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that's a must see video. thanks for posting it.
90 days? mine would be paid off in less than a month :)
http://www.theonestopwebshoppe.com/original-1.php
I think we agree that something should be done to make the details of the loan more transparent and clearer to the borrower. Also, I'm not supporting any kind of bail out of either individuals or lenders.
Where we differ is in our emphasis on who should take the brunt of the responsibility. You say you knew exactly what was happening wiht the market and what the consequences were going to be. It hasn't been a big secret with those in the know. So wouldn't you also agree that most lenders also knew? Therefore, I would conclude that many lenders knowingly took advantage of people.
Thanks for your responses. The reason this issue is important to me is because I've seen a big trend under the current administration to protect large corporates at the expense of the average American. I'd like to see the scales swing back the other way a bit.
that's great that you did that. I've never heard of anyone doing that. It's not the norm.
And, in fact, people have told me that when they went to sign papers there was no one there to even answer questions. Yes, they should have demanded that, but people just don't know that they can't trust their bank, lender, etc., until they learn the hard way. I helped one of my daughters last year buy a townhouse and went with her to the lender and the signing and was able to make sure we at least asked the right questions... people don't even know what questions to ask and that they can negotiate things like prepayment penalties, etc.
I think it's great this issue in the news and hopefully more people will at least become more aware of the issues and what can happen to them. But I also think there needs to be something done about unscrupulous lenders.
One thing lost in all the hoopla about the bad loans is the millions of these loans that did work out just fine for people - like always, the silent majority.
Are you saying this isn't a growing problem?
Countrywide is reporting record foreclosures and New Century Financial Corp may go under...
This is not only a problem for individuals losing their homes, but has the potential to impact all of us.
How long did it take you last time? Did you skim or really read every detail?
very strong evidence.
Toxic Right-to-Know-Protection Act
<< from an email >>
I recently cosponsored the Toxic Right-to-Know-Protection Act, S.595, a bill introduced by U.S. Senator Frank R. Lautenberg (D-NJ). This bill would restore the public’s right to know about toxic pollution in their communities by reversing a Bush Administration rule that weakened these nearly two-decade-old safeguards.
In December 2006, EPA announced that it would weaken the rules for the Toxic Release Inventory program, rules that simply require facilities to tell the public how much pollution they put into the environment. EPA’s actions allowed facilities to quadruple the amount of pollution they release, up to 2,000 pounds, without having the tell the public the amount of pollution emitted into our air, land or water or how the facility managed this waste. EPA also reversed an earlier decision and allowed facilities that use up to 500 pounds of a toxic substance, such as mercury and lead, to simply acknowledged that they used the chemical without telling the public if they put these substances into their products or otherwise recycled them on site.
The Bush Administration undercut the public’s right to know despite opposition from state agencies and attorneys general from 23 states. The EPA’s own scientific advisory board expressed significant concern over weakening the program because it would help hide the amount of chemicals released by facilities, harm researchers’ abilities to use program data to conduct health studies, and reduce needed data that is available on nationwide chemical releases.
A representative of the Government Accountability Office (GAO) testified before a recent Senate hearing before my Committee that EPA failed to follow its own rulemaking process. The GAO found that senior government officials directed EPA staff to include the option of weakening protections late in the rulemaking process, and that EPA reviewed this option on an expedited schedule that did not allow the agency sufficient time to properly analyze its decision. The GAO concluded that public information could be drastically reduced under the rule change. For example, in California, the change would eliminate information on the pounds of toxic emissions for dozens of chemicals and similarly eliminate reporting requirements for 20 percent of all facilities that are currently required to publicly report their emissions.
The Toxic Right-to-Know Protection Act codifies the original, stronger reporting requirements that were in place before the Bush Administration weakened them in December. By codifying these requirements, neither the current administration nor future administrations could again change the guidelines without the approval of Congress.
Community right-to-know protections give people the ability to gain information on the chemicals released into their communities. I am a strong supporter of giving communities the information they need. I am pleased to support this legislation and will be working in the Senate’s Environment and Public Works Committee, which I chair, to see that it is enacted.
Sincerely,
Barbara Boxer
United States Senator
For more information on Senator Boxer's record and other information, please go to: http://www.boxer.senate.gov
very concerned
“It’s possible to be a conservative without appearing to be an idiot.”
