Viridian Note 00306: World Environmental Organization

Key concepts: UN, global bureaucracy, environmental lawyers

Attention Conservation Notice: Even if they do manage to build this institution, nobody will like the people who run it or the things they do.

Links:

http://www.hokeyspokes.com/ Awesome bicycle post-consumer add-on. Needs a Viridian logo and slogan.

http://www.casio.com/corporate/pressroom.cfm?act=2&pr=5533
Casio fuel cell for laptops.

http://www.coe.berkeley.edu/labnotes/0402/tinyos.html
Wacky Berkeley ubicomp. "Seabirds' natural habitat and a bustling research facility are ideal testbeds for the distributed, dynamic, and adaptive software brains behind tiny wireless sensors." What isn't an "ideal testbed" for that stuff?

http://www.msnbc.com/local/kprc/A1133359.asp?cp1=1
Enron women clamor to pose nude for Playboy. Not like Enron personnel had a lot of dignity to lose.

Source: UN press release

UNITED NATIONS: April 2, 2002

"UNITED NATIONS – A new world environment organization and an international environmental court would help make sense of the more than 500 environmental agreements and agencies now operating around the globe, researchers said last week.

Link: http://www.unu.edu/ona/seminars/environmentalgovernance.htm The gig.

"Legal and environmental experts from the Tokyo-based U.N. University called on a U.N. development summit opening in Johannesburg in August to weigh creating a global body with powers over the environment similar to those of the World Trade Organization over international trade. (((Imagine the fun as thousands of coal-mining labor unions clog the streets at their every meeting.)))

"Their report said environmental regulation has emerged in an ad hoc and somewhat chaotic fashion over the past 30 years due to 'the essentially random emergence of environmental issues onto national and international political agendas.' (((Greens "emerging"... yes, that's "essentially random.")))

"The soaring number of global environmental institutions argues strongly that the current system of international environmental governance is 'too complicated (and) steadily getting worse,' the experts said. (((Hey, I believe that assessment – because I trust the experts!)))

"They acknowledged that giving teeth to a new global agency was one of the most controversial aspects of the debate as governments are reluctant to turn over their powers to an outside body that could rule against them. ((("Giving teeth," is it? "Your cruise missiles have arrived, Mr World Environment.")))

Link

new European eco-spysat, the aptly named "Envisat" http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0111/13envisat/ http://www.eoboard.co.uk/

"But 'one of the core benefits to be offered by a judicial settlement system is that it could bring a much greater level of predictability to international environmental governance by ending serious violations of international environmental law regardless of the perpetrator,' their report argued. ((("ExxonMobil smokestacks sighted in Tora Bora. Coalition forces close in.")))

"In addition, problems like global warming and pollution simply transcend national interests, they said. (((It's always pretty "simple" to transcend other people's national interests.)))

"Report contributors included Steve Charnovitz of the U.S. law firm Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering,

Link: http://www.geocities.com/charnovitz/ Democrat Hill-rat, trade-law wonk

"Peter Haas of the University of Massachusetts" Link: http://www.umassigs.net/faculty/showprofs.cfm?prof_ID=43 Amherst grad, Kennedy School o' Govt

"Sebastian Oberthur of Berlin-based Ecologic" (((German Kyoto policy wonk. Incredibly, the German Parliament has ratified Kyoto unanimously. Juergen Tritten: "We are the leaders in this field and want to remain in the lead.")))

"and Joost Pauwelyn of the World Trade Organization." (((Obligatory WTO lawyer and co-author of the riveting "MFN Unconditionality: A Legal Analysis of the Concept in View of its Evolution in the GATT/WTO Jurisprudence with Particular Reference to the Issue of 'Like Product', in REGULATORY BARRIERS AND THE PRINCIPLE OF NON- DISCRIMINATION IN WORLD TRADE LAW 13 (Thomas Cottier, Petros Mavroidis & Patrick Blatter, eds., 2000).)))