Cluster bombs in Syria

Some time ago we wrote a post about cluster bombs, reporting that even if in 2008 an international treaty was passed to ban the use, manufacture, sale, manipulation and storage of cluster bombs, the truth is that this type of bombs are still circulating. They are mainly used to terrorise civilians because this type of bomb devastates large areas without telling the difference between civilians and military targets. 
The NGO Human Rights Watch published a report accusing the Syrian Government to use these bombs against civilians, causing the death of at least eleven kids during a bombing in November 2012. And it is not the first time that this NGO reports the use of such bombs in Syria.
According to this NGO, Syria is not the only country using cluster bombs. Libya (during Gaddafi’s regime) and Thailand also used these bombs against civilians. In the case of Syria, cluster bombs were manufactured in the Soviet Union during the seventies.
For the moment, only 16 countries condemned the use of cluster bombs in Syria, and Spain is not included in this list… What a coincidence! It just so happens that Gaddafi’s cluster bombs used against his civilians were manufactured in Spain. In the town of Saragossa, to be precise, where the company Instalaza manufactures weapons, including cluster bombs until 2008, when they were banned. 
And guess who was the consultant and representative of Instalaza during the years in which this company manufactured and sold cluster bombs to Gaddafi? None other than Pedro Morenés, the current Spanish Minister of Defence. Maybe that’s why Spain does not condemn the attack of the Syrian regime.

Sources:

1. Post at Delivering Data about cluster bombs: http://www.deliveringdata.com/2011/11/following-cluster-bomb.html
2. Report by the NGO Human Rights Watch about the use of cluster bombs in Syria: http://www.hrw.org/news/2012/11/27/syria-evidence-shows-cluster-bombs-killed-children-0
3. Other attacks performed by the Syrian army with cluster bombs: http://www.hrw.org/news/2012/10/23/syria-despite-denials-more-cluster-bomb-attacks
4. Pedro Morenés, the Spanish minister of Defence: http://www.fincaforsale.co.uk/?p=1759

    
   
   
   

Denying the global warming

We do not know yet the extent and consequences of global warming on our planet, but at least we agree that global warming is occurring and does exist. However, some people and some institutions insist on denying the existence of global warming, arguing that it is all a campaign against fossil fuels, the development of Third World countries or even just the interest of some scientists to get more funds for their climate research after striking fear into citizens’ heart.

It is quite easy to refute climate change denial: just check the research evidence on this issue published by most scientists and you will realise that 95% of scientists doing some research on climate agree that there is global warming. Moreover, there are lots of literature references about the interests of climate change deniers or those who do not accept such evidence.

Nevertheless, climate change denial (like many other conspiracy theories) has some supporters and, above all, generates some sort of confusion among citizens, who do not have enough scientific knowledge to get their own opinion on this issue.

In order to fight against this confusion, here we give you a simple yet solid argument to realise who is behind this false debate: a list of organizations accepting the existence of human-induced global warming and a list of organizations denying it. Needless to say, it is not a thorough list (it includes US organizations mainly) but it will help you understand who is behind each position. Here we go:

Organizations not accepting that there is global warming:
American Petroleum Institute
US Chamber of Commerce
National Association of Manufacturers
Competitive Enterprise Institute
Industrial Minerals Association
National Cattlemen’s Beef Association
Great Northern Project Development
Rosebud Mining
Massey Energy
Alpha Natural Resources
Southeastern Legal Foundation
Georgia Agribusiness Council
Georgia Motor Trucking Association
Corn Refiners Association
National Association of Home Builders
National Oilseed Processors Association
National Petrochemical and Refiners Association
Western States Petroleum Association
National Agnotology Producers Association
The Astroturfing Consortium

