Arquivo mensal: setembro 2014

Clues to trapping carbon dioxide in rock: Calcium carbonate takes multiple, simultaneous roads to different minerals (Science Daily)

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Date: September 4, 2014

Source: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Summary: Researchers used a powerful microscope that allows them to see the birth of calcium carbonate crystals in real time, giving them a peek at how different calcium carbonate crystals form.

An aragonite crystal — with its characteristic “sheaf of wheat” look — consumed a particle of amorphous calcium carbonate as it formed. Credit: Nielsen et al. 2014/Science

One of the most important molecules on earth, calcium carbonate crystallizes into chalk, shells and minerals the world over. In a study led by the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, researchers used a powerful microscope that allows them to see the birth of crystals in real time, giving them a peek at how different calcium carbonate crystals form, they report in September 5’s issue of Science.

The results might help scientists understand how to lock carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere as well as how to better reconstruct ancient climates.

“Carbonates are most important for what they represent, interactions between biology and Earth,” said lead researcher James De Yoreo, a materials scientist at PNNL.. “For a decade, we’ve been studying the formation pathways of carbonates using high-powered microscopes, but we hadn’t had the tools to watch the crystals form in real time. Now we know the pathways are far more complicated than envisioned in the models established in the twentieth century.”

Earth’s Reserve

Calcium carbonate is the largest reservoir of carbon on the planet. It is found in rocks the world over, shells of both land- and water-dwelling creatures, and pearls, coral, marble and limestone. When carbon resides within calcium carbonate, it is not hanging out in the atmosphere as carbon dioxide, warming the world. Understanding how calcium carbonate turns into various minerals could help scientists control its formation to keep carbon dioxide from getting into the atmosphere.

Calcium carbonate deposits also contain a record of Earth’s history. Researchers reconstructing ancient climates delve into the mineral for a record of temperature and atmospheric composition, environmental conditions and the state of the ocean at the time those minerals formed. A better understanding of its formation pathways will likely provide insights into those events.

To get a handle on mineral formation, researchers at PNNL, the University of California, Berkeley, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory examined the earliest step to becoming a mineral, called nucleation. In nucleation, molecules assemble into a tiny crystal that then grows with great speed. Nucleation has been difficult to study because it happens suddenly and unpredictably, so the scientists needed a microscope that could watch the process in real time.

Come to Order

In the 20th century, researchers established a theory that crystals formed in an orderly fashion. Once the ordered nucleus formed, more molecules added to the crystal, growing the mineral but not changing its structure. Recently, however, scientists have wondered if the process might be more complicated, with other things contributing to mineral formation. For example, in previous experiments they’ve seen forms of calcium carbonate that appear to be dense liquids that could be sources for minerals.

Researchers have also wondered if calcite forms from less stable varieties or directly from calcium and carbonate dissolved in the liquid. Aragonite and vaterite are calcium carbonate minerals with slightly different crystal architectures than calcite and could represent a step in calcite’s formation. The fourth form called amorphous calcium carbonate — or ACC, which could be liquid or solid, might also be a reservoir for sprouting minerals.

To find out, the team created a miniature lab under a transmission electron microscope at the Molecular Foundry, a DOE Office of Science User Facility at LBNL. In this miniature lab, they mixed sodium bicarbonate (used to make club soda) and calcium chloride (similar to table salt) in water. At high enough concentrations, crystals grew. Videos of nucleating and growing crystals recorded what happened [URLs to come].

Morphing Minerals

The videos revealed that mineral growth took many pathways. Some crystals formed through a two-step process. For example, droplet-like particles of ACC formed, then crystals of aragonite or vaterite appeared on the surface of the droplets. As the new crystals formed, they consumed the calcium carbonate within the drop on which they nucleated.

Other crystals formed directly from the solution, appearing by themselves far away from any ACC particles. Multiple forms often nucleated in a single experiment — at least one calcite crystal formed on top of an aragonite crystal while vaterite crystals grew nearby.

What the team didn’t see in and among the many options, however, was calcite forming from ACC even though researchers widely expect it to happen. Whether that means it never does, De Yoreo can’t say for certain. But after looking at hundreds of nucleation events, he said it is a very unlikely event.

“This is the first time we have directly visualized the formation process,” said De Yoreo. “We observed many pathways happening simultaneously. And they happened randomly. We were never able to predict what was going to come up next. In order to control the process, we’d need to introduce some kind of template that can direct which crystal forms and where.”

In future work, De Yoreo and colleagues plan to investigate how living organisms control the nucleation process to build their shells and pearls. Biological organisms keep a store of mineral components in their cells and have evolved ways to make nucleation happen when and where needed. The team is curious to know how they use cellular molecules to achieve this control.

This work was supported by the Department of Energy Office of Science.

 

Journal Reference:

  1. Michael H. Nielsen, Shaul Aloni, and James J. De Yoreo. In Situ TEM Imaging of CaCO3 Nucleation Reveals Coexistence of Direct and Indirect Pathways.Science, September 5, 2014 DOI: 10.1126/science.1254051

Organização Mundial de Meteorologia lança série de vídeos sobre mudança climática (Fapesp)

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Objetivo é sensibilizar sobre os impactos locais do aquecimento global; primeiro episódio prevê o tempo no Brasil no ano de 2050

05/09/2014

Agência FAPESP – A Organização Mundial de Meteorologia (OMM) lançou os primeiros episódios de uma série de vídeos com previsões do tempo projetadas para o ano de 2050. A primeira edição traz a previsão para o dia 8 de junho daquele ano no Brasil, apresentada por Claudia Celli, da RPC-TV, afiliada da TV Globo no Paraná.

O objetivo da iniciativa é sensibilizar as pessoas sobre os impactos locais das mudanças climáticas globais. Os vídeos trazem sempre apresentadores de televisão conhecidos em um determinado país – e os cenários são compatíveis com os projetados no quinto relatório do Painel Intergovernamental de Mudanças Climáticas (IPCC).

No caso do Brasil, a previsão é de muita chuva no sul do país e no oeste da Amazônia. A expectativa é que os níveis de chuva para o mês sejam superados em apenas alguns dias, aumentando o risco de inundações e deslizamentos. Para o Nordeste e o leste da Amazônia, a previsão é de seca.

O lançamento dos vídeos pela OMM ocorre em apoio ao pedido do secretário-geral da Organização das Nações Unidas (ONU), Ban Ki-moon, para que governos, empresários e líderes da sociedade civil concordem em agir para lidar com a mudança climática durante a cúpula climática da ONU, marcada para 23 de setembro, a fim de evitar que se concretizem as previsões dos piores cenários.

“A mudança climática está afetando o tempo em todo lugar. Isso torna o clima mais extremo e modifica os padrões estabelecidos. Isso significa mais desastres; mais incerteza”, diz Ban Ki-moon em uma mensagem no vídeo.

A edição sobre o Brasil traz ainda uma entrevista de Celli com José Marengo, pesquisador do Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais (Inpe) e membro do Programa FAPESP de Pesquisa sobre Mudanças Climáticas Globais (PFPMCG).

“Nas regiões tropicais, em basicamente todo o Brasil, os aumentos de temperatura no fim do século poderão ultrapassar os 4º C. Em termos de chuva, o padrão muda um pouco. As previsões mostram reduções de chuva no leste da Amazônia e na região Nordeste e aumento de chuva no oeste da Amazônia e no extremo sul do Brasil”, afirma Marengo no vídeo.

“A resposta tem que ser imediata [às mudanças climáticas globais]. Nas próximas décadas tem que se chegar a um acordo internacional, tipo o Protocolo de Kyoto, para reduzir as emissões de gases de efeito estufa, porque reduzir essas emissões é a única forma de poder reduzir o aquecimento e reduzir os impactos à população”, acrescenta o pesquisador.

O vídeo com a previsão para o Japão também já está no ar. Nesta sexta-feira (05/09), será divulgado o boletim meteorológico para a Dinamarca.

Os outros países que terão vídeos sobre a previsão do tempo em 2050 são: Zâmbia, Burkina Faso, Estados Unidos, Bulgária, Filipinas, Bélgica, África do Sul, Islândia, Alemanha e Tanzânia.

Os vídeos podem ser assistidos em www.youtube.com/user/wmovideomaster e www.wmo.int/media/climatechangeimpact.html

Eunice Nodari, doutora em história ambiental:‘Não podemos controlar a chuva. Os desastres, sim’ (O Globo)

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Professora gaúcha foi uma das palestrantes do encontro que reuniu, no mês passado, pesquisadores dos cinco países que compõem o Brics

POR FÁTIMA FREITAS

04/09/2014 7:30
Eunice Nodari atesta que erros ambientais do passado continuam a acontecer, aponta caminhos para mudança e fala sobre a história ambiental de diferentes países Foto: Fabio Seixo / Agência O Globo
Eunice Nodari atesta que erros ambientais do passado continuam a acontecer, aponta caminhos para mudança e fala sobre a história ambiental de diferentes países – Fabio Seixo / Agência O Globo

“Nasci em Sarandi, Rio Grande do Sul. Meu pai era pequeno comerciante e queria que eu fosse ‘alguém na vida’. Bom, consegui ser a primeira a ter curso superior na família… Nos anos 1980, me mudei para Santa Catarina. Tenho 60 anos, 3 filhos e 2 netos e sou casada com um professor de genética vegetal”

Conte algo que não sei.

A história ambiental no Brasil é um campo novo. Começou a ganhar força na década de 1990, com forte influência dos Estados Unidos. Com isso, em 2001, enveredei minha carreira para pesquisas nessa área. Iniciamos com projetos sobre a história do desmatamento das florestas do Sul do Brasil, e avançamos para outros temas prementes relacionados ao meio ambiente. Logo conseguimos criar uma linha de pesquisa em Migrações e História Ambiental, no Programa de Pós-Graduação da Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (UFSC). Foi um trabalho pioneiro que vem dando ótimos resultados e, ainda, é um estímulo para outras universidades.

Além da UFSC, quais são as grandes referências em história ambiental no Brasil?

O destaque deve ser dado ao Programa de Pós-Graduação em História Social da UFRJ, da UNB e a UFMG. Juntas, essas universidades têm 64 teses de doutorado. É importante ressaltar que os meus ex-orientandos, hoje doutores, já são professores de universidades em diferentes estados. Nelas, eles também estão criando os seus grupos desta disciplina, aumentando, assim, a rede.

A senhora foi palestrante do Simpósio Diálogo em História Ambiental: Brics. O que os países que integram o grupo têm em comum nas questões ambientais?

O Brics reuniu pesquisadores ambientais dos países que o compõem com o objetivo de discutir formas de serem realizadas pesquisas em conjunto. Foi um evento muito importante, inédito na área de história. Foram debatidas similaridades e diferenças. Sem dúvida, as enchentes são eventos recorrentes na maioria dos cinco países. No caso do Brasil, o Rio de Janeiro e Blumenau, por exemplo, sofrem com as cheias. Uma das deficiências observadas nas pesquisas realizadas por mim e por Lise Sedrez deixa claro que as políticas públicas investem muito pouco na prevenção dos problemas que surgem com os temporais anualmente. Uma coisa é certa: não podemos controlar a chuva, mas os desastres, sim.

E, neste caso, qual o papel do historiador ambiental?

É analisar como os desastres ambientais, que são os que têm a intervenção do homem, estão diretamente relacionados com as problemáticas sociais, econômicas, culturais e, mesmo, políticas, apontando os caminhos para evitar que esses processos se repitam.

Erros ambientais do passado ainda são frequentes?

Infelizmente, as lições herdadas do passado não estão sendo devidamente observadas, pois os mesmos erros continuam sendo praticados. Cometer infrações básicas, como não respeitar as áreas de matas ciliares, importantes para a contenção das cheias e a qualidade da água, significa falta de respeito não somente ao meio ambiente, mas também à vida humana e dos demais habitantes do planeta.

A violência ambiental é resultado da falta de legislação?

No meu entender, as violências socioambientais mais preocupantes são as silenciosas, aquelas que acontecem cotidianamente e que não são resolvidas. Por exemplo, a falta de saneamento básico para parte da população. Não podemos atribuir à falta de legislação o descontrole na degradação, pois a própria Constituição de 1988 inclui os direitos relacionados ao meio ambiente.

 

Your Brain on Metaphors (The Chronicle of Higher Education)

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September 1, 2014

Neuroscientists test the theory that your body shapes your ideas

Your Brain on Metaphors 1

Chronicle Review illustration by Scott Seymour

By Michael Chorost

The player kicked the ball.
The patient kicked the habit.
The villain kicked the bucket.

The verbs are the same.
The syntax is identical.
Does the brain notice, or care,
that the first is literal, the second
metaphorical, the third idiomatic?

It sounds like a question that only a linguist could love. But neuroscientists have been trying to answer it using exotic brain-scanning technologies. Their findings have varied wildly, in some cases contradicting one another. If they make progress, the payoff will be big. Their findings will enrich a theory that aims to explain how wet masses of neurons can understand anything at all. And they may drive a stake into the widespread assumption that computers will inevitably become conscious in a humanlike way.

The hypothesis driving their work is that metaphor is central to language. Metaphor used to be thought of as merely poetic ornamentation, aesthetically pretty but otherwise irrelevant. “Love is a rose, but you better not pick it,” sang Neil Young in 1977, riffing on the timeworn comparison between a sexual partner and a pollinating perennial. For centuries, metaphor was just the place where poets went to show off.

But in their 1980 book, Metaphors We Live By,the linguist George Lakoff (at the University of California at Berkeley) and the philosopher Mark Johnson (now at the University of Oregon) revolutionized linguistics by showing that metaphor is actually a fundamental constituent of language. For example, they showed that in the seemingly literal statement “He’s out of sight,” the visual field is metaphorized as a container that holds things. The visual field isn’t really a container, of course; one simply sees objects or not. But the container metaphor is so ubiquitous that it wasn’t even recognized as a metaphor until Lakoff and Johnson pointed it out.

From such examples they argued that ordinary language is saturated with metaphors. Our eyes point to where we’re going, so we tend to speak of future time as being “ahead” of us. When things increase, they tend to go up relative to us, so we tend to speak of stocks “rising” instead of getting more expensive. “Our ordinary conceptual system is fundamentally metaphorical in nature,” they wrote.

