Marc Lacey's Sunday New York Times piece describing UN peacekeepers' recent incursions into the gang-infested Cite-Soleil neighborhood of Port-au-Prince sheds some light into the difficult task blue-helmets face in Haiti. There are 8,000 mostly Jordanian and Brazilian blue-helmets in Haiti. And as the Times piece explains, they are starting to stake a more aggressive posture against organized criminal groups that terrorize urban slums and threaten the democratically-elected Preval government. Heavily armed UN troops are acting as a constabulary force, going block-by-block to apprehend crime bosses in order to make life more tolerable for the residents of Port-au-Prince.
Because Haiti is so close to American shores, it stands as a sharp example of how peacekeepers can take on a role that would otherwise fall to American soldiers.
Gallup released the latest installment in a long-runinng series of polls that take the temperature of Americans' attitude toward the United Nations. On the basic question of job performance, the United Nations has yet to recover from the sharp drop it experienced in the run up to the Iraq war, when a large majority of Americans thought the UN was acting against American interests and trying to prevent the war. Still, as the poll showes, most Americans want the United Nations to have a robust role in setting global policies.
You can view the entire poll here.
As mentioned yesterday, Special Envoys of the United Nations and African Union will travel to Sudan next week to meet with Government officials and Darfur rebels. Today, acting United States ambassador to the United Nations Alejandro Wolff helped ramp up the pressure on Sudan by announcing that Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will address the Council based on the envoys' recommendations.
Writing in The Hill's Congress Blog, Representative Tom Lantos, Chair of the House Committee on International Relations, expresses disappointment that the new White House budget request shortchanges the United Nations.
"We face a $130 million shortfall in the account used to pay U.S. dues to the United Nations. For the first time since the historic agreement brokered by Senators Joe Biden and Jesse Helms to pay off old U.S. debt the United Nations, we will once again be in arrears."
Lantos then couches his criticisms of the budget in National Security terms. You can view his entire post here. It is well worth a read.
On the eve of the release of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report, The Guardian revealed that the American Enterprise Institute was offering $10,000 to scientists to publish studies critical of the panel's findings. This is curious, because as The Guardian reported AEI receives large donations from energy companies who would rather you remain skeptical about the human causes of climate change.
Much ink has already been spilled chronicling the intellectual decline of the American Enterprise Institute. Today, the Washington Post adds to the chorus with a story that includes a precious quote from a self-respecting climate change researcher who would not be paid to play with AEI.
As mentioned earlier on this blog, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change - a body composed of hundreds of scientists from around the world - released its much awaited report on the causes and consequences of global warming.
Today's report is the group's fourth report on global warming since the United Nations established the IPCC in 1988. However, the newest report is the first assessment in which the group has stated with near full confidence (they say "90% certainty") that human activities are the main cause of global warming. From now on, when one hears the term "overwhelming scientific evidence" in a discussion about human activities and global warming, this report will be the point of reference.
Of course, the idea that humans cause global warming should be of little surprise to most people. But there are still some outfits that would like you to believe otherwise. Politically, the report is groundbreaking precisely because it should put to rest, once and for all, unhelpful debates over whether or not humans cause global warming. (Think: Galileo's scientific confirmation of Copernicus' theories about the earth and the sun.)
On the United Nations Foundation website, Richard Moss, director of the Climate Change program at the United Nations Foundation, discusses the significance of the just-released IPCC report. From 2000-2006, Moss directed the interagency US Climate Change Science Program Office, which was established to coordinate President Bush's Climate Change Research Initiative. Earlier in his career, Moss worked with the IPCC, editing and authoring several reports. He is, briefly stated, one of the country's foremost experts on climate change and public policy. You can listen to his podcast below.
Podcast:
Climate expert Richard Moss on the new UN IPCC Report
The much anticipated report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is now available. Click here for the report's 20 page summary for policy-makers.
To draw attention to the highly anticipated report of the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change, on-going in Paris, the French government announced that it will turn off the 336 projectors that illuminate the Eiffel Tower at night. The lights will be off for a full five minutes tomorrow evening in advance of the report's release on Friday.
For an excellent insiders' account of the Panel's race to finish the report by Friday's deadline, read this dispatch by AP science writer Seth Borenstein.