Famous Faces & G8

      It is clear that a big event like the G8 summit is not going to take place without the presence of “famous faces”. The whole world will look at Heiligendamm for some days and celebrities will use this occasion to present their opinions concerning current political issues and to influence their fans.

      On 15 Mai Irish singer Bono, German singer Herbert Grönemeyer, former Foreign Minister of Nigeria Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and Irish singer Bob Geldof presented the new report of DATA (an advocacy group founded by Bono). This report should “wake us all up”, said Bono, the front man of the Irish band U2, who is maybe the most popular G8 critic. One of the demands of the report is that the members of the G8 should double their financial aid for Africa.

      Furthermore Bono, Herbert Grönemeyer and Bob Geldorf as well as other popular musicians such as Silbermond, Fanta4, Die Toten Hosen, Seeed, 2Raumwohnung and Sportfreunde Stiller will give a concert in the grounds of the IGA Park on 7 June. The concert supports the campaign “Your Voice against Poverty” and is planned to put the summit in Heiligendamm in the shade. Musical ambassadors of the P(oor)8 as well as films about life in developing countries will accompany the concert. Hebert Grönemeyer comments on the concert: “It’s up to us to do something about the social imbalance in the world now. We are able to, and we will be heard because we are loud enough.”

      So far it is obvious that most celebrities use their influence to point out what politicians seem to ignore: the G8 is a symbol of the discrimination against developing countries.

Sources:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/

2007/05/15/AR2007051500775.html

http://blogging-g8.blogspot.com/2007/05/

missed-woodstock-dont-miss-rostock.html

(May 24, 2007)

written by R.M., 24.05.07

Tracker dogs for more security

     For the G8-summit in Heiligendamm, the police have found a new way to secure the region; they use tracker dogs.

      For decades the use of dogs has been a common method to identify suspicious persons. According to scientific findings, every person has got a unique and special body odour. Even after taking a shower or with the best personal hygiene, everyone still has his or her own trace of smell. It consists of skin scales which every person loses every second, whether walking, sitting, or standing. Those skin scales get decomposed by bacteria developing a gas which the dogs can smell with their sensitive noses.

      If somebody is regarded as a militant demonstrator, the police are able to take a smell sample of that person. The samples are taken with an iron stick. The summit opponents have to take a special iron rod in their hand which absorbs their body’s sweat. The rod has to be kept in the hand for a few minutes, after that it has to get conserved. Now, with the help of these samples, the specially-trained dogs can recognize the offenders everywhere.

      In court, the recognizing of an offender by a tracker dog is regarded as a real piece of evidence and in some cases three different dogs have to smell independently of each other to make sure that the results are right. The police dogs which will work at the G8 summit and its surroundings have been specially trained at the police department of Holte-Stukenbrock in Western Germany.

written by J.M., 28.05.2007

The USA and the climate change

      The climate change is one of the main topics of the G8 summit taking place in Heiligendamm this year. Because of this and of the fact that the USA is the biggest source of greenhouse gases worldwide, I have decided to write about some campaigns that are meant to reduce the emissions of the USA.

     The USA’s share of the complete output of greenhouse gases is 25 percent. So the Bush administration has conducted various campaigns to reduce this output, as for example in 2005 when they signed a contract with Australia, China, India, South Korea and Japan. It is a separate contract and independent of the Kyoto Protocol. Because of having a 40% proportion of the worldwide output of greenhouse gases, India, China, Australia and the USA came to the conclusion that there is a need to make such a move for climate protection. President Bush called it “a result-oriented partnership”. However, this contract was not binding at all.

     Since the USA do not consider the Kyoto Protocol as a right approach they are trying to find their own answer to the climate change in a technological way. On  September 20^th 2006 a three billion dollar project that conducts research in the field of technological answers to global warming was launched. The main approaches of this new strategy were and still are voluntary partnerships with the industry, highly-developed scientific research in the field of climate change and, finally, international collaboration. The bigger part of research capital is deployed in the areas hydrogen, biorefinery, clean coal, nuclear fission and nuclear fusion.

     However, an improved energy efficiency, which plays a big role in the climate change strategy of the EU, is not affiliated to the programme of the USA.

     In conclusion, I have to say that there are some good ideas in the US programme but also some deficiencies. The arrangements made are to be followed voluntarily because there are no binding rules. So I think that this is not a right approach to fight against the climate change. 

 

written by S.St., 22.05.2007