What’s emerging from these studies isn’t just a theory of language or of metaphor. It’s a nascent theory of consciousness.

Metaphors do differ across languages, but that doesn’t affect the theory. For example, in Aymara, spoken in Bolivia and Chile, speakers refer to past experiences as being in front of them, on the theory that past events are “visible” and future ones are not. However, the difference between behind and ahead is relatively unimportant compared with the central fact that space is being used as a metaphor for time. Lakoff argues that it isimpossible—not just difficult, but impossible—for humans to talk about time and many other fundamental aspects of life without using metaphors to do it.

Lakoff and Johnson’s program is as anti-Platonic as it’s possible to get. It undermines the argument that human minds can reveal transcendent truths about reality in transparent language. They argue instead that human cognition is embodied—that human concepts are shaped by the physical features of human brains and bodies. “Our physiology provides the concepts for our philosophy,” Lakoff wrote in his introduction to Benjamin Bergen’s 2012 book, Louder Than Words: The New Science of How the Mind Makes Meaning. Marianna Bolognesi, a linguist at the International Center for Intercultural Exchange, in Siena, Italy, puts it this way: “The classical view of cognition is that language is an independent system made with abstract symbols that work independently from our bodies. This view has been challenged by the embodied account of cognition which states that language is tightly connected to our experience. Our bodily experience.”

Modern brain-scanning technologies make it possible to test such claims empirically. “That would make a connection between the biology of our bodies on the one hand, and thinking and meaning on the other hand,” says Gerard Steen, a professor of linguistics at VU University Amsterdam. Neuroscientists have been stuffing volunteers into fMRI scanners and having them read sentences that are literal, metaphorical, and idiomatic.

Neuroscientists agree on what happens with literal sentences like “The player kicked the ball.” The brain reacts as if it were carrying out the described actions. This is called “simulation.” Take the sentence “Harry picked up the glass.” “If you can’t imagine picking up a glass or seeing someone picking up a glass,” Lakoff wrote in a paper with Vittorio Gallese, a professor of human physiology at the University of Parma, in Italy, “then you can’t understand that sentence.” Lakoff argues that the brain understands sentences not just by analyzing syntax and looking up neural dictionaries, but also by igniting its memories of kicking and picking up.

But what about metaphorical sentences like “The patient kicked the habit”? An addiction can’t literally be struck with a foot. Does the brain simulate the action of kicking anyway? Or does it somehow automatically substitute a more literal verb, such as “stopped”? This is where functional MRI can help, because it can watch to see if the brain’s motor cortex lights up in areas related to the leg and foot.

The evidence says it does. “When you read action-related metaphors,” says Valentina Cuccio, a philosophy postdoc at the University of Palermo, in Italy, “you have activation of the motor area of the brain.” In a 2011 paper in the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, Rutvik Desai, an associate professor of psychology at the University of South Carolina, and his colleagues presented fMRI evidence that brains do in fact simulate metaphorical sentences that use action verbs. When reading both literal and metaphorical sentences, their subjects’ brains activated areas associated with control of action. “The understanding of sensory-motor metaphors is not abstracted away from their sensory-motor origins,” the researchers concluded.

Textural metaphors, too, appear to be simulated. That is, the brain processes “She’s had a rough time” by simulating the sensation of touching something rough. Krish Sathian, a professor of neurology, rehabilitation medicine, and psychology at Emory University, says, “For textural metaphor, you would predict on the Lakoff and Johnson account that it would recruit activity- and texture-selective somatosensory cortex, and that indeed is exactly what we found.”

But idioms are a major sticking point. Idioms are usually thought of as dead metaphors, that is, as metaphors that are so familiar that they have become clichés. What does the brain do with “The villain kicked the bucket” (“The villain died”)? What about “The students toed the line” (“The students conformed to the rules”)? Does the brain simulate the verb phrases, or does it treat them as frozen blocks of abstract language? And if it simulates them, what actions does it imagine? If the brain understands language by simulating it, then it should do so even when sentences are not literal.

The findings so far have been contradictory. Lisa Aziz-Zadeh, of the University of Southern California, and her colleagues reported in 2006 that idioms such as “biting off more than you can chew” did not activate the motor cortex. So did Ana Raposo, then at the University of Cambridge, and her colleagues in 2009. On the other hand, Véronique Boulenger, of the Laboratoire Dynamique du Langage, in Lyon, France, reported in the same year that they did, at least for leg and arm verbs.

In 2013, Desai and his colleagues tried to settle the problem of idioms. They first hypothesized that the inconsistent results come from differences of methodology. “Imaging studies of embodiment in figurative language have not compared idioms and metaphors,” they wrote in a report. “Some have mixed idioms and metaphors together, and in some cases, ‘idiom’ is used to refer to familiar metaphors.” Lera Boroditsky, an associate professor of psychology at the University of California at San Diego, agrees. “The field is new. The methods need to stabilize,” she says. “There are many different kinds of figurative language, and they may be importantly different from one another.”

Not only that, the nitty-gritty differences of procedure may be important. “All of these studies are carried out with different kinds of linguistic stimuli with different procedures,” Cuccio says. “So, for example, sometimes you have an experiment in which the person can read the full sentence on the screen. There are other experiments in which participants read the sentence just word by word, and this makes a difference.”

To try to clear things up, Desai and his colleagues presented subjects inside fMRI machines with an assorted set of metaphors and idioms. They concluded that in a sense, everyone was right. The more idiomatic the metaphor was, the less the motor system got involved: “When metaphors are very highly conventionalized, as is the case for idioms, engagement of sensory-motor systems is minimized or very brief.”

But George Lakoff thinks the problem of idioms can’t be settled so easily. The people who do fMRI studies are fine neuroscientists but not linguists, he says. “They don’t even know what the problem is most of the time. The people doing the experiments don’t know the linguistics.”

That is to say, Lakoff explains, their papers assume that every brain processes a given idiom the same way. Not true. Take “kick the bucket.” Lakoff offers a theory of what it means using a scene from Young Frankenstein. “Mel Brooks is there and they’ve got the patient dying,” he says. “The bucket is a slop bucket at the edge of the bed, and as he dies, his foot goes out in rigor mortis and the slop bucket goes over and they all hold their nose. OK. But what’s interesting about this is that the bucket starts upright and it goes down. It winds up empty. This is a metaphor—that you’re full of life, and life is a fluid. You kick the bucket, and it goes over.”

That’s a useful explanation of a rather obscure idiom. But it turns out that when linguists ask people what they think the metaphor means, they get different answers. “You say, ‘Do you have a mental image? Where is the bucket before it’s kicked?’ ” Lakoff says. “Some people say it’s upright. Some people say upside down. Some people say you’re standing on it. Some people have nothing. You know! There isn’t a systematic connection across people for this. And if you’re averaging across subjects, you’re probably not going to get anything.”

Similarly, Lakoff says, when linguists ask people to write down the idiom “toe the line,” half of them write “tow the line.” That yields a different mental simulation. And different mental simulations will activate different areas of the motor cortex—in this case, scrunching feet up to a line versus using arms to tow something heavy. Therefore, fMRI results could show different parts of different subjects’ motor cortexes lighting up to process “toe the line.” In that case, averaging subjects together would be misleading.

Furthermore, Lakoff questions whether functional MRI can really see what’s going on with language at the neural level. “How many neurons are there in one pixel or one voxel?” he says. “About 125,000. They’re one point in the picture.” MRI lacks the necessary temporal resolution, too. “What is the time course of that fMRI? It could be between one and five seconds. What is the time course of the firing of the neurons? A thousand times faster. So basically, you don’t know what’s going on inside of that voxel.” What it comes down to is that language is a wretchedly complex thing and our tools aren’t yet up to the job.

Nonetheless, the work supports a radically new conception of how a bunch of pulsing cells can understand anything at all. In a 2012 paper, Lakoff offered an account of how metaphors arise out of the physiology of neural firing, based on the work of a student of his, Srini Narayanan, who is now a faculty member at Berkeley. As children grow up, they are repeatedly exposed to basic experiences such as temperature and affection simultaneously when, for example, they are cuddled. The neural structures that record temperature and affection are repeatedly co-activated, leading to an increasingly strong neural linkage between them.

However, since the brain is always computing temperature but not always computing affection, the relationship between those neural structures is asymmetric. When they form a linkage, Lakoff says, “the one that spikes first and most regularly is going to get strengthened in its direction, and the other one is going to get weakened.” Lakoff thinks the asymmetry gives rise to a metaphor: Affection is Warmth. Because of the neural asymmetry, it doesn’t go the other way around: Warmth is not Affection. Feeling warm during a 100-degree day, for example, does not make one feel loved. The metaphor originates from the asymmetry of the neural firing. Lakoff is now working on a book on the neural theory of metaphor.

If cognition is embodied, that raises problems for artificial intelligence. Since computers don’t have bodies, let alone sensations, what are the implications of these findings for their becoming conscious—that is, achieving strong AI? Lakoff is uncompromising: “It kills it.” Of Ray Kurzweil’s singularity thesis, he says, “I don’t believe it for a second.” Computers can run models of neural processes, he says, but absent bodily experience, those models will never actually be conscious.

On the other hand, roboticists such as Rodney Brooks, an emeritus professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, have suggested that computers could be provided with bodies. For example, they could be given control of robots stuffed with sensors and actuators. Brooks pondered Lakoff’s ideas in his 2002 book, Flesh and Machines, and supposed, “For anything to develop the same sorts of conceptual understanding of the world as we do, it will have to develop the same sorts of metaphors, rooted in a body, that we humans do.”

But Lera Boroditsky wonders if giving computers humanlike bodies would only reproduce human limitations. “If you’re not bound by limitations of memory, if you’re not bound by limitations of physical presence, I think you could build a very different kind of intelligence system,” she says. “I don’t know why we have to replicate our physical limitations in other systems.”

What’s emerging from these studies isn’t just a theory of language or of metaphor. It’s a nascent theory of consciousness. Any algorithmic system faces the problem of bootstrapping itself from computing to knowing, from bit-shuffling to caring. Igniting previously stored memories of bodily experiences seems to be one way of getting there. And so may be the ability to create asymmetric neural linkages that say this is like (but not identical to) that. In an age of brain scanning as well as poetry, that’s where metaphor gets you.

Michael Chorost is the author of Rebuilt: How Becoming Part Computer Made Me More Human (Houghton Mifflin, 2005) and World Wide Mind: The Coming Integration of Humanity, Machines, and the Internet (Free Press, 2011).

How the IPCC is sharpening its language on climate change (The Carbon Brief)

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01 Sep 2014, 17:40

Simon Evans

Barometer | Shutterstock

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is sharpening the language of its latest draft synthesis report, seen by Carbon Brief.

Not only is the wording around how the climate is changing more decisive, the evidence the report references is stronger too, when compared to the  previous version published in 2007.

The synthesis report, due to be published on 2 November, will wrap up the IPCC’s fifth assessment (AR5) of climate change. It will summarise and draw together the information in IPCC reports on the science of climate change, its  impacts and the  ways it can be addressed.

We’ve compared a draft of the synthesis report with that published in 2007 to find out how they compare. Here are the key areas of change.

Irreversible impacts are being felt already

The AR5 draft synthesis begins with a decisive statement that human influence on the climate is “clear”, that recent emissions are the highest in history and that “widespread and consequential impacts” are already being felt.

This opening line shows how much has changed in the way the authors present their findings. In contrast, the 2007 report opened with a discussion of scientific progress and an extended paragraph on definitions.

There are also a couple of clear thematic changes in the 2014 draft. The first, repeated frequently throughout, is the idea that climate change impacts are already being felt.

For instance it says that the height of coastal floods has already increased and that climate-change-related risks from weather extremes such as heatwaves and heavy rain are “already moderate”.

These observations are crystallised in a long section on Article 2 of the UN’s climate change convention, which has been signed by every country of the world. Article 2 says that the objective of the convention is to avoid dangerous climate change.

The AR5 draft implies the world may already have failed in this task:

“Depending on value judgements and specific circumstances, currently observed impacts might already be considered dangerous for some communities.”

The second theme is a stronger emphasis on irreversible impacts compared to the 2007 version. The 2014 draft says:

“Continued emission of greenhouse gases will cause further warming and long-lasting changes in all components of the climate system, increasing the likelihood of severe, pervasive and irreversible impacts for people and ecosystems.”

It says that a large fraction of warming will be irreversible for hundreds to thousands of years and that the Greenland ice sheet will be lost when warming reaches between one and four degrees above pre-industrial temperatures. Current warming since pre-industrial times is about 0.8 degrees celsius.

In effect the report has switched tense from future conditional (“could experience”) to present continuous (“are experiencing”).  For instance it says there are signs that some corals and Arctic ecosystems “are already experiencing irreversible regime shifts” because of warming.

Stronger evidence than before

As well as these thematic changes in the use of language, the AR5 synthesis comes to stronger conclusions in many other areas.

This is largely because the scientific evidence has solidified in the intervening seven years, the IPCC says.

We’ve drawn together a collection of side-by-side statements so you can see for yourself how the conclusions have changed. Some of the shifts in language are subtle – but they are significant all the same.

IPCC Table With Logo

Source: IPCC AR4 Synthesis Report, draft AR5 Synthesis Report

Climate alarmism or climate realism?

The authors of the latest synthesis report seem to have made an effort to boost the impact of their words. They’ve used clearer and more direct language along with what appears to be a stronger emphasis on the negative consequences of inaction.

The language around relying on adaptation to climate change has also shifted. It now more clearly emphasises the need for mitigation to cut emissions, if the worst impacts of warming are to be avoided.

Some are bound to read this as an unwelcome excursion into advocacy. But others will insist it is simply a case of better presenting the evidence that was already there, along with advances in scientific knowledge.

Government representatives have the chance to go over the draft AR5 synthesis report with a fine toothcomb when they meet during 27-31 October.

Will certain countries try to tone down the wording, as they have been accused of doing in the past? Or will the new, more incisive language make the final cut?

