President Bush has finally set a target date for reining in U.S. emissions of greenhouse gases but the plan is falling flat in the international arena, where critics have long accused him of not moving quickly enough on tackling global warming. “Losership instead of leadership,” Germany’s environment minister said late last week of Bush’s new strategy. A major disappointment, South Africa said. Too little and too late, a Chinese official added.
Since Bush rejected the Kyoto Protocol in 2001, many nations have viewed him as an obstacle to the fight against global warming, which scientists say is worsened by carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. American environmentalists and congressional Democrats criticized the Bush plan for not setting an earlier deadline for curbing emissions, and his speech was widely viewed elsewhere as out of touch with the rest of the world. Bush is “lagging hopelessly behind the problems with his proposals,” German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel said in a statement in Berlin.

What is significant is that there are many state and city level officials who are recognizing the problem, and are willing to take steps to solve the problem. President Bush is not able to stop these local initiatives, although he would dearly love to; the problem is more likely that industry does not want to take these measures and Bush is so influenced by these industries and by the arrogance of his own belief that this is a made-up problem that he would rather go down in history as the leader who stood by when he could have been taking a leadership role.

Chinese President Hu Jintao Saturday defended the crackdown on protests in Tibet and denied the disturbances were linked to human rights in his first public comments on the incident. Hu told Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd the unrest was aimed purely at “splitting the motherland” and insisted Beijing’s handling of unrest was its own affair, according to state media.
“It is a problem (of) either safeguarding national unification or splitting the motherland,” he said on the southern island of Hainan. “The Tibet problem is entirely an internal issue of China.” Exiled Tibetan leaders say Beijing’s suppression of the rare protests, which began last month, left about 150 dead. Hu, whose officials say only that Tibetan “rioters” left 20 dead, maintained the response was justified.

The steps that China has taken are typical; stop all reporting out of Tibet, prevent outsiders from reaching there; try to implement a total breakdown; blame Tibetans for the violence, and then claim that nobody outside has any right to say anything. And the sad truth is, China is now so powerful economically that nobody will be able to say what they want.

Australia recognizes the particular responsibility of developed countries to assist developing countries,’ Rudd told the United Nations-sponsored climate change conference in Bali, Indonesia. “In the form of technology transfer, in the form of financial incentives and in the form of support for adaptation. None of us can do it alone.”
We expect all developed countries to embrace a further set of binding emissions targets and we need this meeting at Bali to map out a process and timeline for this to happen,” Rudd said, according to speech notes. “We need developing countries to play their part – with specific commitments for action.”

Of course, one of the basic arguments that are holding up an agreement remain. Hence, for example, developing nations such as Brazil, China and India argue that richer nations have a much higher rate of consumption and emission per capita. They have reached their current level of prosperity by being reckless towards the environment, and it is the right of developing nations to also do the same. However, if we are to stop this growth of global warming, need to ensure that everybody is committed to doing what is required to halt, and possible reverse the trend.

Hours before trick-or-treaters began going door to door, the government warned consumers Wednesday that fake Halloween teeth sold by the tens of thousands since last year contain excessive amounts of lead. The agency estimates that since January 2006, retailers have sold 43,000 eight-piece packages of the party favors.
Also Wednesday, Toys “R” Us recalled about 16,000 Chinese-made Elite Operations toys because of lead contamination, the commission said. The recall included four Elite Operations toy sets: the Command Patrol Center, the Barracuda Helicopter, the Super Rigs set and a three-pack of 8-inch figures. No other Elite Operations toys are included in the recall. The toys were sold at Toys “R” Us stores and on toysrus.com between July and October.
The commission also announced recalls of 380,000 Galaxy Warriors figurines and 1,500 SimplyFun Ribbit board games, both for lead-contaminated surface paints. The figurines were manufactured in China and distributed by Henry Gordy International. The board games were manufactured in China and imported and distributed by SimplyFun.

This is very scary; there is bound to be an overall suspicion about the quality of toys made in China, and the level of quality control. China has not helped matters by sometimes reacting angrily about the media focus on these recalls; such anger has no effect on the media, and does not improve the image in any way.

