Canada criticized for weak draft plan at environment summit - CBC

Canada criticized for weak draft plan at environment summit - CBC

The bad blood between Ottawa and environmentalists was on display before the entire world Tuesday as negotiators from more than 100 countries signed a draft blueprint for sustainable development in Rio de Janeiro.

After months of trying to boil down proposals, environmental officials at the Rio+20 conference in Brazil this week finally compromised and delivered a 283-point "vision" for leaders and politicians to ratify later this week.

In the draft, the countries pledge to work with civil society to "renew our commitment to sustainable development, and to ensure the promotion of economically, socially and environmentally sustainable future for our planet and for present and future generations."

The plan would commit countries to fight climate change with "urgent and ambitious action," increase their aid for developing countries, and work out a global set of long-term sustainable development goals to alleviate poverty and prevent global warming.

Critics say the draft is weak on timelines and firm commitments, and lacks heft when it comes to overseeing the state of the world's oceans.

"The text is extremely weak, and as it stands represents a sellout of people and the planet," Cameron Fenton, director of the Canadian Youth Climate Coalition, said in an email from Rio.

"Canada's role has been at its best not engaging in the process, and at worst acting to weaken ambitious language and delete commitments."

Oxfam Canada's Mark Fried noted the official text did not contain any new commitments, and even modest proposals — such as improving smallholder farmers' access to resources — were dropped.

"The Rio+20 summit was never going to save the world," Fried said in an email from Rio. "But it should mark a decisive turning point in our ambition to do so."

'These are beginnings, not completions'

Environment Minister Peter Kent, who arrived in Rio late Tuesday afternoon, said the environmentalists' criticism was "unwarranted" and "trivializes" the enormity of the task before negotiators.

"The non-governmental organizations....they know better," Kent said in an interview with The Canadian Press. "Canada takes these things very seriously."

The Rio conference is meant to kickstart action and discussion down the road, not come up with "snap" agreements that are not properly thought out and could well have unintended consequences on sovereignty and domestic policy if adopted without proper scrutiny, Kent said.

"These are beginnings, not completions."

About 50,000 delegates and activists have descended on the Brazilian city for the week. Dozens of heads of state will meet Wednesday and Thursday, although many industrialized countries, like Canada, are sending ministers instead of leaders.

Kent was set to meet with provincial delegations Tuesday night. Premiers from Quebec and Manitoba are both in Rio, along with officials and ministers from some other provinces.

Agreement to talk more, decide later

Environmentalists blamed Canada, in part, for arguing against a new agreement that would better protect the biodiversity of the high seas, where no country has any firm control.

Europe and some developing countries, as well as many environmental groups, had hoped to see leaders commit to forging a new agreement that would protect marine habitat and keep an eye on deep-sea mining.

Instead, negotiators agreed to talk some more, and decide later.

"It's a big failure of Rio, especially since this was talked about as the 'summit of the seas,"' said Susanna Fuller, marine conservation co-ordinator for the Ecology Action Centre in Halifax who was in the negotiating room in Rio.

While regional agreements and fishing accords do control some aspects of biodiversity in some parts of the world's oceans, there are many gaps that beg a global agreement in order to prevent destruction of habitat and ocean pollution, she said.

Developing countries in particular had hoped to have a biodiversity pact so that any benefits derived from marine genetics are shared for the common good, added Greenpeace Canada's ocean campaigner, Charles Latimer.

But Fuller said Canada, the United States, Russia and Venezuela worked together to make sure there would be no new agreement.

That's because Canada is already part of a United Nations ad hoc process to protect the high seas, and creating another agreement would be "duplicative," a spokesman for Kent countered.

Kent said Ottawa is engaged in several different efforts to protect marine habitat, creating conservation areas in domestic waters and participating in global talks to protect international waters.

But critics say there is more to Canada's opposition than that. Canada's companies have an interest in deep-sea mining that might be fettered by a new high-seas biodiversity agreement, they say.

Ottawa has been in an escalating public-opinion battle with environmentalists for months to the point where there is virtually no common ground between the government and even moderate research-based environmental groups.

In the lead-up to the budget, Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver chastised environmentalists for taking foreign funding. Protests against federal policy have been growing louder and louder, targeting the budget and its emphasis on "responsible resource management", and most recently the omnibus budget bill that overhauls environmental assessment regimes and the Fisheries Act.

Source: www.cbc.ca

LONDON 2012: Jay-Z, Rihanna to Perform at Olympic Arts Festival - Hollywood Reporter

Musical stars, including Jay-Z, Rihanna, David Guetta and Elton John, films from the likes of Alfred Hitchcock and Mike Leigh and art from Yoko Ono and others will all be part of the London 2012 Festival, a cultural celebration across Britain tied to the Summer Olympics that kicks off on Thursday.