LOL amazing some of these guys are senators.
follow the money to the oil and energy companies
ROFL!
I had the cable in my house disconnected for almost a year when the kids were growing up. Amazing how much more they got outside to play, read books, etc.
The first time I bought a home I tried to read it all... after about 3 hours I started skimming... I'd love to see a vote on this board on how many people actually took the hours it would take to read all their loan documents and then asked questions about anything that wasn't clear.
The reality is that people don't do it because it isn't practical. And even if you try, you have to understand something about mortgage lending and are again at the mercy of who is doing your loan to answer any questions you have.
...shouldn't they take the responsibility to find someone who does know what is going on that they can trust to discuss things with before jumping into a situation?
how do they know who is giving them the straight scoop? what if they made that effort and still got stung?
just for the heck of it, I put in my info on that form on e-loan to see what they would recommend (I have a pretty good credit score). This is the result... an interest only loan for the first 5 years that becomes an ARM with full amortization... you see any obvious indication here that the payment is gone to go through the roof??? (btw, I refi'd a few years ago and my loan is now 30 year fixed at 5.6%)
5 year fixed rate
closing costs $8470
interest rate 5.375%
APR 7.046% (who on this board knows the difference between this and quotd "interest rate")
interest only
This is a combination fixed/adjustable rate product. The start rate of 5.375% is fixed for the first 60 month(s) of the loan's 30-year term.
At the end of the 60 month(s), the rate will adjust to the lower of:
1. The index plus the margin of 2.250%,
2. The previous rate plus 5.000%, or
3. The life cap of 10.375%.
Thereafter the product will adjust every 12 month(s) to the lower of:
1. The index plus the margin of 2.250%,
2. The previous rate plus a maximum periodic adjustment of 2.000%, or
3. The life cap of 10.375%.
The rate will always be rounded to the nearest one-eighth of one percentage point.
Required payments made during the first five (5) years of the loan will be applied towards interest only and will not reduce the principal balance during that period. However, at any time you may elect to repay a portion of the principal.
Beginning in year six (6), payments will be applied towards principal and interest.
During the period that you make payments of interest only, your payment will be based on the interest rate and loan balance. After that period, your payment will be based on the interest rate, loan balance, and remaining loan term.
This product does not have a prepayment penalty.
...this problem is mainly a result of people getting too greedy over how much house they wanted and now they want us to bail them out.
you have statistics on that? I think it's your point of view and although I'm sure some of that has happened, my view is that it is equally the responsibility of banks/lenders to encourage people understand what kind of loans they are getting into and the possible consquences.
All you have to do to see what kind of crap lenders are promoting is to listen to the radio or do a few online searches:
Rates as low as 3.8% (bad credit okay)
http://www.refinancetrust.com/index.asp?SourceID=401003&OVRAW=mortgage%20refi&OVKEY=mortgage....
$150,000 mortgage for as low as $483 a month
http://www.pickamortgage.com/freeoffers/index.asp?SourceID=201003&OVRAW=mortgage%20refi&OVKE....
and even from eloan.com (from a link on the home page)
Combination Loans provide Zero-Down financing
If you’re ready to buy a home but don’t have enough cash for the down-payment, an 80/20 Combination Loan might be the answer. E-LOAN can help you with an 80% first mortgage and a 20% second mortgage that cover the purchase price of your new home. From application to funding, the entire process runs simultaneously so you can close both loans at the same time. And, there is no need to pay PMI with this type of loan, which means a larger tax deduction for you!
http://www.eloan.com/loanadvisor/input1?purpose=purch&own=y&purchcombo=y&nextbtn=1&l....
yes, I remember that from his book (about taking his children, etc). He put himself totally into his research for his books. The depth of the characters is especially good a well.
I think one of the themes of the book is particularly appropriate for today... as a nation, I think we are much more the aggressor than I grew up to believe anyway.
Please let me know what you think if you read it.
I wish I had more time for reading these days, but I've been doing alot of studying, learning and reserach for my work so I haven't had much time for more enjoyable reading.
that's a great loss.
my favorite book of his is Crazy Horse and Custer.
I understand his premise. My point is that we all can't be experts in every field... I can't be an medical expert, a legal expert and a banking/financial expert. That's why I contend that when there is clear abuse, such as has gone on for the last several years in the mortgage lending industry, that we need someone to step in and slap their hands.