To find out, tune in on 2 November when the final synthesis report will be published.

Falta de água é culpa do governo de SP, afirma relatora da ONU (Folha de S.Paulo)

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LUCAS SAMPAIO

DE CAMPINAS

31/08/2014 02h15

Relatora das Nações Unidas para a questão da água, a portuguesa Catarina de Albuquerque, 44, afirma que a grave crise hídrica em São Paulo é de responsabilidade do governo do Estado. “E não sou a única a achar isso.”

Ela visitou o Brasil em dezembro de 2013, a convite do governo federal.

De volta ao país, ela falou com a Folha na semana passada em Campinas, após participar de um debate sobre a crise da água em São Paulo.

Eduardo Anizelli/Folhapress
Relatora das Nações Unidas para a questão da água, Catarina de Albuquerque
Relatora das Nações Unidas para a questão da água, Catarina de Albuquerque

A gestão Geraldo Alckmin (PSDB) nega que faltem investimentos e atribui a crise à falta de chuvas nos últimos meses, que classifica como “excepcional” e “inimaginável”.

A seguir, trechos da entrevista à Folha.

*

Folha – Que lições devemos tirar desta crise?
Catarina de Albuquerque – Temos de nos planejar em tempos de abundância para os tempos de escassez. E olhar para a água como um bem precioso e escasso, indispensável à sobrevivência humana.
Em Singapura, no Japão e na Suíça, a água do esgoto, tratada, é misturada à água comum. É de excelente qualidade. Temos de olhar o esgoto como recurso.

No caso de São Paulo, acha que faltou ao governo do Estado adotar medidas e fazer os investimentos necessários?
Acho que sim, e não sou a única. Já falei com vários especialistas aqui no Brasil que dizem exatamente isso. Admito que uma parte da gravidade poderia não ser previsível, mas a seca, em si, era. Tinha de ter combatido as perdas de água. É inconcebível que estejam quase em 40% [média do país].

A água deveria ser mais cara? Há modelos de cobrança mais adequados do que o atual?
A prioridade tem de ser as pessoas. Quem usa a água para outros fins tem mais poder que os mais pobres, que têm de ter esse direito garantido.

Em muitos países, a água é mais cara para a indústria, a agricultura e o turismo, por exemplo. Deveria haver também um aumento exponencial do preço em relação ao consumo, para garantir que quem consome mais pague muitíssimo mais.

Que exemplos poderiam inspirar os governos?
Os EUA multam quem lava o carro em tempos de seca; a Austrália diz aos agricultores que não há água para todos em situações de emergência; e no Japão há sistemas de canalização paralela para reutilizar a água.

Qual é a importância de grandes obras como a transposição do rio São Francisco ou o sistema Cantareira?
Por várias razões, há uma atração pelas megaobras nos investimentos feitos em água e esgoto, não só no Brasil. Mas elas, muitas vezes, não beneficiam as pessoas que mais precisam de ajuda. Para isso são necessárias intervenções de pequena escala, que são menos “sexy” de anunciar.

Os lucros da Sabesp hoje são distribuídos aos acionistas. Como a senhora avalia isso diante da crise hídrica?
A legislação brasileira determina que uma empresa pública distribua parte do lucro aos acionistas. Mas uma coisa é uma empresa pública que faz parafusos, outra é uma que fornece água, que é um direito humano. As regras deveriam ser diferentes.

O marco normativo dos direitos humanos determina que sejam investidos todos os recursos disponíveis na realização do direito.

No caso de a empresa pública prestar um serviço que equivale a um direito humano, deveria haver maior limitação na distribuição dos lucros aos acionistas.

Em São Paulo, pela perspectiva dos direitos humanos, os recursos deveriam estar sendo investidos para garantir a sustentabilidade do sistema e o acesso de todos a esse direito.

A partir do momento em que parte desses recursos são enviados a acionistas, não estamos cumprindo as normas dos direitos humanos e, potencialmente, estamos face a uma violação desse direito.

Seria o caso de se decretar estado de calamidade pública?
A obrigação é garantir água em quantidade suficiente e de qualidade a todos. Como se chega lá são os governantes que devem saber.

A senhora sobrevoou o sistema Cantareira e disse ter visto muitas piscinas no caminho. O que achou disso?
A situação é grave. Isso foi algo que me saltou à vista.

Quando aterrissei no Egito para uma missão, tendo ciência da falta de água que existe no país, vi nas zonas ricas do Cairo uma série de casas com piscinas e pessoas lavando carros. Quem tem dinheiro e poder não sente falta de água.

O que talvez seja um pouco diferente na situação de São Paulo é que, pela proporção que a crise tomou, ela poderá atingir pessoas que tradicionalmente não sofrem limitação no uso da água -e isso é interessante.

Que efeito isso pode ter?
Pode levar a uma mudança de mentalidade, a uma pressão por parte de formadores de opinião no Estado de São Paulo para que haja melhor planejamento e uma gestão sustentável da água.

Quando os únicos que sofrem com a falta de água são pobres, pessoas que não têm voz na sociedade, as coisas não mudam.

Quando as pessoas que são ameaçadas com a falta de água são as com poder, com dinheiro, com influência, aí as coisas podem mudar, porque eles começam a sentir na pele. Pode ser uma chance para melhorar a situação. As crises são oportunidades.

Atmospheric mercury review raises concerns of environmental impact (Science Daily)

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Date: August 28, 2014

Source: University of Arkansas at Little Rock

Summary: The cycling of mercury through soil and water has been studied as it impacts atmospheric loadings, researchers report. Recent studies that show increasing levels of mercury in the ocean’s upper levels, along with news reports of Arkansas lakes as a hotspot for mercury in fish, have heightened awareness of the potential harm mercury poses. 

The professor and chair of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock Department of Chemistry has recently completed an in-depth review of atmospheric mercury in Energy and Emissions Control Technologies, an open access peer-review journal published by Dove Press.

Dr. Jeffrey S. Gaffney and his co-author Nancy A. Marley stressed in their article the many forms that atmospheric mercury takes and how its levels are in balance with mercury levels found in our water, soil, and the biosphere.

Recent studies that show increasing levels of mercury in the ocean’s upper levels, along with news reports of Arkansas lakes as a hotspot for mercury in fish, have heightened awareness of the potential harm mercury poses.

The article, titled “In-depth review of atmospheric mercury: sources, transformations, and potential sink,” has seen extensive online traffic since it was first published Aug. 6.

Gaffney said the high volume of page visits was likely tied to the recent news concerning the rising levels of mercury in the oceans. Mercury is a toxic, heavy metal found naturally throughout the global environment.

Increased levels of mercury in the water could be caused by atmospheric deposition primarily in precipitation, something not usually considered when measuring mercury levels, according to the authors.

This timely review outlines the chemistry of mercury in gas, aqueous, and solid phases, including inorganic, organic, and complexed mercury species. The research particularly brings attention to the wet reaction of gaseous mercury with hydrogen peroxide that can occur in clouds and on wet aerosol surfaces.

The sources and fate of mercury in the atmosphere, including the cycling of mercury through soil and water as it impacts atmospheric loadings, are also examined in the review, as well as recommendations for future studies.

 

Journal Reference:

  1. Jeffrey Gaffney, Nancy Marley. In-depth review of atmospheric mercury: sources, transformations, and potential sinks. Energy and Emission Control Technologies, 2014; 1 DOI: 10.2147/EECT.S37038

Water ‘thermostat’ could help engineer drought-resistant crops (Science Daily)

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Date: August 27, 2014

Source: Duke University

Summary: A gene that could help engineer drought-resistant crops has been identified by researchers. The gene, called OSCA1, encodes a protein in the cell membrane of plants that senses changes in water availability and adjusts the plant’s water conservation machinery accordingly. The findings could make it easier to feed the world’s growing population in the face of climate change. 

Duke University researchers have identified a gene that could help scientists engineer drought-resistant crops. The gene, called OSCA1, encodes a protein in the cell membrane of plants that senses changes in water availability and adjusts the plant’s water conservation machinery accordingly.

“It’s similar to a thermostat,” said Zhen-Ming Pei, an associate professor of biology at Duke.

The findings, which appear Aug. 28 in the journalNature, could make it easier to feed the world’s growing population in the face of climate change.

Drought is the major cause of crop losses worldwide. A dry spell at a crucial stage of the growing season can cut some crop yields in half.

Water shortages are expected to become more frequent and severe if climate change makes rainfall patterns increasingly unreliable and farmland in some regions continues to dry up. Coupled with a world population that is expected to increase by two billion to three billion by 2050, researchers worldwide are looking for ways to produce more food with less water.

Some researchers hope that genetic engineering — in addition to improved farming practices and traditional plant breeding — will add to the arsenal of techniques to help crops withstand summer’s swelter. But engineering plants to withstand drought has proven difficult to do, largely because plants use so many strategies to deal with dehydration and hundreds of genes are involved.

The problem is confounded by the fact that drought is often accompanied by heat waves and other stresses that require different coping strategies on the part of the plant, Pei said.

One way that plants respond to water loss is by boosting the levels of calcium within their cells. The calcium surge acts as an alarm signal that triggers coping mechanisms to help the plant rebalance its water budget. But until now, the molecular machinery that plants use to send this signal — and monitor water availability in general — remained unknown.

Pei and Duke colleagues Fang Yuan, James Siedow and others identified a gene that encodes a protein in the cell membranes of plant leaves and roots, called OSCA1, which acts as a channel that allows calcium to surge into the cell in times of drought.

The gene was identified in Arabidopsis thaliana, a small unassuming plant related to cabbage and canola that is the lab rat of plant research.

Plants with defective versions of the calcium channel don’t send an alarm signal under water stress like normal plants do.

When the researchers grew normal plants and plants with defective versions of the gene side by side in the same pot and exposed them to drought stress, the mutant plants experienced more wilting.

The findings could lead to new ways to help plants thrive when water is scarce.

The team’s next step is to manipulate the activity of the OSCA1 gene and related genes and see how those plants respond to drought — information that could lead to crops that respond more quickly and efficiently to dehydration.

“Plants that enter drought-fighting mode quickly and then switch back to normal growth mode quickly when drought stress is gone should be able to allocate energy more efficiently toward growth,” Pei said.

 

Journal Reference:

  1. Fang Yuan, Huimin Yang, Yan Xue, Dongdong Kong, Rui Ye, Chijun Li, Jingyuan Zhang, Lynn Theprungsirikul, Tayler Shrift, Bryan Krichilsky, Douglas M. Johnson, Gary B. Swift, Yikun He, James N. Siedow, Zhen-Ming Pei. OSCA1 mediates osmotic-stress-evoked Ca2 increases vital for osmosensing in Arabidopsis.Nature, 2014; DOI: 10.1038/nature13593

Southwest U.S. may face ‘megadrought’ this century (Science Daily)

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Date: August 27, 2014

Source: Cornell University

Summary: Because of global warming, scientists say, the chances of the southwestern United States experiencing a decade long drought is at least 50 percent, and the chances of a “megadrought” — one that lasts over 30 years — ranges from 20 to 50 percent over the next century. 

Risk of megadrought in Southwestern U.S. Credit: Toby Ault, Cornell University; From “Assessing the risk of persistent drought using climate model simulations and paleoclimate data”

Because of global warming, scientists say, the chances of the southwestern United States experiencing a decade long drought is at least 50 percent, and the chances of a “megadrought” — one that lasts over 30 years — ranges from 20 to 50 percent over the next century.

The study by Cornell University, University of Arizona and U.S. Geological Survey researchers will be published in a forthcoming issue of the American Meteorological Society’s Journal of Climate.

“For the southwestern U.S., I’m not optimistic about avoiding real megadroughts,” said Toby Ault, Cornell assistant professor of earth and atmospheric sciences and lead author of the paper. “As we add greenhouse gases into the atmosphere — and we haven’t put the brakes on stopping this — we are weighting the dice for megadrought conditions.”

As of mid-August, most of California sits in a D4 “exceptional drought,” which is in the most severe category. Oregon, Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas also loiter between moderate and exceptional drought. Ault says climatologists don’t know whether the severe western and southwestern drought will continue, but he said, “With ongoing climate change, this is a glimpse of things to come. It’s a preview of our future.”

Ault said that the West and Southwest must look for mitigation strategies to cope with looming long-drought scenarios. “This will be worse than anything seen during the last 2,000 years and would pose unprecedented challenges to water resources in the region,” he said.

In computer models, while California, Arizona and New Mexico will likely face drought, the researchers show the chances for drought in parts of Washington, Montana and Idaho may decrease.

Beyond the United States, southern Africa, Australia and the Amazon basin are also vulnerable to the possibility of a megadrought. With increases in temperatures, drought severity will likely worsen, “implying that our results should be viewed as conservative,” the study reports.

“These results help us take the long view of future drought risk in the Southwest — and the picture is not pretty. We hope this opens up new discussions about how to best use and conserve the precious water that we have,” said Julia Cole, UA professor of geosciences and of atmospheric sciences.

The study, “Assessing the Risk of Persistent Drought Using Climate Model Simulations and Paleoclimate Data,” was also co-authored by Julia E. Cole, David M. Meko and Jonathan T. Overpeck of University of Arizona; and Gregory T. Pederson of the U.S. Geological Survey.

The National Science Foundation, National Center for Atmospheric Research, the U.S. Geological Survey and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration funded the research.

Journal Reference:

  1. Toby R. Ault, Julia E. Cole, Jonathan T. Overpeck, Gregory T. Pederson, David M. Meko. Assessing the risk of persistent drought using climate model simulations and paleoclimate data. Journal of Climate, 2014; 140122102410007 DOI: 10.1175/JCLI-D-12-00282.1

Cacique cobra rapidez (Isto É Dinheiro)

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29/08/2014

Por: Clayton Netz

Um relatório confidencial foi encaminhado ao governador de São Paulo, Geraldo Alckmin, ao prefeito da capital, Fernando Haddad, e à presidenta Dilma Rousseff. Elaborado pela Fundação Cacique Cobra Coral, traz notícias nada agradáveis sobre a previsão de chuvas para o próximo trimestre e para o ano de 2015. Fala de atraso no período chuvoso e precipitações irregulares no Centro-Sul. E cobra rapidez na assinatura de convênios que ajudariam a amenizar a situação, mas que estão parados em função do calendário eleitoral.

