Germany recognizes Gorbachev for environmental efforts

Former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev picked up rare special honor at the German Environmental Awards. The accolade, only the third of its kind, was to recognize his efforts to promote environmental protection.

Former Soviet Union president Mikhail Gorbachev was awarded a rare special prize at the 2010 German Environmental Awards in Bremen on Sunday.

This was only the third time that a special honor has been presented as part of the awards - with Gorbachev selected for his work on environmental protection.

Gorbachev, who is chairman of the environmental group Green Cross International, was handed the award, which includes a financial prize of 10,000 euros ($13,900), by German President Christian Wulff.

Wulff praised Gorbachev's current work and likened his efforts to change attitudes to the environment to his policy of "perestroika" - or restructuring - in the former Soviet Union during the 1980s.

"Today you work with an admirable passion for a global ecological perestroika, for a move to a greater conservation of resources and more energy efficiency and for a way of living in harmony with nature rather than against it," said Wulff (left).

Climate change and contamination

After the collapse of the USSR, Gorbachev turned his focus to environmental issues.

Following the United Nations Rio Conference of Environment and Development in 1992, the former leader launched Green Cross International, which is concerned with issues such as climate change and chemical contamination.

He is also chairman of the European Green Belt initiative, which aims to provide a green backbone from north to south across Europe along the length of the former iron curtain.

Speaking at the ceremony, Wulff said that moves towards sustainable lifestyles were more pressing than ever, adding that environmental technology had the potential to be a leading industry of the 21st century.

Most lucrative green prizes

The main German Environmental Award prize was shared among three individuals, who each received 245,000 euros.

Business partners Dr. Winfried Barkhausen and Edwin Buechter from near Aachen in western Germany were honored for developing an environmentally friendly cleaning technique using lasers instead of chemicals.

Dr. Rainer Griesshammer (right), who is co-managing director of the Institute for Applied Ecology in Freiburg, in southwestern Germany, received the award for raising the profile of environmental sustainability.

Source:
DW-World, "Germany recognizes Gorbachev for environmental efforts", accessed November 2, 2010

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Believer Encouragements

Taken from CH Spurgeon's Morning and Evening, 3 November, Morning

“Behold, he prayeth.” - Acts 9:11

Prayers are instantly noticed in heaven. The moment Saul began to pray the Lord heard him. Here is comfort for the distressed but praying soul. Oftentimes a poor broken-hearted one bends his knee, but can only utter his wailing in the language of sighs and tears; yet that groan has made all the harps of heaven thrill with music; that tear has been caught by God and treasured in the lachrymatory of heaven. “Thou puttest my tears into thy bottle,” implies that they are caught as they flow. The suppliant, whose fears prevent his words, will be well understood by the Most High. He may only look up with misty eye; but “prayer is the falling of a tear.” Tears are the diamonds of heaven; sighs are a part of the music of Jehovah’s court, and are numbered with “the sublimest strains that reach the majesty on high.” Think not that your prayer, however weak or trembling, will be unregarded. Jacob’s ladder is lofty, but our prayers shall lean upon the Angel of the covenant and so climb its starry rounds. Our God not only hears prayer but also loves to hear it. “He forgetteth not the cry of the humble.” True, he regards not high looks and lofty words; he cares not for the pomp and pageantry of kings; he listens not to the swell of martial music; he regards not the triumph and pride of man; but wherever there is a heart big with sorrow, or a lip quivering with agony, or a deep groan, or a penitential sigh, the heart of Jehovah is open; he marks it down in the registry of his memory; he puts our prayers, like rose leaves, between the pages of his book of remembrance, and when the volume is opened at last, there shall be a precious fragrance springing up therefrom.

“Faith asks no signal from the skies,
To show that prayers accepted rise,
Our Priest is in his holy place,
And answers from the throne of grace.”

