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Isn't all this predicated on whether man-made (anthro-something) Global Warming is real or not?

Not really..
if population growth is exponential, and we live in a closed system (spaceship earth) with only energy input (sunlight), then we are *GUARANTEED* to run into some kind of resource limit at one point because our bodies need food:
Whether it's the end of cheap energy from hydrocarbons, the end of cheap energy for cheap Nitrogen fertilizer via the energy-intensive Haber-Bosch process for NH4 (I quote

"he Haber process is important because ammonia is difficult to produce on an industrial scale, and the fertilizer generated from the ammonia is responsible for sustaining one-third of the Earth's population."

, or the phosphate mines running out. Funnily enough, you never read about those things in the newspapers, instead you read about "economy" which doesn't, ultimately, exist. I say bring the discussion back to the real issues.
I don't think that anthropogenic global warming is really disputed anymore (will you please read chapter 2 of the AR4 synthesis report?). And I believe it has serious repercussions for food production (chapter 3), especially in Africa. (heat stress). Have you any idea how many Africans would emigrate if it becomes too hot for agriculture?
But really global warming is just an additional stress factor; if it didn't exist, some other stress factor would become more urgent for humanity's survival. Ultimately, an exponential process is .. well.. exponential, and people (voters) aren't schooled sufficiently to understand what that entails, otherwise we would already live in a very different society right now.

You are quite right when you say that patent may be good for the pharmaceutical companies, but are terrible for the rest of the world.

In India, Novartis is using all its legal muscle to challenge a provision in the Indian patent law that has made it possible for India to develop a strong generic drugs industry. This has made affordable medicines available not only in India, but to other developing countries as well. If Novartis wins the case, this could mean that access to affordable drugs in the third world will be drastically reduced.

There was an article at OneWorld South Asia about the case recently:

The struggle for affordable medicines

India, which amended its patent laws for TRIPS-compliance in 2005, introduced a clause to ensure that pharmaceuticals did not block the entry of low-cost generic drugs. A year ago this clause blocked Novartis' patent application for its anti-cancer drug Gleevec. Now, in a major case that will have a profound effect on the affordability of essential medicines in India, Novartis is challenging this unique Indian provision.
...
If Novartis succeeds in this unprecedented challenge, India's status as the primary supplier of low-cost essential medicines to the developing world will be jeopardised.
...
This marks the first time the world over that a private entity has challenged the prerogative of a country to implement the TRIPS agreement in accordance with its public health priorities. Should Novartis succeed in its challenge, it will not only mark a significant step back in the struggle for affordable medicines, but it will mark the first time that the demands of a private multinational corporation have overridden a sovereign country's right to protect the health of its people.

So if anyone thinks of Novartis and the other big pharma companies as a bunch of good guys, he should think again.

As confirmed in Interviews with top military brass dating back to the battle for the Baghdad Airport in 2003

i really hate it when people get high and mighty and give glib "it's so easy" responses to pandemics.

while the "1,2,3" reasoning may work in the States / West (and that's a *big* may), i encourage you to find the nearest fireman and borrow his 'jaws of life' so that your head may be removed from your own ass. take your little "changes to social norms", board an airplane, and tell it to the raped and abused the world over.

fucking prick. seriously, what mods posted this arrogant shit insightful?

Putting up an unprotected web site is akin to putting up a billboard. If I take a picture of the billboard and publish it in a textbook that kids read for the next 20 years, should I be expected to be sued by the billboard company?

You do realize that most of those countries actually have national healthcare systems?

Actually I know little about the healthcare in any of these countries. I would assume China has national healthcare, being communist and all. All I know about healthcare in India is the reports of leprosy and meningitis. Our healthcare system may not be great, but at least you don't see much of this.

As far as the Russians, I googled their healthcare system and found this:

The newly restructured Russian Ministry of Health and Social Development has announced modernization of the Mandatory Medical Insurance system in Russia as one of its primary goals. The current Mandatory Medical Insurance system is inadequate and unable to guarantee access to the population not only to quality, but in some cases to basic healthcare treatment.

That's because those programs are a hybrid where the government pays money into the current patchwork private system. It combines worst of both worlds, but it's not the only way to do it.

Sure, there are other ways to run healthcare, but I'm willing to wager that whatever the US Government comes up with will be worse, not better. Actually, come to think of it there is currently a healthcare system the US Government does run right now. Good old Uncle Sam provides healthcare for all of our military people - and I'm sure we've all hear horror stories about them, but I'll go ahead and share one.

