Sometimes researchers are blamed of being alarmists stirring up fears of a fictional dystopia by the business-as-usual crowd. But it seems a forewarning of conflict over oil in Peru is proceeding according to exactly such a warning. The news first… 40+ dead at protest In extension of free trade agreements the Peruvian government has plans…
Author: Benno Hansen
Water wars – myth or reality?
It appears the San Fransisco Gate runs a “water blog”. Latest entry is a take on the concept of water wars. There has been a lot of discussion about “water wars,” a term that sounds great, but to which I do not subscribe: wars start and are fought for many reasons and while water has…
West Bank becomes Waste Land
Israel has found a cheap and easy way to get rid of its waste, much of it hazardous: dump it into the West Bank. A few Palestinians can be bought, the rest are in no position to complain. Interesting article on the shocking extent of Israeli pollution of Palestinian Territories. Which, by the way, are…
Debate on water wars in Nature
March 25, 2009 I posted Opinion: Nations don’t go to war over water on a “peer reviewed opinion” (Nature 458, 282–283; 2009). In short, writer Wendy Barnaby discussed how a book project was stopped because research didn’t turn up a significantly bloody past history of water wars. The objections are in and there are plenty…
Ecowar movies: Edutainment suggestions
Noticing the clamour over the new animated movie Battle for Terra (or just Terra) and it’s interesting theme I put it on my Must See list – right next to Blood Diamond which is way over due. Then the logical idea came: make a list of movies for Ecowar! Only four movies made it onto…
Authorities vs Environmentalism
Full scale warfare isn’t necessary for me to take note of a case of ‘ecowar’. Far from it – for starters see the crime tag. Large scale covert conflict between states and their conscious populations however is a rather new thing. Or at least something that seems to be increasing. In the UK authorities have…
Europe illegally dumps toxic, nuclear waste in Somali waters
Just discovered an angle to the Somali fishing-oil-piracy trouble that I somehow entirely missed: Dumped toxic waste! “[Our motive is] to stop illegal fishing and dumping in our waters … We don’t consider ourselves sea bandits. We consider sea bandits [to be] those who illegally fish and dump in our seas and dump waste in…
Israel built its nuclear bombs with stolen Egyptian uranium
Funny how so many of Israels wars and occupied territories just happen to include a tale of a natural resource. There is the Palestinian water, the off shore gas and now: the Egyptian uranium. See ‘Israel secretly exploited Egypt’s uranium’; a story seen a couple of places around the net. According to this story, Israel…
Water of the “Holy Land”:
For quite some time I have been keeping an eye on the influence of water in the Israel vs Palestine conflict. On top of all the other ‘ecowars’ I have Google track for me. But I have been reluctant to post on it for a variety of reasons. Now I have decided to do something…
Opinion: Nations don’t go to war over water
Writer Wendy Barnaby has written an essay for academic journal Nature in stead of a book for her publisher as the conclusion on “water wars” wouldn’t sell. Some facts… There are 263 cross-boundary waterways in the world. Between 1948 and 1999, cooperation over water, including the signing of treaties, far outweighed conflict over water and…
Chilean town withers in free market for water
Quillagua is among many small towns that are being swallowed up in the country’s intensifying water wars. Nowhere is the system for buying and selling water more permissive than here in Chile […] Some economists have hailed Chile’s water rights trading system, which was established in 1981 during the military dictatorship, as a model of…
Killing for Coal: The Ludlow Massacre and more
Coal’s been generating controversy for about as long as it’s been generating energy. On April 20th 1914, coal was at the epicenter of the bloodiest battle in US labor history. It’s called the Ludlow Massacre, after the mining town in Southern Colorado where coal miners went on strike demanding better conditions. The Colorado National Guard…