Taken from Charles H Spurgeon's Morning and Evening, 3 November, Morning

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Taken from CH Spurgeon's Morning and Evening, 2 November, Evening

“Horror hath taken hold upon me because of the wicked that forsake thy law.” - Psalm 119:53

My soul, feelest thou this holy shuddering at the sins of others? for otherwise thou lackest inward holiness. David’s cheeks were wet with rivers of waters because of prevailing unholiness; Jeremiah desired eyes like fountains that he might lament the iniquities of Israel, and Lot was vexed with the conversation of the men of Sodom. Those upon whom the mark was set in Ezekiel’s vision, were those who sighed and cried for the abominations of Jerusalem. It cannot but grieve gracious souls to see what pains men take to go to hell. They know the evil of sin experimentally, and they are alarmed to see others flying like moths into its blaze. Sin makes the righteous shudder, because it violates a holy law, which it is to every man’s highest interest to keep; it pulls down the pillars of the commonwealth. Sin in others horrifies a believer, because it puts him in mind of the baseness of his own heart: when he sees a transgressor he cries with the saint mentioned by Bernard, “He fell to-day, and I may fall to-morrow.” Sin to a believer is horrible, because it crucified the Saviour; he sees in every iniquity the nails and spear. How can a saved soul behold that cursed kill-Christ sin without abhorrence? Say, my heart, dost thou sensibly join in all this? It is an awful thing to insult God to his face. The good God deserves better treatment, the great God claims it, the just God will have it, or repay his adversary to his face. An awakened heart trembles at the audacity of sin, and stands alarmed at the contemplation of its punishment. How monstrous a thing is rebellion! How direful a doom is prepared for the ungodly! My soul, never laugh at sin’s fooleries, lest thou come to smile at sin itself. It is thine enemy, and thy Lord’s enemy-view it with detestation, for so only canst thou evidence the possession of holiness, without which no man can see the Lord.

Taken from Charles H Spurgeon's Morning and Evening, 2 November, Evening

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Nations agree historic deal to save nature

Representatives to a U.N. conference on biodiversity agreed early on Saturday to expand protected areas on land and at sea in the hopes of slowing the rate of extinction of the world’s animals and plants and preventing further damage to its ecosystems.

After marathon negotiations that stretched hours past the designated time, delegates also managed to overcome divisions between rich and poor countries to agree to share access to and the benefits of genetic resources such as plants whose extracts have been developed into medicines - a key sticking point that had threatened to doom the entire two-week meeting in Nagoya, southwest of Tokyo.

Environment ministers from around the globe also agreed on rules for sharing the benefits from genetic resources from nature between governments and companies, a trade and intellectual property issue that could be worth billions of dollars in new funds for developing nations.

Agreement on parts of the deal has taken years of at times heated negotiations, and talks in the Japanese city of Nagoya were deadlocked until the early hours of Saturday after two weeks of talks.

Delegates agreed goals to protect oceans, forests and rivers as the world faces the worst extinction rate since the dinosaurs vanished 65 million years ago.

They also agreed to take steps to put a price on the value of benefits such as clean water from watersheds and coastal protection by mangroves by including such "natural capital" into national accounts.

Services provided by nature to economies were worth trillions of dollars a year, the head of the U.N. Environment Program, Achim Steiner, said in a statement, adding businesses from banks to miners were key in halting rapid loss of ecosystems.

"These goals recognize and value the irreplaceable benefits that nature provides to people in the form of food, fuel, fiber, fodder and freshwater that everyone depends on," Andrew Deutz, director of international government relations for U.S.-based The Nature Conservancy, stated.

Delegates and greens said the outcome would send a positive signal to troubled U.N. climate negotiations that have been become bogged down by a split between rich and poor nations over how to share the burden in curbing greenhouse gas emissions.

U.N. climate talks resume in Mexico in a month.

"TORTUROUS NEGOTIATIONS"

"We're delighted there's been a successful outcome to these long and torturous negotiations and I think it shows that these multilateral negotiations can deliver a good result," said Peter Cochrane, head of Australia's delegation in Nagoya.

Delegates agreed to a 20-point strategic plan to protect fish stocks, fight the loss and degradation of natural habitats and to conserve larger land and marine areas.

They also set a broader 2020 "mission" to take urgent action to halt the loss of biodiversity.