The festival, which runs through Sept. 9, includes 12,000 events and performances across the country in celebration of the Summer and Paralympic Games. Organizers say there will be 10 million tickets for free and paid-for events in such fields as film, music, theater, fashion, dance and art. The festival's web site describes it as "the biggest festival the U.K. has ever seen."

With a budget of around £55 million ($86 million), the celebration is seen as a chance to showcase Britain's cultural heritage and put the country in the Olympic spirit.

The festival is the finale of the so-called Cultural Olympiad that was started in 2008 to inspire creativity in all forms, especially among young people. According to organizers, 18 million people have taken part so far.

Ruth Mackenzie, director of the London 2012 Festival in a statement called the event "a once-in-a-lifetime cultural experience to match the once-in-a-lifetime visit of the Olympic and Paralympic Games to the U.K."

One of the most star-studded events of the London 2012 Festival will be a BBC Radio 1 show that the station says will be its "biggest-ever free live music event." The lineup for the June 23 and 24 extravaganza that will feature six stages in the Hackney Marshes area of East London includes Jay-Z, Rihanna, Flo Rida, David Guetta, Jessie J, Lana del Rey, Leona Lewis, Tinie Tempah, Plan B, Florence and the Machine, Dappy, Jack White and more.

The music event is part of BBC Radio 1's Hackney Weekend 2012 that it has organized in partnership with London 2012 Festival and the Hackney Council. Around 100,000 people are expected at the music gathering.

Among other London 2012 Festival events, Peace One Day, an organization dedicated to the idea of having one day a year free of conflict, will have an opening night concert in Northern Ireland co-produced by Jude Law who is an ambassador for the organization.

The group also will have a big concert in September led by Elton John at Wembley Arena in London. It will mark the closing of the London 2012 Festival. Further artists will be announced over the coming weeks.

The London 2012 Festival kicks off Thursday with a fireworks display by Lake Windermere in northwest England and a big open-air concert with Venezuelan conductor Gustavo Dudamel leading the Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela at Scotland's Stirling Castle.

Also outdoor sites with screens "across the country will show festival films to entertain thousands of people throughout the day," according to the festival web site. Films include shorts and excerpts from Royal Shakespeare Company shows. Plus, the opening day will see the unveiling of Yoko Ono’s worldwide anti-violence initiative "Imagine Peace" on the outdoor screens.

One much-buzzed about offer of the festival is a life-sized replica of Stonehenge called "Sacrilege" that is being compared to a bouncy castle and will travel the U.K.

Among the festival's film events are screenings of British filmmaker Mike Leigh's A Running Jump, described as "a film reflecting on sport in everyday life – not to mention taxis and dodgy second-hand cars." The first screening will be at London's Hackney Picturehouse on June 25.

Hitchcock will also be part of the Olympics celebrations. The Genius of Hitchcock will present classics from the Hitchcock vault outdoors at the British Museum.

Among comedy events, Australian comedian and musician Tim Minchin will bring his brand of musical comedy to a show, and "Ha Ha Hackney" will bring LGBT comics to the Hackney Empire to celebrate 66 years of comedy between the 1948 and the 2012 Olympic Games.

Leading British fashion designers and artists will also collaborate to champion London 2012 next month in an event called Britain Creates 2012: Fashion + Art Collusion.

Email: Georg.Szalai@thr.com
Twitter: @georgszalai

Source: www.hollywoodreporter.com

London 2012: Diagnosis boost for Sanya Richards-Ross - BBC News

Five years ago, Sanya Richards-Ross emerged from the US national trials beaten, confused and diagnosed.

The reigning Female World Athlete of the Year, Richards-Ross went to Indianapolis as most experts' first name on the American team sheet for the 2007 World Championships. But the US trials are notoriously tense, and favourites do falter, particularly when they are not in peak condition.

That was certainly the case for Richards-Ross. What was unusual - and frightening for the Jamaican-born sprinter herself - was the nature of her problem.

This was no muscle strain, the world's best 400m runner was covered in skin lesions, her joints ached and the inside of her mouth was so ulcerated that it hurt to drink water. To make matters worse, a deep fatigue set in as she progressed from the qualifying round to semi-final to final.

Richards-Ross on Ohuruogu

I think it's a rivalry. Christine Ohuruogu won the big one. If I won 10 and she's won one, she's won the one that matters the most - I think that carries enough weight to make it a rivalry. She's a very talented athlete and shows up when it counts. That puts a lot of pressure on everybody else in the field as you never know what race she's going to come with. I'm looking forward to racing her again and I know she's looking forward to it too - it will be great for the fans.

