Bougainville Copper Limited’s Panguna mine closed in 1989 after an armed struggle against the company and the government of Papua New Guinea. BCL is controlled by mining giant Rio Tinto. Clive was a fighter for the Bougainville Revolutionary Army. Locals claim that up to 20,000 people died during the secessionist struggle, many from health related…
Press clips: Water, pollution, oil, diamonds…
Spending my time brewing up rants for development.thinkaboutit.eu Ecowar news stories get a little less attention. But here are a bunch from my news alerts that I couldn’t just delete. Some of the usual suspects. First diamonds: Dealers try to thwart conflict diamond trade in Zimbabwe, but loopholes persist The World Diamond Council (WDC) has…
Air Force Jet Takes Off with Sustainable Fuel Source
Inhabitat.com has an article with images of this story. It is just one of several green Pentagon projects. “A huge milestone was recently reached at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida when an A-10C Thunderbolt jet took to the air running its engine on plant based fuel. The Air Force is the largest consumer of…
Water Wars Part… uhm… I lost count
Not that I am actually counting – but i do consistently tag posts by ‘water’ when relevant. Future “Water Wars” is warned of every now and then, occasionally toned down. Two more recent stories: New Statesman / The real water wars “Unlike oil, water’s unique importance for human and economic development means that dependence on…
The Dalai Lama and the UN
The COP15 barely ended before the UN started planning the 2010 meeting on the MDGs and the year of biodiversity. Having just failed to curb climate change world leaders now must try to evade their promises of ending poverty, illiteracy, the destruction of nature and more. Recently the UN put Keeping the Promise – A…
Occupation 101
Just watched Occupation 101 two years late. It’s a gripping documentary about the history and status quo of the Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands. While not being about battle for resources it does mention the grabbing of fertile lands by Jewish settlers. [In 1947] The UN – under pressure – proposed to divide the land…
Food security: climate change and sustainable development (TH!NK2½ part I)
I and the other TH!NKers are moving from part 2 to part 3, from climate change and COP15 to sustainable development and the Millennium Development Goals. Both topics are multifaceted, overlapping and quite complex.In fact, apart from climate change essentially being a sustainability issue, sustainable development was addressed directly several times during TH!NK2. Including by…
Minor oil conflicts saber rattling
Oil conflicts are not just about Iraq, Afghanistan and obscure former Soviet republics in between. The Falkland Islands As drilling equipment approaches Falkland Oil & Gas stocks are up. So is the Argentine-UK diplomatic heat. “The Foreign Ministry reiterates its sovereign rights over the Malvinas Islands, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands and the…
Pentagon report on climate change and renewable energy
Via Current.com/Green (which is filling up with dumb asses so I can’t really recommend it) I noticed Treehugger had an article about one “Abu Muqawama” at Center for a New American Security posting the US Department of Defense’s Quadrennial Defense Review 2010. Scroll to pages 107-111, chapter “DoD’s Approach to Climate and Energy”, in the…
Zeitgeist & the eco-military
I watched a movie called Zeitgeist Addendum yesterday after months of having had it recommended from people. I recommend it: Download the DVD from the project website for free or watch it on YouTube. Here’s some notes and comments… It starts out criticizing elements of the economic system – boring to many by definition but…
Africa’s Cup of Nations bus attack part of oil conflict
Today Togo should have played Ghana at Africa Cup of Nations 2010 in Angola. Separatists rebels, Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda (FLEC), attacked Togo’s team bus Three people were killed and nine injured. Togo has left the tournament. “Unfortunately, the situation [in Cabinda] is not stable because there is a separatist…
Thinking back: Climate change and conflict through the ages
The past three months I’ve been so busy writing for (and winning) the European Journalism Centre’s TH!NK ABOUT IT #2: Climate Change blogging competition that stories I’d usually post here at Ecowar asap have lingered in my various link collections. But here’s an excerpt of two of these. A history of water wars A very…