GlobeNews 1/2000 | WINTER Special | Vol.2, No.1 Global citizen! Keep on top of events worldwide: politics, travel, society, environment, technology. Not your nine o'clock news. GlobeNews by Kahl Consultants. JANUARY: BUTTERFLY ENDS TREE SIT | E-COMMERCE SAVES ENVIRONMENT | CORPORATE REPORT CARDS | GLOBAL INTERNET USER STATS | GREENER CARS | LATIN LANDSLIDE | MONKEY CLONE | NETSURFER DIGEST ============== THE GOOD NEWS ============== FLY BUTTERFLY FLY --------------------------- After living in an ancient redwood in Northern California for two years, environmental activist Julia "Butterfly" Hill came back to earth last December, her legs wobbly after her sojourn in the towering tree she called Luna. Twenty-five year-old Hill, who lived in the tree since 1997 to protest logging, reached an agreement with Pacific Lumber Co. and promised to climb down from her 18-story-high perch, which is on company property. Hill and her supporters pledged to pay $50,000 to Pacific Lumber to make up for lost logging revenue. The firm agreed to spare Hill's redwood and a 2.9-acre buffer zone around it. The company will give the $50,000 to Humboldt State University for forestry studies. INTERNET E-COMMERCE SAVES ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The emerging Internet Economy is generating enormous environmental benefits. By reducing the amount of energy and materials consumed by business - often dramatically - and increasing overall productivity, the Internet stands to revolutionize the relation between economic growth and the environment. So says the Center for Energy and Climate Solutions, a non-profit organization outside Washington, D.C., that helps companies and public institutions reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. Apparently the revolution is already manifesting itself as a sudden shift in the country's energy diet. While the US economy grew more than 9 percent in 1997 and 1998, energy demand stayed almost flat in spite of very low energy prices. Such gains mark a major departure from recent historical patterns. Read all about it: http://www.cool-companies.org ========== GLOBESITES ========== CORPORATE REPORT CARDS -------------------------------------- You've already heard about the work done by the nonprofit Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition? The SVTC consists of environmental and neighborhood groups, labor unions, public health leaders, people affected by toxic exposure and others. Check out the SVTC Clean Computer Campaign. These people assess hazardous materials and take-back policies of major US and Canadian corporations. Read their "End of Year Report Card". Computer companies are given lumps of coal or candy canes if they were responsible to their consumers in three areas: (1) use of hazardous materials; (2) ability to upgrade one's computer; and (3) ability to return old computers to the producer for safe re-use and recycling. Grab the report card here: http://www.svtc.org AMAZING AMAZON ------------------------- In association with Amazon.com we offer you discount BOOKS, MUSIC and more. Grab some GREAT GIFTS online! PLEASE SUPPORT GLOBENEWS by only using this link: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect-home/kahlconsultants ========= GlobeNews ========= LINGUA INTERNET? ------------------------- Of 175 million people online worldwide, 130 million speak English as their primary language. 14 million speak Japanese, 8.5 million speak German and 6 million speak Spanish. The balance of 16.5 million speak other languages. Number 1 is the USA with 101 million internet users. 2 upcoming projected market entry opportunities due to their size and (so far) limited build out are Brazil and China. Brazil predicts 300,000 hosting ISPs by 2003, up from 15,300 in 1995. China's current PC user base is 14 million, and Chinese internet users will reach 33 million by 2003. Here is the breakdown: Country Internet Users % of Population Source -------- ---------------- ------------------ -------- Belgium | 1,400,000 | 16 | Initiative Media Brazil | 2,350,000 | 1.4 | IDC Canada | 7,630,000 | 25.4 | ComQUEST Chile | 150,000 | 1 | IABIN China | 1,500,000 | 0.01 | Xinhua News Czech Republic | 270,000 | 2.6 | IDC Denmark | 1,100,000 | 22 | IDC Finland | 1,600,000 | 32 | Business Arena Germany | 8,400,000 | 10 | GfK Iceland | 121,000 | 45 | PWC India | 500,000 | 0.49 | IndiaLine Ireland | 380,000 | 13.5 | Amarach Israel | 600,000 | 10.8 | IDC Italy | 5,000,000 | 8 | Osservatorio Japan | 14,000,000 | 11.1 | Nikkei MAS Malaysia | 600,000 | 3 | Jaring Mexico | 600,000 | 0.6 | IABIN Netherlands 2,300,000 | 13.7 | ProActive Norway | 1,600,000 | 36.3 | Business Arena South Africa | 1,000,040 | 2.4 | SANGONet South Korea | 3,100,000 | 6.7 | NCA Spain | 2,747,000 | 7.7 | AIMC Sweden | 3,600,000 | 41 | Sifo Taiwan | 3,011,000 | 14.3 | IID UK | 10,600,000 | 18 | NOP USA | 101,000,000 | 37.4 | Nielsen ============= FUTURE IS NOW ============= GREENER CARS APPROACHING FAST ------------------------------------------------- The unveiling of the Ford Prodigy and GM Precept at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit shows the US auto industry is getting serious about cleaner technology. The concept cars get 80 miles per gallon by combining diesel and electric power. They are the first fruits of a partnership among the Big Three automakers and the US government. The GM Precept uses a rear engine and an extremely aerodynamic design to meet the 80-m.p.g. goal. But it sacrifices luggage space. The Ford Prodigy uses a slightly more powerful diesel engine up front, augmented by an electric motor, used for only a slight boost. It sacrifices no practicality. Detroit has a long way to go before the Precept and Prodigy are roadworthy. They meet the standards for practicality but not for emissions and are too expensive to produce. They better hurry, because Honda and Toyota are wheeling out consumer-ready gas-electric hybrids this year. The Honda Insight, available now, is a tiny two-seat gasoline-electric hybrid capable of 70 to 80 m.p.g. It sells for $18,880. Toyota's Prius four-door subcompact will cost $22,000. Automakers are also scrambling to meet California's Zero Emission Vehicle mandate that requires 10 percent of all cars sold in California in 2003 to produce no pollution. Today the only zero-emissions vehicles are battery-powered electric cars. Ford announced it will launch a new all-electric vehicle brand called TH!NK, which will begin selling small inner-city electric-commuter vehicles at 50 Ford dealerships later this year. Ford's first family chairman in 30 years, Bill Ford Jr., is known as an environmentalist. He wants to make the company "part of the solution, rather than part of the problem." Ford will also offer a short-range, low-speed Neighbor electric commuter (like a hopped-up Golf cart), two electric bicycles, and eventually a full road-ready electric two-seat Citicar. BLATANT ADVERTISEMENT: If you are also interested in space, astronomy and extraterrestrial news, subscribe to ASTRONEWS, another free newsletter from Kahl Consultants. ============ !!GLOBALERT!! ============ LATIN LANDSLIDE LAMENT ------------------------------------ Several environmental factors have led to one of the worst human and economic disasters in Latin America. A once in a hundred year storm, in an extreme weather event dropped a torrent of rain in Venezuela and other adjacent regions. The water runoff loosened mountains of soil that slide down washing out hillside and valley communities that had been recently established to accomodate the growing population surrounding Caracas. More than 25,000 people died in the floods and mudslides. Four environmental factors may have contributed to the Venezuelan mudslide disaster: o Global warming and climate change (extreme weather events) o Clear cutting trees around the hills for fuelwood and construction material o Cutting benches into the hills for housing in contravention of planning laws (thus destabilizing the soils) o Population increases and rural to urban migration [Source: Environment News Service] MONKEY SEE, MONKEY CLONE ----------------------------------------- The birth of Tetra, a cloned rhesus monkey, raises new questions about humans' ability to manipulate the earliest stages of life. And the cloning of a human is one step closer. Tetra was the product of experiments at the Oregon Health Sciences University (OHSU), where a team has been perfecting techniques of splitting primate embryos to create clones. While this research does not represent true cloning - taking genetic information from a live animal and using it to create an identical copy - experts say the research is a major achievement. Tetra takes science further down the path of the contentious topics of cloning and genetic manipulation of humans. Splitting embryos to create identical copies of animals has been done before. In fact, nature does it when identical twins emerge from a single egg-and-sperm combination. Other scientific teams have split embryos in other mammals, bringing healthy babies to term. This technique may hold more promise for genetic research and treatments than true cloning of adult animals, like the 1997 cloning of the sheep Dolly in Scotland. According to current theory, even newborn clones of adults carry genetically damaged data due to the tendency of DNA to degrade and mutate over time. This may have caused the high proportion of miscarriages and fetal problems that scientists have observed in embryos and animals replicated from adults. Granted, Tetra was the only successful embryo brought to term out of more than a dozen attempts. But the purity of the genetic information should make Tetra's model a more appealing one. Scientists would prefer to study DNA from embryos that do not