March 25, 2009 I posted Opinion: Nations don’t go to war over water on a “peer reviewed opinion” (Nature 458, 282–283; 2009). In short, writer Wendy Barnaby discussed how a book project was stopped because research didn’t turn up a significantly bloody past history of water wars. The objections are in and there are plenty…
Ecowar movies: Edutainment suggestions
Noticing the clamour over the new animated movie Battle for Terra (or just Terra) and it’s interesting theme I put it on my Must See list – right next to Blood Diamond which is way over due. Then the logical idea came: make a list of movies for Ecowar! Only four movies made it onto…
Authorities vs Environmentalism
Full scale warfare isn’t necessary for me to take note of a case of ‘ecowar’. Far from it – for starters see the crime tag. Large scale covert conflict between states and their conscious populations however is a rather new thing. Or at least something that seems to be increasing. In the UK authorities have…
Europe illegally dumps toxic, nuclear waste in Somali waters
Just discovered an angle to the Somali fishing-oil-piracy trouble that I somehow entirely missed: Dumped toxic waste! “[Our motive is] to stop illegal fishing and dumping in our waters … We don’t consider ourselves sea bandits. We consider sea bandits [to be] those who illegally fish and dump in our seas and dump waste in…
Israel built its nuclear bombs with stolen Egyptian uranium
Funny how so many of Israels wars and occupied territories just happen to include a tale of a natural resource. There is the Palestinian water, the off shore gas and now: the Egyptian uranium. See ‘Israel secretly exploited Egypt’s uranium’; a story seen a couple of places around the net. According to this story, Israel…
Water of the “Holy Land”:
For quite some time I have been keeping an eye on the influence of water in the Israel vs Palestine conflict. On top of all the other ‘ecowars’ I have Google track for me. But I have been reluctant to post on it for a variety of reasons. Now I have decided to do something…
Opinion: Nations don’t go to war over water
Writer Wendy Barnaby has written an essay for academic journal Nature in stead of a book for her publisher as the conclusion on “water wars” wouldn’t sell. Some facts… There are 263 cross-boundary waterways in the world. Between 1948 and 1999, cooperation over water, including the signing of treaties, far outweighed conflict over water and…
Chilean town withers in free market for water
Quillagua is among many small towns that are being swallowed up in the country’s intensifying water wars. Nowhere is the system for buying and selling water more permissive than here in Chile […] Some economists have hailed Chile’s water rights trading system, which was established in 1981 during the military dictatorship, as a model of…
Killing for Coal: The Ludlow Massacre and more
Coal’s been generating controversy for about as long as it’s been generating energy. On April 20th 1914, coal was at the epicenter of the bloodiest battle in US labor history. It’s called the Ludlow Massacre, after the mining town in Southern Colorado where coal miners went on strike demanding better conditions. The Colorado National Guard…
Video: Israeli Military Shooting Gaza Farmers
18th February 2009 Israeli forces shot a twenty year-old Palestinian farmer as he worked his land in the village of Al-Faraheen, east of Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip.
US Army captain: “eco-friendly practices need to be applied”
On military bases in Iraq, plastic, paper, aerosol cans, Styrofoam plates, food waste, batteries, digital equipment and hygiene products fall under one category: waste. It is simply dumped at the edge of the base, then burned at night, irritating soldiers’ lungs. Untreated wastewater is also haphazardly disposed of and gradually finds its way into Iraq’s…
We’re on the brink of disaster
Every outbreak of violence has its own distinctive origins and characteristics. All, however, are driven by a similar combination of anxiety about the future and lack of confidence in the ability of established institutions to deal with the problems at hand. […] The riots that erupted in the spring of 2008 in response to rising…