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"No Good Science Goes Unpunished" - Environmental
Journalist David Helvarg on the Bush Administration, Climate
Change and Hurricanes
Activists, Celebs Stage Encampment For South Central Farm
British Antiwar Activist Salma Yaqoob on Iraq, Muslim Discrimination
and Being the First Hijab-Wearing Woman Elected to City Council
in Birmingham
"No Good Science Goes Unpunished" - Environmental
Journalist David Helvarg on the Bush Administration, Climate
Change and Hurricanes
As the 2006 hurricane season officially begins we speak
with environmental journalist and author David Helvarg about
hurricanes, coastal development and "Category 5 foolishness."
Helvarg is president of the Blue Frontier Campaign and author
of "Blue Frontier: Saving Americas Living Seas."
[includes rush
transcript]
Last Thursday, marked the official start of hurricane season.
Experts predict that there will be 17 storms resulting in
nine full-blown hurricanes this year. And some point to global
warming as a cause for bigger and stronger storms like Hurricane
Katrina which devastated the Gulf Coast last year. The United
Nation's International Panel on Climate Change estimates that
temperatures will rise by 10 degrees by the next century.
The organization also predicts that rainfall will increase
20% in wet regions, causing floods and decrease 20 % in dry
regions causing draughts. Yet many fear that the U.S is as
unprepared as ever to address these potential disasters even
after the experience of Hurricane Katrina. They point out
that government has done little to stop the destruction of
wetlands or development along coastal areas which are factors
that transform storms into major human catastrophes.
The environmental journalist, and author David Helvarg wrote
in last week's Los Angeles Times that, "The facts are
simple. The best available science tells us that we're faced
with a projected sea-level rise and an increase in category
4 and 5 hurricanes. We need a pragmatic approach to a changed
reality. Those who think they can rebuild in harm's way using
the same assumptions that worked in the last century or who
believe they can manage nature by stockpiling generators and
water bottles, are living a dangerous fantasy. Unfortunately
theirs is a fantasy we are all having to pay for."
The words of David Helvarg -- who is joining us now in the
studio. David is the President of the Blue Frontier Campaign
and author of the books "The War Against the Greens"
and "Blue Frontier: Saving Americas Living Seas."
He is also a contributor to "Feeling the Heat - Reports
from the Frontlines of Climate Change." His latest books
are "Blue Frontier: Dispatches from America's Ocean Wilderness"
and "50 Ways to Save the Ocean."
Activists, Celebs Stage Encampment For South Central
Farm
Farmers in South Central Los Angeles expect that within
the week they will be forcibly barred from what is the largest
urban farm in the United States. Since an eviction order last
month, occupants have staged an encampment to resist removal
from land they've tended for over a decade. [includes rush
transcript]
On Friday we looked at gentrification and eviction in Harlem
here in New York. Today we look at eviction on the other side
of the country, in Los Angeles California. Farmers in South
Central LA expect that within the week they will be forcibly
barred from what is the largest urban farm in the United States.
350 area families have used the 14-acre farm to grow a multitude
of crops since it was leased to the Los Angeles Regional Food
Bank following the 1992 Rodney King riots. In 2003, the land
was sold back to a real estate developer who now wants to
turn it into commercial property.
Since an eviction order last month, occupants have staged
an encampment to resist removal from land they've tended for
over a decade.
The encampment has attracted celebrity supporters including
the actresses Daryl Hannah and Laura Dern, as well as singers
Joan Baez and Ben Harper and environmental activist Julia
Butterfly Hill.
- Tezozomoc, elected representative of the South
Central Farmers. He joins us on the line from the farm
encampment.
British Antiwar Activist Salma Yaqoob on Iraq, Muslim
Discrimination and Being the First Hijab-Wearing Woman Elected
to City Council in Birmingham
We speak with Salma Yaqoob, the first Muslim woman wearing
a hijab elected to city council in Birmingham, England. She
is the head of the Birmingham Stop the War Coalition and a
founder of the RESPECT party in Britain. [includes rush
transcript]
Violence raged across Iraq this weekend with as many as 80
people killed on Sunday alone.
In Baghdad, officials discovered 22 bodies that had been
burned, blindfolded, handcuffed and thrown into a river. In
a small town north of the capital, masked gunmen assassinated
24 people - mostly teenage students - in broad daylight. In
Basra, a suicide car bomber killed 32 people and wounded 77.
On Monday, gunmen in police uniforms abducted up to 50 employees
of various Baghdad transportation companies.
Meanwhile the Los Angeles Times reports that new Iraqi government
documents show that more Baghdad residents died in shootings,
stabbings and other violence in May than in any other month
since the 2003 invasion.
The news comes a day after Iraqi political leaders failed
to reach agreement on the two most important cabinet posts,
further delaying the formation of a new government. Prime
Minister Nuri al-Maliki planned to put candidates for the
Defense and Interior Ministries before the Iraqi Parliament,
but he ran into intense resistance from members of his own
Shite party over the choice for defense minister.
Well this weekend in New York, the organization Independent
Viewpoints sponsored a forum called, "A Dialogue on Shias,
Sunnis and Politics in Iraq." The event featured MIT
Professor Noam Chomsky and a Shia-Sunni Speaker's Panel to
discuss the situation in Iraq, the role of the American-Muslim
community in the country's political system and to look at
how Muslims and non-Muslims can come together to work for
political change.
We are joined now in our firehouse studio by Salma Yaqoob,
the head of the Birmingham Stop the War Coalition and a founder
and vice-chair of RESPECT The Unity Coalition in England.
This year she won a seat on the city council in Birmingham
and became the first elected hijab-wearing councilor in the
city. She was a speaker at this weekend's event.
For a copy of today’s program, call 1 (800) 881 2359.
Our website is www.democracynow.org.
Our email address is mail@democracynow.org.
Democracy Now! is produced by Mike Burke, Sharif Abdel Kouddous,
Ana Nogueira, Elizabeth Press, Jeremy Scahill and Parvez Sharma.
Mike Di Filippo is our engineer.
Thanks also to Uri Galed, Angela Alston, Orlando Richards,
Simba Russeau, Johnny Sender, Rich Kim, Joe Murgio, John Randolph,
Chris Zucker, Karen Ranucci, Denis Moynihan, Eric Rweyemamu,
Jenny Filipazzo and Isis Phillips.
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