New Year News Roundup!

By Heather Turner

It's been a bit quiet here at NTQ! But we are back with a bang after surviving the Mayan Apocalypse and the now delayed "fiscal cliff" apocalypse. 2012 was pretty exciting for news-watchers. Yet, methinks this year will be every bit as interesting. Lacking the headache of an impending major political election, 2013 has all of the potential to be the year the major news outlets start reporting on the issues that really matter to the public at large. Why such optimism?

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Well, as Alternet points out in its "Top 25 Progressive Victories" list of 2012, despite the electoral sideshow and Congressional dysfunction, quite a lot was accomplished last year by progressive activists and politicians alike. However, as  George Monblot, writing for the Guardian, notes, one of the most neglected issues of 2012 was the environment:

It was the year of living dangerously. In 2012 governments turned their backs on the living planet, demonstrating that no chronic problem, however grave, will take priority over an immediate concern, however trivial. I believe there has been no worse year for the natural world in the past half-century.

Three weeks before the minimum occurred, the melting of the Arctic's sea ice broke the previous record. Remnants of the global megafauna – such as rhinos and bluefin tuna – were shoved violently towards extinction. Novel tree diseases raged across continents. Bird and insect numbers continued to plummet, coral reefs retreated, marine life dwindled. And those charged with protecting us and the world in which we live pretended that none of it was happening.

Their indifference was distilled into a great collective shrug at the Earth Summit in June. The first summit, 20 years before, was supposed to have heralded a new age of environmental responsibility. During that time, thanks largely to the empowerment of corporations and the ultra-rich, the square root of nothing has been achieved. Far from mobilising to address this, in 2012 the leaders of some of the world's most powerful governments – the US, the UK, Germany and Russia – didn't even bother to turn up.

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Our leaders now treat climate change as a guilty secret. Even after the devastation of Hurricane Sandy and the record droughts and wildfires that savaged the US, the two main presidential contenders refused to mention the subject, except for one throwaway sentence each. Has an issue this big ever received as little attention in a presidential race?

The same failures surround the other forces of destruction. In 2012 European governments flunked their proposed reform of the Common Agricultural Policy, which is perfectly designed to maximise environmental damage. The farm subsidies it provides are conditional on farmers destroying the vegetation (which also means the other wildlife) on their land. We pay €55bn a year to trash the natural world.

This contributes to what I have come to see as a great global polishing: a rubbing away of ecosystems and natural structures by the intensification of farming, fishing, mining and other industries. Looking back on this year a few decades hence, this destruction will seem vastly more significant than any of the stories with which the media is obsessed. Like governments, media companies have abandoned the living world.

With the hectic election season and other sensationalist news occupying a great deal of the corporate newshole, the environment took a back seat, and global warming denialism in the media became a routine part of creating a balanced debate. And on top of that, Shell started poking holes in the ground. Deeeep underwater. In the Arctic. Which was all but virtually forgotten until The Yes Men helped to put the media's attention back on Shell's half hazard efforts to drill for oil in Arctic waters. So could 2013 be the year of paying at least marginally more attention to environmental issues (and possibly doing something about it)? If starting off the year with a Yes Men press debacle and massive Australian wildfires are any indication, then it is reasonable to expect that global environmental catastrophes of historic proportions will continue to be staple news items of the coming year.

Blog Roundup!: Presidential Debate Style

It has hardly been two days since the first debate between President Barack Obama and Republican nominee, Mitt Romney, yet the blogosphere and the news media are still analyzing and criticizing the event. The word is, Buzzfeed declared Romney the winner before the debate was even over - and the general consensus since has been that Romney won the debate.

However, as Mediamatters points out, an equally valid interpretation is that Jim Lehrer lost the debate.

Nevertheless, as Truthdig notes, the debate was definitely more style over substance.

Maddow also breaks down the numbers, further soothing the worries of Obama supporters who may be frustrated at the rather abrupt and widespread conclusion that he lost, to show that incumbents usually do lose the first debate.

Democracy Now! provided an alternative debate for third party candidates on Wednesday.

And besides Buzzfeed apparently calling the debate for Romney before halftime, it also declared "silly memes" the winner of the night. 

Husband of jailed Pussy Riot member speaks with Democracy Now!

Three members of the Russian band Pussy Riot have now spent some six months in jail for staging a protest against Vladimir Putin in an Orthodox Church. The women danced around, played punk music and sang for the Virgin Mary to oust Putin.

Prominent female voices of the activist community, including Burmese pro-democracy campaigner Aung San Suu Kyi, have been calling for the group's release. On Friday Pussy Riot was also awarded the LennonOno Grant for Peace award by artist and activist, Yoko Ono. In the meantime, Pyotr Verzilov, husband of jailed Pussy Riot member Nadia Tolokonnikova, and Alisa Obraztsova, member of the band's defense team, have traveled to the United States on behalf of the band. Both also appeared on the most recent edition of Democracy Now! 

While it seems the world is on Pussy Riot's side, in reality, the band and their arrest has caused a great deal of controversy in Russia, especially amongst member of the Orthodox church. The BBC reports that nine were arrested at a pro-Pussy Riot exhibition in Russia that opened on Friday.

State trying to overturn Pittsburgh's ban on fracking within city limits

Amy Goodman interviews former Pittsburgh City Council member Doug Shields.

DNC coverage Democracy Now! style

International women's day reminds us of the struggle for equality

Extra bad timing for contraceptive-bashing Republicans?

That's right, it's International Women's Day tomorrow. More than 1500 events to mark the day are being held in cities across the UK, US, Canada and dozens of other countries. This year's United Nation's theme is Empower Women - End Poverty and Hunger:

International Women's Day (8 March) is an occasion marked by women's groups around the world. This date is also commemorated at the United Nations and is designated in many countries as a national holiday. When women on all continents, often divided by national boundaries and by ethnic, linguistic, cultural, economic and political differences, come together to celebrate their Day, they can look back to a tradition that represents at least nine decades of struggle for equality, justice, peace and development.