(Nota publicada na Edição 880 da Revista Dinheiro, com colaboração de: Carlos Eduardo Valim, Fabrício Bernardes e Vera Ondei)

A gaiatologia por vir (Partes sem um todo)

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Publicado em 27 de agosto de 2014 por

capaandre

Sobre Há mundo por vir? Ensaio sobre os medos e os fins, livro de Déborah Danwoski e Eduardo Viveiros de Castro

Segundo Bruno Latour, a catástrofe ambiental em curso faz com que “nos sintamos transportados de volta para o clima do século XVI. Uma outra Era do Descobrimento”: “nos encontramos exatamente em uma Era similar àquela de Colombo, quando sua viagem encontrou um continente inteiramente novo”. E como o “problema”, a “solução” também lhe parece semelhante: tratar-se-ia de estabelecer um novo “Nomos da Terra”, nome cunhado por Carl Schmitt para designar a ordem jurídica mundial estabelecida com a Conquista (o “descobrimento”), e que consistiria na divisão do mundo em duas zonas: a Europa, em que vigeriam as regras do direito de guerra, ou seja, o espaço de normalidade; e o mar e as zonas “livres” – o Novo e Novíssimo Mundo –, que podiam ser simplesmente apropriáveis pelas potências europeias e sua “superioridade espiritual”, espaço de excepcionalidade em que não haveria mitigação da guerra. Nesse sentido, se há algum Nomos da Terra que se avizinha, este parece ser a ordem (de pânico) que Isabelle Stengers visualiza no horizonte: a formação de uma espécie de governo de caráter global (espaço normal), legitimado a agir excepcionalmente (isto é, a intervir) sobre países e coletivos sob o imperativo da urgência da crise. É evidente que Latour toma o conceito do “tóxico” Schmitt com pinças, buscando uma outra idéia de Nomos, mas será que é possível fazê-lo, tendo como ponto de partida a analogia com o “descobrimento”? Será que é possível no cenário atual retomar a oposição amigo-inimigo schmittiana, oposição narcisista em que o inimigo é definido como “negação existencial” do amigo, isto é, seu mero negativo, sem consistência própria? Os Terranos (amigo?) de que fala tão belamente Latour seriam apenas a negação dos Humanos (inimigo?)?

A questão maior talvez seja a do ponto de vista: Nós quem, cara pálida?, parecem perguntar ao seu principal interlocutor, de modo sutil mas provocante ao longo desse ensaio, Déborah Danowski e Eduardo Viveiros de Castro, os quais, americanos não-atacados pela síndrome de Estocolmo como grande parte da esquerda, rejeitam a posição universalista que o Ocidente se adjudicou a si e insistem a todo momento em colocar o dedo na ferida: quem é esse nós (o “sujeito” que se vê novamente na Era do Descobrimento, o mesmo “sujeito” do Descobrimento), quem é o anthropos do Antropoceno? E quem são os outros, quem são esses “nós-outros” que estavam do lado de lá (de cá) do Descobrimento, para os quais este foi uma Conquista, um primeiro – de muitos – fim de mundo?Há mundo por vir? Ensaio sobre o medo e os fins, ao passar em revista algumas formulações – estéticas, filosóficas, etc. – da mitologia contemporânea em torno do fim do mundo, tornada realidade tangível (a “mitofísica” contemporânea, pra usar uma expressão genial dos autores), não adota a posição do demiurgo criador da ordem (Nomos), mas do deceptor que confunde as divisões (amigo-inimigo), que divide as divisões, que desobedece as hierarquias: um exercício de bricolagem em que se encontram os Singularitanos e os Maya, formulações de Meillassoux e um mito aikewara, Melancholia e Chiapas, Gaia e Pachamama. O encontro promovido pela “descoberta”, lembra Oswald de Andrade, não era apenas do europeu com um “continente inteiramente novo” a ser apropriado, mas com uma “humanidade inteiramente nova”, isto é, “uma humanidade diferente da que era então conhecida” pelos europeus – e a expressão máxima de tal encontro seriam as Utopias, resultado da percepção sensível da contingência das formações político-econômico-metafísicas ocidentais, isto é, a possibilidade de um outro mundo, de outros mundos possíveis, incluindo aí, uma outra concepção do homem. Se o Nomos representou uma “saída” (pra que tudo continuasse igual) do beco-sem-saída da mitigação da guerra, as Utopias significavam, por sua vez, uma linha de fuga. E são justamente linhas de fuga (e não identidades e oposições) que Danowski e Viveiros de Castro apresentam a partir desses encontros de fins de mundo: a possibilidade (e talvez a necessidade) de um “bom encontro” da nossa (?) mitologia com a ameríndia, para se contrapor ao “mau encontro” da Descoberta (o genocídio americano, mas também a polícia mundial que a nova Era pode trazer). Não se trata, porém, de um encontro pacífico, mas cheio de faíscas, beligerante, mas não de uma guerra narcísica, e sim de uma guerrilha de resistência, contra o Estado, contra a forma-Estado de pensamento. O que se questiona é a própria oposição binária (o princípio da não-contradição) das identificações: o que está em jogo é um exercício de descentramento, em que o “ser-enquanto-outro” do pensamento ameríndio permite repotencializar também aqueles momentos do pensamento ocidental em que o Ocidente difere de si mesmo (Deleuze e Guattari, a monadologia panpsiquista de Gabriel Tarde, a cosmologia de Peirce – e, eu acrescentaria, talvez mesmo a oikeiosis estóica, já que estamos falando de ecologia), em que a alteridade deixa vestígios erráticos que são roteiros de um mundo por vir. E um desses roteiros talvez seja a biografiade Thoreau – o qual dizia ser apenas “um hóspede da Natureza” –, sobre quem Virginia Wolff pergunta se sua “simplicidade é algo que vale por si mesmo” ou seria “antes um método de intensificação, um modo de pôr em liberdade a complicada e delicada máquina da alma, tornando-se assim seus resultados o contrário do simples?” Pergunta retórica, evidentemente: Thoreau, como poucos (ocidentais), soube limitar o limite, isto é, viver a partir do limite, mas no limite, isto é: convertendo o limite, de impedimento extensional, em via de acesso à intensidade. Para dizê-lo com uma expressão de Viveiros de Castro: soube viver/fazer a “poesia do mundo”. Nesse sentido, se “É difícil saber”, como afirma Wolff, “se devemos considerá-lo o último de uma linhagem mais antiga de homens, ou o primeiro de uma ainda por vir”, índio ou moderno, isso se deve ao fato de que o agenciamento, a composição de Thoreau inopera o binarismo: é um velho que devém jovem, um moderno que devém índio. Dito de outro modo: os Terranos de Danowski e Viveiros de Castro não são uma identidade ou uma essência ou uma substância, mas um devir: são aqueles que, segundo Juliana Fausto, dizem, com Bartleby, I would prefer not, e que devêm, eu arriscaria afirmar, nesse gesto e enquanto dura esse gesto, gaiatos. De fato, há mundo por vir parece apresentar como ciência por vir nesses tempos sombrios de homens sombrios isso que poderíamos chamar de “gaiatologia”, a feliz ciência não do homem, mas do gaiato, não dessa espécie envelhecida e que envelhece o planeta, mas daquele ainda por vir jovem habitante de Gaia, a ciência do bricoleur, da gambiarra (conceito tomado a partir de Fernanda Bruno, e que tem um lugar de destaque ao final do livro, enquanto técnica de agenciamento natural-cultural). O mundo está acabando, mas a alegria continua a ser a prova dos nove.

Global warming pioneer calls for carbon dioxide to be taken from atmosphere and stored underground (Science Daily)

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Date: August 28, 2014

Source: European Association of Geochemistry

Summary: Wally Broeker, the first person to alert the world to global warming, has called for atmospheric carbon dioxide to be captured and stored underground.

Wally Broeker, the first person to alert the world to global warming, has called for atmospheric CO2 to be captured and stored underground. He says that carbon capture, combined with limits on fossil fuel emissions, is the best way to avoid global warming getting out of control over the next fifty years. Professor Broeker (Columbia University, New York) made the call during his presentation to the International Carbon Conference in Reykjavik, Iceland, where 150 scientists are meeting to discuss carbon capture and storage.

He was presenting an analysis which showed that the world has been cooling very slowly, over the last 51 million years, but that human activity is causing a rise in temperature which will lead to problems over the next 100,000 years.

“We have painted ourselves into a tight corner. We can’t reduce our reliance of fossil fuels quickly enough, so we need to look at alternatives.

“One of the best ways to deal with this is likely to be carbon capture — in other words, putting the carbon back where it came from, underground. There has been great progress in capturing carbon from industrial processes, but to really make a difference we need to begin to capture atmospheric CO2. Ideally, we could reach a stage where we could control the levels of CO2 in the atmosphere, like you control your central heating. Continually increasing CO2 levels means that we will need to actively manage CO2 levels in the environment, not just stop more being produced. The technology is proven, it just needs to be brought to a stage where it can be implemented.”

Wally Broeker was speaking at the International Carbon Conference in Reykjavik, where 150 scientists are meeting to discuss how best CO2 can be removed from the atmosphere as part of a programme to reduce global warming.

Meeting co-convener Professor Eric Oelkers (University College London and University of Toulouse) commented: “Capture is now at a crossroads; we have proven methods to store carbon in the Earth but are limited in our ability to capture this carbon directly from the atmosphere. We are very good at capturing carbon from factories and power stations, but because roughly two-thirds of our carbon originates from disperse sources, implementing direct air capture is key to solving this global challenge.”

European Association of Geochemistry. “Global warming pioneer calls for carbon dioxide to be taken from atmosphere and stored underground.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 28 August 2014. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/08/140828110915.htm>.

Fundação Cacique Cobra Coral no Youtube – 1 de setembro de 2014

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Cesar Maia – FCCC – Prefeito do Rio de Janeiro dá seu Testemunho – Força da Mente

 

Globo Repórter/World Trade Center

 

Dâniel Fraga: Eduardo Paes e José Serra acreditam que “reza” evitará chuvas

 

Prefeito do Rio, contrata, adivinhos, espiritas do demonio cobra coral

 

Maldição no Rio, Sob o governo de Eduardo Paes

Deadly Algorithms (Radical Philosophy)

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Can legal codes hold software accountable for code that kills?

RP 187 (Sept/Oct 2014)

Schuppli web-web

Algorithms have long adjudicated over vital processes that help to ensure our well-being and survival, from pacemakers that maintain the natural rhythms of the heart, and genetic algorithms that optimise emergency response times by cross-referencing ambulance locations with demographic data, to early warning systems that track approaching storms, detect seismic activity, and even seek to prevent genocide by monitoring ethnic conflict with orbiting satellites. [1] However, algorithms are also increasingly being tasked with instructions to kill: executing coding sequences that quite literally execute.

Guided by the Obama presidency’s conviction that the War on Terror can be won by ‘out-computing’ its enemies and pre-empting terrorists’ threats using predictive software, a new generation of deadly algorithms is being designed that will both control and manage the ‘kill-list,’ and along with it decisions to strike. [2] Indeed, the recently terminated practice of ‘signature strikes’, in which data analytics was used to determine emblematic ‘terrorist’ behaviour and match these patterns to potential targets on the ground, already points to a future in which intelligence-gathering, assessment and military action, including the calculation of who can legally be killed, will largely be performed by machines based upon an ever-expanding database of aggregated information. As such, this transition to execution by algorithm is not simply a continuation of killing at ever greater distances inaugurated by the invention of the bow and arrow that separated warrior and foe, as many have suggested. [3] It is also a consequence of the ongoing automation of warfare, which can be traced back to the cybernetic coupling of Claude Shannon’s mathematical theory of information with Norbert Wiener’s wartime research into feedback loops and communication control systems. [4] As this new era of intelligent weapons systems progresses, operational control and decision-making are increasingly being outsourced to machines.

Computing terror

In 2011 the US Department of Defense (DOD) released its ‘roadmap’ forecasting the expanded use of unmanned technologies, of which unmanned aircraft systems – drones – are but one aspect of an overall strategy directed towards the implementation of fully autonomous Intelligent Agents. It projects its future as follows:

The Department of Defense’s vision for unmanned systems is the seamless integration of diverse unmanned capabilities that provide flexible options for Joint Warfighters while exploiting the inherent advantages of unmanned technologies, including persistence, size, speed, maneuverability, and reduced risk to human life. DOD envisions unmanned systems seamlessly operating with manned systems while gradually reducing the degree of human control and decision making required for the unmanned portion of the force structure. [5]

The document is a strange mix of Cold War caricature and Fordism set against the backdrop of contemporary geopolitical anxieties, which sketches out two imaginary vignettes to provide ‘visionary’ examples of the ways in which autonomy can improve efficiencies through inter-operability across military domains, aimed at enhancing capacities and flexibility between manned and unmanned sectors of the US Army, Air Force and Navy. In these future scenarios, the scripting and casting are strikingly familiar, pitting the security of hydrocarbon energy supplies against rogue actors equipped with Russian technology. One concerns an ageing Russian nuclear submarine deployed by a radicalized Islamic nation-state that is beset by an earthquake in the Pacific, thus contaminating the coastal waters of Alaska and threatening its oil energy reserves. The other involves the sabotaging of an underwater oil pipeline in the Gulf of Guinea off the coast of Africa, complicated by the approach of a hostile surface vessel capable of launching a Russian short-range air-to-surface missile. [6]

These Hollywood-style action film vignettes – fully elaborated across five pages of the report – provide an odd counterpoint to the claims being made throughout the document as to the sober science, political prudence and economic rationalizations that guide the move towards fully unmanned systems. On what grounds are we to be convinced by these visions and strategies? On the basis of a collective cultural imaginary that finds its politics within the CGI labs of the infotainment industry? Or via an evidence-based approach to solving the complex problems posed by changing global contexts? Not surprisingly, the level of detail (and techno-fetishism) used to describe unmanned responses to these risk scenarios is far more exhaustive than that devoted to the three primary challenges which the report identifies as specific to the growing reliance upon and deployment of automated and autonomous systems:

1. Investment in science and technology (S&T) to enable more capable autonomous operations.

2. Development of policies and guidelines on what decisions can be safely and ethically delegated and under what conditions.