Let me tell you another example. A friend of mine is a mortgage broker, owns the company. He has been doing so for many years. It was of great dismay to him making loans for his clients because his clients kept hearing the ads on the radio about 3% loans, etc. They didn't understand the "catches"... negative am loans, balloon payments, etc. In one particular case he quoted a 6. something rate to a client who said "why can't you get me 3. whatever that I'm hearing on the radio". My friend, the mortgage broker, called the advertiser of that rate and ask for a rate based on his clients data. The advertiser came back with a rate exactly the same as my friend.
Another example, someone came to my friend the mortgage broker because their ARM loan was out of control and they wanted to refi into a fixed rate. They found out that they had a $20,000 prepayment penalty to get out of the loan that they didn't know about. How many people do you know are knowlegeable enough to know what a reasonable prepayment penalty amount or period is???
My point, again, is that there has been rampant misleading lending practices that has escalated over the last few years. Some oversight is needed.
For many years I wrote software for mortgage bankers. I firmly believe that the time for regulation is long overdue. Unfortunately there are too many unscrupulous mortgage bankers who will say and do anything to close a loan. I'll give you a specific example. A few years ago I contact the bank that held the loan on my home because I was looking to refi. I knew, because I was knowledgeable about mortgage lending, that I wanted a 30 year fixed rate loan. The potential loan officer told me that 1) they only offered ARM loans and 2) that interest rates wouldn't go up. The mortgage industry has many complicated loan types and lending practices. I doubt the average consumer fully understands negative amortization or what a GPM loan is.
So, in conclusion, I'm a little dismayed at your attitude about those many people who are losing their homes because they listened to loan officers and ended up in loans that are now blowing up in their faces. Many of these people are hard working people who's only fault was trusting a lender.
and control of the voting machines
I hope it doesn't get that bad, but I firmly believe that the massive debt that individuals and even more importantly this country is going into is going to catch up to us. You can't just keep printing money without something giving somewhere. It also obvious to me that those in power in this country today (particularly the Bush admin) have deliberately set the table for these trends by taking care of the wealthy few at the expense of everyone else.
I think it's an easy thing to do and would like to see us doing that here as well. I've been trying to upgrade mine at home and the new bulbs won't fit in some of my fixtures.
Good one.
It's nice to come here and read things on a positive note.
How to Make Really 'Big Money'
MarketWatch
By Paul B. Farrell
<< in case you're wondering why I posted this hear, it's because of the items below about inheritance tax, government subsidies, etc. >>
When Shanghai and Hong Kong nose-dived a few weeks ago, they pulled American markets down with them. Instantly the media and press turned away from Britney's bizarre behavior and began blabbering breathlessly about the hot new topic du jour, "risk." Here's one of the best metaphors:
"We view financial risk much like popcorn popping in a microwave. Until the first kernel pops, one tends to believe nothing's happening," said Merrill Lynch chief investment strategist Richard Bernstein in Time magazine. "The initial pop seems like a random event until the second occurs. A third. A fourth. Then the popping goes wild." Suddenly, an unpredictable, irrational mob takes over.
Unpredictable? Yes. Irrational? Yes. That's the nature of risk. But why? Back in the superbullish days of the late 1990s, economist Peter Bernstein wrote the definitive history of risk in "Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk." The book reflected the upbeat illusions of the time: "The revolutionary idea that defines the boundary between modern times and the past is the mastery of risk."
More specifically, Bernstein believed that the new information technology of the "this-time-it's-different" nineties was the real "boundary" line ... and that we had indeed mastered risk.
Wrong. In spite of the war, terror threats, danger of nuclear attacks, huge deficits and other problems, we're in denial about the enormous risks facing us. We're stuck in the illusion that we're safe, that we've "mastered risk."
This illusion came to mind while reading economist Gary Shilling's latest Insight newsletter. His title promises much: "How to Make Big Money: 11 Time-Tested Strategies." And it's well documented. But it made me oddly anxious. Why? Because his 11 strategies help America's 8 million millionaires (and billionaires) to get richer, but they're not much help to the other 292 million Americans.
Listen closely to the opening: "An unprecedented number of Americans have received unprecedented incomes and accumulated unprecedented net worths in recent years." But those "gains are tempered by the reality that while the top tier is gaining, the income shares of the rest are falling. Many Americans have seen no purchasing-power gains in decades."
