THE TENSION: The Decline and Fall of Western Civ for 29 Nov.

The Decline and Fall of Western Civ.: Barbarians have Crashed the Gate

After reading: wash, rinse and repeat.

FT.com reports the global political battle over climate change was also being fought at the US Supreme Court on Wednesday as judges bickered over the role of greenhouse gas emissions in global warming and disagreed on whether the Environmental Protection Agency had the power to refuse to regulate such emissions.

Wednesday’s arguments focused largely on the issue of whether Massachusetts could bring the case in the first place, with several conservative justices arguing that Massachusetts had not proved the danger to its coastline was imminent enough to merit the suit, or that the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions that could be achieved by limiting exhaust emissions – some 2.5 per cent of total US greenhouse emissions – would be significant enough to give them the right to sue.
“It depends what happens across the globe,” Chief Justice John Roberts said, noting that any reduction in US emissions might be overcome by a rise in emissions caused by China’s rapid economic development. Several liberal justices supported Massachusetts but the pivotal swing justice, Anthony Kennedy, did not reveal where he stood.
The court appeared similarly divided on the issue of whether the EPA had the authority to refuse to regulate or whether its reasons for doing so were valid.

The nine-member US Supreme Court appeared split as it took up the debate over global warming, with rival lawyers arguing whether some greenhouse gas emissions should be regulated, according to AP.

The plaintiffs in the case include several US state governments who argue that the EPA should use its authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions under the 1963 Clean Air Act.
The plaintiffs, who have lost in a lower court and on appeal, are joined by religious groups, scientists, ski resorts, businesses as well as former EPA officials, who say the stakes are high.

However, all the bickering may not matter. Reuters reports the earth has a fever that could boost temperatures by 8 degrees Celsius making large parts of the surface uninhabitable and threatening billions of peoples' lives, a controversial climate scientist said on Tuesday.

James Lovelock, who angered climate scientists with his Gaia theory of a living planet and then alienated environmentalists by backing nuclear power, said a traumatized earth might only be able to support less than a tenth of it's 6 billion people.

"We are not all doomed. An awful lot of people will die, but I don't see the species dying out," he told a news conference. "A hot earth couldn't support much over 500 million."
"Almost all of the systems that have been looked at are in positive feedback ... and soon those effects will be larger than any of the effects of carbon dioxide emissions from industry and so on around the world," he added.

More on this story: The Daily Mail reports billions of people could be wiped out over the next century because of climate change, a leading expert said.

Professor James Lovelock, who pioneered the idea of the Earth as a living organism, said as the planet heats up humans will find it increasingly hard to survive.

He warned that as conditions worsen, the global population which is currently around 6.5 billion, may sink as low as 500 million.

The Daily Mail reports householders were warned today to check their security in an alert sparked by video website YouTube.

Hundreds of videos are available on the site showing users how to pick locks, which experts fear will result in a spate of burglaries.

In an open letter, Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad urged the American people Wednesday to demand the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq and reject what he called the US government's "blind support" for Israel and its "illegal and immoral" actions in fighting terrorism, according to JPost.

The letter to "Noble Americans," distributed by Iran's UN Mission, denounced President George W. Bush's policies in the Middle East and US practices in the "war on terror." He appealed to the American people to work to reverse them and called on the Bush administration and the new Democratic-controlled Congress to heed the results of the recent midterm elections.

"Undoubtedly, the American people are not satisfied with this behavior and they showed their discontent in the recent elections," Ahmadinejad wrote. "I hope that in the wake of the mid-term elections, the administration of President Bush will have heard and will heed the message of the American people."
In a message to Democrats, he said, "you will also be held to account by the people and by history."
"If the US government meets the current domestic and external challenges with an approach based on truth and justice, it can remedy some of the past afflictions and alleviate some of the global resentment and hatred of America," Ahmadinejad said.
"What has blind support for the Zionists by the US administration brought for the American people?" Ahmadinejad asked. "It is regrettable that for the US administration, the interests of these occupiers supersedes the interests of the American people and of the other nations of the world."

Reuters boils down the message of and reports Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in a letter to the American people on Wednesday, accused their government of "coercion, force and injustice" and urged the United States to pull out of Iraq.

However, hours after Iran's president wrote to Americans attacking their government's foreign policy and urging that their troops leave Iraq, a US State Department spokesman dismissed the move as a ploy, according to AFP.

In an effort to halt further the decline of the West, Billionaire insurance titan Maurice "Hank" Greenberg has begun buying huge blocks of New York Times stock to break the Sulzberger family's stranglehold on the media empire, The Post has learned.

Sources confirmed that the famously combative Greenberg has been buying hundreds of thousands of Times shares, but did not disclose the exact number or the size of the stake he wants to own.

Liberal E&P reports because of the "dual stock" status of The New York Times Co., the chances that Maurice "Hank" Greenberg -- the former AIG chairman and CEO now reported to be intent on taking over the company -- will actually succeed in his quest may be slim. Still, he is a man to be reckoned with, and who knows what ripple effects may appear.

If Greenberg ever did get in the position to run the company, the political orientation of the paper might well change. Greenberg has strong Republican connections -- friend of Henry Kissinger, once mentioned as a Reagan appointee to help run the CIA, and a funder of GOP candidates.