3. Development of new Verification and Validation (V&V) and T&E techniques to enable verifiable ‘trust’ in autonomy. [7]

As the second of these ‘challenges’ indicates, the delegation of decision-making to computational regimes is particularly crucial here, in so far as it provokes a number of significant ethical dilemmas but also urgent questions regarding whether existing legal frameworks are capable of attending to the emergence of these new algorithmic actors. This is especially concerning when the logic of precedent that organizes much legal decision-making (within common law systems) has followed the same logic that organized the drone programme in the first place: namely, the justification of an action based upon a pattern of behaviour that was established by prior events.

The legal aporia intersects with a parallel discourse around moral responsibility; a much broader debate that has tended to structure arguments around the deployment of armed drones as an antagonism between humans and machines. As the authors of the entry on ‘Computing and Moral Responsibility’ in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy put it:

Traditionally philosophical discussions on moral responsibility have focused on the human components in moral action. Accounts of how to ascribe moral responsibility usually describe human agents performing actions that have well-defined, direct consequences. In today’s increasingly technological society, however, human activity cannot be properly understood without making reference to technological artifacts, which complicates the ascription of moral responsibility. [8]

When one poses the question, under what conditions is it morally acceptable to deliberately kill a human being, one is not, in this case, asking whether the law permits such an act for reasons of imminent threat, self-defence or even empathy for someone who is in extreme pain or in a non-responsive vegetative state. The moral register around the decision to kill operates according to a different ethical framework: one that doesn’t necessarily bind the individual to a contract enacted between the citizen and the state. Moral positions can be specific to individual values and beliefs whereas legal frameworks permit actions in our collective name as citizens contracted to a democratically elected body that acts on our behalf but with which we might be in political disagreement. While it is, then, much easier to take a moral stance towards events that we might oppose – US drone strikes in Pakistan – than to justify a claim as to their specific illegality given the anti-terror legislation that has been put in place since 9/11, assigning moral responsibility, proving criminal negligence or demonstrating legal liability for the outcomes of deadly events becomes even more challenging when humans and machines interact to make decisions together, a complication that will only intensify as unmanned systems become more sophisticated and act as increasingly independent legal agents. Moreover, the outsourcing of decision-making to the judiciary as regards the validity of scientific evidence, which followed the 1993 Daubertruling – in the context of a case brought against Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals – has, in addition, made it difficult for the law to take an activist stance when confronted with the limitations of its own scientific understandings of technical innovation. At present it would obviously be unreasonable to take an algorithm to court when things go awry, let alone when they are executed perfectly, as in the case of a lethal drone strike.

By focusing upon the legal dimension of algorithmic liability as opposed to more wide-ranging moral questions I do not want to suggest that morality and law should be consigned to separate spheres. However, it is worth making a preliminary effort to think about the ways in which algorithms are not simply reordering the fundamental principles that govern our lives, but might also be asked to provide alternate ethical arrangements derived out of mathematical axioms.

Algorithmic accountability

Law, which has already expanded the category of ‘legal personhood’ to include non-human actors such as corporations, also offers ways, then, to think about questions of algorithmic accountability. [9] Of course many would argue that legal methods are not the best frameworks for resolving moral dilemmas. But then again nor are the objectives of counter-terrorism necessarily best serviced by algorithmic oversight. Shifting the emphasis towards a juridical account of algorithmic reasoning might, at any rate, prove useful when confronted with the real possibility that the kill list and other emergent matrices for managing the war on terror will be algorithmically derived as part of a techno-social assemblage in which it becomes impossible to isolate human from non-human agents. It does, however, raise the ‘bar’ for what we would now need to ask the law to do. The degree to which legal codes can maintain their momentum alongside rapid technological change and submit ‘complicated algorithmic systems to the usual process of checks-and-balances that is generally imposed on powerful items that affect society on a large scale’ is of considerable concern. [10] Nonetheless, the stage has already been set for the arrival of a new cast of juridical actors endowed not so much with free will in the classical sense (that would provide the conditions for criminal liability), but intelligent systems which are wilfully free in the sense that they have been programmed to make decisions based upon their own algorithmic logic.[11] While armed combat drones are the most publicly visible of the automated military systems that the DOD is rolling out, they are only one of the many remote-controlled assets that will gather, manage, analyse and act on the data that they acquire and process.

Proponents of algorithmic decision-making laud the near instantaneous response time that allows Intelligent Agents – what some have called ‘moral predators’ – to make micro-second adjustments to avert a lethal drone strike should, for example, children suddenly emerge out of a house that is being targeted as a militant hideout. [12] Indeed robotic systems have long been argued to decrease the error margin of civilian casualties that are often the consequence of actions made by tired soldiers in the field. Nor are machines overly concerned with their own self-preservation, which might likewise cloud judgement under conditions of duress. Yet, as Sabine Gless and Herbert Zech ask, if these ‘Intelligent Agents are often used in areas where the risk of failure and error can be reduced by relying on machines rather than humans … the question arises: Who is liable if things go wrong?’[13]

Typically when injury and death occur to humans, the legal debate focuses upon the degree to which such an outcome was foreseeable and thus adjudicates on the basis of whether all reasonable efforts and pre-emptive protocols had been built into the system to mitigate against such an occurrence. However, programmers cannot of course run all the variables that combine to produce machinic decisions, especially when the degree of uncertainty as to conditions and knowledge of events on the ground is as variable as the shifting contexts of conflict and counter-terrorism. Werner Dahm, chief scientist at the United States Air Force, typically stresses the difficulty of designing error-free systems: ‘You have to be able to show that the system is not going to go awry – you have to disprove a negative.’ [14] Given that highly automated decision-making processes involve complex and rapidly changing contexts mediated by multiple technologies, can we then reasonably expect to build a form of ethical decision-making into these unmanned systems? And would an algorithmic approach to managing the ethical dimensions of drone warfare – for example, whether to strike 16-year-old Abdulrahman al-Awlaki in Yemen because his father was a radicalized cleric; a role that he might inherit – entail the same logics that characterized signature strikes, namely that of proximity to militant-like behaviour or activity? [15] The euphemistically rebranded kill list known as the ‘disposition matrix’ suggests that such determinations can indeed be arrived at computationally. As Greg Miller notes: ‘The matrix contains the names of terrorism suspects arrayed against an accounting of the resources being marshaled to track them down, including sealed indictments and clandestine operations.’ [16]

Intelligent systems are arguably legal agents but not as of yet legal persons, although precedents pointing to this possibility have already been set in motion. The idea that an actual human being or ‘legal person’ stands behind the invention of every machine who might ultimately be found responsible when things go wrong, or even when they go right, is no longer tenable and obfuscates the fact that complex systems are rarely, if ever, the product of single authorship; nor do humans and machines operate in autonomous realms. Indeed, both are so thoroughly entangled with each other that the notion of a sovereign human agent functioning outside the realm of machinic mediation seems wholly improbable. Consider for a moment only one aspect of conducting drone warfare in Pakistan – that of US flight logistics – in which we find that upwards of 165 people are required just to keep a Predator drone in the air for twenty-four hours, the half-life of an average mission. These personnel requirements are themselves embedded in multiple techno-social systems composed of military contractors, intelligence officers, data analysts, lawyers, engineers, programmers, as well as hardware, software, satellite communication, and operation centres (CAOC), and so on. This does not take into account the R&D infrastructure that engineered the unmanned system, designed its operating procedures and beta-tested it. Nor does it acknowledge the administrative apparatus that brought all of these actors together to create the event we call a drone strike. [17]

In the case of a fully automated system, decision-making is reliant upon feedback loops that continually pump new information into the system in order to recalibrate it. But perhaps more significantly in terms of legal liability, decision-making is also governed by the system’s innate ability to self-educate: the capacity of algorithms to learn and modify their coding sequences independent of human oversight. Isolating the singular agent who is directly responsible – legally – for the production of a deadly harm (as currently required by criminal law) suggests, then, that no one entity beyond the Executive Office of the President might ultimately be held accountable for the aggregate conditions that conspire to produce a drone strike and with it the possibility of civilian casualties. Given that the USA doesn’t accept the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court and Article 25 of the Rome Statute governing individual criminal responsibility, what new legal formulations could, then, be created that would be able to account for indirect and aggregate causality born out of a complex chain of events including so called digital perpetrators? American tort law, which adjudicates over civil wrongs, might be one such place to look for instructive models. In particular, legal claims regarding the use of environmental toxins, which are highly distributed events whose lethal effects often take decades to appear, and involve an equally complex array of human and non-human agents, have been making their way into court, although not typically with successful outcomes for the plaintiffs. The most notable of these litigations have been the mass toxic tort regarding the use of Agent Orange as a defoliant in Vietnam and the Bhopal disaster in India. [18] Ultimately, however, the efficacy of such an approach has to be considered in light of the intended outcome of assigning liability, which in the cases mentioned was not so much deterrence or punishment, but, rather, compensation for damages.

Recoding the law

While machines can be designed with a high degree of intentional behaviour and will out-perform humans in many instances, the development of unmanned systems will need to take into account a far greater range of variables, including shifting geopolitical contexts and murky legal frameworks, when making the calculation that conditions have been met to execute someone. Building in fail-safe procedures that abort when human subjects of a specific size (children) or age and gender (males under the age of 18) appear, sets the stage for a proto-moral decision-making regime. But is the design of ethical constraints really where we wish to push back politically when it comes to the potential for execution by algorithm? Or can we work to complicate the impunity that certain techno-social assemblages currently enjoy? As a 2009 report by the Royal Academy of Engineering on autonomous systems argues,

Legal and regulatory models based on systems with human operators may not transfer well to the governance of autonomous systems. In addition, the law currently distinguishes between human operators and technical systems and requires a human agent to be responsible for an automated or autonomous system. However, technologies which are used to extend human capabilities or compensate for cognitive or motor impairment may give rise to hybrid agents … Without a legal framework for autonomous technologies, there is a risk that such essentially human agents could not be held legally responsible for their actions – so who should be responsible? [19]

Implicating a larger set of agents including algorithmic ones that aid and abet such an act might well be a more effective legal strategy, even if expanding the limits of criminal liability proves unwieldy. As the 2009 ECCHR Study on Criminal Accountability in Sri Lanka put it: ‘Individuals, who exercise the power to organise the pattern of crimes that were later committed, can be held criminally liable as perpetrators. These perpetrators can usually be found in civil ministries such as the ministry of defense or the office of the president.’ [20] Moving down the chain of command and focusing upon those who participate in the production of violence by carrying out orders has been effective in some cases (Sri Lanka), but also problematic in others (Abu Ghraib) where the indictment of low-level officers severed the chain of causal relations that could implicate more powerful actors. Of course prosecuting an algorithm alone for executing lethal orders that the system is in fact designed to make is fairly nonsensical if the objective is punishment. The move must, then, be part of an overall strategy aimed at expanding the field of causality and thus broadening the reach of legal responsibility.

My own work as a researcher on the Forensic Architecture project, alongside Eyal Weizman and several others, in developing new methods of spatial and visual investigation for the UN inquiry into the use of armed drones, provides one specific vantage point for considering how machinic capacities are reordering the field of political action and thus calling forth new legal strategies.[21] In taking seriously the agency of things, we must also take seriously the agency of things whose productive capacities are enlisted in the specific decision to kill. Computational regimes, in operating largely beyond the thresholds of human perception, have produced informatic conjunctions that have redistributed and transformed the spaces in which action occurs, as well as the nature of such consequential actions themselves. When algorithms are being enlisted to out-compute terrorism and calculate who can and should be killed, do we not need to produce a politics appropriate to these radical modes of calculation and a legal framework that is sufficiently agile to deliberate over such events?

Decision-making by automated systems will produce new relations of power for which we have as yet inadequate legal frameworks or modes of political resistance – and, perhaps even more importantly, insufficient collective understanding as to how such decisions will actually be made and upon what grounds. Scientific knowledge about technical processes does not belong to the domain of science alone, as the Daubert ruling implies. However, demands for public accountability and oversight will require much greater participation in the epistemological frameworks that organize and manage these new techno-social systems, and that may be a formidable challenge for all of us. What sort of public assembly will be able to prevent the premature closure of a certain ‘epistemology of facts’, as Bruno Latour would say, that are at present cloaked under a veil of secrecy called ‘national security interests’ – the same order of facts that scripts the current DOD roadmap for unmanned systems?

In a recent ABC Radio interview, Sarah Knuckey, director of the Project on Extrajudicial Executions at New York University Law School, emphasized the degree to which drone warfare has strained the limits of international legal conventions and with it the protection of civilians. [22] The ‘rules of warfare’ are ‘already hopelessly out-dated’, she says, and will require ‘new rules of engagement to be drawn up’: ‘There is an enormous amount of concern about the practices the US is conducting right now and the policies that underlie those practices. But from a much longer-term perspective and certainly from lawyers outside the US there is real concern about not just what’s happening now but what it might mean 10, 15, 20 years down the track.’ [23] Could these new rules of engagement – new legal codes – assume a similarly preemptive character to the software codes and technologies that are being evolved – what I would characterize as a projective sense of the law? Might they take their lead from the spirit of the Geneva Conventions protecting the rights of noncombatants, rather than from those protocols (the Hague Conventions of 1899, 1907) that govern the use of weapons of war, and are thus reactive in their formulation and event-based? If so, this would have to be a set of legal frameworks that is not so much determined by precedent – by what has happened in the past – but, instead, by what may take place in the future.

Notes

1. ^ See, for example, the satellite monitoring and atrocity evidence programmes: ‘Eyes on Darfur’ (www.eyesondarfur.org) and ‘The Sentinel Project for Genocide Prevention’ (http://thesentinelproject.org).