And the gap's widening: The "lack of income didn't deter spending. In aggregate terms, spending has risen a half percentage point per year faster than after-tax incomes for 25 years, pushing the saving rate from 12% in the early 1980s to -1% today. Many financed their excess spending growth by tapping stock appreciation during the long 1982-2000 rally, and more recently, from their house appreciation."
No risk for the wealthy
Suddenly I realized why this made me anxious. There are actually two distinct kinds of risk. Risk is fundamentally different for the rich, it almost doesn't exist! They can use these strategies to their advantage, to manage risk and build equities. But the other 292 million are stuck with the leftovers, not equities but systemic liabilities, such as higher taxes, drug costs, excessive fund expenses, limited opportunities, outsourcing, etc.
So take a moment: review Shilling's 11 "time-tested" ways to make "big money." Look closely and you may see evidence of a bubble growing in these 11 quite diverse strategies for making really big money off the backs of many naïve Americans:
1. Government subsidies. Uncle Sam often guarantees big bucks while Main Street taxpayers pick up the tab; for example, drugs, energy and agriculture sectors.
2. Big fat inheritances. The super rich are the ones fighting to eliminate the so-called death tax, so they can hoard more money, pass along a bigger share, keep it in the family.
3. Little equity, lots of debt. Leverage works magic. It worked for condo-flippers. Now the little guys are having problems. But with $640 billion in subprime deals last year, insiders made lots of money in executive salaries, bonuses, commissions.
4. Nonfinancial leverage. Think of all that talent in television, movies, music and athletics. Oprah leverages Dr. Phil. Gore leverages Oscar worldwide. "American Idol" leverages millions of wannabes. Even billable time with lawyers, says Shilling, where name partners pay associates $75 an hour and charge clients $350 an hour.
5. 'Next big thing.' Invent something, but best not to be the first one in. My first computer was a Kaypro 25 years ago. I remember when Prodigy was bigger than AOL. Shilling says: "Who ever heard of Seattle Computer Works, Chux or Carterphone?"
6. Small slices of very big pies. Watch the deal-makers in investment banks, private-equity managers, mortgage lenders, CEOs, commercial banks and fast-food franchises. Imagine getting a mere 0.1% finder's fee (or better yet, a 0.1% annual "management" fee) in the $45 billion Texas Power Company deal! Or maybe the average $2.4 million salary paid today's CEOs, plus options and bonuses. And you can even do a crappy job and get fired, like the Home Depot boss, and still get severance of $240 million.
7. Cartels and monopolies. Easy money when they have control over price and supply. Get in cahoots with politicians and secure government protections through patents and regulation. Crude oil is the classic, also steel, utilities and cable TV.
8. Sell the sizzle, not the steak. P.T. Barnum was right, there is an endless supply of suckers looking for the "big money," and ripe for the pickings. We'll buy anything: Quick-buck deals from Nigerian con men, financial newsletters promising hot tips, vitamins that prevent aging, secret cancer cures and, oh yes, how-to-get-rich-quick books.
9. Feed the addict's habit. We're a nation of addicts, "sex, nicotine, caffeine, booze, drugs, cosmetics and lavish clothes," says Shilling, "as well as small luxuries like greeting cards and fancy coffee." Play on weaknesses. Tobacco agreed to a $206 billion settlement then jacked up the prices. Notice all the new high-caffeine drinks. Or sell $3.60 lattes that cost 60 cents to make. Addicts are easy pickings in America.
10. Supply picks and shovels. Who made money in the California Gold Rush? Not the prospectors. Today's new prospectors include millions of naïve investors. Today's suppliers are "stock brokers, asset managers, stock market-oriented TV and radio, real estate brokers, mortgage lenders and corn-farming equipment makers."
11. Get paid with "other people's money." Example: That desperate CEO who needs legitimacy hires consultants to justify the sale of his company, so he can get a huge severance package. "Winners include business consultants, corporate defense lawyers and soft commission dollar recipients." Shilling discusses one of his assignments; I saw this happen when I was at Morgan Stanley, lots of money for little risk.
Two kinds of risk folks: Rich guys take very little risk in a $45 billion private equity buy-out. Nothing to lose. But the overextended little guy with an ARM on his $450,000 home took a huge risk and may lose everything. This gap is not just an income gap as Shilling points out, it's a risk gap. The rich get the equities, the rest get the liabilities.
