I Would Vote for Obama in a Heartbeat

If I were eligible to vote in the U.S. I would choose President Obama because his vision for the future is one with global dialogue (not just military might) and he has fought hard to help Americans recover from the economic meltdown of 2008-09.  He needs four more years in the White House to continue building America by investing in education, clean energy and job creation.  Obamacare ensures access to free preventive care and protects consumers from insurance company abuses.  The Obama Administration also places womens' issues higher on the list. He has signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act to help women fight back against pay discrimination.  

Mitt Romney on the other hand, is a wealthy Republican businessman who cares little about helping the middle class.  He wants to repeal Obamacare, give tax cuts to millionaires, give more funding to the military, and subsidize big oil companies. This sounds like a step backwards to me.  

How the Assassination of the American ambassador, Christopher Stevens, will Affect the US-Libya Relationship

The death of the American ambassador to Libya, Christopher Stevens, was due to a tragic act of terrorism and there is no doubt that economic ties and peacekeeping efforts between the U.S. and Libya were negatively affected. Leakage of the virulent “Innocence of Muslims” video sparked insurgents to assassinate Stevens, even though he was someone whom many Libyans called “one of them.” Counter demonstrations in Tripoli suggested that many Libyans remained thankful for U.S. support that helped to overthrow the Gaddafi regime and opposed the violence.

Anti-American hostility is rampant within extremist militant groups in the region and it is naïve to think that we can tame it long term just by holding an election process. These new democracies are fragile and will need more support to stabilize local politics in order to bring peace to the Middle East. American voters will not forget Stevens’s death (along with three others) and want the perpetrators brought to justice but they will be reluctant to provide further military or monetary aid to Egypt or Libya because they are so worried about improving the economy at home. The Americans will be pulling out of Afghanistan by 2014 and do not want to fund another war.  

Planetary Pyrexia

There are many important world issues that negatively affect the planet in what appears to be a never ending cycle--unfortunately, they are all interconnected. Currently, climate change along with the control of water and energy resources are a true threat to humanity and Earth's biodiversity. The rise in temperature of Earth's atmosphere and oceans, has wrecked havoc throughout our numerous and complex ecosystems. Sadly, this is the compounding effect of our actions as individuals.

Practices such as the indiscriminate burning of fossil fuels, and clear cutting are transforming semi-arid regions into deserts and are causing drought like conditions in some traditional crop growing areas. Third world countries are particularly vulnerable--they can no longer sustain large populations under these conditions, despite having access to genetically engineered drought resistant seeds. Poverty and hunger have become rampant (this has already happened in parts of Africa). Additionally, millions of people will be at risk from costal flooding due to rising sea levels, especially in densely populated and low-lying areas. This will contaminate fresh groundwater supplies as well.

The United Nations states that access to safe water is a basic human right, yet millions of people die from contaminated drinking water (bacteria, parasites and arsenic from mining operations) or drought every year.  Do you fear that the complexity of the politics concerning the control of water will cause political unrest if governments do not begin to address how to sustainably distribute clean fresh water resources now? This is a finite resource (just as oil is), so how can our generation better manage its use? Rivers often flow through several countries...