Okay, First Things First: stop shooting at us.The threat of man-made climate change looms larger than any other problem facing the planet, so it's no wonder that the discussion about global warming has turned into a kind of choreographed screaming that drowns out the facts.

Science unequivocally tells us that climate change is real and caused by man, but predictions of destruction on an epic scale don’t stack up.

Consider the plight of the polar bear – a pin-up ‘victim’ of global warming. Some campaigners claim polar bears are dying because of warmer temperatures, but the facts don’t support the hysteria.

Since the 1960s, polar bear numbers have actually grown five-fold. Polar bears will eventually be affected by climate change, but many creatures and plants in the Arctic will do better as temperatures rise. That doesn’t make up for waning populations of polar bears, but we need to hear both sides of the story.

Scare stories are based on faulty assumptions about just one declining bear population. For the sake of argument, let's accept those faulty assumptions at face value. That means we are losing 15 bears a year to climate change. This means that – at most – 15 bears could be saved this year if we could stop global warming right now. Of course, we can’t. The Kyoto Protocol will cost $180 billion dollars, yet will not affect temperatures by very much: it would probably save .06 of one bear each year.

There are smarter alternatives. Hunters shoot between 300 and 500 polar bears each year. We can revoke hunting rights and clamp down on poachers. Surely it makes more sense to save 300-500 polar bears at virtually no cost than it does to spend hundreds of billions of dollars saving just one.

Of course, we don’t just care about polar bears, but also about the human toll of climate change. It seems logical to expect more heat waves and therefore more deaths. But though this fact gets much less billing, rising temperatures will also reduce the number of cold spells. And the cold is a much bigger killer than the heat. According to the first complete peer-reviewed survey of climate change's health effects, global warming will actually save lives. It's estimated that by 2050, global warming will cause almost 400,000 more heat-related deaths each year. But at the same time, 1.8 million fewer people will die from cold.

The Kyoto Protocol, at great expense, is not a sensible way to stop people from dying in future heat waves. At a much lower cost, urban designers and politicians could lower temperatures more effectively by planting trees, adding water features, and reducing the amount of asphalt in at-risk cities. Estimates show that this could reduce the peak temperatures in cities by more than 20 degrees Fahrenheit.

Global warming will claim lives in another way: by increasing the number of people at risk of catching malaria by about 3 percent over this century. According to scientific models, implementing the Kyoto Protocol for the rest of this century would reduce the malaria risk by just 0.2 percent.

On the other hand, we could spend $3 billion annually -- 2 percent of the protocol's cost -- on mosquito nets and medication and cut malaria incidence almost in half within a decade. For every dollar we spend saving one person through policies like the Kyoto Protocol, we could save 36,000 through direct intervention.

The world shouldn’t ignore climate change. Rather than throwing trillions of dollars at a treaty that will achieve little, I advocate a dramatic increase in spending on research into low-carbon energy. If every nation took part, this would be much more efficient than Kyoto, yet cost almost ten times less.

We should remember when we respond to the threat of climate change that other huge challenges face the planet:

• 4 million people will die from malnutrition this year
• 3 million from HIV/AIDS
• 2.5 million from indoor and outdoor air pollution
• 2 million from lack of micronutrients (iron, zinc and vitamin A)
• And almost 2 million from lack of clean drinking water.

Climate change policies are not the most effective way of dealing with these issues.

My latest project, Copenhagen Consensus 2008, will look at the world’s biggest challenges and ask some of the world’s top minds to identify the best solutions to them. Four Nobel laureates and four other top economists will weigh up how much good could be achieved by different approaches to world problems, and will identify the most effective ways to make a difference.

There’s more information at Copenhagen Consensus.

Cutting carbon emissions through Kyoto has become the instantaneous answer to any problem, but we could achieve more through simpler policies.

For one thing, we should stop shooting polar bears.

Bjørn Lomborg is the organizer of the Copenhagen Consensus 2008, adjunct professor at the Copenhagen Business School, and author of Cool It and The Skeptical Environmentalist.

Ha, wasn't it humiliating for Scientology when that clip of Tom Cruise being all wild-eyed and talking about orgs and DPs and whatnot surfaced online? Now everyone will think Scientologists are crazy! Good thing no embarrassment like that could ever befall the Jews.