Despite pressure by the Bush Administration and the rest of the international community for Israel to withdraw many of its Jewish citizens from 220 hilltop settlements and outposts in the disputed West Bank, such a move could be so divisive in Israel that no Prime Minister, especially one as embattled as Ehud Olmert, would risk it. After months of dithering and judicial pressure, Israel’s government decided on Aug. 7 to remove two Jewish families squatting in Palestinian-owned buildings. At 6:20 a.m., riot police bashed in doors as teenage settlers on the roof hurled down stones, oil and eggs at the police, while Wagner played over loudspeakers. (As every Israeli knows, Wagner was Hitler’s favorite composer, and the music was a brutish way — for the benefit of TV news crews — for the settlers to draw a parallel between Israel’s security forces and the Nazis.)
The eviction itself went relatively smoothly, but the hard feelings it generated resound deep inside Israeli army barracks. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) were initially assigned only to secondary tasks, such as manning roadblocks to stop religious Zionist sympathizers from joining their Hebron brethren. Still, when orders were given to the Duchifat Battalion to assist evicting the two settler families, 38 out of 400 soldiers initially refused to obey after many called their rabbis on cell phones. Eventually, all but eight relented. These “refuseniks,” as they were dubbed in the Israeli press, were slapped in the army prison for 14 to 28 days and some were banished from their élite combat unit. The incident has left lingering doubts over whom soldiers will obey: their commanding officers, or hard-line rabbis who believe it’s the destiny of Jews to occupy the Biblical lands of Judea and Samaria, even if they are now in disputed Palestinian territory? One senior IDF commander complains to TIME: “It seems like every soldier is consulting his own rabbi.” The more extremist rabbis, he says, “want to change the system,” bringing Israel’s vibrant secular society more in line with their orthodox views.

If this situation continues, Israel will find it difficult. Most Israeli politicians understand that a peace with the Palestinians will involve removing most Israeli settlers from the West Bank, and it would be the army that would be called out to help in such a operation. If such a trend of the army soldiers being swayed by rabbis continues, Israel will be in a difficult position.

Brightly colored children’s bracelets and necklaces line the display case of a Chinese manufacturer in this factory town. Adorned with mini school buses, sandals and other charms, the jewelry sits ready to be sold to foreign and domestic buyers. It also contains lead. While the U.S. government in July issued a recall for similar items, branded as Essentials for Kids, officials at the factory said they knew nothing of it. And because the CJ Accessories factory sells the jewelry to different companies with different brands, identical lead-tainted products could be on store shelves under other names.
Three decades after the federal government significantly toughened regulations on lead in children’s products, American companies have yet to find a way to successfully screen the flood of imported products for the toxic metal. The federal watchdog charged with ensuring they do so is overwhelmed and often ineffective. And the growing list of lead recalls of children’s products underscores how the metal, slathered on with paint or mixed in with other raw materials, is more pervasive than many American consumers ever imagined.

Given that it is going to be very difficult to move out of the low-cost manufacturing regime, especially with most such manufacturing capabilities already having moved to low cost countries; the responsibility for such measures now rests with the manufacturers. As part of their cost accounting, they need to be held responsible for the quality of these products and should include regular and systematic investigation and quality control. It would be very bad indeed if somebody was affected by these products, much worse so if it was a child. It is just not possible to do a quality control at the US borders, even with the best of intentions.

Mattel Inc., the world’s largest toymaker, said a recall of 1.5 million Chinese-made products will reduce second-quarter operating income by almost 50 percent and that it will review the production methods of all its contractors in China.
The lead discovery might force Mattel to find new sources of low-cost goods and may further damage China’s reputation as an exporter, following a recall of “Thomas & Friends” toys in Asia, a U.S. ban on Chinese toothpaste and scandals involving tainted cooking oil and diseased pork. The company is recalling 967,000 preschool toys sold in U.S. stores since May, including Elmo’s Guitar, Dora’s Talking House and 81 other products, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said yesterday.

This is something that is directly affecting Mattel since this will hit its revenue, and hit on its reputation. Also, since this affects children, one can be sure that politicians will jump on this, and start investigations in Congress on this. It also benefits trade unions since they have always claimed that sending these manufacturing jobs abroad is based on a compromise. It also increases the pressure on China to ensure that quality control is made more stringent.