Parity-the state or condition of being the same
in power, value, rank, equality.

	The Green Power Broker By MARGUERITE HOLLOWAY Published: December 12, 2008 MAJORA CARTER, one of the city’s best-known advocates for environmental justice, was sitting on a picnic table in Barretto Point Park in the South Bronx under the intense lights of an NBC film crew. On this late September afternoon, after a month of traveling, delivering speeches, serving as host of a Sundance Channel program and a Science Channel pilot, Ms. Carter was noticeably flagging. Yet her signature feistiness was much in evidence when the producer of the documentary for which Ms. Carter was being interviewed asked her to explain why global warming affects not just polar bears but people around the globe. Read more about The Green Power Broker posted 19 December 2008
	Maude Barlow: The Al Gore of H2O Saturday 25 October 2008 by: Erin Anderssen, The Globe and Mail Outspoken Canadian activist tells Erin Anderssen that she will bring the same doggedness she displayed in opposing NAFTA and globalization to her new post as the UN's senior adviser on water issues. Ottawa - "What does it take to frighten people?" Maude Barlow wonders. She rattles off a grim list of worries, barely pausing for breath: water supplies in Africa guarded by dogs and chain-link fences while families go thirsty, the vital Murray-Darling Basin in southeast Australia crumbling into desert, the mighty Colorado River in the United States drying up to a trickle. "The water crisis is deepening everywhere," sighs the 61-year-old activist and head of the Council of Canadians, who has tasted tear gas and faced down stun guns in defence of universal access to clean water. What scares her most is that the problem will not get fixed for her grandchildren. Read more about Barlow's work with the water crisis. posted 28 October 2008
	GLOBAL WARMING - AND ITS CURES - HAVE A WOMAN'S FACE NEW YORK, July 10 - Women are key to climate change solutions and both presidential candidates could benefit by formally recognizing that fact, the head of the Women's Environmental and Development Organization (WEDO) said today. "Global warming is an established scientific fact, but U.S. inaction against it is hurting people worldwide," said WEDO Executive Director June Zeitlin. "Women are disproportionately affected worldwide by climate change, and they are also key to any successful strategy for dealing with it. Technical solutions are not enough." Zeitlin called on both Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and Republican candidate John McCain to announce that they will involve women at every level of climate change negotiations next year as key both to understanding the problem and achieving its solution. She noted that new proposed legislation, the Investing in Climate Action and Protection Act (ICAP), offers technical solutions that would slash U.S. greenhouse gas output and spur the development of “green” energy, but does not yet mention women’s role. Meanwhile, international talks begin in 2009 on the next phase of the Kyoto Protocol, and the incoming U.S. administration will be expected to take part. “Women and experts on women’s roles know a lot about how global warming affects women and men differently, and they have a great deal to contribute to this debate. They should be at the table where climate change policy is being made,” Zeitlin said. Since 2001, the Bush administration has refused to observe the Kyoto Protocol, the only legally binding international pact requiring cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, and has taken little action on the problem in any other way, Zeitlin noted. Meanwhile, the erratic and warmer weather that results from climate change is killing people at home and abroad in disease, storms, floods and droughts, and in the hunger, migrations and conflicts that result from them. As the majority of the world’s poor, women suffer most when erratic weather brings drought or flood to the marginal land or crowded urban areas where most poor people live. Up to 70 percent of those killed in the Asian tsunami of 2004 were women, and the 1991 cyclone in Bangladesh killed 71 of every 1,000 women, compared to only 15 of every 1,000 men. At the same time, Zeitlin said, women’s carbon footprint has been shown to be smaller than men’s; women are most of the world’s farmers, household resource managers and caregivers; and women have led many of the most innovative responses to environmental challenges. “Global warming has a human side as well as a technical side, and the human side has a woman’s face,” Zeitlin said. “It’s time for U.S. policy to reflect that reality.” For More Information Contact: Rachel Harris, U.S. Climate Change Campaign Coordinator • Phone: 212/ 972-0325 • E-mail: Rachel@wedo.org Posted wtih permission from Rachel Harris of WEDO posted 9 October 2008
	Mountaintop removal a presidential issue by Ken Ward, Jr. September 18, 2008 Charleston Gazette CHARLESTON, W.Va. - "Mountaintop removal coal mining became a presidential campaign issue Tuesday, after Republican John McCain said he supports ending the practice and Democrat Barack Obama's campaign responded that he has "serious concerns" and also does not support it. McCain told an audience in Florida that he favors stopping mountaintop removal, supports continuing other forms of mining, and wants the federal government to do more to control greenhouse emissions and other pollution from coal-fired power plants. McCain was asked if he supports "eliminating mountaintop removal mining and the practices like that." "You know, I do," McCain said, but then added, "I'm happy to tell you that I've seen a dramatic improvement in the behavior of the coal companies. ...McCain's campaign initially denied that the candidate favored an end to mountaintop removal, but backed off that when confronted with video of his remarks during an appearance Monday in Orlando, Fla. ...Phil Smith, spokesman for the United Mine Workers union, responded that McCain has previously authored legislative proposals that would have harmed the Eastern U.S. coal industry. "Anyone who is associated with the coal industry in Appalachia who thinks John McCain is a friend of coal is sadly mistaken," Smith said. ...In mountaintop removal, coal operators blast off hilltops to uncover valuable low-sulfur coal. Leftover rock and dirt is shoved into nearby valleys, burying streams. Between 1992 and 2002, strip-mining damaged 1,200 miles of Appalachian streams. And between 1985 and 2001, coal operators buried about 724 miles of the region's streams with waste rock and dirt, according to a government study. Before the end of the year, the Bush administration is expected to finalize a rewrite of a federal stream "buffer zone" rule that would encourage more mountaintop removal. Another 535 miles of streams across the region are expected to be damaged under new permits issued between October 2001 and June 2005, according to the U.S. Office of Surface Mining, Reclamation and Enforcement. Roughly two-thirds of those stream miles - about 357 miles - will be buried altogether, according to the agency. Read more about McCain's change of attitude submitted by Meredith Dean posted 23 September 2008