Oh, wait. Oops. It turns out that Hebrew Hammer writer/director Jon Kesselman made a top secret Jewish indoctrination video that makes Tom look saneish. Whether he's curing cancer, curing 9/11, or just walking on water, for Jon Kesselman, it's all about KJW: Keep Judaism Working. Oy.

Project Chicken Soup: More than just soup. December first was World AIDS Day, and the entire month of December is HIV/AIDS Awareness Month. That being the case, I thought it might be nice to aim our tzedekah accordingly. Enter Project Chicken Soup, an organization serving the greater Los Angeles area with a simple yet wonderful goal. Project Chicken Soup, a part of Los Angeles Jewish AIDS Services, gets healthy kosher meals to people living with HIV/AIDS in LA County, and recently received The Congressional Hunger Center's 2007 Victory Against Hunger Award for their hard work. And, they, like most organizations, need support. 

You can PayPal them to donate, rock the lapel pin, order the cookbook, or, far better, you can read the volunteer page, show up on any of these dates and help them cook and deliver meals. Also, if you know someone looking for a B'nai Mitzvah project, Project Chicken Soup can help you with that, too.

Just a few weeks ago, I criticized Desmond Tutu for one of his chronically outrageous statements about the Middle East. Of more interest to me, however, was that many use the "he's Desmond Tutu" line as if it that were in and of itself sufficient to defend him against charges that his rantings about the Jews and Israel are borderline anti-Semitic (not to mention how self-defeating and historically ignorant it is for him to compare the South African freedom struggle -- which never had serious elements worshipping a cult of death or calling for the wholesale genocide of its enemies -- to the Palestinian cause). I wrote:

Desmond Tutu is indeed a man of great stature; his criticism of the African National Congress for its unforgivable policies in support of Robert Mugabe and its AIDS denialism, as well as his calls for African Christians to be more accepting of homosexuality, have been exemplary and courageous. But he's not perfect, and happens to have rather odious views about the Middle East. I feel no amount of intellectual inconsistency embracing him for his honesty on Zimbabwe, AIDS and gays, while simultaneoulsy finding his words about Israel and Jews outrageous.

Lest my interlocutors at the time felt this avowal was a cop-out, I'll take this moment to praise Tutu for his latest moral declaration: lashing out at the Anglican Church for its "obsession" with gays. The years-long rift and coming split in the Church between its liberal, Western wings and the culturally conservative global south has not been lost on Tutu:

"Our world is facing problems -- poverty, HIV and Aids -- a devastating pandemic, and conflict," Tutu said.

"God must be weeping looking at some of the atrocities that we commit against one another.

"In the face of all of that, our church, especially the Anglican church, at this time is almost obsessed with questions of human sexuality."

"If God as they say is homophobic I wouldn't worship that God."

Dem's fighting words. Contrast Tutu with Peter Akinola, the Archbishop of Nigeria, who has to compete with Muslims for African converts (which is not to suggest that he doesn't believe the homophobic hatred he regularly spews) and has called homosexuality a "chronic aberration." No word yet on whether African Anglicans plan on matching the head of the Ugandan Muslim community's plan for a gay island.

Via Jamie Kirchick, who as a columnist for the New York Blade must find it especially amusing that he's being called a "gay-basher" in the TNR comments section:

A leading Palestinian “resistance” figure has confirmed what many suspected all along: Yasser Arafat died of AIDS.

In an interview with Hizballah's Al-Manar TV earlier this month, Ahmad Jibril, founder and leader of the Damascus-based Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, revealed a shocking conversation he recently had with Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and his staff.

Hardly shocking. Edward Said always said -- out of print, anyway -- that Arafat was gay, and we have Orianna Fallaci's famed interview with the PLO leader, whose entourage she described as something out of a Nordic Abercrombie & Fitch catalogue. Of course, this matters not at all unless (or until) Hamas seizes on it to try and further discredit Fatah as a corrupt, kufir outfit founded by a queer. And the Stalinoid left, trying to forge an alliance with "revolutionary" Islamism, takes up the mantle it wields so well, of painting its enemies and heretics sexual perverts.

