Marshall Islands president calls for global action to solve climate change

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Christopher Jorebon Loeak, president of the Marshall Islands, wants world leaders to take action against global warming.

There is no more important response than leadershipnot in words but in actions, not in promises but in commitments, not in delay but in doing what is right, and doing it now, Loeak said.

At a World Leaders Forum event Wednesday, Loeak spoke of his countrys efforts to lead by example in addressing the immediate threat of global climate change. The Marshall Islands, a confederation of over 1,000 islands in the Pacific Ocean located 2,400 miles southwest of Hawaii, is one of only four coral atoll nations in the world and sits at an average of only two meters above sea level. This makes it uniquely vulnerable to climate change, with the dual hazard of rising seas and ocean acidification threatening to submerge the nationand with it, a way of life.

For some, climate change is an important part of the issuebut one of many and distant threats, Loeak said. In the Marshall Islands, climate change has already arrived.

This emergency entered a critical stage last spring, when Loeak declared a state of disaster during a drought that left more than 6,000 people surviving on less than a liter of water per day. Six weeks later, a king tide crashed over the seawalls of the capital city of Majuro, flooding the airport tarmac and many urban residences, including Loeaks own home.

Our islands is who we arenot just our culture, but our personal identity, Loeak said, stating that the majority of Marshallese, himself included, would go down with the islands should they flood completely rather than abandon their home country.

Loeak stressed, however, that Marshallese and other Pacific Island leaders are still hopeful for a global solution to this problem.

While countries like mine will be the first to go, we are only the front line. No country is immune. We must take up greater responsibility, governments and citizens alike, to win this war. It is a war for nothing less than the future of humanity. It will take every one of us, he said.

Loeak spoke of the efforts of the Marshall Islands to reduce its carbon footprint by switching from imported fossil fuels to sustainable energy sources, such as solar panels. It is my hope and my intentions that every house, school, clinic, and dispensary will be completely powered by the clean and natural energy of the sun, he said.

Other Pacific Island nations have followed the example of the Marshall Islands, with Tuvalu setting the goal of exclusively relying on sustainable energy by 2020.

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Marshall Islands president calls for global action to solve climate change

Pakistan gets three new islands

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New Delhi, Sep 26 (IANS) Pakistan has just got three brand new islands -- thanks to a major earthquake.

When the shock of the temblor subsided Tuesday, people living in the coastal town of Gwadar were stunned to see a new island in the sea.

That's not all. Two other islands have come up along the Balochistan coast.

"The island near Gwadar is about 600 feet in diameter and has a height of about 30 feet," Muhammad Moazzam Khan, technical advisor at WWF - Pakistan, told IANS over telephone.

He said "gas was coming out" of the island, which primarily consists of "stones and soft mud".

The two islands near Ormara town are small.

Khan said the islands had a diameter of about "30-40 feet and a height of about 2-3 feet".

"Gas is also coming out," he said.

He said that while some islands which form suddenly "stay on", others gradually fade away.

He explained that the islands were formed following the massive earthquake that rocked Balochistan province Tuesday.

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Pakistan gets three new islands

Health care reform: A reality check for conservatives: AEI Top Three – Video

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Health care reform: A reality check for conservatives: AEI Top Three
More here: http://ow.ly/paorH AEI resident fellow Thomas Miller explains what conservatives are missing in their health care reform strategy. Attributions: K...

By: American Enterprise Institute

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Health care reform: A reality check for conservatives: AEI Top Three - Video

Obama Vows To "March" On Gun Control, Health Care – Full Speech To Black Caucus – Video

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Obama Vows To "March" On Gun Control, Health Care - Full Speech To Black Caucus
President Obama told the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation that he would "keep marching" on the hot button issues of gun control and health care despite ...

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Obama Vows To "March" On Gun Control, Health Care - Full Speech To Black Caucus - Video

Health care industry braces for new law’s impact

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If health care reform works according to plan, a tidal wave of new patients will hit physician practices, pharmacies, insurance agencies, hospitals and other health care providers across the state.

About 83,000 of the estimated 1.5 million uninsured Ohioans are expected to sign up for coverage next year on the states Health Insurance Marketplace the centerpiece of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which will offer subsidized health insurance to millions of Americans who have had little or no access to health care in the past.

Thats a lot of opportunity, said Phil Parks, vice president of marketing at the Wagner Insurance Agency in Dayton. I think what youre seeing today is people who have been selling insurance for a long time who see the opportunity and are gearing up and getting ready.

Consumers do not need an insurance agent to sign up for coverage in the marketplace, but a licensed agent or broker can help them navigate the system and sign up for coverage and receive a commission on the monthly premium from the insurer, Parks said.

He said most people signing up for insurance for the first time will need help dealing with the paperwork and administrative hassles that go along with buying insurance and filing claims.

We can answer all their questions and do all the things we were trained to do when we got into the insurance business, Parks said. We think that will be an invaluable service that people are going to turn to us for.

Depending on the numbers that come in, we could very quickly find it necessary to add people to our health division, he said.

Once they have health insurance, many new enrollees are expected to head to the doctor as soon as they can.

Springfield resident Mendelynn Fisher, 62, said she has not been able to afford health insurance in the past on her Social Security survivors benefits.

But shes anxious to see what her options might be on the health insurance exchange where she would likely eligible for a generous federal subsidy to help pay for coverage and has already made plans to see a doctor.

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Health care industry braces for new law’s impact

Researchers mull genetic engineering for conservation

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Published: Sept. 25, 2013 at 5:18 PM

POCATELLO, Idaho, Sept. 25 (UPI) -- The pros and cons of genetic engineering should be weighed to determine if tweaking should be included in the species-saving mix, a U.S. researcher said.

Conservationists are considering rescue remedies, such as moving animal populations to help them track hospitable habitats, to stave off the extinction, basically, of between 15 percent and 40 percent of species by 2050, Michael Thomas of Idaho State University and his colleagues said in the latest edition of Nature.

In a commentary, Thomas and his co-authors consider the pros and cons of adding genetic engineering into the mix.

The authors argue that with the attention agricultural genetic engineering has received and techniques used to transfer genetic material more sophisticated, it is just a matter of time before conservationists apply the approach to safeguard biodiversity.

The authors noted there are many practical challenges to find appropriate target genes to move between populations of the same species -- or even between different species -- to avert extinction of a threatened population.

The effects of moving material to a different environmental and genetic context also would be difficult to predict, the authors said.

However, the authors cautioned that the possibility of using genetic-engineering tools to save biodiversity could lead to inaction with regard to climate change.

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Researchers mull genetic engineering for conservation