. “We’re moving to essentially the room of American intellectual origins,” Ward said, “[Nathaniel] Hawthorne, [Ralph Waldo] Emerson and the transcendentalists who formed such a basis for the anti-slavery and reform movement in pre-Civil War America.” Bennet says that spirit of reform was at the center of the magazine’s mission when it was established in 1857. “They really had two principal goals,” Bennet said. “On the one hand they wanted to identify and promote what they saw as an emerging American voice in letters. On the other hand they wanted to promote what they called the American idea.” But they didn’t clearly spell out what that idea was. Instead, in issue after issue, they debated questions of leadership, patriotism, national unity and freedom. In an 1862 Atlantic article, Emerson wrote, “Emancipation is the demand of civilization.” “They saw slavery as fundamentally antithetical to the idea of America,” Bennet said, “a rot, basically, at the core of the country.” Not all of The Atlantic’s early contributors shared that point of view. American novelist Hawthorne, for instance, penned a piece that made clear he was ambivalent about slavery and unimpressed with Abraham Lincoln. Hawthorne writes about going to the White House to meet with Lincoln and how the president kept him waiting for half an hour while he finished his breakfast. Bennet says it’s hard not to be a little disappointed in Hawthorne after reading the piece. “You have the sense of a guy who feels a little too cool, a little above the struggle that’s taking place,” Bennet said, as Hawthorne’s portrait stared down at us from the museum wall. “It’s a very contemptuous take that is very modern, actually, in journalistic terms in the sort of attitudinizing about these kinds of grubby politicians. In this case, those grubby politicians happen to include Abraham Lincoln. So what it is is a terribly superficial piece of magazine journalism from one of the foremost writers in American letters.” A New Technology For A New Society The oil paintings of the antebellum room soon gave way to a new tool for chronicling American history.

Enlarge Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze/National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution. Gift of the A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust Nathaniel Hawthorne’s ambivalence toward slavery put the writer at odds with much of New England’s literary community, including the editors of The Atlantic.

Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze/National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution. Gift of the A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust Nathaniel Hawthorne’s ambivalence toward slavery put the writer at odds with much of New England’s literary community, including the editors of The Atlantic.

“It’s interesting to note that this is the period in which photography is being first introduced,” said Frank Goodyear, the museum’s associate photo curator. “These oil paintings, these busts that you see here very much look backwards to earlier artistic traditions. But … photography is going to explode people’s understanding of the events of this age.” To get a better sense of how that happened, we headed upstairs to a kind of storage space. At the center of the room, on a big white table, sat two slightly yellowed photographs. The larger of the two is like this museum’s Mona Lisa. It’s the portrait of Abraham Lincoln that appears on the cover of The Atlantic’s special issue — but it’s flawed. The image was made in 1865 from a glass negative that was accidentally cracked during processing, so there’s a thin line that runs across the top of the image and slices across the very top of Lincoln’s head. The photographer, Alexander Gardner, made only one print before throwing the cracked negative away. “This is the last formal portrait of Abraham Lincoln before his assassination,” Goodyear said. “I really like it because Lincoln has a hint of a smile. The inauguration is a couple of weeks away; he can understand that the war is coming to an end; and here he permits, for one of the first times during his presidency, a hint of better days tomorrow.” The Reality Of Slavery Exposed Goodyear says Lincoln was the first president to really understand the power of photography. But the abolitionists were another set of early adopters. On the table, and next to Lincoln’s portrait, was a small, widely circulated photo of an escaped slave who found himself in a Union camp and decided to enlist. His name is Gordon and his back is filled with welts from repeated whippings.

Enlarge National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution During an 1863 medical exam at a Union camp, an escaped slave known only as Gordon was found to have horrific scarring on his back, the result of whippings he had received from his former overseer.

National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution During an 1863 medical exam at a Union camp, an escaped slave known only as Gordon was found to have horrific scarring on his back, the result of whippings he had received from his former overseer.