I have a relative that married a girl in the US Navy. While on active duty the US government generously provided the 'depo' shot as birth control. What they didn't tell her is they only administer it at half strength to keep costs down - so surprisingly she got pregnant. Why would the US government run a national healthcare system for all of it's citizens any differently?

Unless you can show that no nation besides the USA and a few third-world countries are economically viable, your assertion is proveably false.

Ummm... no. There is no way to determine if a country that is currently socialist would be more economically successful if they were more capitalist. It's all speculation. My point was, and is, that any time the US government gets involved in any system, the system becomes less economically viable. I'm not saying that we couldn't improve our healthcare system, but in this country, I don't think government run healthcare is the answer.

Radio4all and Indymedia have been providing space to upload radio programs for years. And they don't even charge stations to download the shows.

I would estimate the yearly expenses of those projects to be an order of magnititude less than $1.5m. Oneworld Radio also offers upload space for programs and is networked internationally. I would guess their costs are a bit less than $1.5m but in a similar ballpark.

Wow, yet another ignorant proud 'Merkin. Tell me, does that mean the Chernobyl wasn't a terrible catastrophe (to paraphrase you, "gees, it's only children getting cancer."). Besides, they were commie children, not sweet American kids, so they don't count, right?

Gathering from your website, I'm guessing you live in a closed world, you probably only read magazines/websites that agree with your viewpoint and dismiss everything else (for example this comment of mine) as bullshit (leftist/liberal bullshit?).

Yay for George W. Bush, where science that disagrees with his viewpoint get censored! (liberal source, but ey, no freaking conservative site is going to cover that fucking news!).

To continue this fucking rant, what the fuck was that Bush using Sept. 11 in his campaign video? Remember that day, he fucking chickened out and hid in airbases around the country, compare that to Rudy Giuliani who I remember seeing in the news - he was a few feet away from dust from the towers with only a handkerchief to cover his nose and mouth. Bush a hero, my fucking ass.

"with a penguin dressed up as a lawyer"

Close enough? Or a penguin next to a lawyer

Or is a smoking a closer match? Or This one?

Uh oh, He took off the head.

Shouldn't someone make a tuxpictures.org?

FYI - Haliburton didn't have to bid on any of its contracts. They were all given to Haliburton by the Bush administration.

And don't forget those biodiesel vehicles. How many miles to the next fast-food place with a deep frier?

Driving in the Yukon this summer in a 92 Suzuki Sidekick. I did 600K on a tank of gas (10 imp. gallon tank.) I put a bit campstove fuel in at the end to make it another 20K to a gas station. Gas is $1/L way up north, the gas stations are few and far (really far) between and sometimes not open on Sunday. (Go get dude, yeah, dude has the key to the pump, oh no dude's gone fishing, oh forget it.)

1 km = 0.621 miles
1.609 Kilometrs (km) = 1 mile

1 L = 0.264 US gal
US gallons(US gal) = 3.785 Litres

1 imp gal = 0.833 US gal
Imperial gallons(Imp gal) 1.201 = US gallons

CDN $1 = 75 US cents

<rant> i remember your duelly elected president George w Bush (who I nhumbly support in his war for, I mean against, no wait you are either for or against, wait, no, we are against terrorism and for the war which somehow equates to peace, something like that, I'll have to switch on those informative us tv news channels to get it straight again with those live action hero figures and cards and such, ooh and oh so cool techy-military stuff) announced that the big 3 car companies would have the fuel efficiency technology available in about 4 years. Translation: we won't be havin us any US-made fuel efficient cars while Bush is president.

God bless him for killing all those terrorists (and breaking a few eggs) so we can have cheap gas for our gas guzzling SUVs. </rant> Blame Canada

An invigorating article on the same topic from Jim Lobe at Oneworld.net United States:

WASHINGTON, D.C., July 4 (OneWorld) - More than 130 communities with a combined population of more than 16 million people in 26 states have passed resolutions directing local police to refrain from using racial profiling, enforcing immigration laws, or participating in federal investigations that violate civil liberties, according to a new report released on the eve of this year's Fourth of July celebrations by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

The 23-page report credits Ann Arbor, Michigan, with adopting the first resolution opposing key provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act, thus setting off a trend that shows no sign of abating.

"In my conversations with people from across the political spectrum, I hear one refrain over and over," says Laura Murphy, who heads the ACLU's Washington, D.C. legislative office. "If we give up our freedoms in the name of national security, we will have lost the war on terrorism."

"As this year's Fourth of July rolls around, we hope that this report will demonstrate to the White House, the Justice Department and Congress that we must be both safe and free."

The ACLU, whose local offices played a major role in support of dozens of resolutions around the country, stressed that among the jurisdications that have taken action are a number of traditionally conservative areas of the country, such as Oklahoma City, Missoula, Montana; and Falgstaff, Arizona.

