We don’t want to think too much about it. But every time we buy a new gadget we support a mining industry of questionable ethics. In the case of the mines in eastern Congo it is extraordinary brutal. In a time of desperate need for re-forestation to fight climate change, in Congo wide swaths of…
100 Places to Remember – at least 8 of which are to die for
Having wandered through the exhibition at Kongens Nytorv in Copenhagen and now also enjoyed the accompanying book of 100 Places to Remember Before They Disappear I can’t help but take note of a couple of them here. Because the descriptions in some cases explicitly mentions conflicts. Granted: Many will change with potential drastic consequences. Be…
Climate change: a multiplier for instability
As a participant in the TH!NK ABOUT IT Climate Change blogging competition I attended Monday’s European Journalism Center conference in Bella Conference Center (venue of COP15 later this year). Among the speakers were Francois Roudié, Policy Coordinator of the European Commission. Very insightful and surprisingly willing to engage in open debate. One of his presentation…
Nuclear waste dumped in Mediterranean
They have somehow maintained a romantic image while running a business of world wide drug distribution, assassinations and assorted corruption. But no description is too demeaning for the latest crime committed by the Italian mafia. Francesco Fonti, a former member of the Calabrian Mafia, has told of sinking ships loaded with radioactive and otherwise dangerous…
Trouble brewing in dried-out India
Years of excessive use of water for irrigating fields, a drying trend from global warming, a record drought and astronomical scale pollution all adds up to trouble in India. Harvests go down, farmer income the same direction, malnourishment and desperation up. So much according to The Star / India: Dying of thirst a family was…
Another MUST SEE: Crude – The Real Price of Oil
Just saw HOME, still planning to see DIRT and now this, CRUDE. (Haven’t these people heard of lower case letters?) Another 2009 film about environmental exploitation and the hidden costs of it; mostly poor and/or indigenous people abused by Western companies and consumers. More at the official website, IMDb, Hollywood and Fine / Crude: The…
China: Thousands riot over sewage pollution
That Chinese economic development is taking place more rapidly than environmental protection is no secret. Air pollution in larger cites have been among the worst in the world for years. But a sewage leak was what finally sparked unrest in one town where for at least two years insufficient industrial water treatment has darkened river…
John Kerry: Climate change to cause conflict; how come deniers can stay in politics?
In a late evening soon to end brief spell of energetic RSS-feed checking ending a day of trying to sleep away a flu attack I find We Can’t Ignore the Security Threat from Climate Change by John Kerry, US Senator, is a kind of follow-up and sum-up to the articles I posted Sunday, August 02,…
Borders of Switzerland moving around with melting glaciers
This is about neither war nor even a natural resource in demand. It’s about a peaceful agreement over changes in nature: As climate change is melting the glaciers defining the borders of Switzerland the government is simply redrawing the European map in collaboration with Austria, Italy and France. Complete absence of trouble, it seems. Today…
Must see: Dirt! The Movie
“Deadly conflicts are breaking out over our dwindling supply of fertile soil.” Dirt! The Movie Website, Dirt! The Movie at IMDb.com, Ecowar movies list.
Environmental Trouble = Political Trouble — Missing pieces from Jared Diamonds ‘Collapse’
I have mentioned Jared Diamond before – professor of geography and author of several outstanding books. But so far I haven’t mentioned the most obvious: the illustration on page 497 of (my Penguin Books paperback edition of) Collapse there is an illustration of two world maps, one highlighting “Political Trouble Spots of the Modern World”…
A US water conflict: Atlanta vs rural Georgia vs Florida
Created by the completion of a dam in 1956 Lake Sidney Lanier is a reservoir in the northern part of Georgia, USA. Just north of Atlanta it now supplies this city with about three fourths of its tap water. Now as water is less abundant and Atlanta has grown huge a two decade dispute over…