Warning: It's blowing a new kind of bubble, and it's getting bigger.
http://biz.yahoo.com/weekend/bigmoney_2.html
but that's like closing the barn door after the cows gone.
IMO he should be impeached now
Global warming impacting European seas
BRUGES, Belgium, March 14 (UPI) -- European scientists say global warming is having a significant impact on European marine and coastal environments.
Recent research has shown the Northern Hemisphere has been warmer since 1980 than at any other time during the last 2,000 years, with the increase in temperature generally higher in northern waters than in southern European seas.
The latest European Science Foundation-Marine Board study report shows even moderate climate scenarios have caused marked consequences on the European marine environment.
The study detailed the impact of climate change in the Arctic, the Northeast Atlantic, along the Celtic-Biscay Shelf, the Iberia upwelling margin, and in the Barents, Nordic, Baltic, North, Mediterranean and Black seas.
In just the northern Arctic and Barents Seas, scientists said the decline in sea ice cover has triggered the most obvious temperature-related changes for marine life. Atlantic species are beginning to inhabit the more northern seas and subtropical species are moving into southern waters.
The study was detailed Monday in Bruges, Belgium, during the annual Young Marine Scientist's Day, organized by the Flanders Marine Institute.
http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Science/20070314-023207-7307r/
"But one of the things we see with global warming is unpredictability."
John Edwards on Iraq
http://www.democracyforamerica.com/edwardsresponse
Stocks Dive on Subprime Mortgage Worries
<< like this is some sort of suprise... >>
Tuesday March 13, 3:45 pm ET
By Madlen Read, AP Business Writer
Stocks Tumble on Mounting Concerns About Subprime Lenders, Slowing Retail Sales
NEW YORK (AP) -- Stocks plunged Tuesday, driving the Dow Jones industrials down more than 200 points and erasing all the gains made last week as troubles for subprime lenders piled up.
Investors, bracing for a wilting economy, fled the already deflated subprime mortgage sector while problems increased for lenders such as New Century Financial Corp., Accredited Home Lenders Holding Co. and General Motors Acceptance Corp.'s residential unit. Bolstering the belief that the problems are widespread, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported that new foreclosures surged to an all-time high in the last quarter of 2006.
The subprime lending worries, coupled with anxiety over the Commerce Department's report Tuesday that U.S. retailers eked out a meager 0.1 percent rise in sales last month, knocked down all three major stock indexes more than 1 percent.
"The market's still jittery, and they're starting to get full-blown concerns over a bleed in the larger subprime mortgage market," said Matt Kelmon, portfolio manager of the Kelmoore Strategy Funds.
The subprime market is a relatively small sector of the U.S. economy, Kelmon noted. But Tuesday's selling was accentuated by options expiring soon and by volatility that has increased since the market's big plunge two weeks ago -- a 416-point drop in the Dow that was caused partially by the problems of subprime lenders, who loan to people with poor credit.
In late afternoon trading, the Dow fell 200.92, or 1.63 percent, to 12,117.70. Broader stock indicators also fell. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 23.62, or 1.68 percent, to 1,382.98, and the Nasdaq composite index slid 40.71, or 1.69 percent, to 2,361.58.
Volume on the New York Stock Exchange, where declining issues outnumbered advancers by more than 4 to 1, was high at 1.56 billion shares.
Trading collars were triggered Tuesday afternoon when the New York Stock Exchange Composite index lost more than 180 points. The collars put a chokehold on certain orders, forbidding transactions that capitalize on discrepancies in prices.
Subprime lending jitters and sluggish retail sales drove up bond prices. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note fell to 4.50 percent from 4.56 percent late Monday.
"Investors are poking around to see how much rotted wood there is here," said Jack Ablin, chief investment officer for Harris Private Bank. "It looks like the notion was subprime was contained, and now we're starting to see that maybe this problem has moved into other areas of the market. That's causing investors great concern."
Gold prices fell. The dollar was higher against the euro but lower against other the yen. That movement renewed anxiety about traders unwinding their yen "carry trades," or taking money out of high-yielding dollar assets bought with the low-yielding yen.
There was little good news to keep stocks afloat Tuesday. The Commerce Department said sales at U.S. retailers rose 0.1 percent in February as wintry weather in much of the country kept shoppers away from stores. Investors had expected an increase of 0.3 percent from January.