bear any of the stresses of age. To that end, primate embryos represent the closest analogue to a human embryo and the best vehicle, at this point, for embryo research on human-health problems. The animal-rights community has vehemently objected to plans to use animal embryos. Yet many researchers anticipate using the primate embryos for research, particularly in light of the widespread social and religious objections to studying human embryos created specifically for scientific research. "I would argue that no human life should be created for someone's utilitarian purposes," says Daniel McGee, a theologian at Baylor University in Waco, Texas. "Every human life should be celebrated for its value, not for the value it might bring to someone else." While the true importance of cloning primates through embryo-splitting remains to be seen, experts agree that developments like the birth of Tetra should spur debate on an issue that has largely been avoided or ignored. "The real questions lie ahead in the area of eugenics," says Caplan, referring to the field of science that concerns itself with improving humans through controlling hereditary factors. "Copying genes is very important for cell research and study, but I don't think it will be the most interesting way to make people," he adds. "Most people are not going to want genetic copies of themselves. What they will want to do is improve themselves." But theologians offer a warning that self-improvement might not be such a worthy goal in light of the immense problems suffered by much of the planet. "Cloning is a rich man's toy," says Mr. McGee. "Go to ... an impoverished country, and they are not thinking about how to make a perfect child. They are thinking about how to feed their child." No one, however, expects the momentum of genetic research to stop. Some experts even say the type of embryo-splitting performed with monkeys in the Oregon lab has likely been performed on human embryos in secret somewhere in the world. Thus far, human-embryo research remains largely confined to aborted or miscarried fetuses. But pressures will likely mount as researchers, either openly or covertly, seek to study human embryos to get the best information possible for what could result in health-care breakthroughs. The challenge of scientists and theologians alike is to come to a consensus on an acceptable moral and legal framework for cloning and genetic manipulation. "We are born with a high level of responsibility and ability," says McGee. "We should view these abilities not so much as a privilege to do what you want to but as a responsibility to serve the created order and humanity. To the degree that we can improve the lot of humankind, should accept the responsibility." "We have seen politicians dawdle and a fair amount of hemming and hawing from the religious and philosophical communities, but there is not much more time for a debate," says Caplan. [Source: Christian Science Monitor] ============= SAVE ON CALLS ============= Long Distance Tips --------------------- Here is a great article to read if you want to know what is up with Long Distance in the USA: http://www.microtimes.com/202/netwpaone202a.html Do you travel much? Then get the VoiceNet calling card! For example, any domestic call from any phone in the USA for only 17.5 cents/min! No more expensive calls! We've chosen to market these calling cards because It's the best deal we could find! Check out this offer AND MANY MORE! Visit your agent Alex Kahl at GlobalCom: http://www.kahl.net/global ====== NetTips ====== NETSURFER DIGEST --------------------------- The Netsurfer Science is a free e-zine bringing neat science and technology sites directly to your mailbox. They promise "more signal, less noise", and I did find their mix quite useful. Visit their site or have the digest e-mailed. And the link is: http://www.netsurf.com/nss Thanks to all who wrote in their comments. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ GlobeNews by Kahl Consultants Visit us: http://www.kahl.net ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ THE PLUG ======== How has your small business or organization been performing lately? Are you happy with your work? Let Kahl Consultants help you. Technology. Use it appropriately. Put it in our hands. If you got this far you obviously enjoyed GlobeNews. Pass it on! Please forward it to a handful of your friends. Remember, the best things in life are free. THE PUNCH LINE ============== STATISTICS DON'T LIE ----------------------------- Percentage of Africa that is wilderness: 28% Percentage of North America that is wilderness: 38% Half of all Americans live within 50 miles of their birthplace. California grows 50% of the USA's: - vegetables - fruits - nuts California grows 98% of the USA's: - almonds - artichokes - dates - figs - kiwi - fruit - olives - persimmons - pistachios - prunes - raisins - walnuts