Some of the larger cities include Denver, Colorado; Oakland and San Francisco, California; Seattle, Washington; Detroit, Michigan; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Baltimore, Maryland. Three states have also adopted measures that call for strict respect for constitutional rights: Hawaii, Alaska, and Vermont.

The report, 'Independence Day 2003: Main Street Fights the Federal Government's Insatiable Appetite for New Powers in the Post 9/11 Era,' says the burgeoning grassroots movement was launched after demands by Attorney General John Aschroft were agreed to by Congress, which, it charges, "encouraged an atmosphere of hysteria," by approving the USA PATRIOT Act in late October 2001 with little debate and few dissenting votes.

The Act included a number of controversial provisions that, in the ACLU's view, upset the balance between the citizen's privacy and political rights and the state's responsibility to ensure the security of the country.

Some of those provisions included expanding the power of the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act; approval of "sneak and peek" warrants which allow federal agents to enter private homes without notifying the owner until much later; weakening the standards for intelligence wiretaps by permitting them to be used for criminal invstigations under some circumstances; and making it easier for federal agents to obtain highly personal "business records," such as library loan records, of possible terrorist suspects.

The Act itself was followed up with a flurry of executive orders, regulations, policies and practices, such as denying the right to a fair trial for citizens and non-citizens labeled "enemy combatants" and establishing military commissions that fall short of minimum due process standards, which further eroded civil liberties protection, according to the ACLU.

On January 7, 2002, Ann Arbor became the first city in the country to pass a resolution in direct response to the PATRIOT Act and new federal policies. "We're very concerned about civil rights and the about the potential discrimination," City Councilwoman Heidi Herrell told ABC News at the time. "We spent a lot of time since September 11 making sure that the Muslim members of our community felt safe."

Denver became the second city to approve a resolution after the ACLU there discovered the existence of 3,400 secret files on social activists that had been collected by the Denver Police over severa

In the UK, VOIS might be one to investigate, or FHIT, or Oneworld, or even VSO. The Information Works build database solutions for non-profit groups. There is also an Oxford based charity 'dedicated to strengthening the capacity of not-for-profit organisations in the third world through the use of information and communication technologies'.

Thse guys pioneered a 'circuit riders' concept in the US. The Technology Project in the US is 'dedicated to accelerating social and political progress by building technological capacity for community collaboration and citizen engagement'. For current news about technology and non-profits, see here.

There are several organisations working in 'developing' countries, such as this one working to 'accelerate socio-economic development and education through the use of emerging technologies in Ghana and throughout the African continent'.

In Australia, the Computerbank project works in redistributing computer equipment and providing training.

Many charity recruitment pages also list vacancies for IT professionals.

I have a big bunch of more academic links on ICT and non-profit management if anyone's interested.

-Rob

Contact grassroots organisations such as your local Amnesty International chapter (http://www.amnesty.org/, Friends of the Earth (http://www.foe.org/, OneWorld.net (http://www.oneworld.net, or any of the myriad of other NGOs. Most of those organisations would welcome people that are capable of tech support, Internet service creation and maintenance, and other stuff. Some might even hire you. Just be sure to do what you promise (I know of experience that nothing pisses people off more than volunteers that dissolve when the work has actually to be done).

Amnesty International condemns the lack of serious discussion about relevant human rights issues at WTO talks.

We need less taxes and less stupid waste, not more taxes.

As Bob Dole, one-time Presidential candidate and now poster boy for Erectile Dysfunction and Viagra once said, "It's time for the government to pinch pennies instead of the American citizens!"

Our money goes towards some of the dumbest things. I heard something about government-sponsored studies to see what causes male sexual arousal or something like that... kind of a segue with the whole Bob Dole thing ;o)

oneworld.net - for all the latest WTO summit news.

It's about time that Microsoft came up with a good proposal for the World Trade Organisation (WTO) summit in Seattle this week.

Regulating international commerce via the Internet would be a rather tricky endeavour anyways. Sometimes, a company is based in one nation while that company's Web host is in another country. Attempting to impose import/export duties on online transactions would pose a great difficulty because the transaction takes place in a different country from the company's home country, and it must be shipped to yet *another* country (whew!). Microsoft's idea is a very good one, and I hope that the delegates at the summit will be open to it despite the legal troubles Microsoft is dealing with now.

So, Microsoft (the company) isn't all bad (excepting the fact that it's an abusive monopoly), but I still hate Windoze...

For more information about the World Trade Organisation (WTO) summit, visit oneworld.net for up-to-date news and views.