"I think a big question mark on this is how much of this is weather-related," said Rob Lutts, chief investment officer at Cabot Money Management. "We had two or three days during the month which knocked out activity. ... I think it is causing a little bit of alarm short-term."
Several retailers fell following the Commerce Department's report. Federated Department Stores Inc., parent of Macy's and Bloomingdale's, fell 92 cents, or 2 percent, to $44.02; Wal-Mart Stores Inc. slid $1.05, or 2.2 percent, to $46.21; and Target Corp. fell $1.85, or 3 percent, to $60.38.
Meanwhile, Accredited Home shares plunged $7.09, or 62 percent, to $4.31, after it disclosed its own liquidity problems.
Also, the New York Stock Exchange took steps to delist New Century shares, and the company said the Securities and Exchange Commission was conducting a preliminary inquiry into accounting errors that inflated its loan portfolio.
The Mortgage Bankers Association's quarterly report on the mortgage market confirmed investors' worries that the entire sector is struggling and could weaken further: not only did new foreclosures hit a record high in the fourth quarter of last year, but late mortgage payments soared to a 3 1/2-year high.
Giving stocks an extra kick lower was a report from General Motors Acceptance Corp., General Motors Corp.'s part-owned financing arm, which reported that its fourth-quarter profit rose but that struggles in its Residential Capital LLC unit was eating into earnings.
Investors trying to determine the breadth of the problems in the subprime sector also pounced on comments from Goldman Sachs. The investment bank said that while the subprime sector showed "significant weakness," the broader credit environment "remained strong." Still, Goldman Sachs fell $1.83 to $200.77, despite record first-quarter profit thanks to strong revenue from trading and investment banking.
Homebuilders took a hit, as lending obstacles could further cripple the struggling housing market. D.R. Horton fell 3.6 percent, Centex Corp. lost 4.7 percent and Toll Brothers dropped 2.5 percent.
The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies fell 16.66, or 2.11 percent, to 772.34.
Overseas, Japan's Nikkei stock average fell 0.66 percent. Britain's FTSE 100 fell 1.16 percent, Germany's DAX index fell 1.36 percent, and France's CAC-40 fell 1.15 percent.
Light, sweet crude fell 98 cents to $57.93 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070313/wall_street.html?.v=31
E.U. Raises Bar in Fight Against Global Warming
By John Ward Anderson
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, March 10, 2007; Page A15
PARIS, March 9 -- European Union leaders agreed Friday to take the 27-country bloc beyond the targets of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol on global warming, agreeing to legally binding reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and increasing the use of renewable energy.
During a sometimes contentious two-day meeting in Brussels, the leaders agreed to cut the gas emissions by at least 20 percent from 1990 levels in the next 13 years. They set binding targets for renewable energy sources, such as wind, solar and hydro power, to supply 20 percent of the union's power needs and for biofuels to be used in 10 percent of the bloc's road vehicles by 2020.
E.U. leaders went beyond the 1997 Kyoto pact to set targets for cutting greenhouse gases and relying on energy sources such as wind power. (By Heribert Proepper -- Associated Press)
European governments have been a major promoter of the Kyoto pact, which attempts to counter trends that are warming the Earth's climate. The United States and some developing countries have withheld support from the pact, saying it is likely to harm economic growth and is based on inconclusive science.
The agreement in Brussels was reached after months of negotiations within the bloc. Leaders said they hoped the aggressive measures would help persuade some of the world's biggest polluters, including the United States, China and India, to follow their lead.
"We assume leadership with this unilateral reduction," said French President Jacques Chirac. "This is part of the great moments of European history."
Warning of the possibility of a "human calamity," German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who chaired the summit, said the agreement "opened the door into a whole new dimension of European cooperation in the years to come in the area of energy and combating climate change."
Some businesses here have complained that meeting the targets would be prohibitively expensive and put Europe at a competitive disadvantage with countries and regions that do not have the same restrictions. But Merkel called the targets "ambitious and credible."
While committing their countries to binding targets for reducing carbon emissions and boosting renewable energy, the leaders did not reach agreement on how those measures would be enforced.
And the 13-year targets are for the European Union as a whole; the agreement allows for "differentiated" national targets that permit "burden sharing" among the 27 nations, so that each can take different steps for its contribution to the bloc's overall goals, according to Barbara Helfferich, a spokeswoman for E.U. Environmental Commissioner Stavros Dimas.