Organizations accepting that there is global warming:
U.S. Agency for International Development
United States Department of Agriculture
National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration
National Institute of Standards and Technology
United States Department of Defense
United States Department of Energy
National Institutes of Health
United States Department of State
United States Department of Transportation
U.S. Geological Survey
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
University Corporation for Atmospheric Research
National Center for Atmospheric Research
National Aeronautics & Space Administration
National Science Foundation
Smithsonian Institution
International Arctic Science Committee
Arctic Council
African Academy of Sciences
Australian Academy of Sciences
Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Sciences and the Arts
Academia Brasileira de Ciéncias
Cameroon Academy of Sciences
Royal Society of Canada
Caribbean Academy of Sciences
Chinese Academy of Sciences
Académie des Sciences, France
Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences
Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina of Germany
Indonesian Academy of Sciences
Royal Irish Academy
Accademia nazionale delle scienze of Italy
Indian National Science Academy
Science Council of Japan
Kenya National Academy of Sciences
Madagascar’s National Academy of Arts,
Letters and Sciences
Academy of Sciences Malaysia
Academia Mexicana de Ciencias
Nigerian Academy of Sciences
Royal Society of New Zealand
Polish Academy of Sciences
Russian Academy of Sciences
Académie des Sciences et Techniques du Sénégal
Academy of Science of South Africa
Sudan Academy of Sciences
Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
Tanzania Academy of Sciences
Turkish Academy of Sciences
Uganda National Academy of Sciences
The Royal Society of the United Kingdom
National Academy of Sciences, United States
Zambia Academy of Sciences
Zimbabwe Academy of Science
American Academy of Pediatrics
American Association for the Advancement of Science
American Association of Wildlife Veterinarians
American Astronomical Society
American Chemical Society
American College of Preventive Medicine
American Geophysical Union
American Institute of Physics
American Medical Association
American Meteorological Society
American Physical Society
American Public Health Association
American Quaternary Association
American Institute of Biological Sciences
American Society of Agronomy
American Society for Microbiology
American Society of Plant Biologists
American Statistical Association
Association of Ecosystem Research Centers
Botanical Society of America
Crop Science Society of America
Ecological Society of America
Federation of American Scientists
Geological Society of America
National Association of Geoscience Teachers
Natural Science Collections Alliance
Organization of Biological Field Stations
Society of American Foresters
Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics
Society of Systematic Biologists
Soil Science Society of America
Australian Coral Reef Society
Australian Medical Association
Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society
Engineers Australia
Federation of Australian Scientific and Technological Societies
Geological Society of Australia
British Antarctic Survey
Institute of Biology, UK
Royal Meteorological Society, UK
Canadian Foundation for Climate and Atmospheric Sciences
Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society
European Federation of Geologists
European Geosciences Union
European Physical Society
European Science Foundation
International Association for Great Lakes Research
International Union for Quaternary Research
International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
World Federation of Public Health Associations
World Health Organization
World Meteorological Organization

Sources:

1. Climate change denial and human-induced global warming: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_change_denial
2. 95% of scientists doing research on climate do agree that there is global warming: http://www.skepticalscience.com/global-warming-scientific-consensus-intermediate.htm
3. Groups accepting or denying the evidences of global warming: http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2013/01/global-warming-debate-is-no-debate-at-all/

   
    
    
    
    

The best at tax evasion

Tax Justice Network is an international network of associations, academics and activists with a shared objective: fighting against tax fraud and black economy. In a report published in November 2011 about tax abuse worldwide, there is a list with the countries recording the highest black economy levels in relation to their GNP. Bolivia ranks the first, with 66% of its economy in the black market. Russia ranks number two, with 45%, and the list goes on with Papua New Guinea, Kazakhstan and Ukraine. The average world tax evasion is 18%, so one out of every six euros is not taxed.
However, if we get focused on the amount of money evading taxes (instead of the GNP), then the US ranks the first because every year 337,349 million dollars are lost to tax evasion. Brazil is the second and the list goes on with Italy, Russia, Germany and France.
What about Spain? In this report, Spain ranks number ten in the list of countries losing money to tax evasion. To be precise, Spain loses 82,000 million euros every year because black economy is not under control (it represents 22.5% of the Spanish GNP).
It is rather difficult to put such large figures into context, but here you have a good example: these 82,000 million euros lost to tax evasion stand for 14 times the total amount of the health and education budgets in 2013.
 

Health budget 2013: 3,852.27 M€
Education budget 2013: 1,944.73 M€
Total amount: 5.797 M€

Sources:

1. Tax Justice Network website: http://www.taxjustice.net/cms/front_content.php?idcat=2
2. Post at Delivering Data about black economy in Spain: http://www.deliveringdata.com/2012/04/some-data-about-black-economy-in-spain.html
3. Tax Justice Network report about black economy: http://www.tackletaxhavens.com/Cost_of_Tax_Abuse_TJN_Research_23rd_Nov_2011.pdf
4. The Spanish General State Budget of 2013: http://graficos.lainformacion.com/politica/presupuesto-estatal/presupuestos-2013-en-que-gasta-espana_W4M1nXSktquMQkDRSSpBR6