Nations agreed to protect 17 percent of land and inland waters and 10 percent of coastal and marine areas by 2020. Currently, 13 percent of land and 1 percent of oceans are protected for conservation.

The third part of the deal, the Nagoya Protocol on genetic resources, has taken nearly 20 years to agree and sets rules governing how nations manage and share benefits derived from forests and seas to create new drugs, crops or cosmetics.

The protocol could unlock billions of dollars for developing countries, where much of the world's natural riches remain.

"The protocol is really, really a victory," Brazil's Environment Minister Izabella Teixeira (right) told reporters.

It will also mean changes for businesses.

"This isn't a boring protocol. It will regulate billions of dollars for the pharmaceutical industry," said Tove Ryding, policy adviser for biodiversity and climate change for Greenpeace.

Karl Falkenberg, (below right) head of the European Commission's environment department, said it would also fight poverty.

"We finally have something that is going to give great results for the environment, for the poor people," who will be able to earn money in exchange for access to genetic materials, he said after the talks ended.

Delegates and greens had feared the ill-feeling that pervaded climate negotiations after last December's acrimonious meeting in Copenhagen would derail the talks in Nagoya.

"There's been a mood of change. I think the failure of the Copenhagen meeting last year perhaps has meant a new realization that we need to more flexible in negotiations," said Jane Smart, director of conservation policy for the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Historic Deal to save Nature

Source:
Reuters, "Nations agree historic deal to save nature", accessed November 1, 2010

Short encouraging devotional or articles by CH Spurgeon

Believer Encouragements

Taken from CH Spurgeon's Morning and Evening, 2 November, Morning

“I am the Lord, I change not.” - Malachi 3:6

It is well for us that, amidst all the variableness of life, there is One whom change cannot affect; One whose heart can never alter, and on whose brow mutability can make no furrows. All things else have changed-all things are changing. The sun itself grows dim with age; the world is waxing old; the folding up of the worn-out vesture has commenced; the heavens and earth must soon pass away; they shall perish, they shall wax old as doth a garment; but there is One who only hath immortality, of whose years there is no end, and in whose person there is no change. The delight which the mariner feels, when, after having been tossed about for many a day, he steps again upon the solid shore, is the satisfaction of a Christian when, amidst all the changes of this troublous life, he rests the foot of his faith upon this truth-”I am the Lord, I change not.”

The stability which the anchor gives the ship when it has at last obtained a hold-fast, is like that which the Christian’s hope affords him when it fixes itself upon this glorious truth. With God “is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” What ever his attributes were of old, they are now; his power, his wisdom, his justice, his truth, are alike unchanged. He has ever been the refuge of his people, their stronghold in the day of trouble, and he is their sure Helper still. He is unchanged in his love. He has loved his people with “an everlasting love”; he loves them now as much as ever he did, and when all earthly things shall have melted in the last conflagration, his love will still wear the dew of its youth. Precious is the assurance that he changes not! The wheel of providence revolves, but its axle is eternal love.

“Death and change are busy ever,
Man decays, and ages move;
But his mercy waneth never;
God is wisdom, God is love.”

Taken from Charles H Spurgeon's Morning and Evening, 2 November, Morning

On this site you can also find: Encouragements for Christian / Christian encouragements / Encouragements Quotes / Poem encouraging believers / Christian encouragement quotes / simple Christian sermons on encouragement / christian encouragements / biblical sermon on encouragement / Christian bookmark templates / 2010 Christian calendar template / Free printable Bible quotes / Free encouraging sermons / Biblical verse of encouragement for the believers and sermons / Free Christian encouraging images / Free christian encouraging pictures /  Christian encouragements phrases

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Various Bible verses , Birthday Prayer , All things for good , God is our refuge and strength , God's Grace , Strength from God, Prayers , With God all things are possible , God holds my tomorrow , Help me to remember, Lord, nothings gonna happen today that you and I can't handle together , The Cross in My Pocket , Whatever our need , When there seems no way out, let God in , You are never alone , Chinese Bible verses

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Taken from CH Spurgeon's Morning and Evening, 1 November, Evening

