They can kill me at any moment, but they are going to regret it forever because, after I’m dead, others will take my place. Aluisio ‘Alenquer’ Sampaio Alenquer was shot and killed Thursday the 11th of October 2018. He was a campaigner for family farm rights in Brazil, and had received death threats for years…
Week 41: Colonialism and German coal
US “First Lady” Melania Trump went to Africa wearing the very symbol of colonialism. While this inspired some criticism, Elliot Ross found it to be perfectly fitting. Beginning in Arabic, Foreign Minister of Austria, Karin Kneissl, held her speech at the UN General Assembly in multiple languages. The collapse of the Ottoman Empire created a…
Week 40: The Scallop War, scientific alarm, and Hitler
In the English Channel, British and French fishermen have clashed in the Scallop War. In the absence of fishery management, climate change might lead to more fish wars, argues Kathleen McGinty. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)’s new special report on 1.5°C warming is alarming. But the summary for policymakers is not nearly alarming…
Week 39: The dumbest policy in the world, the social cost of carbon, and terrorist environmentalists
Spending tax money to keep the one industry the biosphere needs to have shut down urgently going – that’s dumb. According to new research, the Canadian government spends “hundreds of millions of [Canadian] dollars per year” on subsidies for oil and gas business. Go ahead and tweet something angry with the hashtag #stopfundingfossils. The Canadians…
Week 38: The oil wars, deaths, more deaths, and drowned farm animals
The civil war in Libya is still raging. Earlier this month, gunmen attacked the headquarter of the national oil company. “[local militia fighters] started shooting at the assailants inside while the assailants threw grenades down on them from the second floor. I think that most injuries happened because the respondents were shooting in.” Baha Elddin,…
Week 37: Global protest, Chilean lithium, and Florence
On September 8, hundreds of thousands of people marched on all continents to demand a much more determined political approach to climate change. #riseforclimate Growing demand for lithium used in batteries inspires increased mining. The mining operations use lots of water – in dry areas. In Chile, authorities are beginning to wonder if they have…
Week 36: Dead bodies, vigilante groups, and an award
How often do you despair that so little action is taken even in the face of mounting signs of trouble to come? It “takes dead bodies on the table”, a saying in Danish goes. And this summer’s Californian wildfires at least led to that Democrat led US state’s pledge to transform to 100% renewable energy….
Week 34 & 35: Blood-soaked crime scenes, objective violence and fake news
“The Pacific Ocean off Central America remains a blood-soaked environmental crime scene” writes Post Magazine in a sad report on illegal shark fishing by Chinese fleets. In one case, the Ecuadorean navy caught a Chinese freighter carrying 150 tonnes of dead shark. In China, the price of shark fins are sometimes higher than the price…
Week 33: Eco terrorism, tax havens, and inequality
Firefighters in California are battling huge wildfires and every child can do the math. To little surprise, July turned out to be the hottest month on record in the state. But the wildfires a not linked to global warming. No, they are caused by legal actions of “environmental terrorist groups” says US Interior Secretary Ryan…
Week 32: Oil tanks, water is power, and nuclear is expensive
Don’t buy oil. The price of oil on the world marked dipped last week. This should worry investors and oil companies more than it does, argues The Economist: “oil firms are assuming that decarbonisation will be limited and are thus overstating their assets. […] Oil firms could face a sticky mess of forced writedowns. […]…
Week 31: Heat wave, refugees, palm oil, cocaine, and murder
It’s Earth Overshoot Day, an unprecedented global heatwave has baked us for two months, and I’m rebooting Ecowar with the first of what I intend to be a weekly roundup of atrocities. Buckle up. First of all, this heat wave is due to climate change says the World Weather Attribution. No, any single weather event…
German professor Harald Welzer: “we will see a renaissance of violent conflict in the 21st century, and many of these conflicts will spring from climate change”
“You always have a higher potential for violent conflict when the survival conditions of groups of people are threatened. […] if all these scientists and climate researchers are right, or even close to right, what does it mean for greater potential for violent conflict? I think the answers are not encouraging.” “My belief is that…