On June 13, the latest Pew Global Attitudes Project poll was released, revealing significant drops in foreign opinions of the US. From 2005 to 2006, US approval percentages declined for 9 out of 11 countries that provided information. The greatest decrease for the year was seen in Spain, which went from 41 percent to just 23 percent last year. Turkey remained at the bottom of the list, with only 12 percent of the population’s approval, while Japan topped the list with 63 percent. The poll also appraised citizen content with the state of their nation; only 29 percent of Americans compared to 81 percent of Chinese report satisfaction with their country, and a survey on the significance of global warming found a mere 19 percent of Americans believe it’s “a great deal,” the lowest of all 15 countries analyzed. The poll is directed by Andrew Kohut, president of the Pew Research Organization in Washington DC, a nonpartisan “fact tank” that supplies information about the issues, attitudes, and trends shaping the world.
Source: The Pew Global Attitudes Project
The 2007 Failed States Index cites Iraq as the second most unstable country out of 177 studied, moving from its 2006 position as fourth. The report considers facts compiled from global and regional sources and bases rankings on 12 indicators such as a legacy of vengeance, severe economic decline, and the rise of factionalized elites. Sudan tops the list as the most unstable country, with Norway and Finland respectively as first and second most secure. The US ranks at 160, making it the 18th most stable, sandwiched between Chile and Singapore.
Source: The Fund for Peace, Failed States Index Scores 2007
According to information from the Apollo Moon landings, an abundance of helium 3, a rare gas that could be used to create pollution-free energy, exists in the moon’s soil. Plans to exploit this resource are already underway in the US and Russia, and include mining the gas and bringing it back to Earth. Jerry Kulcinski, a professor at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, said the moon could become “the Persian Gulf of the 21st century.” One of the only opposing voices is Edgar Mitchell, a member of the 1971 Apollo 14 mission, who cautions that the moon is a “rich scientific destination” that we still need to study and explore. In another lunar exploitation, Dennis Hope of Nevada has claimed ownership of the moon through loopholes in the 1967 UN Outer Space Treaty, and has sold more than 400 million acres, earning him over $9 million. Property has been snapped up by the Hilton and Marriot hotel chains, celebrities, and even Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter. Hope additionally claims ownership of seven planets and their moons.
Source: BBC News
The Audubon Society released the State of the Birds Report for 2007, which draws upon 40 years of collected data by Audubon volunteers. The report shows that common bird species of the continental US are suffering a dramatic decline, with an overall 70 percent population drop from 17.6 million in 1967 to 5.35 million today. The society says that humans are to blame—encroaching development changes habitats, global warming affects breeding grounds, and pesticides and pollution kill food supplies. The northern bobwhite and evening grosbeak have suffered the largest loss, each with drops around 80 percent.
Source: The Audubon Society’s A State of the Birds Report, Summer 2007
Kenneth D. Rice, the former chief of Enron’s Internet unit, was the last Enron executive to be sentenced on June 18 for his part in falsifying the financial state of the company to investors. Rice was given only 27 months of his original 10 year sentence, due in part to his testifying against former chief executive Jeffrey K. Skilling, who is serving 24 years in prison. He was also ordered to turn over cars, jewelry, and cash worth $14.7 million. Enron, a natural gas pipeline company, had evidence of financial misconduct by top executives as early as 1987, just two years after its inception. Years later the veiled debt, exaggerated profits, and off-the-books accounting prompted a criminal investigation and indictments including conspiracy, money laundering, fraud, and insider trading. Enron also had links to the White House; the large donations made to President Bush’s 2000 campaign raised questions about the role of corporate donations in politics.
Source: Washington Post, New York Times, and BBC
A Queens man who was misidentified in a lineup and spent over two years in Rikers Island for armed robbery was released on May 21, and filed a $50 million lawsuit against city officials and the district attorney, Richard A. Brown, on June 15. The suit cites “prosecutorial misconduct” for failing to report existence of a videotape of the crime and a statement by the victim saying he was unable to see the perpetrator’s face. This is the 84th overturned criminal conviction in Queens courts due to prosecutorial misconduct.
Source: New York Times
Fox News is being sued by a Leon Levesque, a school superintendent in Maine, for a parody that was misrepresented as fact on the April 23 “Fox and Friends” show. The parody, written by Nicholas Plagman and posted on the Associated Content website, was based on a prank at Lewiston Middle School when a student threw ham on a table occupied by Muslim students, who believe pork is unclean. Plagman penned a satirical version of the story, embellishing quotes to make them more humorous and attributing them to the Associated Press, and posted it in the news section of Associated Content. Fox News found the story and ran it, assuming that it was legitimate because of the AP credentials. Levesque filed the suit for $75,000 after receiving threatening phone calls at home and a substantial amount of hatemail. Fox News issued a brief on-air retraction, after the episode in which anchors repeatedly told viewers they “were not making this up.”