“And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away: so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.” - Matthew 24:39

Universal was the doom, neither rich nor poor escaped: the learned and the illiterate, the admired and the abhorred, the religious and the profane, the old and the young, all sank in one common ruin. Some had doubtless ridiculed the patriarch-where now their merry jests? Others had threatened him for his zeal which they counted madness-where now their boastings and hard speeches? The critic who judged the old man’s work is drowned in the same sea which covers his sneering companions. Those who spoke patronizingly of the good man’s fidelity to his convictions, but shared not in them, have sunk to rise no more, and the workers who for pay helped to build the wondrous ark, are all lost also. The flood swept them all away, and made no single exception. Even so, out of Christ, final destruction is sure to every man of woman born; no rank, possession, or character, shall suffice to save a single soul who has not believed in the Lord Jesus. My soul, behold this wide-spread judgment and tremble at it.
How marvellous the general apathy! they were all eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, till the awful morning dawned. There was not one wise man upon earth out of the ark. Folly duped the whole race, folly as to self-preservation-the most foolish of all follies. Folly in doubting the most true God-the most malignant of fooleries. Strange, my soul, is it not? All men are negligent of their souls till grace gives them reason, then they leave their madness and act like rational beings, but not till then.

All, blessed be God, were safe in the ark, no ruin entered there. From the huge elephant down to the tiny mouse all were safe. The timid hare was equally secure with the courageous lion, the helpless cony as safe as the laborious ox. All are safe in Jesus. My soul, art thou in him?

Taken from Charles H Spurgeon's Morning and Evening, 1 November, Evening

On this site you can also find: Encouragements for Christian / Christian encouragements / Encouragements Quotes / Poem encouraging believers / Christian encouragement quotes / simple Christian sermons on encouragement / christian encouragements / biblical sermon on encouragement / Christian bookmark templates / 2010 Christian calendar template / Free printable Bible quotes / Free encouraging sermons / Biblical verse of encouragement for the believers and sermons / Free Christian encouraging images / Free christian encouraging pictures /  Christian encouragements phrases

Free Christian Bookmarks Templates:

Various Bible verses , Birthday Prayer , All things for good , God is our refuge and strength , God's Grace , Strength from God, Prayers , With God all things are possible , God holds my tomorrow , Help me to remember, Lord, nothings gonna happen today that you and I can't handle together , The Cross in My Pocket , Whatever our need , When there seems no way out, let God in , You are never alone , Chinese Bible verses

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Flamingos apply oils to look pinker

Flamingos make themselves look more colorful in the wild by adding their own natural makeup, researchers have suggested.

Enhancing the signature pink in their feathers might help the birds select their mates and therefore give them a better choice of nest sites, say scientists.

The idea that a "pretty flamingo", in the words of the much covered 1960s Manfred Mann song, uses cosmetics to help form a monogamous sexual partnership comes in the journal Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology.

The researchers studied greater flamingos gathering for group displays in the wetlands of southern Spain and saw that many applied reddish-orange pigments, called carotenoids, from glands near the base of their tails to their plumage, as well as tidying their feathers.

They rubbed cheeks against the preen glands and then transferred the oils that were secreted on to their nest, breast and back feathers. The more colorful birds started breeding earlier.

The most colorful birds were those seen reapplying the pigment most often, but breeding birds lost their plumage color. The team, led by experts at the Doñana biological station in Spain, suggest this might be because the carotenoids perform physiological roles in the birds' bodies – for example in egg yolk in females and in secretions added to food for chicks.

The paper adds that flamingos with more colored plumage started laying earlier. This might add to the survival chances of their offspring because their parents had gained control of the best breeding sites.

"The presence of carotenoids in preen oils has been previously only suggested, and here we confirm for the first time its presence in such oils," say the authors.

"Given that cosmetic coloration may be related to individual quality, our findings may have important implications for the theories of sexual selection and signaling, highlighting the key role of the manipulation of plumage color by the birds themselves to improve signal efficiency."

Source:
The Guardian, "Flamingos apply oils to look pinker", accessed October 31, 2010