“He had to have a medical exam and when he took his shirt off, these extraordinary welts in his back were revealed. They took a series of photographs of his scourged back and this photograph became one of the leading abolitionist images,” Goodyear said. “It revealed the violence behind slavery.” The photograph is both grotesque and beautiful. It circulated around the country and even found its way to Europe. In it, Gordon looks almost regal. “Part of the incredible power of this image I think is the dignity of that man,” Bennet said. “He’s posing. His expression is almost indifferent. I just find that remarkable. He’s basically saying, ‘This is a fact.’ ” Because The Atlantic didn’t yet print photos, its editors tried instead to convey in words what the image of Gordon captured: Slavery was not the benign institution promoted by Southern propaganda. “They were out to do everything they could to expose the horror of this institution the way this photograph does,” Bennet said.

‘The Atlantic’ Remembers Its Civil War Stories

04Dec

Michel D. Kazatchkine: No Funding, No AIDS Free Generation

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In a modern, globalized world, the country in which you live or the income you earn should not determine whether or not your child will become HIV positive. And yet in my country, France, only three babies were infected last year with HIV during their mothers’ pregnancy, labor, delivery, or when breastfeeding, while globally, 390,000 babies were born HIV-positive, most of them in Sub-Saharan Africa. Without medical intervention, nearly half of these babies will die before their second birthday.

In 2012, we can and must do better. We can prevent millions of new infections, and get ahead of the AIDS epidemic because it costs less than $1 per day to give a mother medicine to prevent this type of transmission. That is why the global health community has set its sights on the virtual elimination of mother to child transmission of HIV by 2015. Reaching this goal is possible if we increase funding so that every woman living with HIV has access to the life-saving drugs she needs. Since 2000, the Global Fund has assisted over one million pregnant women in this way. This is a great achievement but sadly, we are still reaching only half of those who need our help. To achieve the goal of an “AIDS free generation” resources are the key. Simply stated: without resources, there are no results.

It was the administration of George W. Bush that established the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and provided funds for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Both have enjoyed widespread bi-partisan support in Congress. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has continued US leadership in the fight and recently announced the Obama Administration’s support for an AIDS free generation by 2015.

It is my hope that in these times of austerity, Congress will continue turning the tide against the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Now is not the time to let economic challenges erode the gains made at the expense of the most vulnerable, those least to blame for the financial crises and those most in need. We know the impact and results that our resources can have and also that the sums required to make an AIDS free generation possible will neither save nor break the national budget of any developed nation. To support our leaders in this endeavor, it is essential that we stand together to protect and build upon the gains we have made in global health. Governments throughout the world, consumers of (RED) products and corporations like Chevron have given unprecedented sums to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria to achieve the success that we have seen to date. For example, since May 2006, the Ghana AIDS program has received more than $50 million of the $180 million raised by (RED). This has contributed, amongst other things, to nearly 500,000 pregnant women receiving testing and counseling for HIV (the equivalent of 5 Super Bowl audiences), and over 13,000 HIV-positive pregnant women receiving medication to stop transmission of HIV to their child.

While donor budgets are constrained, people’s generosity is not. When I see people buying (RED) products — a deliberate and well informed consumer choice — I see that generosity. It helps me to sustain my belief and hope that we can end the AIDS epidemic.

(RED) is a way that any individual consumer can take part in the global fight against AIDS. Every dollar raised is a dollar that purchases medicines or helps provide much needed medical services. Please support the fight against the AIDS pandemic and help to end mother to child transmission of HIV by choosing to buy (RED) products; joining organizations such as ONE to keep your political leaders’ focus on the goal of an AIDS free generation; donating directly to the Global Fund via www.joinred.com; or just spreading the word that everyone has a role to play in fighting AIDS.

By founding (RED), Bono has used his tremendous influence to enable millions of consumers to take part in the fight against AIDS. His support for the Global Fund has been unwavering and inspirational. This World AIDS Day, I will be in Washington D.C. with Bono to celebrate our achievements, but, more importantly, to encourage both governments and businesses to keep up the fight against AIDS. Join us!

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Follow Michel D. Kazatchkine on Twitter: www.twitter.com/kazatchkine

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michel-d-kazatchkine/no-funding-no-aids-free-g_b_1122505.html

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