Huffington Post / Camp Lejeune Water Contamination Cover-Up Hinted In Navy Letter The U.S. Navy is asking government investigators to suppress information concerning the toxic water scandal at the Marine Corps’ Camp Lejeune, according to a letter obtained Thursday by The Huffington Post. […] Government watchdogs and environmental advocates said they interpret the letter as…
Author: Benno Hansen
Watch DIRT! The Movie
I just watched DIRT! The Movie for free at dotSUB. A really good movie about soil and the importance of a healthy biosphere of rich biodiversity. Takes a couple of detours (ie one about various spiritual connections to soil) that may seem weird depending on who you are and is quite a bit pro-organic agriculture…
Musings on optimism vs fear, innovation vs collapse
Today I happened upon this near one hour long couch talk by Geoffrey West (visit the site for audio or video). Among the themes he discuss is drawing some lines in the sand in the very long debate between Malthusian fears of over-population / over-exploitation of nature and the technological optimism that future inventions will…
The blog is now a book, long live both
Dear reader, You may already have noticed the orange graphic in the right sidebar? Yes, I have self-published a book based on this blog. And I’m literally giving it away, the price barely covers printing. What will happen to the blog now? Why self-publishing? What is up with that ecowar.eu site? Answers in the tale…
Trouble in Kazakhstan oil city
Oil industry workers have been protesting layoffs and demanding raises. Authorities have answered with a crackdown: reports of dead and injured, mobile network and internet censored. International networks of hackers are providing dial-up internet communication just like they did in Egypt early 2011. “The protesters blocking the railway refused to leave the area and the clashes…
War for territory – World tour November 2011
We live in peaceful times. Conflicts being linked to something as mundane as natural resources is a conspiracy theory. Just kidding… Cambodia: Villages razed to clear land for sugar plantation Amnesty International and other organisations have exposed the Cambodian authorities’ systematic failure to protect people from forced evictions. Forced evictions in the name of economic…
Grease is the new copper
Materials and resources once common, inexpensive or just non-existing pop up in a new league of the craved for or expensive. Copper and solar panels have been new objects of theft in recent years. Now grease is getting locked up to protect it from thieves. Yes, grease. Biofuel producers are now buying used cooking oil…
America vs Europe trade war over carbon looming
The European Union is about to take two small steps on the long journey of combating climate change: A small “tax” on air travel and another small tax on fossil fuels based on exactly how polluting the specific type of fossil fuel is. Both could ultimately end up in WTO courts; the former brought there…
Occupy Wall Street? Occupy Earth! Nature is in the 99%
Remember how Bill McKibben of 350.org gave a short speech at Wall Street lately? He’s not the only one connecting the dots between the socially unjust financial crisis and the environment. When I went to Occupy Copenhagen last time I think most of the speakers were mostly going on about the bank bailouts – but…
Climate change and the new geography of violence
One of the unpleasant effects of climate change is its tendency to incite further conflict where such already exist and in some cases war is already looming. Sociologist and writer Christian Parenti is blaming “pathologies of neoliberalism” and Cold War leftovers that converge with climate change effects for inciting further conflict where it already lingers….
Biofuel demand and CO2 quotas drive violent land grabs in Honduras
To the country whose history coined the term “banana republic” land grabs is not a new phenomenon. The European Union funding it by buying carbon credits and biofuel from the perpetrators is, however. In the case of Honduras, the global rush for production of biofuel and access to carbon credits is making it profitable for…
Obama intervenes in Ugandan oil trouble zone
Oil have been found in the underground below Lake Albert on the border between Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Western companies are working with the Ugandan government to get development under way but a myriad of issues seem to delay the project: Criminal and rebel activity is up and rising, Ugandan democracy…