That she managed to come fourth, missing qualification for the individual event by one place, is a testament to her consistency over the one-lap distance. But Richards-Ross could not wait to get out of the trials and find out why she was afflicted with these mysterious symptoms.

A new doctor provided the answer, treatment started and things improved. As a result, she was able to take her place in the 4x400m team at the Worlds, adding a second relay gold to the one claimed as an 18-year-old in 2003.

Richards-Ross was running fast again but she was now officially a Behcets syndrome sufferer.

A rare, chronic disease that involves the inflammation of blood vessels all over the body, Behcets can cause serious skin problems, arthritis and meningitis: it can also affect memory, speech and movement.

Richards-Ross never made much of her struggles with it - she wore long sleeves and body make-up when the lesions appeared - but she would occasionally be too tired to train.

Despite this, she did not want to use the condition as an excuse for her failures to turn season-long domination of the 400m into individual gold medals at the year's biggest championships: those 2007 Worlds, the 2008 Olympics and again at the Worlds in 2011.

"As an athlete you never want to blame anything other than saying you didn't execute well on that day," the 27-year-old told me in Dallas last month.

"But if there was ever a time when it affected my performance it was at (the trials) in 2007, I just didn't feel right. I got worse from round to round and I left straight after to see a doctor because I felt so bad. That's when I got diagnosed.

"But after that I felt I had it pretty much under control. There might have been a few times when I couldn't prepare as well as I might have but for the most part it was just not executing on the day, the pressure, or wanting it too badly. I blame those things more than the disease."

There was one other reason why Richards-Ross was reluctant to blame Behcets: she did not believe she really had it.

As a leading light in track and field, and being married to NFL star Aaron Ross, Richards-Ross was arguably the most famous American afflicted with the disease, so she was often approached by other sufferers.

"A lot of people with Behcets reached out to me, and when we talked about our symptoms I felt I didn't have what they had," she explained.

"And the more research I did, the more I thought 'this can't be right, it doesn't fit'.

"So I kept searching until this year I started working with a new doctor, and he doesn't think I have it.

"He thinks it's a treatable skin disease and I've been doing a lot better. I don't get the fatigue or joint pains nearly as much and the lesions and ulcers are better too.

"I'm excited that it's behind me, but it was definitely a tough time."

To say Richards-Ross is "doing a lot better" on the track is hard to measure until we see how she deals with the extra demands that a major championship places on body and mind. The 27-year-old has been churning out world-leading times since 2005 but only had one individual gold medal to show for it - the 2009 Worlds - before this season.

And while few current athletes have won so many one-off races on the annual circuit, it is defeats to the likes of Bahamas' Tonique Williams-Darling at the 2005 Worlds, Britain's Christine Ohuruogu at the 2008 Olympics and last year's seventh-place finish in Daegu that stand out.

This year's Richards-Ross does look different, though.

Once again, she tops the time charts for 400m, but she is also quickest over 200m, setting a personal best of 22.09 in New York earlier this month.

And she added another individual gold medal to her tally in March, winning the 400m at the World Indoors. This revealed a new approach to a championship season, as she had not even run an indoor 400m for the previous six campaigns.

So, one of sport's most dominant athletes looks set, once more, to translate her undeniable class into something truly memorable. She will return to the US national trials on Sunday, once again looking to establish herself as the best in the world this summer. This time, however, she is healthy.

The women's 400m race at London 2012 could be the most delayed coronation in recent track and field history.

Source: www.bbc.co.uk

Kent County Cricket Club spinner James Tredwell in England one-day squad to face West Indies at Headingley - Kent Online

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Kent off-spinner James Tredwell has been called into the England squad for their third and final one-day international against West Indies at Headingley on Friday.

Tredwell replaces Graeme Swann who, with England 2-0 up in the series, has been rested by the selectors along with Stuart Broad and Tim Bresnan.

James Tredwell

National selector Geoff Miller said: "The fact that we have already won the series means we are able to take the opportunity to rest players and take a closer look at players who are likely to feature in our limited-overs planning going forward."

It will be a sixth England ODI appearance for Tredwell, whose international chances limited have been limited by Swann's form and fitness.

Tredwell has not featured for the national side since the World Cup in March 2011, although he was a non-playing squad member on the tour of Sri Lanka earlier this year.

Swann, along with Broad and Bresnan, will return to the England squad for Sunday's one-off Twenty20 international against the Windies, where Broad will resume his role as England's Twenty20 captain.