Should the U.N. give plants, animals and terrain human rights status?

FOX NEWS, 4/18/2011 by Jonathan Wachtel - U.N. Prepares to Debate Whether 'Mother Earth' Deserves Human Rights Status: United Nations diplomats on Wednesday will set aside pressing issues of international peace and security to devote an entire day debating the rights of “Mother Earth.” ∴ A bloc of mostly socialist governments lead by Bolivia have put the issue on the General Assembly agenda to discuss the creation of a U.N. treaty that would grant the same rights found in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to Mother Nature. Read more at Fox...

Though the United States and other Western governments are supportive of sustainable development, some see the upcoming event, “Harmony with Nature,” as political grandstanding -- an attempt to blame environmental degradation and climate change on capitalism.

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Asteroids, NASA and budget cuts

- BIG THINK, 9/10/2010 by Michio Kaku - Two Asteroids Buzzed the Earth This Week [9/5] --Should We Be Afraid?
- BIG THINK, 9/7-8/2010 by Michio Kaku - NASA Is Running Out of Money to Monitor Earth-Destroying Asteroids (Part 1 of 2) and (Part 2 of 2)

Plans for sending humans to visit an asteroid are heating up, with at least one company already scoping out the technological essentials for a deep space expedition within a decade, given the go-ahead. ∴ The asteroid space trek is seen as both scientifically valuable and as a dress rehearsal for a Mars mission, NASA officials have said. It could also hone ideas for planetary defense to guard Earth from a messy head-on clash with a space rock. ∴ Launching a manned asteroid mission by 2025 is NASA's new goal set by President Barack Obama, who announced the plan in April. The deep space mission would serve as a stepping stone to a crewed mission to Mars in the mid-2030s, he said. ∴ Lockheed Martin, which has been building NASA's Orion space capsule to replace the agency's retiring shuttle fleet, has already completed a study on how an asteroid mission might work. Read more at Fox News... Read More......