(Photos: MPIA)

(Photos: SUNGO)

SAMOA: Pass court case
Source: SUNGO Press Release
 
The long awaited court trial between People Against Switching Side (PASS) and Government commenced today (16, July 2008) with its first mention before Justice Vui Clarence Nelson at the Supreme Court.

The counsel representing PASS in this matter whom is also the Chairman of PASS Toleafoa Solomona Toailoa filed their submission stating the grounds of their argument based on the Constitution of our country that was breached by the Parliament with the recent passing of the unconstitutional Road Reform Act 2008. The Respondent led by the Attorney General Ming
Leung Wai in his submission on the other hand, objected this trial due to its current stand as an official Act and an enforced law, hence time will be wasted with these proceedings.

Samoa Umbrella for Non Government Organisations (SUNGO) as members of PASS attended this event together with the private sector, local and international media to witness the next step of this trail. Supreme Court Judge Vui Clarence Nelson declared that the court case to be adjourned, and granted the opportunity for the application of the Petitioner to file their amendments in pursuing their argument until the hearing on the 4th August 2008.

Photo Captions: After the Court Case.
 

(Photos: SPC)

(Photos: greenlivingpedia.org)

AUSTRALIA: Oz Green Paper dooms Pacific Islands
Source: Gideon Polya

Australia is the World's biggest coal exporter and the Developed World's biggest per capita carbon dioxide (CO2) polluter (5 times worse than China or the World and 40 times worse than India).

The Australian Federal Government Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme as set out in its 2008 Green Paper is fatally flawed and if adopted globally would be a death sentence for the planet's biosphere. The Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme:

(a) ignores world-leading scientific advice from NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) scientists on the urgent need to stop greenhouse gas pollution and indeed to reduce atmospheric CO2 from the currently dangerous 387 ppm (parts per million) to a safe level of no more than 350 ppm;

(b) ignores two thirds of Australia-responsible greenhouse gas emission sources, notably coal exports (43% of the total Domestic plus Exported emissions), agriculture (9%), forestry and land use (4%) and (effectively) transport (8%);

(c) ignores the reality that about 5,000 Australians die each year from the pollutants from coal burning-based power generation (5,000 persons x the EU-estimated $5 million value per person = $25 billion);

(d) adopts a "cap and trade" Emissions Trading Scheme with an atmospheric CO2 concentration "cap" above 450 ppm (450-500 ppm will kill the world's coral reefs, including Australia's Great Barrier Reef, that are dying already at 387 ppm and economically worth $375 billion annually; vital ocean algae and the Greenland ice sheet go above 500 ppm with catastrophic Australian and global consequences from temperature and sea level rises);

(e) hands nearly all of the collected pollution licence fees back to polluters, "dirty energy" users and the poor - rather than using it to urgently construct clean energy power stations using current technologies that can already provide power at a cost LOWER than the "true cost" of
coal-based electricity (taking environmental and human costs into account) which is estimated to be 4-5 times the "market cost";

(f) will actually INCREASE Australia's total Domestic and Exported CO2 emissions by 67% by 2020 and by 96% by 2050 (according to US Energy Information Administration data and stated Australian Government policies).

In contrast, Nobel Laureate Al Gore has realistically called for 100% renewable energy for the US within 10 years.

For a very detailed, documented, scientific critique of the Australian Government Green Paper c/- Melbourne's Yarra Valley Climate Action Group see:
http://sites.google.com/site/yarravalleyclimateactiongroup/australian-carbon

Photo Captions: The Climate Emergency Rally held in Melbourne on July 5 2008. David Spratt
being interviewed after the Rally.
 

HAWAII: Hawaii leads US for cancer survival rate
Source: Honolulu Star Bulletin

People with cancer in Hawaii are more likely to survive the disease than people who live in other states and even some countries, according to an international study.

Where you live makes a difference when it comes to cancer survival, the study found.

It's not clear why Hawaii stands out for cancer survival, researchers said, suggesting it could be because of better access to health care or a healthier lifestyle and less stress.

Jackie Young, a cancer survivor and Hawaii American Cancer Society, Hawaii Pacific Division, Inc., officer, said the report "is certainly good news, even more reason for living in Hawaii."

Hawaii not only has enviable weather but it has the best survival rate for cancer in the United States, as well as in many other countries, an international study reveals.

Data on cancer survival was compared within regions of 31 countries and 16 states and metropolitan areas in the United States in the CONCORD study, published in the July 17 online edition of The Lancet Oncology.

"The good news for us is Hawaii is the best performing in all areas studied except rectal cancer in men (Idaho was better) and prostate (Seattle was better)," said Marc Goodman, head of the Hawaii Tumor Registry in the Cancer Research Center of Hawaii.

He said he did a spot check of all the statistics and "on the ones I checked, we had the highest survival overall. People in Hawaii are doing fairly well."

Why this is so isn't clear, Goodman said. Physicians may attribute the high survival rates to good medical care, "which could well be," he said. "It must have something to do with living in Hawaii," he added, suggesting diet, exercise and fewer stresses as possible factors.

It couldn't be ethnic differences because the study compared white women in Hawaii to white women everywhere, he said. Incidence rates for white women with breast cancer in Hawaii were the highest in the United States "but they don't necessarily die from it," he said.

Whatever the reason for Hawaii's high cancer survivorship, he said, "It's just real nice."

More than 100 scientists, including Goodman, participated in the study, led by Michael Coleman, an epidemiology professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in Great Britain.

They collected data on nearly two million cancer patients from registries in every country and compared five-year survival rates for breast, colon, rectum and prostate cancers. Patients were diagnosed from 1990 to 1994 and followed to the end of 1999.

Cancer survivor rates appear linked to the country or state where a person lives and whether a patient is black or white. U.S. survival rates favor whites.

Coleman, in an online HealthDay report, said he believes differences among countries and within regions are related directly to access to health care. "This is not a question of the competence of doctors in any particular country," he said. "This is an issue of the overall effectiveness of health services."

The U.S. had the highest survival rates for breast and prostate cancers; Japan has the highest rates for colon and rectal cancers among men, and France has the highest rates for female colon and rectal cancer, the study found.

Jackie Young, a cancer survivor and Hawaii American Cancer Society, Hawaii Pacific Division, Inc., officer, said the state's high survival rates are reflected in the organization's Relay for Life events.

"We're seeing more survivors willing to come out to show they're surviving. Now we're looking at disparities among native Hawaiians, Filipinos, Hispanics and Latinos. We're working to decrease mortality rates in those groups," Young said.

The cancer society last year got 35 state representatives and 15 senators to sign a "Cancer Promise," a commitment to support legislation to fight cancer, she said. The Legislature also appropriated $150,000 for a breast and cervical cancer screening program for the uninsured and underinsured, she said.

Darlena Chadwick, vice president for patient care at the Queen's Medical Center, which has 48 percent of Hawaii's adult oncology cases, believes advances in screening to detect cancers earlier and new technology for treatment are contributing to Hawaii's high survival rates.

She pointed to the Queen's Medical Center's two "da Vinci" robots used for prostate cancer. "Clinically, we're doing a really good job," she said.

Queen's cancer center last year had more than 2,300 cancer cases, with breast cancer comprising the highest volume followed by prostate, she said.

The American Cancer Society estimates Hawaii this year will have 6,310 new cancer cases, she said.

Hawaii has the lowest death rate in the nation for women for all cancers, according to the cancer society, Chadwick said. Hawaii's cancer death rate is 10 percent below the national rate for men and 26 percent below the national rate for women, she said.
 

(Photos: eventpolynesia.com)