That was a compromise after smaller, poorer and newer members in the union -- many of which are in the heavily industrialized and coal-dependent east -- complained that they did not have the resources to match the high-tech measures of the bloc's richer members, some of which have already invested heavily in wind and solar power.
The national targets will be negotiated in the months ahead by the European Commission, the bloc's executive branch, before going to the European Parliament for approval. They will be established "with due regard to a fair and adequate allocation taking account of different starting points," according to the agreement. The process could take as long as three years, E.U. officials said.
U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon praised the deal. "The E.U.'s moves can help put the world's energy systems on more sustainable footing. They offer business strong incentives to develop the advanced technologies that the world, and above all the developing world, needs to meet its energy needs while at the same time addressing climate change," Ban's spokeswoman Marie Okabe said in New York, the Associated Press reported.
Agreeing on targets and penalties that could be levied for failing to meet them "is where most of the work still needs to be continued," said Catherine Pearce, an international climate campaigner for the environmental group Friends of the Earth. Working out the details could be very difficult, she said.
Nonetheless, she said, the agreement is "a strong step in the right direction."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/09/AR2007030901992.html
Report outlines global warming's effects
POSTED: 11:28 p.m. EST, March 10, 2007
Story Highlights• Scientists' report will be released at April conference
• Report says parts of world will have water shortages, others floods
• Food production will increase at first, then famine will hit, report says
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The harmful effects of global warming on daily life are already showing up, and within a couple of decades hundreds of millions of people won't have enough water, top scientists will say next month at a meeting in Belgium.
At the same time, tens of millions of others will be flooded out of their homes each year as the Earth reels from rising temperatures and sea levels, according to portions of a draft of an international scientific report obtained by The Associated Press.
Tropical diseases like malaria will spread. By 2050, polar bears will mostly be found in zoos, their habitats gone. Pests like fire ants will thrive.
For a time, food will be plentiful because of the longer growing season in northern regions. But by 2080, hundreds of millions of people could face starvation, according to the report, which is still being revised.
The draft document by the authoritative Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change focuses on global warming's effects and is the second in a series of four being issued this year. Written and reviewed by more than 1,000 scientists from dozens of countries, it still must be edited by government officials.
But some scientists said the overall message is not likely to change when it's issued in early April in Brussels, Belgium, the same city where European Union leaders agreed this past week to drastically cut greenhouse gas emissions by 2020. Their plan will be presented to President Bush and other world leaders at a summit in June.
The report offers some hope if nations slow and then reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, but it notes that what's happening now isn't encouraging.
"Changes in climate are now affecting physical and biological systems on every continent," the report says, in marked contrast to a 2001 report by the same international group that said the effects of global warming were coming. But that report only mentioned scattered regional effects.
"Things are happening and happening faster than we expected," said Patricia Romero Lankao of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, one of the many co-authors of the new report.
The draft document says scientists are highly confident that many current problems -- change in species' habits and habitats, more acidified oceans, loss of wetlands, bleaching of coral reefs, and increases in allergy-inducing pollen -- can be blamed on global warming.
For example, the report says North America "has already experienced substantial ecosystem, social and cultural disruption from recent climate extremes," such as hurricanes and wildfires.
But the present is nothing compared to the future.
Global warming soon will "affect everyone's life ... it's the poor sectors that will be most affected," Romero Lankao said.
And co-author Terry Root of Stanford University said: "We truly are standing at the edge of mass extinction" of species.
The report's findings
The report included these likely results of global warming:
Hundreds of millions of Africans and tens of millions of Latin Americans who now have water will be short of it in less than 20 years. By 2050, more than 1 billion people in Asia could face water shortages. By 2080, water shortages could threaten 1.1 billion to 3.2 billion people, depending on the level of greenhouse gases that cars and industry spew into the air.
Death rates for the world's poor from global warming-related illnesses, such as malnutrition and diarrhea, will rise by 2030. Malaria and dengue fever, as well as illnesses from eating contaminated shellfish, are likely to grow.
Europe's small glaciers will disappear with many of the continent's large glaciers shrinking dramatically by 2050. And half of Europe's plant species could be vulnerable, endangered or extinct by 2100.
By 2080, between 200 million and 600 million people could be hungry because of global warming's effects.
