Obama Takes On Budget Critics

Obama Takes on Budget Critics By Paula Wolfson White House 17 March 2009 U.S. President Barack Obama is taking on Republican critics of his economic plan. After vowing to ease the partisan rhetoric in Washington, the president is turning up the heat. Mr. Obama eagerly sought Republican support in Congress for his economic rescue plan. But not a single Republican voted for the package in the House of Representatives and only three voted for it in the Senate. This time, with his budget under fire from the political opposition, the president is fighting back. He said it is not enough for Republicans to simply oppose his ideas. He added they must come forward with proposals of their own and be willing to negotiate. "Just say, 'No,' is the right advice to give your teenagers about drugs," said the president. "It is not an acceptable response to whatever economic policies are proposed by the other party." Speaking after a meeting with the Democrat chairmen of the congressional budget committees, the president issued a challenge to his critics. "With the magnitude of the challenges we face, what we need in Washington are not more political tactics," said Mr. Obama. "We need more good ideas. We do not need more point scoring; we need more problem solving." In his brief remarks, Mr. Obama referred to his proposed $3.5 trillion budget for 2010 as a blueprint for the future. It includes substantial spending increases for health care, education and the development of alternative energy sources. Republicans have complained that these programs are too costly at a time of economic recession. But the president said they are long term investments that must be made. "The cost of our health care is too high to ignore," he said. "The dependence on oil is too dangerous to ignore. Our education deficit is too wide to ignore." But Republicans immediately made clear they are in no mood to compromise on the budget. California Republican Dan Lungren said Mr. Obama is not living up to his campaign promises to cut taxes and federal spending. "This budget taxes too much, spends too much, borrows too much," he said. "It is, in fact, a repudiation of the very goals he has established." Indiana Republican Mike Pence continued the criticism of the Obama budget. "I think the more the American people look at this administration's budget, the more they know we can do better," he said. "We must do better." Republicans have put forward a list of principles that they think should drive the 2010 budget. Party leaders say they will announce detailed proposals soon. Expert Says Days of 'Easy Water' Are Over By Dorian Jones Istanbul 17 March 2009

The fifth World Water Forum opened on Monday in Istanbul, Turkey. Thousands of people are at the meeting from heads of state and environmental and business leaders to scientists and activists - to discuss ways to manage and conserve the precious resource. The meeting comes as the United Nations warns of potential conflicts over water scarcity. Water scarcity is one of the key issues dominating the Forum. Last week, the United Nations released its latest research on water, which paints a bleak picture of increasing demand and diminishing supplies. UN report is wake-up call Gerhard Payen is an adviser on water to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and President of The International Federation of Private Water Operators - association that connects international organizations with private sector providers of water and sanitation services. He says the U.N. report is an important wake up call to the world. "The reality today is that water scarcity is increasing in many parts of the world because of increasing usage and also partly due to climate change," Payen explained. "This is a reality. So easy water [i.e., Woman waits to fill bucket with water in Port-au-Prince, Haiti

easily accessible drinking water] is over. So in the future, we will have to manage water more carefully. There are potential conflicts. So if the governments don't care that conflicts will emerge, this is at local regional and international level. This is a collective responsibility; all of us have a role to play. We have to realize we are so numerous on this planet. Easy water is over." Middle East is potential flashpoint The Middle East, according to the U.N. report, is a potential flashpoint - particularly between Israel and its neighbors - because of dwindling water supplies. Turkey, the host of the World Water Forum, is offering a solution that could help ease those tensions. The Turkish government is proposing to sell water to Israel from its eastern Mediterranean coast. Dogan Altinbilek, the former head of the Turkey's General Directorate of State Hydraulic Works, is one of the architects of the plan. "This is the most water-short area in the world. I have a stack of books at home on the topic of the water wars in the Middle East," he said. "There at least a dozen authors who mention that if there will be a war in the Middle East, it will be because of water. We [i.e., Turkey] will make a profit, but not a large amount [from selling and transporting water]. It is a resource that is really in short supply and we are going to make available." The project is still in the planning stages with discussions over security, logistics and cost under way with Israel. However, some experts have raised environmental concerns over the plan. The commercialization of water and the role of the private sector is a major issue at the forum. Protesters disagree with water 'privatization' Outside the World Water Forum, hundreds of protesters demonstrated against what they call the "privatization" of water. Critics of the Forum accuse it of being too closely associated with business interests. An alternative forum set up by dozens of non-governmental organizations is expected to open in Istanbul later this week. Mark Hayes of Corporate Accountability International says water privatization offers no solution to the world's water problems. "Right now, if you look at how water policy has played out over the past 10 or 15 years, these private companies working closely with the World Bank, working closely even with some parts of the U.N., have really dictated the agenda," Hayes said. "And the result has been privatization fiascos in Latin America, Southeast Asia and Africa as well as the growing trend toward commoditization of water, where there is a huge explosive growth in the bottled water market. So they have had their chance - privatization can solve this problem. And it's pretty clear, even from their own sources, that it is not a panacea." Role for private, public sectors in finding solution The role of the private sector in helping to deal with the growing challenges of conserving and delivering safe water to the world's population is another key issue at the forum. Gerhard Payen of The International Federation of Private Water Operators says there is a role for both the private and public sectors. He adds that pragmatism should triumph over ideology. "Today there is a divide between 3.5 billion people who have access to tap water and the other three billion who have no access to tap water - either at home or in the immediate vicinity," Payen said. "There is a big divide in the world between those who benefit from the public water service and those who don't benefit from it. In the past 15 years, the private sector has provided access to water to 25 million people or more. So the issue today is: When do we want that all people get safe and reliable access to water? This is the main issue. For those people, the most important thing is access to water." The World Water Forum also offers a week-long venue for government representatives. These meetings are being held behind closed doors, away from the main venue. Climate Change Conference Warns of Accelerating Warming By Lisa Bryant Paris 12 March 2009 Some of the world's top scientists are wrapping up a three-day, climate-change meeting in Copenhagen with a grim warning that global warming is arriving faster than previously expected. The Copenhagen meeting drew about 2,000 scientists from around the world, and the news they delivered was not encouraging as they warned of an increasingly warmer world with more frequent droughts, and food and health problems. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change chairman Rajendra Pachauri summed up the fallout if temperatures increase. "Even for a range of zero to one degree celsius [annual rise in temperature], we have problems with water availability. We also have problems with ecosystems," he said. "Food security would certainly be at growing risk. Coastal areas are particularly vulnerable, and human health would also be affected by the impact of climate change." Scientists warn the impact of climate change is hitting the world faster than previous predictions by Pachauri's IPCC, which amounts to a more conservative consensus of top world researchers. Climate change expert Konrad Steffen, of the University of Colorado in the United States, explained the impact of climate-induced sea level rises to coastal areas.

"The key finding of this meeting is that we have up to one-meter sea-level rise by 2100, based on our new insight of glaciers. And that will affect up to 600 million people that are living close to the coastline and it will include major cities like New York," he said. "We already know that New Orleans is in the same way, but also areas like Bangladesh or smaller areas of islands that will be flooded within that one-meter sea level rise." World leaders of the top 20 economies are expected to discuss climate change during talks on the global economic downturn next month in London. Late this year, scientists and politicians are to gather in Copenhagen for a key global climate-change summit in an effort to thrash out a consensus on cutting heat-trapping greenhouse gasses.