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…
Author: Benno Hansen
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.”…
Atlas of hidden water may avert future conflict
Now, for the first time, a high-resolution map shows where underground aquifers store vast amounts of water. […The map project] has identified 273 trans-boundary aquifers: 68 in the Americas, 38 in Africa, 155 in Eastern and Western Europe and 12 in Asia. Each trans-boundary aquifer holds the potential for international conflict – if two countries…
Old growth forest lumberjacks attack environmentalist protestors
Pollution, poverty, war, lights, camera… action!
As I prepared myself to write this post, I realized zero of my entries were tagged ‘poverty‘. But it’s clear how this blog has always circled the subject. Poverty is obviously causing various types of violence, conflict, crime, migration and malnutrition. Playing a pivotal role in a web of factors weaving a vicious downward spiral…
The financial crisis: nothing special
Even the relatively progressive newspaper I subscribe to (Danish Information) has been front page worried about the financial crisis bringing an end to environmental initiatives. Although it’s probably going to be true in many cases I have thought of it as fossilized thinking that going green should equal spending green. The key is to try…
“The Role of Forests in Climate Change”
Forest conservation can fight climate change and poverty “For the first time on this unprecedented scale, forest leaders, business representatives, donors, and community groups not only agreed on the pivotal role that forests can play in mitigating climate change but also mapped out a consensus action plan on concrete next steps. We now ask the…
Mining conflict: Farmers claim company seized their lands
on August 9, 2008, around 200 residents from barangays Cagusuan and Pagbabangnan raided the barracks of Cambayas Mining Corp. in Homonhon, eastern Samar. […] The attack was staged mostly by farmers who claimed that the mining company seized the lands awarded to them by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) through a certificate…