About 100 million people each year could be flooded by 2080 by rising seas.
Smog in U.S. cities will worsen and "ozone-related deaths from climate (will) increase by approximately 4.5 percent for the mid-2050s, compared with 1990s levels," turning a small health risk into a substantial one.
Polar bears in the wild and other animals will be pushed to extinction.
At first, more food will be grown. For example, soybean and rice yields in Latin America will increase starting in a couple of years. Areas outside the tropics, especially the northern latitudes, will see longer growing seasons and healthier forests.
Looking at different impacts on ecosystems, industry and regions, the report sees the most positive benefits in forestry and some improved agriculture and transportation in polar regions. The biggest damage is likely to come in ocean and coastal ecosystems, water resources and coastal settlements.
Africa, Asia to be hardest hit
The hardest-hit continents are likely to be Africa and Asia, with major harm also coming to small islands and some aspects of ecosystems near the poles. North America, Europe and Australia are predicted to suffer the fewest of the harmful effects.
"In most parts of the world and most segments of populations, lifestyles are likely to change as a result of climate change," the draft report said. "Net valuations of benefits vs. costs will vary, but they are more likely to be negative if climate change is substantial and rapid, rather than if it is moderate and gradual."
This report -- considered by some scientists the "emotional heart" of climate change research -- focuses on how global warming alters the planet and life here, as opposed to the more science-focused report by the same group last month.
"This is the story. This is the whole play. This is how it's going to affect people. The science is one thing. This is how it affects me, you and the person next door," said University of Victoria climate scientist Andrew Weaver.
Many -- not all -- of those effects can be prevented, the report says, if within a generation the world slows down its emissions of carbon dioxide and if the level of greenhouse gases sticking around in the atmosphere stabilizes. If that's the case, the report says "most major impacts on human welfare would be avoided; but some major impacts on ecosystems are likely to occur."
The United Nations-organized network of 2,000 scientists was established in 1988 to give regular assessments of the Earth's environment. The document issued last month in Paris concluded that scientists are 90 percent certain that people are the cause of global warming and that warming will continue for centuries.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/science/03/10/climate.report.ap/index.html?section=cnn_latest
I'd prefer your cat :)
yet they expect to confirm him anyway... sounds like he's bought his appointment
many lies and lives lost
I think I saw him on cspan. and (if it was him), he made an interesting comment about testifying on global warming in a senate hearing and that he'd probably do it as a private citizen so he can say what he wants to.
The buildings are sitting there vacant and ready for use.
for free? You have a free building you want to let them use?
An Inconvenient Truth - Oscar for Best Documentary and Song
COPS program
<< from an email... another example of how this admin is not funding important programs that work >>
When Congress passed the Crime Bill of 1994, the COPS program was created with broad bipartisan support. This program used federal funds to create a partnership between federal, state and local governments to put more law enforcement officials on the street to fight crime.
In the eight years that followed this important legislation, we saw historically high crime rates fall, sometimes by remarkable amounts. The murder rate fell in those eight years by 37.8 percent; aggravated assaults fell by 25.5 percent. Almost all experts agree that the COPS program was not the sole reason for falling crime rates, but most agree that is was one important factor. As you might expect, the COPS program has been endorsed by police chiefs, sheriffs, mayors and every major law enforcement organization in the country.
Despite the remarkable success of the COPS program and its popularity with local law enforcement officials, the Bush Administration has consistently refused to fund it appropriately, if at all. Year after year, the Administration requested fewer and fewer funds, despite increasing crime. The FBI has reported that nationwide violent crime rose 3.4 percent in 2005 and preliminary numbers for 2006 show both violent crime and murder rates up.
In response to this national trend, I am pleased to let you know that I am an original cosponsor of S.368, the COPS Improvements Act of 2007. This legislation, authored by Senator Joe Biden, reestablishes the federal commitment to the COPS hiring program by authorizing $600 million to hire officers to engage in local community policing, intelligence gathering and as school resource officers. It also provides authorization for funding to help law enforcement acquire the technology they need to fight crime and helps local district attorneys hire community prosecutors.
There are few federal programs that have the proven track record of success like that of the COPS programs. I am very pleased to support this legislation to help our local law enforcement agencies get the help they need to be effective and to help reduce crime in our cities and neighborhoods.
Sincerely,
Barbara Boxer
United States Senator