Source: Associated Content and The Boston Globe
China revealed that a recent survey of domestically made and distributed food and consumer products found 20 percent to be substandard. Regulators discovered candied fruit with 63 times the legal amount of sweetener and copious amounts of additives and preservatives in children’s snacks, as well as fake human blood protein at hospitals and foods contaminated with formaldehyde, industrial wax, and prohibited dyes. Officials said that China’s domestic goods were far more dangerous than their exports, but stated in their report that 80.9 percent of products in China met safety standards, a higher level than the previous year. They didn’t reveal much information on how hazardous the other 20 percent of products may be. The domestic inquiry takes place after increasing scrutiny of Chinese exports; recent troubles include high antibiotic residue in seafood, tainted pet food, faulty tires, and counterfeit toothpaste.
Source: New York Times
According to the United Nation Environment Programme, investment in renewable energy reached $100 billion in 2006. Investments were almost evenly divided between the US and Europe, with most money being supplied to fund wind power, biofuel, and solar power capacity generation. $71 billion went to companies and new sector prospects, up 43 percent from the previous year. The report noted that compared to the dotcom boom, renewable energy is a bubble unlikely to burst—there’s actual demand, increasing regulatory backing, rising revenues, and concrete assets supporting the industry.
Source: The US Department of Energy, Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy
Officials at the Pentagon confirmed that the Air Force had requested $7.5 million in 1994 to develop a chemical weapon that would turn enemy soldiers gay. Edward Hammond, of Berkeley’s Sunshine Project, accessed records from the Air Force’s Wright Laboratory in Dayton, Ohio and said the Pentagon repeatedly proposed the non-lethal weapon, and presented it to the highest scientific review body in the country for consideration. Hammond said the proposition involved development of a chemical that by skin exposure or breathing would cause the enemy army to become “irresistably attractive to one another.” The military maintains that they discarded the plan. Gay citizens were perturbed by the suggestion, noting that its offensive to think that turning a person gay would make them an inefficient soldier. Among other absurd plans were the ideas to develop a bad breath weapon to identify enemies, a chemical to attract angry wasps or rats toward enemy troops, and a bomb that would “simulate flatulence in enemy ranks.”
Source: BBC News and CBS
The temperature in Alaska has risen an average of two to five degrees in different regions over the last few decades, spurring coastal erosion and melting permafrost. A study by the University of Alaska, Anchorage, estimates the cost of fixing and replacing infrastructure damaged due to climate change will rise 20 percent, or $6.1 billion, through 2030. The study accounted for 16,000 pieces of public infrastructure, but didn’t approximate costs for other potential consequences of warming—wildfires, harm to the Trans-Alaska Pipeline, and relocation of villages.
Source: New York Times
A study by the University of Michigan discovered a dramatic difference in life expectancy for men after the fall of communism and the Soviet Union switchover to capitalism. Between 1991 and 1994, the average male life span dropped by six years amid increases in physical hardship, suicide, and homicide. The study says that the level men are affected depends on how tough the transition to capitalism was and how bad income inequality rose. Lead author Daniel Kruger said that more competition supports risky behaviors, which can end in fatal accidents. Economic and emotional stress surface physically through heart attacks, suicide, and murder. Romania, Estonia, Latvia, and Albania were the countries most affected during the first five years after the Soviet fall. The study showed a 9.3 percent deviation between male and female mortality rates, suggesting females were less vulnerable to the change.
Source: Agence France Presse
A report released by Georgetown University’s Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth (CAMY) revealed that advertisements discouraging underage drinking were severely cut between the years 2001 and 2005, coinciding with an increase in alcohol advertising on the television. CAMY found that of the $4.9 billion dollars spent on alcohol product advertisements, only 2 percent of that was spent on “responsibility” messages that deter minors from drinking. During those years, youth were 239 times more likely to see an alcohol ad than responsibility content (which warns against underage consumption and drinking and driving) , and 20-25 percent of all alcohol ads were placed in spots more likely to be viewed by minors than by adults. A Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration survey discovered there were 11 million underage drinkers in 2005, and 7.2 million were underage binge drinkers.
Source: Drowned Out: Alcohol “Responsibility” Advertising on Television, 2001-2005
This article appears in August 2007.