ON THE RUNWAY: PHILANTHROPY AND CONDOMS

THE NEWS:
Israeli fashion designers draw attention to the plight of women denied divorce by their husbands. [Jewish Telegraph Agency]

THE CHATTER:
They may be chic, but the ensemble isn’t complete: Israelis can’t get their fashion-conscious paws on Apple’s illustrious iPhones. [Israel Today]

In Far East fashion, Beijing designers show off condom-covered gowns to raise AIDS awareness. [Reuters]

ROLLING THROUGH THE HIMALAYAS

THE NEWS:
Israeli vacation enclave in the Indian Himalayas. [Times of India]

THE CHATTER:
But the plans for all-night raves below snowcapped peaks had to be put on the hold: Israeli authorities discovered their million-tablet Ecstasy shipment. [Jewish Telegraph Agency]

No need to travel abroad: it’s all reggae music and mind chemicals at the Jewish Woodstock. [Yahoo]

MATZAH: THE NEW FEED FOR CAGE-FREE CHICKENS

THE NEWS:
Eco-Kosher movement gains momentum. [The Washington Post]

THE CHATTER:
No shrimp in my mao pu tofu! China tours go kosher. [The Jerusalem Post]

Warning: if you want to live, don’t market bad seafood. China’s ex-food and drug guy gets whacked. [The New York Times]

IT WASN’T THE 15 SAUDS. IT WAS THE JEWS!!

THE NEWS:
Jews responsible for 9/11. [WingTV]

THE CHATTER:
What’s on your nightstand? I just can’t put down “The Synagogue of Satan.” A real page-turner! [WingTV]

Young “G.I. Jew” on the frontline in Iraq. [Jewish Telegraph Agency]

WHAT DO YOU CALL A JEWISH VIDEO? JEWTUBE!

THE NEWS:
Jewish entrepreneur launches JewTube. [Ceo Smack]

THE CHATTER:
They’re gonna have to do better than a montage of lady Mossad soldiers soundtracked to the Red Hot Chili Peppers. YouTube’s got dogs on skateboards! [JewTube]

The site’s founder, Jeremy Kosen, seeks “to create a community of filmmakers, musicians and artists who share Jewish themes.” [Haaretz]

Young Jewish innovators come together in Jerusalem. Makes our hearts flutter. [Jewish Telegraph Agency]

IF HAARUTZ HA-RISHON CAN’T SHOW NAKED BABES...

THE NEWS:
Haaretz reports today that Internet censorship in Israel could start within one year. [Haaretz]

THE CHATTER:
Politician Ammon Cohen of the ultra-orthodox Shas party proposed the bill in May. [Pulverblog]

A blogger argues that it’s more than a person’s right to see boobs. Liberty is at stake. [Hooqs]

Maybe Ammon Cohen should censor the Hebrew alphabet too since some letters look like Kama Sutra.

• Stephanie Nolen's 28 Stories of AIDS in Africa affirms the prevalence and urgency of the virus in light of corrupt, AIDS-denying governments. The Guardian writes, "This is a call to arms, to a battle that we should all have been fighting for a very long time." [Guardian Unlimited]
• Kaui Hart Hemmings's debut novel of a patriarch's privleged Hawaiian life--speedboats and beachclubs and alcoholism--torn apart by a terrible accident and gripping middle age. [The New Yorker]
• Brooklyn resident Susanna Moore's new novel The Big Girls takes place in a women's prison and describes sexual torture, but this author's sunny, bobo life is anything but dark. [The New York Times]
• In The Price of Fire, independent journalist Ben Dangl writes of Bolivia from the time of the indigenous uprisings against Spanish rule through the Evo Morales administration's first year in office. [Z Magazine]
• In Leonard Michaels's newly collected stories--"part of that astonishing flowering of American Jewish writing that includes Bellow, Malamud, Mailer and Roth"--sex and betrayal in traditional short-story form give way to an "urban pastoral prose poem" and a collage-like list story of the author's immigrant family and concentration camps. [The Nation]

If you don’t know that George Bush just doubled the size of PEPFAR, the Bush anti-HIV/AIDS initiative that was already the largest and most ambitious anti-disease program in human history, you shouldn’t feel too bad. PEPFAR has never gotten much media attention, and this week’s stunning announcement was no different. Here are the dull details, accurately presented by Dan Turner in an L.A. Times op-ed:

Today, Bush upped the ante by asking Congress to double the size of his AIDS program, the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, to $30 billion over five years. That is a vast commitment that dwarfs past efforts and provides real hope that humanity will in the near future be able to stop the spread of AIDS—an accomplishment akin, at least in scope, to putting a man on the moon. This disease has killed 25 million people so far and is still raging out of control, especially in Africa.

