While blogging, a cornerstone of sources were scientific journal articles. These are covered in chapter four of the book, Thinking about it: theories of peace and war. The recent publication by Bove et al has inspired me to summarize some of the quantitative research about conflict over natural resources in a table. Enjoy… Tweet
2014 bookmarks – the year in war over natural resources
From the depths of my bookmarks (that were all automatically tweeted) on conflict and natural resources, here is a quick review of the way in which Earth was plundered for natural resources in the past year. Year 2014, the 100th anniversary of the first war to run on oil. In short, 2014 was just more…
Watch this one hour preview of Years of Living Dangerously
From the damage wrought by Hurricane Sandy to the upheaval caused by drought in the Middle East, this groundbreaking documentary event series provides first-hand reports on those affected by, and seeking solutions to, climate change.This episode full of footage from Syria, Texas and Indonesia. Watch it.
2013 bookmarks
If year 2012 was the year Ecowar went from being this blog to being primarily a book, 2013 was the year when Ecowar resigned to merely being a category of bookmarks / tweets. To compensate You, my loyal reader, (and satisfy my own curiosity) here is a quick selection of highlights from the past year….
All wars are caused by the economy
Just kidding. Then again… Prince Charles recently gave a speech in which he mentioned the causality behind the Syrian civil war as well as the financial system. “The tragic conflict in Syria provides a terrifyingly graphic example, where a severe drought for the last seven years has decimated Syria’s rural economy […] Driving many farmers…
Noam Chomsky explains how to destroy the future
During a broad scope text on the suicidal tendencies of our global society Noam Chomsky touches a couple of resource conflict topics. all over the world – Australia, India, South America – there are battles going on, sometimes wars. In India, it’s a major war over direct environmental destruction, with tribal societies trying to resist…
“Without Water, Revolution”
From Without Water, Revolution by Thomas L. Friedman on The New York Times: THIS Syrian disaster is like a superstorm. It’s what happens when an extreme weather event, the worst drought in Syria’s modern history, combines with a fast-growing population and a repressive and corrupt regime and unleashes extreme sectarian and religious passions, fueled by…
For the youth
[Wikipedia]
George W. Bush is painting too many puppies
My brain was going into my feet from reading Salon.com (not The Onion) / George W. Bush’s art teacher says he’ll “go down in the history books as a great artist”. He has painted “more than 50” puppies!? However, after posting this breaking news to Facebook, a friend of mine pointed out the cosmos in…
Review: EARTH WARS – The Battle for Global Resources
“If the Earth wars were a sporting contest, here’s how the half-time score might stand at the beginning of 2012…” Georff Hiscock concludes his near 300 pages factual account of who owns the world with a surprisingly relaxed “scoreboard”: 1st: USA 10 points 2nd: China 8p 3rd – 4th: Europe, Japan 6p 5th – 6th:…
Call for moratorium on extraction in contested territories
As can be seen in this recent infographic by Information is Beautiful and The Guardian, we need to leave about 86 percent of known fossil fuel resources in the ground to stay within our carbon budget and hopefully avoid raising global temperatures by more than two degrees Celsius. Still exploration and extraction continues unabated. However,…
Come to Greenland
Island for sale. 2,166,000 km² (mostly still ice). 56,744 inhabitants (many working at minimum wage, animosity towards Greenpeace is legendary).Watch some of the world’s last ice melt to reveal a wealth of riches below. Copper, zinc, iron, gold. Make your investment before it’s taken. Look at all the deposits that have already been found. Off…