2. ^ Cori Crider, ‘Killing in the Name of Algorithms: How Big Data Enables the Obama Administration’s Drone War’, Al Jazeera America, 2014, http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2014/3/drones-big-data-waronterror
obama.html; accessed 18 May 2014. See also the flow chart in Daniel Byman and Benjamin Wittes, ‘How Obama Decides Your Fate if He Thinks You’re a Terrorist,’ The Atlantic, 3 January 2013, http://www.theatlantic.com/
international/archive/2013/01/how-obama-decides-your-fate-if-he-thinks-youre-a-terrorist/266419.

3. ^ For a recent account of the multiple and compound geographies through which drone operations are executed, see Derek Gregory, ‘Drone Geographies’, Radical Philosophy 183 (January/February 2014), pp. 7–19.

4. ^ Contemporary information theorists would argue that the second-order cybernetic model of feedback and control, in which external data is used to adjust the system, doesn’t take into account the unpredictability of evolutive data internal to the system resulting from crunching ever-larger datasets. See Luciana Parisi’s Introduction to Contagious Architecture: Computation, Aesthetics, and Space, MIT Press, Cambridge MA, 2013. For a discussion of Weiner’s cybernetics in this context, see Reinhold Martin, ‘The Organizational Complex: Cybernetics, Space, Discourse’, Assemblage 37, 1998, p. 110.

5. ^ DOD, Unmanned Systems Integrated Roadmap Fy2011–2036, Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, & Logistics, Washington, DC, 2011, p. 3, http://www.defense.gov/pubs/DOD-USRM-
2013.pdf.

6. ^ Ibid., pp. 1–10.

7. ^ Ibid., p. 27.

8. ^ Merel Noorman and Edward N. Zalta, ‘Computing and Moral Responsibility,’ The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy(2014), http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2014/entries/computing-responsibility.

9. ^ See John Dewey, ‘The Historic Background of Corporate Legal Personality’, Yale Law Journal, vol. 35, no. 6, 1926, pp. 656, 669.

10. ^ Data & Society Research Institute, ‘Workshop Primer: Algorithmic Accountability’, The Social, Cultural & Ethical Dimensions of ‘Big Data’ workshop, 2014, p. 3.

11. ^ See Gunther Teubner, ‘Rights of Non-Humans? Electronic Agents and Animals as New Actors in Politics and Law,’ Journal of Law & Society, vol. 33, no.4, 2006, pp. 497–521.

12. ^ See Bradley Jay Strawser, ‘Moral Predators: The Duty to Employ Uninhabited Aerial Vehicles,’ Journal of Military Ethics, vol. 9, no. 4, 2010, pp. 342–68.

13. ^ Sabine Gless and Herbert Zech, ‘Intelligent Agents: International Perspectives on New Challenges for Traditional Concepts of Criminal, Civil Law and Data Protection’, text for ‘Intelligent Agents’ workshop, 7–8 February 2014, University of Basel, Faculty of Law, http://www.snis.ch/sites/default/files/workshop_intelligent_agents.pdf.

14. ^ Agence-France Presse, ‘The Next Wave in U.S. Robotic War: Drones on Their Own’, Defense News, 28 September 2012, p. 2, http://www.defensenews.com/article/20120928/DEFREG02/309280004/The-Next-Wave-
U-S-Robotic-War-Drones-Their-Own.

15. ^ When questioned about the drone strike that killed 16-year old American-born Abdulrahman al-Awlaki, teenage son of radicalized cleric Anwar Al-Awlaki, in Yemen in 2011, Robert Gibbs, former White House press secretary and senior adviser to President Obama’s re-election campaign, replied that the boy should have had ‘a more responsible father’.

16. ^ Greg Miller, ‘Plan for Hunting Terrorists Signals U.S. Intends to Keep Adding Names to Kill Lists’, Washington Post, 23 October 2012, http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/plan-for-hunting-terrorists-signals-us-intends-to-keep-adding-names-to-kill-lists/2012/10/23/4789b2ae-18b3–11e2–a55c-39408fbe6a4b_story.html.

17. ^ ‘While it might seem counterintuitive, it takes significantly more people to operate unmanned aircraft than it does to fly traditional warplanes. According to the Air Force, it takes a jaw-dropping 168 people to keep just one Predator aloft for twenty-four hours! For the larger Global Hawk surveillance drone, that number jumps to 300 people. In contrast, an F-16 fighter aircraft needs fewer than one hundred people per mission.’ Medea Benjamin, Drone Warfare: Killing by Remote Control, Verso, London and New York, 2013, p. 21.

18. ^ See Peter H. Schuck, Agent Orange on Trial: Mass Toxic Disasters in the Courts, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge MA, 1987. See also: http://www.bhopal.com/bhopal-litigation.

19. ^ Royal Academy of Engineering, Autonomous Systems: Social, Legal and Ethical Issues, RAE, London, 2009, p. 3, http://www.raeng.org.uk/societygov/engineeringethics/pdf/Autonomous_Systems_Report_09.pdf.

20. ^ European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights, Study on Criminal Accountability in Sri Lanka as of January 2009, ECCHR, Berlin, 2010, p. 88.

21. ^ Other members of the Forensic Architecture drone investigative team included Jacob Burns, Steffen Kraemer, Francesco Sebregondi and SITU Research. See http://www.forensic-architecture.org/case/drone-strikes.

22. ^ Bureau of Investigative Journalism, ‘Get the Data: Drone Wars’, http://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/category/projects/drones/drones-graphs.

23. ^ Annabelle Quince, ‘Future of Drone Strikes Could See Execution by Algorithm’, Rear Vision, ABC Radio, edited transcript, pp. 2–3.

Mais do que fórmulas e operações, matemática é arte, dizem pesquisadores (Agência Brasil)

Uncategorized,

segunda-feira, 1 de setembro de 2014

Essa é a avaliação de estudantes do Instituto Nacional de Matemática Pura e Aplicada

Nem só de aplicar fórmulas vive a matemática. O arranjo dos números exige criatividade. Mostrar aos estudantes do ensino fundamental e médio a “verdadeira beleza artística da matemática” é a saída para despertar o interesse dos jovens e melhorar o ensino da tão temida disciplina. Essa é a avaliação de estudantes do Instituto Nacional de Matemática Pura e Aplicada (Impa).

Para Victor Bitarães, 19 anos, mineiro de Contagem, um caminho é a Olimpíada Brasileira de Matemática das Escolas Públicas (Obmep), que rendeu a ele uma menção honrosa, uma medalha de bronze e cinco de ouro, além de participação nos programas de Iniciação Científica (PICs), duas competições internacionais e a atual bolsa de mestrado, antes de entrar para a graduação.

“O ensino de matemática é bem ruim, não é uma opinião só de quem esteve dentro de sala de aula, isso é confirmado pelos testes internacionais que o nosso país também passa, nós estamos nas últimas posições. Eu não diria que a Obmep seria o milagre da educação brasileira para matemática, mas o Impa está implementando algumas medidas, tem a Obmep, tem os clubes de matemática, tem uma série de coisas aí.”

Victor considera a olimpíada um caminho para estimular o estudo e uma mudança de mentalidade. “Porque parece que é um negócio muito difícil, mas não é nada, a matemática é a coisa mais natural do mundo.”

Também no mestrado no Impa, ao mesmo tempo em que cursa a graduação em matemática pela Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio (PUC), Maria Clara Mendes Silva, 20 anos, foi descoberta pela Obmep e pela Olimpíada Brasileira de Matemática (OBM) em Pirajuba (MG). Ela relata que já gostava da matemática do colégio quando se inscreveu na Obmep pela primeira vez, no sexto ano, e ganhou uma menção honrosa.

“O ensino deveria ser mais voltado para coisas que incentivem o raciocínio, no lugar de ficarem repetindo contas e fórmulas”, diz Maria Clara.

Depois da menção honrosa na primeira participação da Obmep, Maria Clara conquistou o ouro nas demais olimpíadas que participou. Além disso, ganhou um bronze, uma prata e três ouros na OBM. A estudante também já participou de duas olimpíadas internacionais, em 2011 e 2012, e diz que se apaixonou pela beleza da matemática. “Eu acho que os resultados são bonitos, é você saber o que uma coisa implica. Eu acho isso bonito, essa precisão, essa exatidão”.

Ela pretende seguir carreira como pesquisadora, mas ainda não definiu a área de preferência. Quanto ao ensino da disciplina no Brasil, Maria Clara tem várias críticas. Para ela, o que se aprende no colégio não é matemática.

“Eu acho que a matemática no colégio é muito mecânica, isso é péssimo, aquilo não é matemática de verdade. Eu acho que à medida que você mostra o que realmente é matemática, que é pensar, deduzir as coisas, fica mais interessante naturalmente. Mesmo que a pessoa não queira ser matemática, ela vai gostar mais se for uma coisa bem apresentada, nem que seja a título de curiosidade.”

Alan Anderson da Silva Pereira, 22 anos, já está no doutorado no Impa. Alagoano de União dos Palmares, Alan começou a participar da Obmep no ensino médio, com 15 anos. Depois de uma medalha de prata e duas de ouro, decidiu cursar matemática na Universidade Federal de Alagoas (UFAL), mas trancou o curso para fazer o mestrado no Impa, já concluído. Ele conta que teve muito apoio e incentivo dos professores para seguir nos estudos.

“Quando lembro do meu professor do ensino fundamental, me sinto inspirado a continuar estudando”, conta.

Especialista na área de probabilidade combinatória, Alan diz que gostaria de trabalhar como professor e pesquisador da UFAL, “para retribuir tudo o que meu estado fez por mim, contribuir para o crescimento da universidade e melhorar as condições de Alagoas, que têm índices sociais tão ruins”.

Além do raciocínio analítico, Alan diz que foi atraído pela beleza artística na matemática. “Tem até estudo que fala que quando uma pessoa olha para um quadro ativa uma certa área do cérebro, e essa mesma área do cérebro é ativada quando um pesquisador resolve um problema ou vê um teorema que ele gosta, a matemática tem um lado artístico também”, garante.

“O que não torna a matemática tão popular é que geralmente só gosta dessa arte quem a faz, acho que é porque precisa ter um certo entendimento que não é direto, precisa de um esforço, mas quando você entende os parâmetros você acha bonito também”, completa Alan.

Para ele, o interesse pela matemática seria maior se os professores mostrassem aos estudantes de ensino fundamental e médio a verdadeira beleza da ciência. “Uma coisa que poderia melhorar a cultura da matemática é se existissem mais pessoas dispostas a apresentar a matemática de um jeito mais bonito. Por exemplo, se os doutores fossem dar aulas ou palestras talvez isso motivaria muito, dar a visão do pesquisador. É mostrar de cima, de cima é bonito, porque você vendo só pelos lados talvez tenha algumas arestas soltas.”

(Akemi Nitahara/Agência Brasil)

Will Brazil elect Marina Silva as the world’s first Green president? (The Guardian)

Uncategorized, ,

Born into a poor, mixed-race Amazon family, Marina Silva is on the verge of a stunning election win after taking over her party

in São Paulo

The Observer, Saturday 30 August 2014 23.08 BST

Marina Silva

Marina Silva at her campaign HQ. As an environmentalist and a black woman from a poor Amazon family, she carries the hopes of more than one minority in Brazilian politics.  Photograph: Sebastião Moreira/EPA

It started with the national anthem and ended with a rap. In between came a poignant minute’s silence, politicised football chants and a call to action by the woman tipped to become the first Green national leader on the planet.

The unveiling in São Paulo of Brazilian presidential candidate Marina Silva’s platform for government on Friday was a sometimes bizarre mix oftradition and modernity, conservatism and radicalism, doubt and hope: but for many of those present, it highlighted the very real prospect of an environmentalist taking the reins of a major country.

In a dramatic election that has at times seemed scripted by a telenovelawriter, Silva has tripled her coalition’s poll ratings in the two weeks since she took over from her predecessor and running mate, Eduardo Campos, who was killed in a plane crash. Following a strong performance in the first TV debate between candidates, polls suggest she will come second in the first-round vote on 5 October and then beat the incumbent, Dilma Rousseff, in the runoff three weeks later.

This is a spectacular turnaround for a candidate who did not even have a party a year ago, when the electoral court ruled that she had failed to collect enough signatures to mount a campaign. It was also the latest in a series of remarkable steps for a mixed-race woman who grew up in a poor family in the Amazon, and went on to become her country’s most prominent advocate of sustainable development.

The distance Silva – known as Marina – has come from her remote forest home was evident at the launch of her programme for government in the affluent Pinheiros district of São Paulo. About 250 people – mostly from her Sustainability Network party and its allies in Campos’s Brazilian Socialist party (PSB) and other groups – gathered under the chandeliers of the swanky Rosa Rosarum venue, where waiters in white gloves served canapes, while they waited for their leader.

“Now is the time for Marina. We’re all very excited,” said Sigrid Andersen, a university professor and member of the Sustainability Network in Paraná state, before their candidate’s arrival. “I think she will turn the country towards sustainability in every sector. She tried to do that when she was environment minister, but didn’t have the strength. If she wins this election, she’ll have more power to push that agenda.”

The surge in the polls has been exhilarating for supporters. A month ago, as running mate to Campos, the PSB ticket struggled to hit double digits. Within a week of succeeding him, Silva more than doubled the support rate, pushing her into contention for second place and a runoff vote against Rousseff. On Friday, her ratings jumped again. A Datafolha poll showed Silva was now neck and neck with the president at 34% in the first round and would win comfortably with 50% of the vote if it went to a second round, compared with 40% for Rousseff.

Silva’s face stares out from the covers of magazines and the front pages of newspapers, under headlines such as “Marina Presidente?”, “How far can Marina go?”, “The Marina Effect”. One cartoonist depicted her as a Neo-type character from The Matrix who appears to be fighting the campaign in almost another dimension from her rivals.

When the candidate arrived, she stepped out from her van and immediately disappeared into a scrum of cameras and reporters. Local media have described the 56-year-old as frail and noted her low weight and height – details that are almost never mentioned for male candidates.

Women are hugely under-represented in Brazilian politics, but it is not because of her gender that Silva could break the mould. That has more to do with the colour of her skin and ideas.

