Source: New York Times
February 19, 2008

By WILLIAM J. BROAD

Last August, a team of Russian scientists and legislators trekked to the North Pole and plunged through the ice pack into the abyss, descending more than two miles through inky darkness to the bottom of the ocean.

There, explorers planted Russia's flag and, upon surfacing, declared that the feat had strengthened Moscow's claims to nearly half the Arctic seabed. The ensuing global headlines fueled debate over polar territorial claims.

But that wasn't the whole story. The heroes of the moment did not mention that the dive had American origins.

Alfred S. McLaren, 75, a retired Navy submariner, would like to set the record straight and, as he puts it, "acquaint the Kremlin with the realities" of recent history and international law.

A major figure of Arctic science and exploration who spent nearly a year in operations under the ice, Dr. McLaren says he developed the polar dive plan and repeatedly shared his labors with the Russians and their partners — a claim he supports with numerous e-mail messages and documents.

The Russians, for their part, acknowledge that Dr. McLaren played a central role in the dive's origins. But they say he took no part in substantive planning and logistics.

Dr. McLaren's plan drew on federal polar data and recommended specific sensors and methods to ensure a safe return.

"I wrote the procedures for the dive," he said in an interview. The Russians, he added, "went for the territorial claim."

For the full article please visit the New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/19/world/europe/19arctic.html?pagewanted=print

Source: The Social Science Research Council Blog

Author: Munzoul Assal

Posting Date: January 29, 2008

Sudanis one of the fastest urbanizing countries in the world. Population figures show that the country was already 40% urbanized in 2005 and that figure excludes the displaced of Darfur and the large numbers of unregistered migrants and squatters in Khartoum. Darfurtoday is approximately one third urban, one third rural and one third displaced. Even with the most optimistic scenarios for peace and stability, the majority of Sudanese including Darfurians will soon be living in cities. This is a pathological urbanization it is occurring without social integration. This essay asks, what does this entail for the future of Sudan?

Despite decades of war, Sudan's population has been growing at about 2.8% per annum. That population growth is fastest in a few urban centers, with Khartoumhaving the biggest share. The capital's population grew from just 250,000 on the eve of independent to an estimated 2,831,000 in 1993 a year when the census estimated Sudan to be 25% urbanized. By 2005 Khartoumwas estimated at 4.5 million officially and more than 7 million unofficially with 40% of the country urbanized, and fully half the urban population in the capital. This makes Khartouma primate city, not only in terms of absolute figures, but also politically, economically and socially, as large as all the other urban centers combined.

Migration to Khartoumstarted after independence. For some years, migration was seasonal, and migrants often returned to their areas of origin. But since the 1970s, most migration to Khartoum has been a response to natural and man-made disasters and the inequality of resource distribution. Most of Sudan's economic capital and social services are concentrated in Khartoum. Just as economic resources flow to the center and not the peripheries, so too do people move to the metropolis. The long civil war in southernSudandestabilized communities and pushed millions of internally displaced persons (IDPs) northward. Today, more than 2 million IDPs live in Khartoum---almost one quarter of the population. This can be seen elsewhere too. Nyala now has a population of 1.2 million, plus 300,000 IDPs, making it contend with Port Sudanas the country's second largest city. More than one in five Darfurians live in and around Nyala. But it is in the three towns of Khartoum, Omdurman and KhartoumNorth that we see the most extreme and significant urbanization, and it is here that the country's political future will be decided. Hence this essay focuses on the national capital.

What is the implication of urbanization for the prospects of democratic transformation in Sudan? Will we see urban polarization, poverty and squalor, with resources and services failing to match the demands of urban inhabitants? Khartoumis marked by extreme socio-economic inequality. Rich and upper class residential areas co-exist side by side with squatter settlements and IDP camps. There is a widening gap between the rich and the poor. Khartoumis witnessing a remarkable real-estate development including residential complexes, infrastructure and foreign investment projects that are mostly run by Asians. It is becoming one of the most expensive cities in the world. Yet, these developments do not benefit half of Khartoum's population living in the peripheries of the city. The city provides few if any services to this vast group.

For the full essay and comments by Alex de Waal, please visit the Social Science Research Council's blog at: http://www.ssrc.org/blog/2008/01/29/

From: Reuters
Published February 19, 2008 11:39 AM
Source: http://www.enn.com/lifestyle/article/31419/print 

By Laura MacInnis

GENEVA (Reuters) - Climatechange threatens the human rights of millions of people who are at risk of losing access to housing, food and clean water unless governments intervene early to counter its effects, experts said on Tuesday.

At a conference on climate change and migration, United Nations officials said rising sea levels and intense storms, droughts and floods could force scores of people from their homes and off their lands -- some permanently.

"Globalwarming and extreme weather conditions may have calamitous consequences for the human rights of millions of people," said Kyung-wha Kang, the U.N. deputy high commissioner for human rights.

"Ultimately climate change may affect the very right to life of various individuals," she said, pointing to threats of hunger, malnutrition, exposure to disease and lost livelihoods, particularly in poor rural areas dependent on fertile soil.

Kang, a South Korean, said countries had an obligation "to prevent and address some of the direst consequences that climate change may reap on human rights."

This may include providing safe housing, ensuring good sanitation and water-drinking supplies, and making sure citizens have access to information and legal redress, and take part in decision-making, she said.

Environmental disasters and natural resource scarcity have long been seen as contributors to displacement, for instance in Sudan's Darfur region where 2.5 million people have been driven from their homes by conflict rooted in part in access to water.

But the United Nations has not yet expressly tackled climate change as a human right, for instance by enshrining the right to protection from its effects in an international convention.

Michelle Leighton, director of human rights programs at the University of San Francisco's law school, told the conference pressures from global warming could also force would-be migrants into the hands of criminals.

Some three quarters of sub-Saharan Africa's agricultural drylands are now degraded to some degree, she said, pointing to West African countries such as Ghana, Senegal and Nigeria as most acutely vulnerable to climate change-related damage.

Many people in Somalia, Mali and Cape Verde will also have little option but to leave their lands in coming years, and many are likely to turn to human smugglers for help in accessing more prosperous countries in Europe and elsewhere, she said.

"This is a big business now," Leighton said. "If the climate change predictions come true, and we see much more pressure on agricultural lands in sub-Saharan Africa, we are likely to see an increase in illegal smuggling as well."

Gordon Shepherd of WWF International told the session that such pressures must be addressed by the international community as well as governments. "None of us will escape the effects of the disasters that are facing the future generations," he said.