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The Speed of Change: Bolivian President Empowered by Re-Election

Benjamin Dangl December 8, 2009 Benjamin Dangl

Celebrations in La Paz (ABI)
Bolivian President Evo Morales was re-elected on Sunday, December 6th in a landslide victory. After the polls closed, fireworks, music and celebrations filled the Plaza Murillo in downtown La Paz where Morales supporters chanted "Evo Again! Evo Again!" Addressing the crowd from the presidential palace balcony, Morales said, "The people, with their participation, showed once again that it's possible to change Bolivia… We have the responsibility to deepen and accelerate this process of change."

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Repackaging Copenhagen: Will There Be a Global Climate Agreement?

Brian Tokar December 7, 2009 Brian Tokar

At the start of the UN's long-awaited Copenhagen climate summit, officials are pulling out all the stops to spin the conference as a success, no matter what actually happens. Barack Obama's announcement that he will briefly pass through Copenhagen was a headline story, as was China's commitment to reduce their economy's "carbon intensity," merely lowering their rate of increase in greenhouse gas emissions.

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Turning Activists Into Voters in Uruguay: Frente Amplio and José Mujica

Benjamin Dangl December 3, 2009 Benjamin Dangl

Mujica with Madres of Plaza de Mayo
Torrential rain didn't keep voters away from the polls on Sunday, November 29th when José "Pepe" Mujica was elected president with 52% of the vote. The 74-year-old Agricultural Minister spent 14 years in jail for his participation in the Tupamaro guerilla movement, and has pledged to continue the policies of his predecessor, current left-leaning president Tabaré Vásquez. Mujica also promised that while president, he would return to his farm outside the capital city at least 5 hours a week to tend his flowers and vegetables.

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How To End Climate Change and Create a Sustainable Future

Al Huebner December 2, 2009 Al Huebner

In his new book on climate change, Now or Never: Why We Must Act Now To End Climate Change and Create A Sustainable Future, eminent scientist and author Tim Flannery refers to two vital concepts. The first is "tipping point." The climate tipping point is the point at which the greenhouse gas concentration in the atmosphere reaches a level sufficient to cause catastrophic climate change. The second is the "point of no return." This is reached when the concentration of greenhouse gas has been in place sufficiently long to give rise to an irreversible process.

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Report From Honduras: Elections As Coup Laundering

Jesse Freeston and Tamar Sharabi November 30, 2009 Jesse Freeston and Tamar Sharabi

The Honduran Coup regime rode police state repression into the November 29 elections hoping for clean slate. Only the governments of Taiwan and the United States sent international observers, and the delegation funded by the US State Department arrived at the Electoral Tribunal at the same time the leaders of all six independent human rights monitors in Honduras were delivering their request that the elections be suspended.