Silva is a mix of Brazil‘s three main ethnic groups. Among her ancestors are native indians, Portuguese settlers and African slaves. While she is usually described as predominantly “indigenous”, friends say Silva categorises herself as “black” in the national census. In Brazil’s white-dominated political world, this is exceptional.

“It will be super-important for Brazil to have a black president, as it was in the US with Obama. It would signify a big advance for our country against discrimination,” said Alessandro Alvares, a member of the PSB and one of the few non-white faces in the room.

Silva’s political colours could prove still more controversial. For more than a decade, she has been known as the country’s most prominent Green campaigner, having first worked on sustainability at the grassroots with the Amazon activist Chico Mendes, who was later murdered. She later served as environment minister in Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s administration from 2003 to 2008, when she put in place effective measures to slow the deforestation of the Amazon. In her address to Friday’s meeting she stressed that Brazil could double its output of crops and meat without further clearing of the rainforest.

“If elected, Marina will be the greenest president in history, the first black president in Brazil and the first to be born in the Amazon,” said Altino Machado, a journalist based in Acre state, who first met Silva more than 30 years ago when they both attended a theatrical group. “She has proved her credentials as an environmentalist and protector of the Amazon. She also has a very strong ethical code and is totally free from any taint of corruption, which is extremely rare in politics in Brazil, where scandals happen all the time.”

Marina Silva at the launch of her election campaign programme on Friday.

Marina Silva at the launch of her election campaign programme on Friday. Photograph: Paulo Whitaker/Reuters

The clean, green image played well with university students, women and other young voters when Silva first ran for president in 2010. Although she was then with the Green party, which had only a tiny campaign machine, little funds and scant TV time, Silva came third with 20m votes – more than any green candidate has secured anywhere in the world before or since.

This time, she is aiming for a winning share of the electorate and has widened her message accordingly. She has also chosen a running mate – Beto Albuquerque, a congressman from the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul – who has close ties to agribusiness.

Listening to Silva speak as the leader of a mostly elite, mostly white, urban crowd in Latin America’s biggest city, it is remarkable to think of her very different origins in the Amazon. The would-be president grew up in the forest in a poor, illiterate family of rubber tappers. She survived malaria and hepatitis, worked as a housemaid and didn’t learn to read until she was 16. With the support of radical Catholic priests she became involved in social issues, entered university and became a student and union activist.

In her childhood, she once harboured ambitions to become a nun. Now she is a twice-married mother of four, but still comes across as serious and severe to the point almost of asceticism. Parts of her speech are stabbed out in a series of finger jabs. Mostly though, it is delivered with the intensive haste of a teacher who has to get through a lot of material in the last class of term. Or a woman on a mission. It is intense: despite the occasional joke and pause for applause, she lacks the easy bonhomie of former president Lula.

Crowd-pleasing has never been what Silva is about. Throughout her career, she has put her principles above the priorities of her political allies. This is one of the reasons why she is now effectively on her fourth party. It has also led to criticism that she is selfish, autocratic, a loner and too much of an idealist to get things done. A more generous interpretation is that she is an outsider who has never been able or willing to conform to the norms of the cosy world of Brasília.

That is clearly part of her appeal to an electorate that is tired of business as usual. Many of those who support her were among the protesters who joined the million-strong demonstrations of more than a dozen cities last year.

But, now in a coalition, Silva is making compromises. Her 250-page programme for government, which was launched on Friday, attempts to reconcile the very different outlooks of the Sustainability Network and the more pro-business PSB. The result is a something of a hodge-podge, with something for street protesters (10% of GDP to healthcare within four years), financial markets (greater autonomy for the central bank) and her core supporters.

On the environmental front, the programme calls for greater energy diversity, which will mean the promotion of wind and solar power; more ethanol production; the maintenance of hydrogeneration (which currently supplies more than three quarters of Brazil’s electricity); and the scaling back of thermal power and exploitation of mine oil deposits located in “sub-salt” strata deep under the Atlantic.

The change could be dramatic, but for the moment, it lacks specifics. In her 20-minute speech in São Paulo, Silva criticised the thinking behind the Belo Monte dam, which will be the biggest in Latin America once it is finished, but stopped short of saying either it or any of the other controversial hydropower projects in the Amazon would be halted.

Similarly, she was cautious about accepting the “Green champion” role that many conservationists around the world would like her to play if she became president.

“Sustainable development is a global trend that can be seen in China, India and elsewhere. If I win, of course I want to make Brazil a symbol of that trend. It won’t just be us, but we have enormous potential,” she said.

Gaudêncio Torquato, professor of political communication at the University of São Paulo, said Silva was showing more flexibility because otherwise she would never be able to govern. “The discourse of sustainability needs to incorporate the daily life of the country. The country would be ungovernable if a fundamentalist vision of politics were implemented.”

But many still see the would-be president as confrontational. Several senior members of the PSB resigned when she was selected as candidate. Business leaders, particularly in the powerful agricultural and energy sectors, see her as anti-development.

“The biggest criticism that agribusiness has in relation to her is her radicalism. She’s made environmental issues a dogma, a religion,” wrote Kátia Abreu, the acerbic head of the ruralisa lobby in Congress. “Throughout her life, she has always stood strongly for environmental activism and displayed strong hatred towards the agricultural sector. She cultivated this animosity in a purposeful way, treating us with aggression.”

Some fear Silva would be socially conservative as a result of her evangelical faith, and the opposition to abortion and gay marriage that comes with it.

But associates say she is not dogmatic on these issues. One of the loudest cheers of the launch meeting followed an affirmation of support for the rights of the lesbian and gay community.

Germano Marino, the president of the Acre Homosexual Association and a member of the ruling Workers’ party, told the Observer he would vote for Silva despite her evangelism.

“I think she is what society needs. Principally I believe she can open the dialogue for us to have more equal rights. Marina has never had a position against homosexuals,” said Marino, who worked with Silva for five years when she was a senator in Acre. “I’m going to vote for her because I believe in her and people have the right to choose their own religion.”

Victory is far from certain. With more than a month left before the election on 5 October, there is abundant time for another twist in the campaign. Voter sympathy following the death of Campos may wear off. Attacks from rivals will increase. And the other candidates should benefit from their superior financial backing and TV time.

But, for now at least, all the momentum is with Silva and her diverse group of supporters. As she heads towards the first-round vote on 5 October, she has generated support among environmentalists, financiers and street protesters; mixed feelings among gay voters and anti-market leftists; and outright hostility from many in the agribusiness and energy industries.

So what does Silva stand for? The traditional political labels of left and right do not quite fit, nor do the ethnic categories of black and white. Green is certainly an important part of the mix, though how diluted will probably not be clear until this unusually colourful campaign comes to an end.

El chamán que ‘detuvo’ la lluvia, Jorge Elías González (El Espectador)

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17 ENE 2012 – 3:33 PM

Clausura Mundial Sub 20

Recibió $3’931.082 de pesos por evitar la lluvia en la clausura del Mundial Sub 20.

Por: Elespectador.com
El chamán que detuvo la lluvia

Jorge Elías Gonzalez fue contratado para evitar la lluvia en la clausura del Mundial Sub 20 de fútbol en Bogotá en 2011.

El chamán recibió cerca de 4 millones de pesos por la labor para la que fue contratado, en el partido por el tercer y cuarto puesto entre México y Francia, el clima era lluvia y cielo nublado, por lo que las directivas del teatro Nacional estaban preocupadas, ya que si la lluvia se extendía hasta el momento de la clausura, esta no se podría llevar a cabo como estaba planeada.

Ana Martha de Pizarro, gerente del Teatro Nacional se escuda de la críticas dejando claro que la lluvia desapareció y el evento se pudo llevar a cabo como estaba programado.

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JUDICIAL 17 ENE 2012 – 3:53 PM

Clausura Mundial Sub 20

Chamán podría ser llamado a declarar por contrato del Mundial Sub 20

Las personas involucradas en las irregularidades en la ceremonia de clausura del evento podrían haber incurrido en los delitos de peculado por apropiación y celebración indebida de contratos.

Por: Elespectador.com
 El chamán que detuvo la lluvia

La Fiscalía General podría llamar en los próximos días al ahora conocido chamán Jorge Elías González para que explique la forma en cómo lo contrató el Instituto de Recreación y Deporte (Idrd) para la ceremonia del clausura del Mundial Sub 20 celebrada en agosto pasado en Bogotá.

“En el caso del señor Chamán será citado a la Fiscalía para que nos explique la circunstancia de tiempo, modo y lugar en que se puede evitar que ocurra el fenómeno de la lluvia”, precisó el vicefiscal General, Juan Carlos Forero.

Sobre este caso, que ha llamado la atención de todo el país, el Vicefiscal General precisó que los funcionarios que realizaron la contratación para la ceremonia podrían haber incurrido en los delitos de peculado por apropiación y celebración indebida de contratos, puesto que existe un detrimento 1.900 millones de pesos.

Igualmente aclaró que se tiene que revisar como el Idrd realizó todo el proceso de contratación, con el fin de verificar si se realizó licitación pública o “los contratos fueron adjudicados a dedo”.  

El chamán contratado para el cierre del Mundial sub’20 Colombia 2011 evitó que la lluvia empañara el espectáculo montado para la clausura de este campeonato en Bogotá, aseguraron los responsables de la presentación artística.

El campesino Jorge González Vásquez fue vinculado para que “no lloviera durante el espectáculo”, dijo la directora del Festival Iberoamericano de Teatro de Bogotá (Fitb), Ana Martha de Pizarro, en una entrevista con Caracol Radio.

“La realidad es que no llovió durante el espectáculo”, agregó De Pizarro, cuya institución creó y montó la presentación con la cual se dio cierre, el pasado 20 de agosto, al Mundial sub’20 en el Estadio Nemesio Camacho ‘El Campín’, de Bogotá, y del que Brasil se coronó campeón al vencer a Portugal.

La directora del Fitb habló de la presencia de González un día después de que el titular de la Contraloría (tribunal de cuentas) de Bogotá, Mario Solano Calderón, denunciara cuantiosos sobrecostes en la contratación de la clausura y presentara el caso del chamán como el más llamativo.

El Fitb fue contratado para la clausura del Mundial sub’20 por el Instituto Distrital de Recreación y deporte de Bogotá (Idrd), entidad de la Alcaldía de la ciudad que invirtió poco más de 4.400,13 millones de pesos para las actividades de cierre del evento.

Sin embargo, Solano advirtió de que la contratación tuvo un sobrecoste de casi la mitad de esa suma, por mayores cobros en frentes como los de vinculación de personal extranjero, pasajes aéreos y viáticos, entre otros.

En el caso de González, el funcionario dijo que este chamán recibió casi cinco millones de pesos, la mayor parte como sueldo y la otra como viáticos.

La directora del Fitb sostuvo que en el contrato con el Idrd se puso como una de las condiciones para la realización del espectáculo la vinculación del campesino.

“Aunque a ustedes les pueda parecer un poco exótico, es parte de la producción de presentaciones masivas y públicas, y es la manera habitual en la que nosotros lo hacemos”, expresó De Pizarro.

La gestora cultural observó que el Fitb contrata al chamán para la misma función desde la segunda o tercera versión del festival, creado y dirigido hasta su muerte en agosto de 2008 por la actriz colombiano argentina Fanny Mikey, quien fue sucedida por De Pizarro.

El FITB se realiza cada dos años, por la misma época de la Semana Santa, y en 2012 celebrará su edición trece.

De Pizarro defendió que la presentación de cierre del Mundial sub’20 “fue absolutamente impactante” y que, para ellos, “parte esencial del espectáculo era contratar a este señor (el chamán)”

Asimismo, aseguró que el Fitb entregó “cuentas absolutamente exhaustivas y claras” sobre los contratos que celebró y los pagos que hizo para cumplir con la parte de las actividades que le fueron encomendadas.

El polémico chamán que paró la lluvia (Kienyke)

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Por: KienyKe

Enero 17, 2012

Este es el tolimense a quien le pagaron cuatro millones de pesos para que no se …

Se califica como un radiestesista. Un hombre capaz de manipular las fuerzas de la naturaleza y de encontrar, por medio de energías, agua y tesoros escondidos. Este campesino de 61 años nacido en Dolores (Tolima), un pueblo con 3.700 habitantes,  es hoy un personaje conocido en todo el país.

Los colombianos presenciaron la clausura del Mundial Sub-20 de fútbol y, aunque era época invernal, esa noche no llovió. Nadie sabía que detrás de ese verano artificial estaba Jorge Elías González, el hombre que por medio de ritos asegura que puede desaparecer las nubes grises.

Nació en una familia de campesinos. Dice no ser indígena, ni chamán, ni brujo, sino es un sacerdote radiestesista. Aprendió de la naturaleza por su padre, Jorge Enrique González. Él recorría el campo buscando minerales, mezclando las plantas y tratando de dominar la naturaleza. Siempre le enseñó a su hijo que hay que conocer para jugar y gobernar. En la adolescencia, guiado por el mensaje de su padre, caminaba ensimismado por el pueblo o se internaba en los bosques. Los habitantes pensaban que se había vuelto loco.

Jorge Elías González trabaja con las energías para manipular la naturaleza.

En 1997, la Primera Dama de la Nación lo invitó a Dinamarca para que ahuyentara las nubes danesas durante una festividad. Poco a poco los personajes influyentes del país fueron hablando de él. La fe le ganó al escepticismo y después González confirmó su dominio. Ha participado en las cinco últimas versiones del Festival de Teatro de Bogotá. Su trabajo ha sido efectivo y los participantes han logrado salir a los eventos callejeros sin mojarse.

Su nombre empezó a sonar a raíz del escándalo por el detrimento patrimonial de 1.900 millones de pesos durante la ceremonia de clausura del Mundial Sub-20 de Fútbol en el estadio El Campín de Bogotá. Según denunció la Contraloría, el Instituto Distrital de Recreación y Deporte (IDRD) invirtió 4.700 millones de pesos. Cuando analizaron los gastos encontraron imprecisiones en alimentación, tiquetes y hospedaje. La inversión más curiosa fue la contratación de Jorge Elías, por cerca de cuatro millones de pesos.