According to Newsmap, which visually represents how much attention a given topic gets from the international newsmedia, the top story in the UK last night was “Hamas says Israel wounds 2 Gaza gunmen.” PEPFAR? I can’t find it on the UK Newsmap at all. Or on the American one. Or the Canadian or French or Spanish or Australian or German or any of the others.

But can you blame them? Isn't it all a bit dull? I mean, how many stories are you going to write about the fact, as Turner puts it, George Bush “has done more to relieve poverty and disease in Africa…than any other American president”?

My own interest is partly due to a memorable conversation I had with an HIV pharmacologist from the Infectious Disease Institute in Kampala, Uganda. She described how people like her had spent the Clinton administration tirelessly but fruitlessly begging Clinton and other world leaders to send the antiretroviral medication needed to save the lives of those infected. As she watched patient after patient die for lack of meds readily available in the West, progress was virtually non-existent. By the end of the Clinton administration, the number of people in all of sub-Saharan Africa receiving ARV therapy was still pitifully small, almost darkly absurd: 50,000. Then Clinton left, Bush arrived, and before long she was struggling with a very different sort of challenge: finding enough doctors to prescribe the crates of ARV meds that kept arriving. “Bush’s money,” as she repeatedly referred to it, had changed everything.

I hope we can celebrate PEPFAR as a boon for HIV-infected Africans without being insensitive to the plight of the progressive, socially-conscious Westerners who find the program’s existence so irritating. You’ll get a sense of their confusion and pain if you play a little parlor game I’ve developed. Find an article on PEPFAR in a left-of-center publication, and see how long it takes to spot an egregious factual error or misrepresentation that conveniently diminishes the accomplishments of the program.

For a taste of egregious factual error, try this line from an extremely rare attempt by Counterpunch to write about PEPFAR: "three-fourths of the monies allocated for treatment must be spent on the purchase and distribution of antiretroviral drugs from U.S. pharmaceutical manufactures and cannot be substituted by generic alternatives."

Well...no. Not exactly. Or even at all. PEPFAR uses both foreign-made and generic drugs. In cases in which a foreign-manufactured drug violates a patent held by an American pharmaceutical company, the FDA still approves the drug for use by PEPFAR though not for sale in the U.S. itself. So the Counterpunch quote is dead wrong, a plain fabrication that portrays the Bush administration and PEPFAR as slaves to corporate avarice.

Continue reading...

The World Health Organization and UNAIDS have officially added male circumcision to their list of treatments to prevent the spread of HIV after trials in Africa found it reduced the risk of the disease among heterosexual men by 50 to 60 percent.

Kevin De Cock, director of HIV/AIDS at the World Health Organization said: "The recommendations represent a significant step forward in HIV prevention."
"Countries with high rates of heterosexual HIV infection and low rates of male circumcision now have an additional intervention which can reduce the risk of HIV infection in heterosexual men."

The estimable Johann Hari argues that there are plenty of reasons to hate Joseph Ratzinger. Muslims just happened to have picked the wrong one:

For over a decade now, he has been one of the primary defenders of priests who go to the poorest, most vulnerable people in the world and tell them condoms are the cause of AIDS. In the past year, I have sat in two Catholic churches thousands of miles apart and listened while a Catholic priest told illiterate people with no alternative sources of information that condoms come pre-infected with AIDS and are the reason people die of it. In Bukavu, a crater-city in Congo, and in the slums ringing Caracas, Venezuela, people believed it. They told me they “would not go to Heaven” if they used condoms, and that condoms contain tiny invisible holes through which the virus passes – the advice their priest had doled out.

I did not stumble across a pair of freakish exceptions. A slew of human rights groups have documented how these lethal lies have been orchestrated by the Vatican itself, with Ratzinger humming along in the background. The president of the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for the Family, Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, said, “The AIDS virus is roughly 450 times smaller than the spermatozoon. The spermatozoon can easily pass through the ‘net’ that is formed by the condom.” These people have not been sacked by Ratzinger; many have been promoted.

Here's a contradiction I've yet to see in print: How comes it that Catholic nationalists who scream about the rapidly declining population of Anglo-Saxon and Norman bloodlines in Europe then take their metaphysical queques from clerics who think the third world could use more emigration-ready poor people?