December 2008: Activists pledge ‘all-out war’ to block power plant Environmentalists are vowing to block a proposed $6 billion coal-fired power plant in Surry County, saying it would increase air pollution, would contribute to global warming and is not needed. Late September 2008: Gore urges civil disobedience to stop coal plants Nobel Peace Prize winner…
Author: Benno Hansen
In Niger, a war for what’s beneath the desert
A battle is unfolding on the stark mountains and scalloped dunes of northern Niger between a band of Tuareg nomads, who claim the riches beneath their homeland are being taken by a government that gives them little in return, and an army that calls the fighters drug traffickers and bandits. …new screenwriter badly needed… this…
“Conflict over resources could reemerge”
GLOBAL TRENDS 2025: THE NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE COUNCIL’S 2025 PROJECT “Aging populations in the developed world; growing energy, food, and water constraints; and worries about climate change will limit and diminish what will still be an historically unprecedented age of prosperity. […] In terms of size, speed, and directional flow, the transfer of global wealth and…
Highlights: CNN’s Planet in Peril – Battle Lines
CNN has been so kind to produce the Ecowar TV-series: I have been watching a bit of their Planet in Peril – Battle Lines series lately. World’s most valuable resource, a curse for most Nigerians Hundreds of billions of dollars has been made from the Niger Delta’s oil reserves and many people have gotten very…
100 nations ban cluster bombs
Amnesty International / Landmark cluster bomb treaty signed in Oslo Ninety two states signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions – which bans the production, stockpiling, use and export of cluster bombs during a ceremony in Oslo on Wednesday. 100 nations ban cluster bombs The first steps have been taken to banning cluster bombs, a weapon…
Lawyers call for international court for the environment
A former chairman of the Bar Council is calling for an international court for the environment to punish states that fail to protect wildlife and prevent climate change. […] “The time is now ripe to set this up and get it going […] Its remit will be overall climate change and the need for better…
Another Darfur Casualty: Trees
On top of the human toll, the conflict in Darfur is afflicting the environment […] on Mount Marra, the highest peak in the area, there were about 100 trees for each acre of land in the 1990s, on average; by 2001 that was down to 50, and it is now about 20. Desertification helped spark…
Pirates and oil
November 17 Somali pirates captured Saudi oil tanker Sirius Star carrying over 2 million barrels of oil destined for the USA. This is probably a record bounty as well as the farthest from their home shores the Somali pirates have boarded a ship. At first I didn’t even think of posting it here. Although it…
Congo fighting is about water, timber and diamonds
“The natural environment enjoys protection under Protocol 1 of the Geneva Conventions. But this protection is often violated during war and armed conflict. Water wells are polluted, crops torched, forests cut down, soils poisoned, and animals killed, all in order to gain military advantage. […] We have seen how environmental damage and the collapse of…
Seminar discusses poverty reduction in areas of conflict
The seminar aimed to address poverty reduction for communities affected by a legacy of war debris such as bombs, mines and other explosive remnants of war. 33 years after the war that dropped – afaik – more bombs on their country than were used in the entire 2nd world war – the Vietnamese appears to…
Drought
Drought land ‘will be abandoned’ “In many ways [water] is the most dramatic expression of mismanagement of natural or nature-based assets […] The day a person or a community is bereft of water is the day that your chance of even the most basic life or livelihood is gone and economic activity seeps away. Unchecked…
Iraq scarred by war waste
“War destroys countries’ environments, not just their people. War and its effects have led to changes in the social, economic and environmental fabric […] It will take centuries to restore the natural environment of Iraq. […] Most of the infectious diseases and cancer are environmental diseases. When we talk about the environment we mean health.”…