El hombre de la lluvia cumplió. Aunque los funcionarios de la contraloría cataloguen el gasto como injustificado, la directora del Teatro Nacional, Ana Martha de Pizarro, –quien se encargó de la ceremonia de clausura del evento– defiende a González y asegura que el radiestesista hizo su labor y, por tanto, merecía el pago. El hombre seguirá participando en los eventos, para que a los colombianos no se les agüen las fiestas.

Chamán asegura que le pagaron $3 millones por posesión de Santos (El Tiempo)

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La Presidencia aclaró que fue un subcontratista de la campaña quien pagó a Jorge Elías González.

17 de enero de 2012

El chamán Jorge González confirmó en diálogo con La W Radio que fue contratado para que no lloviera durante la clausura del Munidal Sub-20 y dijo que siempre ha sido contratado para este fin durante el Festival Iberoamericano de Teatro. Según él, controló un 80 por ciento de lluvias durante el cierre del Mundial, mientras que aseguró haber sido contactado también para el acto de posesión del presidente Juan Manuel Santos, donde, según comenta, recibió un pago de tres millones de pesos.

“El invierno estaba golpeando muy duro y trate de controlarlo en un 90 por ciento”, dijo González, quien afirma ser un ‘sacerdotista’.

“Puedo demostrarle al mundo que lo que digo es verdad (su capacidad de evitar la lluvia) (…) lo mío es controlar la lluvia pero tampoco soy un dios”, agregó.

Tormenta desata contratación del chamán

El 10 de agosto del año pasado, faltando diez días para la final del Mundial Sub-20 de Fútbol en Bogotá, la Fundación Teatro Nacional se puso en contacto con un viejo conocido de esa corporación: Jorge Elías González Vásquez, un famoso chamán que vive en una vereda de Dolores (Tolima).

¿La razón? Ana Martha de Pizarro y Daniel Álvarez Mikey, encargados de la clausura del torneo, querían que González Vásquez usara toda su ‘artillería’ -incluidos rezos- para que en la noche del 20 de agosto no lloviera sobre El Campín. En una ciudad lluviosa, querían que la presentación no se aguara.

Entonces, Álvarez Mikey y González Vásquez firmaron un contrato de “servicios técnicos de asesoría”, con derechos de propiedad intelectual incluidos y pólizas de amparo de salud y riesgos profesionales, con un solo objetivo: que el chamán frenara cualquier lluvia. Y en los 20 minutos de la presentación de clausura -elogiada por muchos- no llovió. (vea el contrato suscrito por el Distrito con el chamán).

Sin embargo, el lunes, el contralor de Bogotá, Mario Solano, destapó el contrato del chamán, en medio de presuntas irregularidades en la contratación del Mundial Sub-20, y se desató la tormenta, que ha copado las redes sociales.

Incluso, el caso ya llegó a la Fiscalía. “Vamos a determinar la posible celebración indebida de contratos o la conducta de peculado. En el caso del señor chamán será llamado a la Fiscalía para que nos explique las circunstancias de tiempo, modo y lugar en que puede evitar el fenómeno de la lluvia“, anunció este martes el vicefiscal, Juan Carlos Forero. (lea también: Indagan pago a chamán para evitar lluvia en cierre de Mundial Sub-20).

En el contrato, de “carácter civil” y de cuatro páginas, quedó pactado que González Vásquez recibió 3’931.082 pesos por la “asesoría del evento” y 1’000.000 de pesos de viáticos por 20 días, cancelados con dineros públicos entre el 2 y el 21 de agosto del 2011. En este campo se habla de 50.000 pesos por día. “Queda entendido que el presente contrato se ha perfeccionado en atención a las calidades del profesional”, señala el documento.

Este martes, el contralor Solano dijo que el Teatro Nacional está en todo su derecho de contratar chamanes para sus eventos privados, pero cuestionó duramente que lo haya hecho con dineros públicos para la clausura del Mundial. “La ley de contratación habla de eficacia y profesionalismo. En ninguna parte se habla de permitir contratos de brujos, chamanes o hechiceros”, añadió.

El funcionario también criticó al Instituto Distrital de Recreación y Deporte, IDRD por no haber vigilado y frenado ese contrato.

Sin embargo, Álvarez Mikey, hijo de la reconocida y fallecida actriz Fanny Mikey, salió en defensa del contrato. Sostuvo que buscan aclarar el episodio ante la opinión pública, pues manifestó que el contrato fue avalado por el IDRD y el comité organizador del torneo.

Manifestó que no es la primera vez que usan los servicios del chamán y que lo hacen desde hace varios años para el Festival Iberoamericano de Teatro, debido a las lluvias constantes de abril.

“Para todos los grandes eventos al aire libre en Bogotá, los empresarios suelen recurrir a estas estrategias, pues se sufre mucho por el clima de la ciudad”, añadió Álvarez.

Aseguró que González Vásquez fue apenas una persona más de todo el equipo técnico que se empleó para la clausura del Mundial Sub-20.

“Él no es un chamán. Es un radiestesista que, con péndulos, hace su trabajo. Para lo de El Campín, trabajó con días de anticipación desde el parque Simón Bolívar”.

Frente al uso de dineros públicos para este tipo de contratos, señaló que van a responder ante cualquier instancia. “Hicimos un evento de calidad y no ocultamos nada. Acá no se trata de pelear con la opinión pública sino de aclarar todo”, puntualizó Álvarez Mikey.

Lo que trinaron varios usuarios de Twitter

@NATALIASPRINGER: “Dejémonos de bobadas,
el #chamán fue de los pocos contratistas que le cumplieron
a la anterior administración”.

@bobadaliteraria: “¿Los antitaurinos ya probaron a contratar el chamán para que llueva durante las corridas?”

@FEISAR_SANDOVAL: “Que lo contraten como asistente de Pékerman, para ver si así logra llevarnos a Brasil 2014”.

@JuanLeTrina: “Me volví chamánager. Alquilo chamanes para asados, bodas al aire libre, integraciones empresariales, eventos en general”.

Jorge Elías González fue llamado siempre el ‘Señor de la lluvia’

Un campesino. Un radiestesista, al que no le gusta que le digan chamán aunque en el mundo del Iberoamericano de Teatro lo llaman el ‘Señor de la lluvia’. Así es Jorge Elías González Vásquez, el hombre en medio de la tormenta por su contratación para ahuyentar el aguacero en el Mundial Sub-20.

González, de 66 años, vive campo adentro en una vereda de Dolores (Tolima), en el mismo lugar donde Fanny Mikey y su equipo lo ubicaron hace ya más de una década para que las presentaciones al aire libre no se aguaran.

“No es un desconocido en el mundo de los espectáculos de la ciudad, pero sigue siendo un campesino”, dice Jorge Vargas, director del Teatro Taller de Colombia, quien ayudó a Fanny a ubicarlo.

El descubrimiento de este hombre, al que aún le dejan mensajes en una escuela del pueblo para localizarlo, se dio a comienzos de los 90 gracias al Crea, antiguo programa del Ministerio de Cultura.

Desde ese momento, cuenta Vargas, Mikey comenzó a buscarlo por cielo y tierra, pues el Iberoamericano se hace en una época usualmente lluviosa.

“Lo buscamos a través de una emisora en Ibagué, pero como estaba en su finca muy adentro echando azadón fue un compadre suyo quien oyó que lo estaban necesitando en Bogotá y le contó”, dice Vargas, para quien “andan buscando corrupción donde no es”.

La fama de González como el ‘Señor de la lluvia’ siguió creciendo y, en 1997, viajó al Festival Internacional de Copenhague (Dinamarca), donde la prensa danesa lo destacó por su trabajo.

Mientras tanto, en el Iberoamericano se acostumbraron a su péndulo y a otros objetos para el ritual que hace en el parque Simón Bolívar y en los lugares donde tienen espectáculos.

Y es que, como lo afirmó Ana Marta de Pizarro, la directora del Festival, a ‘La W’, había sido contratado desde el segundo o tercer evento (es decir, desde 1992).

De él se cuenta que es creyente y aprendió la radiestesia gracias a su padre, pero tuvo que luchar en su pueblo contra quienes pensaban que estaba loco.

“Es un señor que mediante el manejo de elementos de la naturaleza y observación de las nubes puede desviarlas momentáneamente“, dijo una persona del Festival que lo conoce desde hace años.

A pesar del aguacero de controversia, en el Festival ya se dice que a González lo volverán a traer para que ahuyente la lluvia en la edición de este año.

REDACCIÓN CULTURA y ENTRETENIMIENTO

Son comunes en eventos privados

La firma de conciertos Evenpro también contrata chamanes para sus eventos musicales. Lo hizo el año pasado para el concierto de Red Hot Chili Peppers y el Shakira Pop Festival, y en ambos le funcionó.

Lo habían hecho antes para espantar el aguacero durante el festival Nem-Catacoa, en el 2010. En esa oportunidad, el ritual de varios chamanes muiscas se hizo en pleno escenario, en medio del público.

Y hace unos meses, en Casa Ensamble, también contaron con “apoyo espiritual” para evitar que lloviera durante el Festival Me Gusta, de Teusaquillo.

‘Hay visión sesgada de la Contraloría’

En la noche de este martes, Ana Edurne Camacho, ex directora del Instituto Distrital de Recreación y Deporte (IDRD), expidió un comunicado, en respuesta a la auditoría del contralor de Bogotá, Mario Solano, y a las presuntas irregularidades en la contratación del Mundial Sub-20 de Fútbol.

La funcionaria dijo que no comparte las apreciaciones de Solano, ya que “no reflejan las actuaciones transparentes adelantadas por mi administración”.

Dijo que sólo se enteró de la presencia del chamán por los medios de comunicación, pues manifestó que no se habló de ese tema durante la auditoría.

“Es por los medios por los que me entero de nuevos hallazgos, que no fueron producto del ejercicio auditor, como la contratación de un chamán, impidiendo en su momento que la Administración ejerciera el derecho de defensa y contradicción”, señaló Camacho.

También sostuvo que el IDRD “no realizó una serie de contrataciones, como lo señaló la Contraloría de Bogotá, sino que contrató un único espectáculo con un proveedor exclusivo (el Teatro Nacional)”, por 4.700 millones de pesos. Camacho habló de una “visión sesgada de la Contraloría” en todo este tema.

REDACCIÓN BOGOTÁ

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Indagan pago a chamán para evitar lluvia en cierre de Mundial Sub-20

Según la Contraloría, habría un supuesto detrimento patrimonial por 1.919 millones de pesos.

16 de enero de 2012

La Contraloría de Bogotá le abrió un proceso de responsabilidad fiscal a la ex directora del Instituto Distrital de Recreación y Deporte (IDRD) Ana Edurne Camacho, por presunto detrimento patrimonial de 1.919 millones de pesos.

Lo anterior, por haber incurrido la ex funcionaria en supuestas contrataciones irregulares y sin la debida justificación, para el acto de clausura de la Copa Mundial de Fútbol Sub-20.

Según el organismo, en el contrato que el IDRD suscribió con la Fundación Teatro Nacional -por 4.400 millones de pesos- para que se encargara de los actos culturales de esa ceremonia, se pagaron cerca de 4 millones de pesos a un chamán para que este evitara que lloviera en Bogotá el día de la ceremonia.

El contralor, Mario Solano, no encontró justificado este contrato ni otros pagos que asumió el IDRD, que eran responsabilidad del contratista. “No se cuestiona la calidad del acto, sino la improvisación y los pagos no justificados”, afirmó el contralor.

Entre tales pagos cuestionados están tiquetes y pasajes internacionales, por 61 millones de pesos; impuestos como el IVA; y doble contratación “por curaduría artística”, con la Fundación Teatro y, a la vez, con la Fundación Horizonte Joven.

Por el contrario, la ex directora del IDRD Ana Edurne Camacho dijo que “no se hicieron pagos por fuera del contrato ni faltó planeación.

Si hubiera sido así, la ceremonia no hubiera tenido el éxito mundial logrado”.

Mexico’s Arriaga brings religious-themed “Words with Gods” to Venice (EFE)

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Published August 30, 2014

A wave of spirituality washed over the Venice Film Festival on Saturday with the out-of-competition screening of “Words with Gods,” a series of religious-themed short films directed by Mexico’s Guillermo Arriaga and eight other filmmakers, including Spain’s Alex de la Iglesia and Argentine-born Brazilian Hector Babenco.

“It doesn’t deal with religions so much as human beings,” Arriaga, who also produced the project, said here of his short, “La Sangre de Dios” (Blood of God).

“The goal of the film is to spark a dialogue so we can understand ourselves better and become better human beings,” he added.

“Words with Gods” consists of nine short films that take the movie-goer from the Australian desert to Iranian Kurdistan and from boisterous Mumbai to tsunami-battered Japan.

Mira Nair, Emir Kusturica and Amos Gitai are among the other directors whose short films were included in “Words with Gods,” the first of four installments in the Heartbeat of the World anthology film series.

“La Sangre de Dios” tackles the theme of atheism and “the death of God” through a story focused on the devastating impact of human beings on nature.

“It’s an ambiguous work that leaves open all the interpretations about what God is, if (God) exists or not,” Arriaga, former screenwriter for Mexican filmmaker Alejandro Gonzalez Iñarritu and the director of “The Burning Plain,” said.

The short that received the most applause at the Venice Film Festival, which kicked off on Wednesday and runs through Sept. 6, was De la Iglesia’s, the only one of the nine to use humor to address its theme – Catholicism and the forgiveness of sins.

De la Iglesia said that at first he wondered whether the theme might be too transcendent for a “comedian” like him to tackle and that he might offend people, even though he considers himself a Catholic.

“Then I thought that humor is a technique of expression that helps us approach reality more freely, and that was very important in talking about religion,” he said.

“For me, the forgiveness of sins is the most important part of the Catholic religion, which is defined precisely by its preference for the repentant sinner over someone who always does good. That fills me with hope,” De la Iglesia added.

Babenco’s film, meanwhile, invites the viewer to follow a homeless man who is distraught over the death of his son and attends an Afro-Brazilian religious ritual in which evil spirits are exorcised through dance. EFE