How better lose reader than with a headline like that? (I know: a going nowhere leading text like this one.) Well, while writing up this blog in report format a couple of links have piled up. First: more of the two obvious ones From Population growth, climate change raising odds of war over water, forum…
Middle East riots for food, interventions for oil?
It’s a historical truth that when food prices rise, conflict increases. So it’s no wonder that the spike in the cost of agricultural commodities in recent months has been a contributing factor to revolution in the Middle East. As the map below shows, people in relatively poor countries–including Egypt, Tunisia and others in the developing…
Pollution, corruption, business as usual… and corporate charity in Nigeria
February Nigerian militant groups were scrambling for “surveillance jobs” – wanting to get paid for making sure what they use to steal will not get stolen? FIVE thousand pipeline surveillance job slots intended for former militants to secure oil facilities in Delta State has pitched former militants in the state against one another, even as…
Asia: Oil, climate, conflict
A British company has been surveying for oil by Philippine request in waters China says is theirs. Energy & Capital / China’s Next Oil War: China’s energy demand is insatiable. The country’s state-owned oil firms are on an international buying spree and a disputed group of islands in the South China Sea could be the…
Columbian Gold
No, it’s not the latest trend in South American marihuana. Unfortunately, it’s the latest in guerrilla warfare funding. January it was reported how a laptop captured from left wing rebels FARC by the Colombian government had contained information about how the group had started business in gold mining. (Colombia Reports / ‘FARC use illegal mining…
“Climate Change and National Security” – presentation by US Navy Admiral David Titley (video)
Oceanographer for the U.S. Navy, RADM David Titley discusses the hot topic of climate change, and its impending ramifications on national security. Listen as he details some of the top facts and figures you should know about climate change and your future, explained in terms that even the most unfamiliar with science would be able…
Oil: Enslavement, repression, revolution
’nuff said, Naomi: “Our enslavement to oil has required the repression of millions of Arab people. As they shake off their bonds, so must we.” – Naomi Klein In celebration of this eminent tweet let me recycle two cartoons 🙂 Update: Cover of The Economist Cover of February 26th – March 4th 2011 “The Economist”…
Sachs, Brown et al comment on Egypt, Tunesia etc
January and February of 2011 have seen the people of Tunisia and Egypt in unprecedented protests. While it seems the overwhelming sentiment of the people in the streets are for less repression and corruption, more freedom and democracy Western commentators have mentioned the danger of radical Muslim influences. Fortunately, this weekend a few voices of…
Home, Sweet Home
Having just arrived home from Kenya – summed up at TH!NK3 in Touching. Brutal. Unfair. – I instantly find two stories from Kenya in my search alerts and one Ecowar-like post on the new TH!NK blog. First, Photo District News / An Under-Reported War Over Water is an interview and background article about photographer Evan Abramson’s recent project…
“The Great Food Crisis of 2011” by Lester Brown
As the new year begins, the price of wheat is setting an all-time high in the United Kingdom. Food riots are spreading across Algeria. Russia is importing grain to sustain its cattle herds until spring grazing begins. India is wrestling with an 18-percent annual food inflation rate, sparking protests. China is looking abroad for potentially…
Nile water match
Last fall I was just about to write a bit about Egypt threatening the Nile upstream countries not to increase their use of the river’s water when… I don’t know why I didn’t. A 1929 treaty by the then British colonial rule reserved 80% of the Nile’s entire flow for Egypt and Sudan but May…
US ecowar soundtrack by Woody Guthrie
The 1913 Italian Hall Massacre a tragedy that occurred on December 24, 1913 in Calumet, Michigan. Seventy-three men, women, and children, mostly striking mine workers and their families, were crushed to death in a stampede when someone falsely yelled “fire” at a crowded Christmas party. [Wikipedia] The Ludlow Massacre the violent deaths of 19 people…